Tag Archives: Maui

Maui: Trip 4

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To ring in 2019 we headed to Maui to celebrate our friends getting married! We had a beautiful sunrise and some great views of Molokai and Lanai on our flight over.

Lanai
Windmills on West Maui.

 

We arrived on Saturday morning and had breakfast in Paia at Paia Inn Café.

Pineapple mint jalapeño juice. Delicious but so spicy!
Huevos Rancheros Verde: cumin black beans, two eggs, salsa verde, lime crema, queso fresco, with corn tortillas, and cilantro

After breakfast, we drove around and then headed to Lahaina to check in and get ready for dinner. We made reservations to visit our favorite restaurant, Mama’s Fish House, for dinner.

Crispy Mahi-Mahi Rolls with poha berry and Hamakua mushroom brandy sauce
Seared ahi special
Mama’s Stuffed Fish: Stuffed with lobster and crab, baked with a Macadamia nut crust

On Sunday, we walked around Lahaina and then met at Hale Pa’ahao Prison for the rehearsal before the rehearsal dinner at Old Lahaina Luau.

Hanging out at the prison!

 

Monday was the big day! The girls started their day at the Royal Hawaiian getting ready for the ceremony. We all got to wear the most incredible flowers in our hair! Caitlin was just stunning and we had a blast getting beautiful!

Beautiful rainbow to start our morning!
Getting beautiful!
Can’t get over how beautiful the flowers were!
Just stunning!

Next stop, the prison! It was a beautiful ceremony with more unbelievable flowers. After the ceremony, we boarded a whale watching boat to cruise around Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. We saw whales and an incredibly sunset.

Jake and Kersten!

Next stop was Down the Hatch in Lahaina followed by dancing at Monkeypod to ring in the new year! It was such a wonderful day celebrating!

Lahaina at night
Shots for Jake’s birthday at midnight!

 

 

Maui: Trip 3 – Days 3 & 4

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On Sunday, we got up and enjoyed coffee on our lanai again. After that, we picked up Brick and Danielle and headed to Paia for lunch and to walk around the town. After that, we decided we had enough time to head up to Haleakala. It was a really clear day so the views were stunning!

BFF
Slightly windy…
Silversword

After that, we drove back to our hotels for the evening and relaxed and packed up to leave the next day. Josh and I enjoyed the most gorgeous sunset from our lanai. So many different colors!

On our last day, we once again enjoyed coffee on our lanai and took in the view one last time. Josh also played some Hawaiian games on the lawn of the hotel before we left. Our last stop of the trip was Lahaina to wander around the town. We had lunch with Danielle and Brick on the water at Lahaina Fish Co. before heading to the airport. Such a wonderful trip!

Josh playing some games.
Ahi “Katsu” Rice Bowl: panko crusted medium rare tuna with white rice with wakame (ocean) salad, pickled ginger, carrot curls, shredded nori, sliced cucumber, sesame seeds and wasabi ginger beurre blanc
Island Fresh Fish Tacos: cheddar cheese, ancho chile crema, taco sauce, topped with tropical fruit salsa

Maui: Trip 3 – Days 1 & 2

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For Labor Day, Josh and I went to Maui to meet up with my friend Danielle and her fiancé Brick. We started our trip by making it to the hotel just in time for an incredible sunset. After we changed and got ready for dinner, we went into Lahaina to eat at Lahaina Grill. A beautiful sunset and delicious dinner were a great way to start our long weekend!

Blue Corn Panko Crusted Chile Relleno: filled with tiger prawns, diver scallops, monterey jack cheese on roasted sweet corn relish, avocado, crème fraîche, roasted tomato-ancho chile salsa
Opakapaka Fish Special: parmesan panko crusted over risotto, grilled shrimp, and beurre blanc

On Saturday, we got up and had coffee on our lanai and met Danielle and Brick to hike Waihe’e Ridge Trail.

We had about an hour drive to the Northwest side of Maui before making it to the start of the trail. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to hike and our views were stunning. At one point, we had waterfalls on both sides of us.

We made it to the top!

After our hike, we drove around West Maui. We stopped for some banana bread and to take in the incredible views.

After quite a lovely morning and early afternoon, we went back to our hotels to rest and get ready for dinner at Mama’s Fish House.

If you ask Josh and I what the best meal of our lives is we both say “Mama’s Fish House”. Needless to say, we were pretty excited to go back and it lived up to our memories!

Cheers!
Tomato Soup
Maui Venison seared with roasted spices and honey lime sauce
Papa’s Sashimi: Ono: with lime, green chili oil, papaya and Maui pink sea salt. Ahi with ponzu, watermelon radish, red shiso and Kukui nut. Kanpachi with Maui onion-fig jam and Molokai black sea salt.
Poi
Opakapaka sauteed with Hamakua mushrooms, white wine and capers
Ono, Ahi and Kanpachi in Panang Curry with Macadamia nuts, banana, sambal and mango chutney

After dinner, we drove back to our hotels and called it a night!

 

 

Lanai: Trip 2 – Day 3

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Our last day started with a short hike to view Puu Pehe rock. Such a beautiful morning and we had it all to ourselves!

Decided to stop and explore the tide pools.
So beautiful!
I wasn’t ready for the picture :). But what a good picture of Josh!
Selfie!

