Saka! Part 2: Maui

The best part about Maui was that Kiel met us there! I missed him sooooo much!!! I had already been gone for a week and a half from Utah so we hadn't seen eachother for way too long. Maui was absolutely amazing. The beaches were so soft and beautiful. The water was fairly warm...but not warm enough for me. I hate swimming in anything colder than 75 degrees!

Our house we stayed in was across the street from the ocean so we would walk over everyday and walk on the beach. We went to the Big beach which is the most famous beach there for a very good reason. Kiel really wanted to go to the Little beach but I said no (the Little beach is the nude beach :). One day we went on a Quicksilver snorkling tour. I had tried to snorkel previous to this excursion but I was so clausterphobic I couldn't do it! But I got over it very quickly on this trip. We went to Mulikini which is known for having sharks sometimes! Happily, we never saw any but there were so many beautiful fish and coral! It was so so cool!!! The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom of the ocean, which was about 250 ft, from the boat. Kiel wasn't feeling very good and he went snorkeling for a little while here but then got out and started throwing up. What a great fish attractor! He'd throw up and I'd take pictures of the swarm of fish it brought. I did feel so bad for him tho...he missed out! We snorkeled there for an hour and then went to Turtle Town. That's an actual bay and there were lots of turtles! That was so much fun! I got to swim with these giant turtles that were so friendly. The reef coral was beautiful too. There were big red and black spiky things and all different colored corals in different shapes and sizes. I loved it! They then fed us some awesome BBQ on the boat and then we headed home. On the way home we saw TONS of whales! We were so close to them so it was really easy to see their features (that is if you were looking...Kiel was still throwing up in the back of the boat and missed all this :( We saw a baby whale which our guide said was probably about 3 days old and it's mommy and an escort whale. They were ginamo!!! And when they hit the water with their giant tails they really made a splash. On the way back we also passed by a beach that is commonly called "celebrity beach" because there were homes belonging to Oprah Winfrey, Jack Nicholson, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and like 10 others I can't remember right now. I think I actually saw Michael Jordan on his giant veranda overlooking the ocean. All together the scuba trip took about 5 1/2 hours. It was too much fun.

On our way to go snorkeling

Michelle and I were snorkeling buddies when Kiel was sick

Tiger Wood's beach house

A turtle

The other thing I enjoyed so much- as is typical of any Petramalo- was the great food! Our favorite place was Kihei Cafe with their banana and macademia nut french toast covered in coconut syrup. It was delish! Howards bakery was pretty amazing too.

All of us at Kihei's Cafe

The day before we left we did the road to Hana. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive! We pulled off at some point and walked one of the trails that led to a waterfall. It was so serene and it had some crazy plants! Next time we go back I want to do more of the hikes and make it a day thing.
Walking on a trail on the Road to Hana

And of course we spent a lot of time just enjoying the beach.
I took this pic and I'm proud of it!It was whale watching season while we were there and there were whales EVERYWHERE! You could always see them from the beach.