Maui Day 2: Relaxing

Wednesday morning, May 30th, we woke up early around 6:30 and decided to try out a breakfast place we had heard great things about (thanks Lauren!).  We got ready, hopped in our jeep, and drove about 15 minutes north to a town called Napili.  That's where we found this little restaurant called the Gazebo. We had to walk through the grounds of a small hotel and the Gazebo is literally right next to the hotel's swimming pool.

The Gazebo

Here is the pool next to where we stand in line.

This is what the line ALWAYS looks like.  They open at 7:30am, but even if you get there at 7am, the line is already this long.  And they only have 14 tables.  The usual wait is about 45 mins.  But it's SOOOO worth it.  (plus, they have free coffee and creamer for you while you wait!)

One of their specialties....White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Pancakes!

YUM!

Justin ordered the Big Kahuna Omelet consisting of eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, avocado, and TONS of pepper jack cheese!  And potatoes on the side.  It was AMAZING!

Um...can you tell we like our breakfast?  We split everything :)  We promised that we would come back and do this again.

We walked down to the rocks below the restaurant to get some pictures of the ocean.

Our first morning in Hawaii couldn't be better :)

I got to drive the jeep back to the hotel!

Can you tell I am excited?

We decided to go back to the condo to look around and see what the resort, pools, and beach looked like.

Lobby area.

We loved how all the windows and doors are kept open all day and night :)

Outside lounge area

Beautiful flowers on the property

The landscaping was so nice.

 And there were lots of pools to choose from:

This pool had a slide!

I loved that they had a grilling area, although, we didn't have time to use it.

Short boardwalk to the beach.

Looking to the right

Looking to the left

Sigh... ;)

We walked a mile down the beach this way and then turned around and walked back.

Boardwalk facing the condo from the beach

There was a great concrete beach path for people to take a stroll or a jog.

The restaurant you see here is Dukes on Honua Kai's property.

Looking at our condo from the beach path.

That afternoon, we read our books for awhile at the pool (skipping lunch because we were still stuffed from breakfast) and then decided to go for a jog.

We ran along the beach path and stopped to take a picture of the rainbow.

(we detoured off the path and ran a total of 5 miles)

While running, we noticed a perfect little spot to have a picnic dinner and watch the sunset.  After we finished our run, we showered, made some pb&j sandwiches and walked to our "spot".

The perfect spot ;)

SUNSET

Hmmm...Looks like I have plenty of choices for a painting ;)

What a perfect end to a great day!

Maui Day 1: Arriving

Justin and I have been married 7 years come June 11, 2012.  These years have been incredible.  We have been on several family trips or weekends away WITH the kids.  But since having children, Justin and I haven't had an opportunity to just get away by ourselves and refresh.  It was hard to plan a time because of me either being pregnant, or nursing, but we finally timed it just right!  This summer we decided to go to MAUI!!!  

I knew both my mom and Justin's mom would be willing to watch both kids for us.  But because Reese was now on the move and getting into everything, and James has always been a fire ball of energy and doesn't sleep at night well, we decided to split them up.  My mom kept James and Justin's mom kept Reese and Kramer.  THANK YOU MOMS!!!  

So on Monday, May 28th, we dropped the kids off and went back home to finish packing.  It was very strange packing in a quiet house.  Going to bed without having SOMEONE wake me up in the middle of the night.  Waking up (at 4am) and only having to take care of my body, my breakfast, my bags.  

We left our house at 4:30am so we could be at my parents' house by 5.  My dad drove us to the airport and we made it their by 5:30.  We checked our bags (which were 49 pounds each...wheewww!) then boarded our plane.  Our flight left at 6:40 and we headed to our first stop, Dallas.  

Ok, so everyone leaves something at home.  You think about it, and think about it, until it pops into your mind...."oh, I left my toothbrush...guess i'll get one when we get there."  As we were flying to Dallas, I happened to realize that I forgot one of the most important things!!!  My Maui guidebook that I had based our whole trip on (Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty)!  It had my notes in it.  It had my highlighted points.  It had directions, sights, specifics that I really wanted us to do in Maui!  I was sooo bummed.  It is an awesome guidebook.

Picture of me BEFORE realizing I forgot Maui Revealed.

Well, Justin had the idea of searching the huge Dallas airport for another copy of it.  So in our 4 hour layover, that's just what we did.  We visited about FOUR terminals to look in as many airport bookstores we could find.  We found a couple of Hawaii books, but not what I wanted. :(  

 We decided to give up looking for the book and eat lunch.  We ate at Cousin's BBQ and it was excellent!

Next stop, Maui!!!  Our flight was about 7.5 hours long.  My legs got stiff and I was so anxious to get there!  We finally arrived at the Kahului airport at 4pm Maui time.  It felt like 9pm (Memphis time) but we were too excited to notice at this point.  

 We got off the plane and got a shuttle ride to Alamo where we had our convertible waiting for us.  We got up to the counter and asked if they happened to have a soft top jeep available.  They did for a small upgrade so we took it!!

 In our jeep!  I have to say, this was one of our favorite parts of our vacation.  Riding around in this open air jeep.  Amazing views, high up on the road, and super fun to drive!!!

Ok, our pictures aren't going to show you anything at ALL of what Maui actually looked liked, but I'm am going to keep posting them anyway.  This is the 45 min drive from Kahului to Ka'anapali on the West coast where our hotel was.  Justin and I decided that the next trip we take, we will bring a polarized lens with us to capture all the color.

We went straight to our hotel/condo to drop off our luggage.  We LOVED where we stayed.  This is the Honua Kai Resort.

 There were two towers there.  We stayed at the one tower called Konea.  When we got to the front desk to check in, we found out we had been upgraded to a TWO bedroom suit on the first floor!  Justin and I went to take a look at it and LOVED it, but we couldn't see the ocean at all (which we had paid extra for).  So we asked them if another room would be available where we could actually see the ocean.  They said we could look at one tomorrow.

(on a side note, we ended up staying in the room on the first floor as seen in the pictures below...another story for another day :)

In the mean time, pictures of our beautiful room:

  

The full kitchen

Very large lanai looking out to the middle of the resort...kinda private too with surrounding plants.

View as you walk in the door

View standing in front of the tv

Bedroom we stayed in

Bathroom

Second bedroom that we didn't even touch!

We looked over the room then decided to get back in the jeep and drive to Barnes and Noble that was about 15 minutes away.  I was determined to get Maui Revealed!  Well, we walk in Barnes and Noble and as soon as we set foot in the store, we see a huge stack Maui Revealed books!  Haha.  Of course Maui would have them here. :)  No worries.

We were STARVING because it was close to 7pm Maui time (midnight Memphis time!) and we had not eaten dinner yet!  We knew there was a little place called Maui Tacos close by so we stopped there to get some great Fish Tacos (cheap for Maui too).

We ate then headed to Safeway to grab some breakfast and lunch groceries to keep the cost down.

Finally, we got back to the condo and crashed around 9:30 pm (2:30 am memphis time :)

We were really looking forward to having a relaxing day tomorrow, exploring more of the hotel,  and seeing the sights that Maui had to offer :)