After our hike, we went back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, and checked out of the hotel. Our last stop on our trip was Shipwreck Beach. It was QUITE windy but we had a great view of the largest shipwreck!

After Shipwreck Beach, it was time to return the car and head to the airport. We had such an amazing time and packed a TON in to a weekend!

Lanai: Trip 2 – Day 2

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On our second day, we got up and had breakfast and coffee at the hotel and took full advantage of the big rocking chairs looking out over the front lawn. After breakfast, we packed up the Jeep for our adventures that day.

First stop was the Munro Trail. We didn’t do the whole thing, only the first couple of miles. We found a really cool swing and stopped at a lookout that had some lovely views of Maui and Molokai!

The view on the way to the Munro Trail. Just love those pine trees!
Stables at Koele. So beautiful.
We found a swing!
Just breathtaking!

The next stop was Garden of the Gods. The trail there was insanely muddy with tons of potholes due to the amount of rain Hawaii saw in the early Spring. It made for quite the adventure!

So muddy!

After taking in the view for a bit, we kept going down to Polihua Beach. The last time Josh and I were here, it was SO windy we couldn’t even enjoy it. Luckily, this time it was perfect. We sat for a long time and just enjoyed the empty beach and sunshine!

Heading towards the beach!
Beach pose!
I thought this was a really cool picture.
Jeep shot for Josh.

After plenty of sun, it was time to head back! It took us a little over an hour without any stops due to the rough terrain.

I made a friend.
The Lanai cat sanctuary needs to come find this guy!
Holding on for dear life!
Loved these flowers!

Once we got back, we wandered around Lanai City for a bit and relaxed before dinner at Lanai City Bar & Grille. Dinner was at our hotel, so quite convenient! We sat outside and listened to live music for a couple hours to end our night!

Hotel Lanai!
Delicious drinks!
Calamari
Roasted brussell sprouts
Crispy green beans
Amazing fish special
Caprese salad
Steak
The best thing ever…bananas foster deliciousness!

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 4

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Our last day, we woke up and enjoyed coffee and hot bread one last time on our lanai. We also wandered out to the edge of the complex to check out the view. We were able to get Maui, Lana’i and Kahoʻolawe all in one shot. A great way to end our trip!

Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lana’i
Our lovely airbnb!
Enjoying our view

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 2

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On our first full day on Molokai we woke up to our incredible view of Maui. We sat and enjoyed coffee on our lanai and listened to the ocean. Quite the way to start our day!

Our morning view.

After a our leisurely start, we packed up the car to drive towards Halawa Valley. Our first stop was Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, another Saint Damien church.

Joshing signing the guest book with a gecko friend (above the painting).
Grave of a Marine.
Just love this shot.

It started raining on us, so we got back in the car and continued on our journey! The drive there was breathtaking and as we got closer, it stopped raining and we had a great view of the Halawa Falls.

Halawa Falls

We arrived in Halawa Valley and headed to Kalani’s Farm. We chatted with him for a bit and then we were able to sign waivers and hike to the falls since we had already gone on a tour with him a few years ago. We had the trail to ourselves for almost the entire way. Unfortunately for me, there were a ton of spiders (which I do not remember from the last time) so Josh took the lead and was in charge of knocking down webs. We made it to the river crossing but it was still flowing pretty fast. We decided to play it safe and head back. Sad we didn’t make it to the falls but it was a gorgeous hike.

Starting our hike.
Papayas
Waiting to see if we can find a way to cross.
GIANT taro leaf
Standing under the taro leaf

When we got back to the farm, Kalani showed us some of his flowers and gave us two different types of bananas…which turned into an incident for Josh. One of Kalani’s ducks saw that we had bananas and she started racing towards Josh (apparently they are her favorite thing). This turned into Josh running from the duck and her flying at him (I was in tears). We went ahead and shared some with her :).

The duck chasing Josh.
I fed her a banana :).

We were ready for lunch after our hike so we stopped at Manae Goods & Grindz for the best chicken katsu I’ve ever had. We ate lunch and then went back to our place to change and prepare for the rest of our afternoon.

Such a narrow road.
Love all of the glass bottles.
Veggie burger
The best chicken katsu

After lunch, we drove to the West side of the island to show Linda around. Our final stop of the day was Papohaku Beach for sunset. Once again we had the beach to ourselves. The waves break really late here so Josh spent most of the time chasing the perfect picture. He did an awesome job (please see his work below 🙂 ).

Linda and I enjoying the waves

Our first full day was packed and we were exhausted. We reluctantly left the beach for our long drive back. We weren’t super hungry due to our late lunch, so we stopped in Kaunakakai for some ice cream for dinner (my type of dinner). Great way to end our day!

Mt. Olomana

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A few weekends ago, Josh and I hiked the first peak of three peaks. For me, this was the second time hiking it. It was a beautiful day, not windy and clear enough to see Maui, Lanai and Molokai. Such a great hike!

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 4

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On Tuesday, Josh got up SUPER early and left for Honolulu so he could go to work (sooooo sorry for him). I stayed for the rest of the day to spend some quality time with my friends. I got up and had breakfast with Brent and Colleen and then we hung out at the pool and the beach until it was time for me to go home.

My view at the pool.
Frozen grapes! One of my favorite snacks and they were handing them out!
The beach at the resort. So peaceful.