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Maui Vacation Pictures

General

maui surf
POG served on the plane
Last Thursday, Alan and I hopped on a plane and flew to Maui for a 4-day vacation. The only thing we had pre-planned was that we wouldn’t do any work so we could focus on just hanging out. It worked out perfectly! Here’s how we spent our leisurely days… 

On the plane ride over, they served POG, a Hawaiian juice blend of pineapple, orange, and guava, and Kona coffee cookies (from Seattle :P) which got everyone in an aloha-y mood.

beach in kihei, mi
dry rhubarb soda

We both packed our suitcases full of clothes but spent almost every day in our bathing suits. If we were going out to dinner and wanted to get fancy, I’d change into the breezy cotton dress I brought and Alan would put on a button-up shirt.

snorkeling at ulua beach
snorkel flippers
Since I’d never snorkeled before, I was super excited to get started right away, but…

 …I had some trouble getting everything on. So, Alan gave me a quick lesson, and after we finally got in the water, I was a pro! (relatively speaking :P)

snorkeling at ulua

I’m not the best swimmer (remember my summer swim practices?), but swimming in the ocean was so much easier. I was so buoyant in the water, it felt like I had a life vest on!

 fabiani's pizza maui
After a long day of swimming, nothing sounded better than hot cheesy pizza. We found this thin crust pizza place in the neighborhood called Fabiani’s. I got the sausage, mushroom, and brie pizza. Twice. 🙂 
fried spam musubi at da kitchen

We also ate at a bunch of local places and tried fried spam musubi which was satisfyingly salty and crunchy.

kamaole I beach
Our hotel was right across the street from a beach which was nice for taking random dips or watching the sunsets.
iced coffee and tea
All of our exploring would leave us parched. Sometimes we’d get iced coffees, but most of the time I’d get iced tea. A lot of places would make them with fruits like yuzu which was so refreshing.
ululani's shave ice

One hot afternoon, I tried Ululani’s shave ice. I’d been wondering what the big deal was with these snow cones, but they weren’t at all like the icy ones I grew up eating. Ululani’s ice was so fine and fluffy, it was like eating fresh-fallen snow. They make all their own syrups, too, so each of the flavors tastes just like real fruit. Passionfruit was my favorite.

leoda's banana cream pie
The best thing we ate on the island was the banana cream pie at Leoda’s. Creamy, not too sweet, and with a to-die-for graham cracker crust. Oh my gosh. 
The light was so, so pretty. Sometimes I’d just snap pictures of random people in it.
The ‘Iao Valley State Park was an easy hike we did in our flip flops. It looked like a scene from Lost.
For lunch one day, we ate at Star Noodle. I’d recommend the pork belly buns and the malasadas served with butterscotch sauce (they’re just like hole-less donuts!). Fun fact: The owner Sheldon Simeon is going to be a contestant on the next season of Top Chef.
The second time we were driving over to get pizza, an emergency alert came on the radio: a tsunami warning had been issued! When we drove back to the hotel, no one seemed to know anything about it, but then we flipped on the news, and all of a sudden it became real. The news anchors were urging everyone on the coast to evacuate and estimated that the first wave would hit in three hours. My heart leapt to my throat, and I started to panic. Luckily, Alan remained calm and pulled together a plan. We drove back up the mountain we’d hiked the day before and waited in our car for the first wave to hit. I was so scared! All these other cars were parked on the mountain, too, waiting with us. When the three hours were up and nothing had happened, I breathed a sigh of relief. We waited for three more hours before we were finally allowed to drive back to the coast to our hotel. 
The next day, we woke up late and went to Kapalua, my favorite beach. The water is so clear and blue, and the snorkeling is awesome. You can just wade out a little and see all sorts of colorful fish—just like being in a fishbowl. I even saw a turtle! It was swam right by me which was both freaky and exciting. 

Since we were taking a red-eye flight out on our last night, we didn’t have a hotel room to crash in which forced us to keep adventuring the whole day (and floating in the water for hours on end). Late that night, we got on the plane with salt water in our hair and sand in our shoes. Now that we’re home, I already want to go back!

Last modified: January 10, 2019