hawaii? who knew?

so, not being a big fan of sunburns, itchy sand in my suit and salt-stiff hair, beach vacations have never been particularly high on my wishlist. but when your husband has an uncle who lives in maui, and all of the other members of the family have been out to visit him already and come back with rave reviews…. it’s worth re-considering my pre-conceptions.
we just spent a week in maui and may possibly have had our best vacation ever. the only other trip that really even rivals it was the paris/london trip three years ago and, well, that was a very different kind of vacation–apples and oranges. so, let’s stop trying to rank them and just say it was fantastic. despite rainy cloudy weather on many of the days (which i didn’t particularly mind when on the beach, actually), we just loved hawaii.

it would take too many pages to give you all of the details (i took quick notes each day and it’s still about 7 pages long), so i’ll list the highlights and show you my favorite pictures:

top 5 experiences in maui:

5. snorkeling off the beach and seeing red sea urchins and colorful fish–so close to shore!

4. seeing dolphins and sea turtles swimming in the ocean from our vantage point on the beach (we also swam with sea turtles on our snorkeling trip–see #1)
3. hiking though the rainforest (while it was raining). favorite bits? eating a fresh passion fruit that our guide found on the ground near a vine and swimming under waterfalls.

2. the food! (spago, ruth’s chris steakhouse, joe’s bar and grill, alexander’s fish & chips, kehei kaffe, hai’ilemaile general store, and more)

1. snorkeling the coral reefs at molokini island and seeing a shark, two kinds of eels, so many, many brightly colored fish–absolutely breathtaking. i hope that all of our future travel plans include snorkeling. and next time, maybe a waterproof case for our camera so that i could share pictures with you.
honorable mentions: spotting willie nelson in cafe mambo, eating fajitas with his table companions; the softest bed in the world (in our condo); renting a bio-beetle (a bright yellow vw that runs on bio-diesel); smelling the eucalyptus and lavender fields on the way up haleakala (the mountain); drinking and eating a fresh coconut from a roadside vendor on the way to hana; and the food, the food, the food (did i mention that i gained five pounds? uncle s. may have converted me into a certified travel foodie.)

okay, here are some lovely photos (want more? just ask and i’ll send you the picasa link to my top 100 maui pictures):

the cacophonous birds that woke us up at sunrise each morning (the first morning, we thought there were cats fighting outside our window!)

a flower that fell off of a tree that i picked up off the ground and carried around the first morning there. smelled amazing.

there was a field full of these rock stacks (called “ahu”) on the north side of the island.

hairy moss on the rainforest hike

fern frond in rainforest

silversword on haleakala

sign at a restaurant (if you can’t read the small print, it says “neighborhood kids are running amuck”)

leaving my mark on maui.