Part 2: Maui

Maui, Hawaii

On Wednesday of our week in Hawaii we ventured to Maui.  With Oahu being the island Grant chose, this was the one I had chosen.  I chose it primarily for its well-known honeymoon destinations and beautiful beaches; sounded like a wonderful place to just relax!  Overall, we were both really excited to see how Maui compared to Oahu. (Let me remind you that we loved Oahu!!) Flying into Maui was beautiful but a little eerie at the same time.  We felt like we were showing up on a different planet where there was very little habitation, instead, lots of volcanic craters and barren lava rock. Not to mention only 1 main highway for locals and tourists to travel.  As we landed we started to see the beaches and resorts quickly realizing that there was much more lush countryside than what we had observed from the plane. 
We finally made it to our resort which was located in Wailea.  The look of this area was how I had pictured all of Maui.
So if you ever decide to visit Maui, just giving you heads up that the island isn’t all beautiful beaches and resorts. 🙂

Ok enough about the countryside!  We arrived at the Fairmont Kea Lani Resort in Wailea.  This place was beautiful and I would highly recommend it to you for a future vacation destination!  View from the lobby…

Our time in Maui ended up being extremely relaxing as I had hoped, even with several events planned.  Our first full day there we took the Road to Hana.  If you aren’t familiar with this road to the city of Hana, it is 52 miles long and takes about 2.5 hours to drive one way.  The road consists of numerous bridges, most of which are one-lane wide so you are constantly stopping for on-coming traffic, not to mention the 600+ winding curves in the road along the way.  (Check it out at the website I linked above)  The views on the road were spectacular, full of waterfalls, a rainforest at its fullest.

It was such an interesting drive with sporadic tattered signs and stands selling local goods.  One thing that I had read about before we went was that the banana bread along the way was extremely popular, so of course we tried it.  Kind of random to buy warm banana bread loaves along side of the road, but it was delicious! Our Road To Hana adventure was fun but when we finally made it, there wasn’t much to see so we turned around and headed back to the resort without even stepping foot in Hana.  #thejourneyisthedestination

One of the many restaurants we tried for dinner was Nick’s Fish Market.   We had a wonderful time sitting out on the patio, spending time together, and of course eating some amazing seafood!

The rest of our days in Maui were breathtaking and catered more to my favorite pastime of laying out at the pool or beach!  Grant went snorkeling with the turtles while I laid out and then we laid out some more together. 🙂  We had amazing views wherever we chose to relax–either at the infinity pool or by the ocean with the waves.  We even got a little adventurous and took a couple of rides down the water slide in the kids pool area. 😉

Some more of our pics from the trip…

Our last evening in Maui, Grant booked a dinner cruise for us to enjoy before we headed home!! This was a magical time together.  There were other couples on board, but we had our own table and view for most of the cruise which made it great!

So our Hawaiian  5 Year Vacation/Babymoon has now come and gone, but the memories will last a lifetime.  I am thankful for the 5 years I have had with just Grant to make so many wonderful memories, but we are really excited for the next chapter in life as we begin a family in March.  #bumpselfie #18weeks