Hey guys!!!

Ahhh! This post is one much anticipated and is going up so soon after its happened!

As I hinted at in my previous post, I was fortunate enough to go to another island with Daniel. While I'm sure many of you were curious as to just what island I went to, I am happy to announce that we went to Maui!

Jokingly referred to as our "Maui Moon", the two of us left Wednesday night and left Saturday night.

Given the arrival time on Wednesday, we were left with no choice but to get the car and go straight to the hotel. Instead of a resort, the two of us agreed upon spending our time at a more low-key of a place called The Maui Coast. The location was great and the size of the room even better! I've never slept so good, and with so much space, than on that king sized bed on the second floor.

On Thursday the two of us woke up bright and early, 7:00, to grab our things and head off to breakfast at Kihei Cafe! Located less than half a mile from the hotel, we decided to drive and, instead of going back for the car only to drive right by the restaurant, we chose to leave right after breakfast to the next destination: Lahaina Town.

Kihei Cafe

Myself with my order, the regular omelet, and Daniel's kalua loco moco

On the way to Lahaina Town we pulled over to admire the view from a lookout. I thought the other island was Oahu, but it could have very well been Molokai or Lanai. Who knows!

Lahaina Town is a little marina town on what Daniel referred to as "The nugget", or the outer left, part of Maui. There are lots of boats, ice cream shops, tourist shops, and high end stores that one can expect to see. Personally I saw that Lahaina was the Cape Cod of Maui, due to how quaint and small-town the area felt.




In short, Lahaina Town is a little out of the way, but is definitely worth the drive. Daniel also called this "The Waikiki of Maui" due to the types of stores and scene of Lahaina.

After Lahaina, because it was Thanksgiving, we went back to the room to change and get ready for dinner. On the way we made a quick stop at the famous blowhole that has the heart shaped rock. While it was windy and very, very salty, the two of us agreed that we wouldn't risk walking down to but instead admire from the top.




 And then, after our quick stop home to change, we drove to Humble Market and were met with a delicious array of food at the restaurant. As it was buffet style, we made sure to get as many crab legs and prime rib as we wanted.
This dinner concluded Thursday.

Friday morning was another one that we chose to enjoy in the morning. At 8:00 we packed up our bags, which for me meant wearing a fanny pack, and started up the car. We grabbed breakfast in Paia Town at a cute little hole in the wall called Paia Coffee. Daniel and I both ordered the original scramble, only his had goat cheese and a bagel. Mine had toast.


After our hearty breakfast we loaded back into the car and started on the Road to Hana.

The Road to Hana is paved, quite literally, with over five dozen turns, fifty curves, and some of the most breathtaking views on island. While it was advised that we split the road into two days, doing half on Friday and the latter half on Saturday, Daniel and I decided that we would be better off knocking the entire thing out in one take. Needless to say we were nauseous as could be while in the homestretch of the drive.

Our first stop was Twin Falls. Twin Falls is, as the name implies, a hiking trail which leads one to two waterfalls. It's not the famous waterfall that you'll see in most pictures of Maui, but its a nice break from the road that I would recommend taking.








After the brief hike we were back on the road for a little longer before stopping again at another lookout.

 And another stop..

 Next stop on our little road trip was a cute little farm stand about halfway into the road. Daniel's only request on the road was that we somehow find him a coconut that he can drink from, and thankfully this bright little hut had some. After buying him the fruit we went above the hut on a little grass hill that provided us the opportunity to view the beautiful ocean.


 

 With only a handful of miles left to go on the road, this is when things got very inteResting. For example, on the Road to Hana one can find dozens of little fruit stand which operate under the honor code. What this means is that the fruits are left unattended and are accompanied by a little box that one can place money in. While each fruit is labeled with a price (often times fruits like banana's were less than $1 for a hand!) Many stands contained oranges, bananas, lemons, avocados, pineapple, and coconut. One stand even had dragon fruit, whereas another had coconut trees for $5.


 After our brief stop to admire the cute little stands we stopped one more time at the famous black sand beach (note: there is not just one black sand beach, but for some reason this is the most popular one).





And of course; what is a nice drive without some pictures of the drive itself?


