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My husband and I haven’t taken a long vacation by ourselves since the kids were born. Yet, when we were planning to celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, we knew we needed to book a solo trip, stat! My sister and her husband honeymooned in Maui about five years ago and they haven’t stopped raving about it since! We decided to follow in their footsteps and book a week’s stay in the lush tropical paradise!
I’ll break the trip recap into a few different sections later, but I wanted to share some of the highlights of our time together! We arrived very early on Friday morning, around 2 a.m. local time! One of the best decisions we made while planning this trip was to book mostly vacation rental homes. The first one on the schedule was a hidden hideaway in the sleepy Hawaiian town of Haiku. The room was ready for us when we arrived, which was a welcome treat for us weary travelers!
On the first day, we drove to breakfast (after sleeping in, of course!) and on the way, we heard a local radio advertisement that my favorite singer Miranda Lambert, was performing that night at the
Maui Cultural Center! We pulled over and immediately ordered tickets! That was such an unexpected but sweet way to begin our time on the island together!
We enjoyed the performance that night, and the next morning, we set out for our spa day! We rarely pamper or treat ourselves at home, so this was a major indulgence. Since we didn’t splurge on a helicopter ride or snorkeling adventure on Maui, we put most of our investment into this day. We had an essential oil bath and an hour-long deep tissue massage. It was incredible, though my husband ended up having an allergic reaction to the oils and his face puffed up for a few hours!
On our third day, we drove the infamous Road to Hana. We had a great little guidebook that told us where to pull over and which mile markers had the best views. We saw such amazing waterfalls and hiked some gorgeous paths! We don’t have landscape like this back home in Wallburg, NC so we were in awe around every turn. Some of our favorite hikes were the Seven Sacred Pools and the hike that led to the Red Sand Beach in Hana.
While the vacation rentals were nice, we did splurge on a high-rise resort while in the more commercial district of Lahaina. This was a great place to get some souvenirs for our friends and family back home and was a great spot to walk around, grab lunch and do a little people watching. The resort was oceanfront and was every bit the luxurious indulgence that we had hoped for. Until then, the only similar stay we’d had was in the
Viejas Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. We’d gone there as newlyweds and decided to go all out with our lodging! I’m glad we did because my feet were killing me after walking the Strip for hours and I needed a place to rest and retreat!
While the Road to Hana was breaktaking, my favorite part was arriving at the Black Sand Beach right in time for Golden Hour. The sun was setting on the horizon and the rocks at our feet were soft and looked like crushed Oreos. It was a moment I’ll never forget. I had that same feeling of "I'll remember this forever" as we watched the sunset from atop the Haleakala Crater on our last day there!
While on the island, we also attended a local luau and saw the iconic Nakalele Blowhole. I never knew this, but if it’s a sunny day, every time that water blows up through the blowhole, the rays of sun hit the water and a rainbow appears! We got sprayed by the saltwater mist and had a great time walking along the rocky shore to get there.
Before concluding, I have to mention the incredible french toast we got at the Kama Hele food truck! Though we traveled all the way around the island and stayed somewhere new every night, we made the trip to this food truck (near our initial location of Haiku) three times to indulge in this french toast! It was made with thick Hawaiian bread, coated with a caramel drizzle and pecans, and came with a pineapple lemonade every morning. If I could recreate that meal at home I would, though I think it had a little island magic in it!
There were so many other small moments during the trip that I’ll cherish my entire life. Though we missed our babies like crazy and couldn’t wait to get home, this was a great
chance for my husband and I to reconnect, recharge and come back to our little hometown full of a new energy and thirst for adventure. Since then, we’ve even taken the kids on local hikes to nearby waterfalls. They weren’t quite the same as those enormous falls in Maui, but with the ones we loved around us, they came pretty close.
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