some of our favorite adventures included hiking to, then swimming to some waterfalls, watching the sunset above the clouds at 10,000ft., seeing 2 sea turtles, watching the surfers and boarders, hiking in lava fields, hiking in a bamboo forest, rock climbing/hiking to and discovering a blowhole and not to mention the yummy food!
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| we stayed at the grand wailea in wailea. it was a pretty fancy resort. apparently, it is where brittney spears stays when she's in maui!! how do you like that little factoid? |
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| we were so busy exploring the island, we didn't even hang out at this beach. but we walked on it twice at night. |
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| part of the pool area. it was huge!! they had like 7 slides. |
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| fun water fall area. inside the rock structure was a hot tub. |
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| we didn't even swim in the pool or go on the slides until the last day. it was pretty fun though. the kids would have loved it! |
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| the second day we went on a hike through some lava fields. basically, walking over rocks all day! pretty awesome looking though. they look like large piles of dirt. |
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| lava rock all the way into the ocean |
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| large fissure in the ground in the lava rock |
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| you can see the lava paths out in the fields. |
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| at the end of our hike we came to this secluded beach among a beautiful green oasis. |
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| here you can see the pretty green trees down where the beach was located. we went snorkeling off this beach and saw a sea turtle. the tide was pretty heavy so, it wasn't the best snorkeling but, the sea turtle sightseeing made up for it. |
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| on the first day, after a yummy lunch of fish and pork, we did some hiking in the ioa valley. this is the needle. we didn't hike to the needle since the trail was closed, but instead found another trail that took us up in the hills behind the needle. |
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| the lush countryside was beautiful to hike through. we noticed very few insects and i loved the humidity! |
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| at the bottom of the hills was a fresh water river. it looked just like a mountain river, not like a tropical oasis. it was pretty cool. the water was freezing!! not unlike the northwest. the third day was one of my favorites. we not only went on a fun hike, we ate some delicious food in kula at the kula lodge. i had the best kalua pork pizza ever!! isn't this view stunning? it is over looking the island on a slightly hazy day. you can still see the ocean on both sides of the mountains. those mountains were the ones we hiked in the first day we were here.  
after eating some yummy food, we headed up haleakala mountain to see the crater
at the top. this is looking down into the crater as the clouds were coming in. we were
at 10000 feet above sea level...crazy how we can go from ocean and warm weather to
cool, mountainous weather in just an hour.
 
over to the right you can see some red sand dunes. we were going to go hike down into
the crater and see those, but when we got to the top of the mountain, it was so
windy, rainy and cold we didn't do it...we weren't prepared for the terribly cold temps.
most people like to go to the top of haleakala for the sunrise, we chose to do the
sunset instead. it didn't disappoint. we were literally above the clouds!!
gorgeous and unforgettable!!! loved this experience!!
 walking in the clouds...is this what heaven is like??? |
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| also, earlier on our third day, we took a hike through a bamboo forest and up to 4 different falls. this was my favorite hike. after the bamboo forest, we climbed some rocks, to another waterfall, then climbed the ladder you see below to a river bed. we walked along the rocky river bed, for awhile until we came to a river. next we had to jump into the river and swim to a small waterfall(which we climbed up), then we arrived at the final waterfall. |
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| none of the waterfalls were huge, except the final one was fairly good size, but the experience of getting there was exciting! the water was cold too!! we did have a water camera to take more photos but ned dropped it in the river while we were swimming! |
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| it felt very adventurous to use a rope and ladder to scale the rocks at different locations. yes, i am wearing the same outfit as the first day!! i packed light! on our fourth day, we went to lahaina to snorkle at black rock. we saw another sea turtle and some other cool fish. the snorkeling isn't as good as in the caribbean, mostly because the water is murky. the caribbean is so clear, but we still had fun! the waves were really strong again, so it was hard swimming back in. 
ned trying out some paddle boarding.
hanging at the beach, trying to stay out of the sun.
  after snorkeling and hanging out at the beach we went to get some lunch. the food in maui was really good! i'm not a foody, but i did love the food on our trip! also, i ate a lot of pork...which i don't usually eat very often, but it was soo good! ned loved all the seafood he had too! this was our dessert! 
after the beach, we drove up north a bit and did some hiking along the ocean on these
cliffs.
 
it was a little scary along the edge...can you tell ned was scared?
maui's variety of landscapes was amazing...oceans, cliffs, mountains, beaches, forests
rivers, craters, it was truly beautiful!!
    
we found this cool blowhole, that would spray every so often; the water lifting
little fish and crabs up with the spray! it was fascinating!!
beautiful water pools. if we weren't such little chickens, we would have hiked
down to them for a swim! it really was a very dangerous hike down!
 the last day we spent at the pool at the hotel, then we hung out at a few beaches, just watching the surfers and also walking along the water's edge. we also hung out at the local mall and picked up some souviners for the kids. it was a very relaxing and nice day!    we loved MAUI!!! |
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