Anniversary in Maui
for our anniversary trip, we went to maui for our first time! we had heard so many good things about this island and i had been dying to do the road to hana. well we loved it so much that it is now tied with Kauai to be our favorite island! when we arrived, we upgraded our rental car to a convertible which was the best decision ever! they ask every time if we want something “more fun” and we always say that we’ll save it for a special occasion. well this was the perfect time! only bad thing is that we’ll want to get a convertible every time now ;) the first priority whenever we land in hawaii is either food or beach. so why not do both? we headed straight to aloha mixed plate in lahaina. we got a table right by the water and ordered the ali’i plate and fried noodles. oh and the garlic fries were the most delicious starter!
after grubbing down, we headed to a beach where we could swim (i can’t for the life of me remember the name of the beach). this was our first trip to hawaii where the weather permitted us to actually swim in the ocean. usually it’s cloudy and windy and too cold to get in (for our liking at least). we lucked out big time because once we got there, we noticed people snorkeling and they were obviously looking at something exciting. we only had one snorkel mask with us (no snorkel haha) so we had to share. to our surprise, there were sea turtles feeding off of the rocks right on the shore! it was the most incredible thing! we floated there going in and out with the waves with the adult turtle. when i thought this couldn’t get any more amazing, we discovered there was a baby sea turtle just a few yards away! it was cutest thing! i hardly even noticed all of the fish that were also swimming around us because the sea turtles were so special. once we decided to get out of the water, we laid on the beach as it started to drizzle on and off. we stuck through it so we could watch the golden sunset. i loved it so much and it felt like we were the only ones on the beach.
^^^the photo on the left is the little turtle and on the right is the big adult turtle popping out of the water. below is riley with the little turtle!
we spent the rest of the night in downtown lahaina. we waited in the long line for ululani’s hawaiian shave ice and it was totally worth the wait! best shaved ice i’ve ever had. it’s so fine and they make sure you have enough flavoring, and if you don’t, you can go back to get more for free! the employees looked like edward scissorhands as they shaped the ice, they were so quick! the customer service was great which made the experience even better. walking through the shops with the twinkling lights of town reflecting on the water made for a magical night!
on our last morning, we ate breakfast at a hotel restaurant that got really good reviews but we hated it. so i won’t even tell you where we went. but we jumped in the ocean for one last snorkel around an incredible reef before we headed to the airport!
