Maui

It has been quite a few years since Travis and I got out of town and had a proper vacation.  I was really feeling the pull to see new things this year so we decided to book a winter getaway to Maui.  Admittedly, Hawaii was never really on my list of must see places (I know I am crazy!).  My wanderlust list includes places that will be much harder to make happen like Egypt, and Morocco so I gave in to Travis’ insisting that Hawaii is amazing.  After the fact I am so glad we decided to visit!!  We chose to visit Maui for it’s more relaxed vibe.  It was just what I needed to recharge after probably my busiest year in business yet.  Two months later and I am still dreaming of lazy days spent on the beach and the perfectly concocted Pina Coladas.

I didn’t want to be weighed down with my big camera and lenses so I opted to take only my Pentax and shoot film.  So glad I did!!!  I am still learning a lot and some of the photos were not properly exposed (black sand beach on the road to Hana, but that is okay!  Next time I will do better!)  Here are some of my favorite images from our trip.   A mixture of iphone snaps and film.  Film scans developed at Photo Vision.

We stayed 6 nights (which was not enough time!) at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel.  This hotel was one of the cheaper ones on Ka’anapali beach but it was super charming and describes itself as Hawaii’s most Hawaiian hotel.  We loved our Tiki bar and spent quite a bit of time there enjoying all the tropical drinks!  I would totally stay here again.

We left plenty of time for relaxing on the beach but did schedule a Luau, dinner cruise and a trip up the Road to Hana.  There are countless Luau’s to choose from in Maui so we picked the Old Lahaina Luau.  This was my first so I don’t have anything to compare it to but I totally enjoyed myself.  The service & entertainment were great, the unlimited drinks were flowing and the food was tasty!

Our dinner cruise was one of my favorite parts of our trip.  We booked the Captains Sunset Dinner Sail with Sail Trilogy which because it was winter ended up being a whale watching tour as well.  Humpback whales were everywhere.  It was surreal seeing them so close.  I actually didn’t even take photos of them!  I think I was too mesmerized watching them that I didn’t even think to photograph them.  The staff were super nice and informative throughout dinner (which was delicious!).  

Our Road to Hana experience was a bit of a flop.  We saw some cool things but went into it a bit blindly and weren’t quite prepared.  We got a late start and weren’t expecting the stops to be mostly hidden and pop out of nowhere so we only stopped a couple of times.  We will definitely try again on our next trip but next time a bit more organized.  We were told that the Gypsy app is a great tool for this road trip so we will be using that next time!

Taking a VERY cold and quick dip in the Twin Falls pool. 

Maui you were so so good to us.