Saturday, August 28, 2010

Maui

Jeff and I had a wonderful getaway in Maui this past week. Jeff's mom and sister watched the kids for us and they had a blast swimming, going to Super Franks, and visiting the Oakland Zoo!

Maui was incredible! We spent one day driving the road to Hana and loved the lush greenness and beautiful waterfalls. We had an "adventure" trying to find the Four Falls using our guidebook. We hiked through a bamboo forest and cow pasture, hiked miles up a creek, and literally swung from vines over pools of water. We got off track for a few hours (and I was sore the rest of the trip), but we finally found the falls and the dip in the waterfalls made the journey worth it.The only way to get from falls three to four is to swim across the pool and climb up and over the waterfall.The payoff! Stunning and very refreshing!
Back on the road... Most people drive right past this waterfall without even knowing it's there. A car on the road is barely visible above the 200 foot falls.Another pit stop...Ching's Pond. We saw locals jumping off the cement platform. Jeff thought about it; I talked him out of it. In his younger days...Three Bears Falls.Venus Pool had a beautiful view of the ocean and we could hear the waves crashing on the beach.Here is a view of Venus Pool looking out to the ocean.
The winding road to Hana. Gorgeous!Our final destination was the Seven Sacred Pools. We arrived at 6:30pm (12 hours after we left our hotel) and were treated to this view of cascading falls and pools. The water was cool and refreshing. Jeff scaled up and over this waterfall to the pool above.This was such a fun day together. We still had a three hour drive back to the hotel, but we enjoyed every minute of the day with each other. I feel so lucky to be married to my best friend and to have so much fun together.

We did a few dives while we were in Maui. We had been scuba diving in Kauai and were not that impressed, so we didn't have high hopes in Maui. We were very surprised in Maui! The dives we did were incredible! We did a shore dive with another couple who sent us their photos and videos. Jeff and I had not been diving for four years and technically we were supposed to do a refresher course, but we decided to wing it. I was a little nervous on the first dive and I had a difficult time figuring out my buoyancy, but the next two dives were great.

We saw some amazing things on our dives. We did a boat dive at Molokini Crater and saw an eel garden, octopus, frog fish, moray eel, snowflake eel, dragon wrasse, lots of green sea turtles, and beautiful coral. The visibility was 100+ feet and we went down 80 feet. The diving in Maui was incredible!
We rented a longboard one day and surfed some fun and easy waves.We went to a magic show, called Warren and Annabelle's. We were skeptical about going to a magic show in Maui, but we were glad we went. It was more of a comedy show, but his magic was incredible, too. We had front row seats, which basically meant we were used as part of his jokes. Very entertaining!Jeff and I both agree that Maui is heaven on earth!

2 comments:

Cori said...

Wow, looks like an amazing trip! I need to know how you brave the time without your kids--I don't think I could do it!

Amy said...

AMAZING.....let's book our trip to Aruba soon. JP and I will get certified!!!