Maui!

We still celebrate Spring Break. One of the perks of having a husband who is a professional student ;) We decided to check out Maui since so many people we know in California have been and loved it and it was only a four hour direct flight. We left rainy and cold Mountain View for the sun and sand!

We loved the place we stayed in-- condos on Kanapalli Beach. Our suite had a full kitchen and a "lanai" that opened right out onto the lawn. The beach was perfect and we scored a pair of chairs with a cover for the week. The weather was perfect beach weather with highs in the low 80's and windy and cooler at night.

Our beach

We took a snorkeling/diving day trip one day to Molikini, a partially submerged volcanic crater which forms a small island off Maui. I was stuck with a large group of snorkelers and Karl went diving. The snorkeling was pretty decent and Karl said the diving was pretty good with really good visibility. We then went to Turtle Town, a popular sight for snorkeling and diving with big turtles. They were fun to watch and were all over the place. I was happy to have been able to squeeze into a wetsuit as the water was about 74 degrees. The most fun we had was swimming under water and hearing the songs of the humpback whales! It is migrating season for them as they migrate from Alaska to Hawaii for warmer waters to breed and give birth to their calves. It was the coolest thing to dive underwater and hear, clear as day, their loud songs echoing in the distance. On the way back, we spotted several whales from the boat and even a mom and baby that were very close to our boat. The captain put the boat in neutral and we watched a Mom whale teach her baby how to splash his tail fin over and over. It was so cool.

Molokini: Karl about to go under...

Mama whale slapping her tail with baby by her side

The rest of our time was spent reading on the beach, swimming, and walking on the boardwalk along the beach that connect all of the resorts and hotels on Kanapalli beach. We went into Lahaina one day for a paddleboarding lesson. With its recent popularity and seeing so many people doing it in Maui and back home on Lake Tahoe, we wanted to check it out. If you haven't seen it, It's basically a very wide, sturdy board that looks like a big surf board and you get one big paddle to push yourself around with as you stand on it. After a few minutes of instructions on how to start out and get up on the board, our tour guide took us all over from the shores of Lahaina. It was calm in this area as there was a large reef protecting the area from large waves. It was a perfect spot as we were learning. The entire bottom of the area we were in was covered in coral so we had to maneuver our boards around the reef which made it more fun. As we paddled it was almost like snorkeling from above as we could see fish, starfish and even a reef shark as he swam around and hunted. We watched the shark mozy around the reef and then expose his top fin as he came almost out of water in the shallow areas on top of the reef. Neither one of us fell off and we are officially certified paddle boarders!

Two paddle boarders

We decided to take a half day to do some exploring/hiking on the island given how many awesome hikes and drives there are on the island. We drove north and hiked to two blow holes. These were formed by lava shelves forming over the water and after many years of the waves crashing on the lava, a hole is formed in the lava and the waves crashing under the shelf, cause a blow hole to form. It was cool to watch and water shot up probably a good 30 feet. Our second hike was down to Olivine Pools. There are seven calm pools along the edge of these cliffs where waves are pounding the outside of these pools and water is collected in the pools which are perfectly calm. Karl was the only brave one to get in ;)

Olivine Pools

Hiking along the coast

Blow Hole

We had some of the freshest, yummiest seafood at some of the most amazing restaurants with sunset views overlooking the ocean. Even the luau we went to had an awesome sunset view. Everything was made with fresh coconut, pineapple and macadamia nuts-- I could eat it all, every day and never get tired of it!

Sunset view from one of our favorite restaurants

21 1/2 weeks

It was the perfect, relaxing beach vaca....and probably the last one just the two of us for a while ;)