Maui - Part 1

Day 1

All I have from day one is this picture of us on the plane because we didn't arrive in Maui until 8pm local time.  It was crazy driving from the airport in Kahului all the way to our condo in Lahaina in the dark.

We stayed in a condo on Kahana Beach.

Day 2

 Here is the view from our condo's balcony looking to the left.

 The view looking to the right.

 The view looking straight down from our balcony.  We were literally right on the beach!

 We spent most of this day just checking out Lahaina.

Our first breakfast was at a restaurant on Front Street called Pioneer Inn.

Howie tried a local treat called The Loco Moco.

Rice, hamburger, eggs and gravy.  So gross.  Howie loved it.

After breakfast we checked out Banyan Tree Park. There was a craft event going on.

Tons of locals were out selling handmade items.  It was neat to see everything they were selling. 

This tree is all ONE tree.

It was huge!  Banyan's are quite common in Hawaii.

The weather was rather warm in Maui (go figure!).

So, it was only fitting that we stop in for some ice cream. 

 They had the best Chocolate Macadamia Nut Ice Cream I've ever had.

 View of Front Street.  It was a cute little town.

Once we got hungry again we stopped in at the Lahaina Pizza Co. for some grub.

 It was Chicago style deep-dish pizza and oh so yummy!

Back in Banyan Tree Park we came across this man who was carving things out of wood himself.

He did amazing work.

We ended up buying a small turtle and a statue from him.

After our walk around town we headed back to our condo to watch the sun set.

 We had amazing views.

 We showered and headed out again into Lahaina after I took a quick swim in the ocean.
Stopped by Banyan Tree Park again.

 We decided to try this place out for dinner.  Cilantro.

 Our appetizer nachos were yummy, but the main course was just so-so.

Our main course was their adobo pork tacos with grilled pineapple salsa.  Sounds good, right?

We weren't impressed.

Day 3

On day three we had a biking company pick us up from our condo at 2:15am so we could watch the sunrise from the top of Haleakala Volcano.  It sounds pretty insane to get up so early, but we were still used to the main land time so, it was only 6:15am really.

It was freezing!

 The company provided winter gear for us so we didn't freeze our butts off.

I was surprised to see people up there in shorts and flip flops.  Talk about livin' on the edge.

Here is the progression of the sunrise...

Here it comes!

We were lucky to have such a clear day but clouds, too.

Just beautiful.

 Lots of people braved the elements with us.

It was so worth it!

After the sun had fully risen, the biking company put us back in the van and drove us down a ways to where we could start our 24 mile bike ride.  You can't start it from the summit anymore because it's too dangerous.  The bike ride was a blast!  I wish I could've taken more pictures on the ride, but our guide said no photos allowed unless we stopped for a while.  So, here is the only pic of us on the ride.

 At the bottom of the ride we stopped at a restaurant in Pa'ia for breakfast.

 I enjoyed my first helping of wheat macadamia nut pancackes with coconut syrup.

Delicious!

After breakfast we headed back to our condo.  The company dropped us off around 1pm and we went right into taking a long nap.  It was a long trip up the volcano and back down again.

We managed to wake up in enough time to see another beautiful sunset from our balcony.

 Then we headed to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant called the China Boat.

Maui sure isn't known for it's Chinese.  That's all I have to say about that.