In October 2021, Isaac had a work conference in Maui, Hawaii. So he convinced me to leave the kids and go with him. We had both sets of grandparents split the time and help watch the kiddos.
The flight to Maui was really long. We had a layover in Portland, so the whole trip took about 12 hours. When we landed in Hawaii, it was already dark, so we couldn't see much.
We got our rental car and drove to the hotel in Wailea. Wailea was a fancy city. It basically had all the big, fancy hotels and a really high-end shopping complex. The hotel was strange because it was mostly outside. The atrium to the lobby had an open ceiling, and all the hallways were outside. But our room was very nice and we had a nice view of the pools and beach.
The next morning, Isaac woke up early and went to his conference. He was in lecture until about 1pm every day. I was worried about being able to entertain myself for days while he was away. I hadn't had time to myself like that since before Sophie was born, so I didn't know if I would be bored. But I would wake up in the morning and go for a run. One day I ran along the beach trail. Another morning I used the hotel gym. And another morning I got up and went snorkeling by myself. Then I would explore the hotel (which didn't take very long). And eventually I would end up sitting in a lounge chair by the ocean reading my book. One morning I took the rental car and found a grocery store for my breakfasts and snacks. And another morning I found a little flee market area in Kihei where I found some souvenirs for the kids.
The hotel we stayed at was very tropical and lush, just like I imagined Hawaii would be like. But when I left the hotel to find a grocery store, I was shocked at how barren and desert-y everywhere else was.
One of the things I was most excited about in Hawaii was the food. Isaac's work covered his food expenses, so we thought we could eat at nicer places. But the food was definitely the most disappointing thing about the trip. We just kept looking for nice little restaurants on the beach where I could drink from a pineapple, but we didn't find any until our last day or two.
After Isaac's conference the first day, we drove to the rainforest side of the island. It was like going to a whole different country, the climate and vegetation were so different. As one of our tour guides later explained, on one side of the volcano the storm clouds come and drop all their rain. And once the pass the tip of the volcano, there isn't any rain left so that side is desert. The spot between the highest rainfall and lowest amount of rainfall on the island is only 3 miles. But we found a hike to some waterfalls. I expected it to be crowded there, but we hardly saw anyone. We did see a few really pretty waterfalls.
And we found a weird spider.
One night we ended up having dinner at Ruth's Chris. We went to the nearest shopping area to our hotel and they only had super fancy restaurants. The food was fine, but we really wanted to have outdoor seating on the beach. Another night we were struggling to find somewhere to eat because we tried to go to Tommie Bahamas, but it was full, so we found the next closest restaurant. It turned out to be a super health-conscious vegan place. The menu was super weird, and we thought about leaving, but we didn't know where else to go. So we ended up staying, and the food was ok. But we felt like we needed to end the night on a good note, so we stopped and got some yummy ice cream.
Another day we woke up early to sea kayak to Molokini. Isaac found a tour group that would let you paddle to the crater of Molokini and snorkel, and then paddle back. Isaac had to fill out an extensive questionnaire about our health and paddling experience. Then the group called multiple times to verify everything and then try to talk us out of going. We talked to our tour guide, Zeke, about it, and he said they wanted to vet people really well to make sure they know what they are getting in for because the only way to "bail" is to call the Coast Guard to come save us.
But we started our float at 6 or 7am, so we got to see the moon go down and the beautiful sunrise. Isaac and I expected to have other people in our group, but it was just us and our guide. The guide said, "No one does this channel crossing. All the locals will think you are crazy." Tons of people get on charter boats to go out to Molokini and snorkel, but not very many people paddle out there. Our guide's group is the only group to offer that excursion, and he said they only get 1 or 2 people per month to book it.
Basically we just pointed at this little moon-shaped crater and paddled 4 miles across the ocean until we got there. Then we were able to get in the water and go snorkeling. This was the best snorkeling experience of the trip, and our guide followed us around taking our photos.
But the paddle back was kind of terrible. It was just really boring. Our guide told us that we just had to keep paddling, slow and steady. But the ocean looks the same everywhere, so the only way you could even tell you were making progress was seeing the shore very slowly get larger. When. we go rafting, the current will push you downstream, so there are plenty of times you can just float and relax. And because you are moving down the river, the landscape changes continuously, which is much more interesting. But this paddle back was tiring because you couldn't stop paddling the entire 4 miles, but the shore would look like you were close to being there, but it still took another 30-40 minutes of staring at the exact same spot to close in. But it was still cool to be able to say we paddled the channel to Molokini.
Another afternoon we drove to the rainforest on the other side of the island to go zip-lining. We stopped to grab some sandwiches and ate them on a cliff while watching the surfers.
Then we went to the Jungle Zip Line. The zip line was really fun. We had 2 tour guides that were interesting and told us lots of nature-hippie information about the islands. There were a few other groups in our tour that we talked to as well. I would definitely want to take the kids zip-lining if we ever come back.
Then we stopped at the "Twin Falls" hike. This was a really nice little hike, but way more crowded.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a pizza place and got kalua pork pizza. It was really good.
On our final day, we drove to Lahaina to take a boat tour to Lanai and go snorkeling. Lahaina was a really nice town, and what we were looking for the whole time in Hawaii. They had lots of shops and restaurants right on a boardwalk by the beach. I wish we would have had more time to explore here.
But we got on the boat, and Isaac and I got nice seats right at the front on the netting. After going for a few minutes, we saw tons and tons of flying fish. They were super cool. They were about 1 foot long and silvery-blue. The boat would scare them out of the water in huge packs and they would fly about 1 foot off the water for a really long time. I tried and tried to get them on video, but was never able to. But they were really awesome.
Then we came across a pod of dolphins. They came right up to our boat and were jumping and playing all around us. It was really fun to see them up close and personal in the wild like that. Sophie and Aspen would have absolutely loved it.
We finally got to Lanai and they let us get out and go snorkeling. The snorkeling was really good and we saw tons of cool fish and coral reefs. But the waves of the ocean were really choppy and after a while I started feeling sea sick. So I went back to the boat, where a lot of people weren't feeling well. But as soon as the boat started moving, I was fine, but if we stopped and just bobbed up and down, I felt sick.
When we got back, Isaac and I went back to town and did some window shopping. Then we stopped at Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner before catching our flight.
We had a red-eye flight home with another layover in Portland. It was such a long flight. We had a great time in Hawaii, but it was a long way to go. And everything there was super expensive. All our tours, which only lasted 2-3 hours, cost more than full days of activities on our Florida trip. So we would like to eventually take the kids to Hawaii, but will probably wait until they are older. Until then, we think you get more bang for your buck going to places that have much shorter flights, like Florida.