 Stay with me; we're almost done! Our last stop was the national park. From here you can see one of the more famous waterfalls and a large bamboo forest!











Ok, now I promise we're almost done!

After the first hike Daniel and I knew we were on a crunch for time. We had dinner reservations to meet at 8 and, as hard as we may try, could not get cell service for quite a while. Naturally at the end of this road the two of us were absolutely drained, we finally got service and were fortunate enough to get the reservations pushed back to 8:30.

Dinner was, without a doubt, one of the most elegant meals I have ever had. Daniel treated me to dinner at Ruth Chris, which is a very fancy steakhouse. We ordered the: Ruth's Salad, Cream of Spinach, Porterhouse for 2, Lobster mac n cheese, and mashed potatoes. As delicious as it all was, I have never been that full in my life. With how high-class the restaurant was, we could not spare to leave any piece left behind. While Daniel took care of most of the food (I was way too tired and full to eat even half of it) what we did enjoy for the days thereafter was the lobster mac n cheese.

And that concludes Friday.

Saturday was our day of rest where we decided that, instead of waking up very early to go to Haleakae, we would sleep in and spend our time elsewhere, seeing the sunset at the top of the crater instead.

Breakfast was at Kihei Cafe again. I ordered the french toast with bananas and macadamia nuts (and coconut syrup on the side!) and Daniel went with an steaks and egg.

 After breakfast we spent some time walking around Paia Town again, where I was able to grab a very cute necklace of the Hawaiian Islands. While the weather wasn't very good I'm glad that Daniel and I were able to enjoy ourselves and spend some time window shopping. Paia is truly a very cute town.

With some time to spare we made a quick pitstop at the Lavender Farm; a place that Daniel still stands by as being one of his favorite places on Oahu.

The Lavender Farm is a quiet space up on the side of the mountain-- literally. With dozens of plants, a paved walking path, and cute benches to sit on and admire the view of the island, the Farm is by far one of the most underrated places on Maui. In fact, I didn't even bring it up at first because I didn't think it would be of interest; but I'm so glad we went.









Unfortunately the bad weather followed us, so while on the top of Haleakala I was not able to grab any photos besides this one. Unfortunately I messed up and put 1000 feet instead of 10,000, but you all get the gist.

And yes, you read that right. 10,000 feet is how high up we were. I'm sure you're also curious about just how cold it was up there, too. Well, at the very top, in the midst of all the rain and wind, the temperature was 43˚.

Rushing down the crater we were relieved to end up back at our hotel without that impending feeling of nausea. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Monkeypod and, with bulgogi in my stomach and fish in Daniels, went back to our hotel for the night.

And with that Saturday came to a close.

Our last day on the island was Sunday. We were stumped with thinking of ideas of what to do, and while our original plan was to return to Lahaina, we realized about halfway there that it would only make sense if we did the Road to Hana once more, for good time's sake. Since this was the second time doing it, I didn't take any pictures, but for those wondering there was, in fact, an accident on the road. Granted, it was a tree, it still left the road backed up for a good hour.

In addition to the tree in the road, Daniel and I made sure to stop at the Smokehouse (quite literally a grill under a covering in a clearing on the side of the road) and got a quick bite to eat. Let me just say the meat was amazing. It was pork on top of a bed of rice on top of a leaf. Such an unique presentation but such delicious food. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Of course, there was no conceivable way that we could drive the entire road for a second time and still make our flight, so after the drive we turned the car in and then went to the airport to play the waiting game.

I'll spare everyone the boring details, but, in short, we were there for three hours with a delayed flight. Atrocious, I know. And the flight from Maui to Oahu is only 20 minutes, so why we were there for so long is still mind boggling.

After returning Daniel and I raced to get his car and grab dinner, something we had planned on doing hours before. We ate at Gen and enjoyed tasty meat and fish. Afterwords he dropped me off at campus and made the drive back to his place.

In short, because I know this post has been my longest one yet, Maui was incredible. It is, without a doubt, my favorite island. The things one can do, see, and visit are all so different than what one can have the opportunity to do on Oahu. I'm so so grateful for having had this opportunity and I cannot wait to go back.

Until next time,

Aislinn