We landed in Maui around 8pm and were greeted by my parents! It was the beginning of our Family Fun in Hawaii time which included my sister too. It was nice to hang out with them some more after saying goodbye to Canada a week earlier. It made leaving Canada a bit easier this time knowing I’d see my nearest and dearest again.
So my folks have been to Maui four times and are therefore veterans of the island and know what to do and see. We wanted to do all of the major touristy things because it was our first time and we are not sure if and when we’ll ever get to go back. Our very first adventure included going snorkelling to a couple of different spots. My dad and sister love snorkelling like we do so the four of us all got kitted out with the snorkel gear of our choice and enthusiastically jumped in the water. It was weird for me to suddenly feel the need to keep track of not only where Callum was in the water but also my dad ad sister, not to mention also enjoying all of the wonderful fish! I love the freedom I feel when I am swimming. Seeing fish is a bonus. After snorkelling Dad took Callum and I to see the Nakalele blowhole which was very impressive. We were staying in Kihei so it was a bit of a drive and we ended up just looping around the entire northwest nob of the island in order to get home. So on our first day we already saw like a quarter of the island.
Our second day in Maui Dad looked up at Haleakala and declared that since it was an unprecedented clear day we should definitely drive up there to see it. It was very cold at the top but the views were breathtaking and reminded me of some vistas in Peru that we saw earlier this year. That is not the first time Peru came to mind while in Hawaii, actually. We enjoyed lunch along the way down from the big mountain and went on to see what the cute town of Lahaina could offer that evening. I was actually tracking down a particular art gallery (what else is new) that I knew was in Lahaina. Have you ever heard of Vladimir Kush? His work is incredible. I teach about him a little bit when I teach surrealism to my students. I was most surprised to see a gallery of his work randomly while in Las Vegas earlier this year. I didn’t get to browse very long as we were actually about to see a show (theaters in Vegas are often in a larger shopping centre sort of place and the gallery was opposite the line we were standing in to see the show). After talking to the docent I found out Kush had another gallery in Hawaii, so, that’s why we went. So I could have another look. Check him out.
Our third day Callum and I went on our own adventure to drive “the road to Hana”. I write this in quotation marks because it is kind of a thing. It is one of THE things to do while in Maui and in fact, if you didn’t do it while you were in Maui, you kind of didn’t do it right. Sorry. Go do it over again. Just a bit of a disclaimer though: the road to Hana drive is more about the journey and less about the destination. Also. Bring a raincoat cuz you gonna get drenched. It rained nearly the entire day we were doing the drive, which inhibited us a bit with stops along the way to look at stuff. However, we really enjoyed ourselves and thought that the road was actually very decent and not difficult or scary at all. If you have done this drive before you might remember seeing t-shirts like the one pictured below of declarations that people have “survived” the road to Hana. We scoffed a bit at this slogan because we just sort of, well, enjoyed the road to Hana. It was a nice way to see more of the island and get a feel for the culture of it.
The next day was actually our last day on Maui. We just sort of lazed around and packed up before looking at a beach for a few minutes, getting a family picture done, and then flying off to our final island of Hawaii. The island of Hawaii!
Travel Bugs 