More Maui: If you plan to visit...

I was a little out of it yesterday with the 3 hour time difference and a short night spent on an airplane so I left out some fun stuff! We spent a lot of time on the rainy side of the island because that's where we stayed. My inlaws live near the beginning of the road to Hana- just past Paia. (You guys are the best- thank you so much!!!) It's cool and rains a lot over there and it's so green! We haven't driven down to Hana yet but I think it's something you should do if you don't have kids with you. It's a beautiful drive on windy roads and when you get to the end there is the 7 Sacred Pools and my brother said that was his favorite part of their trip- hiking the pools and waterfalls. We only got as far as the Bamboo Forest which is amazing and fun & easy to hike through. I think honestly my favorite part of the whole trip was sitting out on their upstairs porch on the swinging bench reading. It's an amazing view- I wish I took a picture of it! My favorite places to eat over there are Colleen's in Haiku, Cafe De Amis in Paia, (yummy crepes!) Flatbread Company in Paia, and the Fish Market also in Paia. Everyone says Mama's Fish House is divine too but I like most food and that place is a splurge so we haven't tried it yet.

I paddled a canoe! The Kihei Canoe Club lets visitors join them and for a donation and you get to paddle out and look at the sea turtles. I was a little nervous about it but it was really fun- along with some awesome, huge sea turtles, we even got to see a dolphin swimming all around us. They say that's rare so it was pretty cool. When we were over there, we drove down and saw the lava flows. I love that stuff. There is really good snorkeling over there too but it was pretty cloudy and we were tired so we skipped it.

Then we had breakfast at Longhi's in Wailea and everything was so good!

There were a lot of places to shop but my favorite mall was Whalers Village in Lahaina. They have a couple really fun stores I haven't seen anywhere else- Cinnamon Girl and Sand People & Sand Kids.

Being in Hawaii, I really wanted to have the Luau experience and Sam's parents said that the Old Lahaina Luau was the best one so we did that and it didn't disappoint! They give you lei's and tropical drinks as soon as you walk in, then you can walk around and see some of the local crafts and listen to a great band. We forgot our camera but luckily there were people taking pictures you could buy.Then there is a huge dinner including the pit smoked pig. If you like seafood you will especially like it. And as many fancy drinks as you can handle- our favorite was the Lava Flow. (ours were virgin of course) After dinner there is dessert and a fun hula show that tells some of the history of the island.

A really awesome show you should see is Ulalena. We took the kids last year and they even enjoyed it. It has beautiful music and amazing dance, and tells some history of the island too. I don't know how many times Larry & Michal have gone but they have to take everyone who comes! We ate at Bubba Gump's over there- which is one of the only restaurants we found that actually has Dr. Pepper so that was a big plus!

Ok, now I think I covered everything! I can get back to the piles of laundry...