Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Hawaii - Maui 3

Hawaii - Maui 3


Our vacation went by too fast and it was our last day, I wished it was our first day and started all over again!!  We were considering doing the road to Hana but it is a full day trip! We were thinking since we were out everyday, we didn't even have time to enjoy our beautiful hotel so we decided to spend our last day in our hotel...just relax! I woke up at 7 am while hubby was still sleeping like a pig but I don't blame him, he was almost driving the whole day yesterday! I decided to walk around the hotel hoping to find some tropical flowers to take pictures of.  

Here are the photos of the hotel and flowers I saw:



Love this shades of pink!!


Beach early in the morning:



Kids were already having fun at the kid's pool:






I was lucky enough that still one of this kind of flower left blooming (beautiful name: bird of paradise)!


This one grew out of the tree! Love the violet/purple color!


I did a whole loop around the Westin and then went back to our room. By now, my hubby and cousins were awake and we started to prepare for our "brunch" in our big kitchen:


BBQ steaks and shrimps :D


Then we enjoyed our wonderful brunch at our porch! It was yummy, better than we went out to eat :D


After our brunch, we spent time on the beach.  Past few trips when we got back home, I felt like we took so much landscape photos that we didn't have much chances to take some nice photos together.  So we did some couples portraits :D


Blue sky, white clouds, and palm trees....vacation!


Very clear water and the shades of blue of the water....paradise!



Hubby and cousin lol!!!








We went to the pool bar and ordered some smoothies...sit and relax for a bit.  Then the guys went back to the supermarket again to get more food because they wanted to make dinner after our delicious brunch.  Us ladies were relaxing in our room and checking out our photos we took.

We did more photos around sunset and here are some:








Our last day in Maui, we need to have some crazy moments....




It was really a fun day!



Our day went by too quickly!  We went back to our hotel and made our dinner. Look at how many dishes we made!! 


Our last dinner in Maui....all the good memories will be with us forever!


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Hawaii - Maui 2

Hawaii - Maui Day 2

Today was my highlight of the trip to Maui - sunrise at 10,000 feet at Haleakala!! I set the alarm to 3 am so we had 45 minutes to get ready and make our 2+ hours drive.  We left our hotel exactly by 3:45 am and our GPS gave us a shock...it said driving time 3 hours!!!  We were so afraid that we couldn't make it by sunrise which is 6:45 am today that hubby speed a little above the speed limit.  The road off course had no traffic at this time except for a few cars.  We can tell the cars ahead of us were all Mustangs LOL and driving at this time?? Must be tourists like us!  We stopped at the red lights and according to our GPS, right turn, and all the cars in front of us....all turning right LOL!

The road all the way to the base of Haleakala wasn't bad at all!  We reached it in one hour.  The drive going up Haleakala however was "adventurous".  But it was much better than I thought...I had read reviews that it was dark, dangerous, and challenging.  None of that, you are not putting your life at risk, let me tell you!  It was a paved road, the road reflectors were brightly lit that you can just follow the road and plus you won't be alone because many tourists are driving up the same way!  Make sure to slow down on sharp turns...this was when our GPS came in handy, we knew the road ahead of us!  

Almost 2/3 of the way there was an "entrance gate" where you pay the $10 admission fee per car, save the receipt, I heard it is valid for 3 days if you want to go back for sunset or another sunrise.  We arrived the summit parking by 6-6:15 am, there was plenty of parking spaces when we got there.  There is the Haleakala Visitor Center and restroom facilities up on the summit.  We saw people waiting inside the Visitor Center because it was so cold and windy up here.  We were well prepared for the weather.....coming from Boston, we had our winter coats! It was in the 40's degree F, so wasn't as cold as Boston's winter! Instead of waiting outside of the visitor center which got crowded quickly, we walked up maybe half a mile.  It was a dirt road and a lot of rocks, we were prepared as well...we bought our flashlights!!  We got an open spot and set up our tripods and did some testing shots.  This was our first time shooting sunrise photos :)

After minutes we settled down, the sky started to have some colors and I saw clouds....right in front of me!  I was never that close to the clouds except in the airplane! That felt like I was above the world!!  

Here are some of the hundreds of photos we took:





The sun light hit the rocks and it looked like Mars!!!





Here comes the sun:



Sunrise happened very quick....it was amazing!!  There was a huge cloud on the horizon so we seized the moment when the sun was out of the clouds!

We managed to took a photo of us two while all the actions with snapping photos haha!


 And of course I took a pic of hubby working on the camera:


As soon as the sun came out, the sky lit up very fast and it turned to different colors red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue!!!



 This couples were not prepared for the cold weather but they were so sweet!


The crater and the clouds were unbelievable!




Out of this world!!!




Picture of the parking lot, we were above the clouds!!


Haleakala Observatory


Haleakala Visitor Center


Silversword, plant that only can be found in Haleakala, I was so glad that I found it and have a chance to take a photo of it!


We drove back down around 7:30 am and we were planned to visit Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm but our GPS totally got us to the wrong place!  So we turned back and looked for the nearest gas station in Kula.  Gas prices weren't as bad, it was $3.99 per gallon.  Next, we tried to search for Kula Botanical Garden in Kula but couldn't find it!!!

We didn't feel like to go back to our hotel to sleep so we continued to our journey!  Next we headed to Iao Valley State Park and passed by Denny's so we had breakfast first.  I had the Hawaiian breakfast Loco Moco, it was pretty good :D


It was easy to drive to Iao Valley! Parking was $5 per car. Iao Valley was an easy "hike", took only 5 minutes to walk up to have a view of it.




Iao Valley didn't take us that long so on our way out of Iao Valley, we saw the Tropical Gardens of Maui but it was closed!!! We really want to visit a botanical garden to see tropical flowers so lastly we tried for Maui Nui Botanical Gardens.  Maui Nui Botanical Gardens was really small, not the garden I thought it is and only few were blooming.  My favorite ones:




I never see this plant before, the flowers grow out from the tree!! Love the bright color of it!




We still have energy to get to one more space LOL...we were looking for Makena Beach State Park but ended up in Wailea Beach. We really had no luck finding places in Maui lol!!!

Here was a sand devil while we drove by, first time seeing it as well!


Wailea Beach, pretty nice beach with beautiful grounds:


At least I spotted this cool flower near the beach after 3 failed attempts to search for a botanical garden!!


Love the island on the background in Wailea Beach:


By now we were tired so we drove back to our hotel and we took a long nap!!!

I called up Sansei Seafood & Sushi Restaurant to make a reservation but they said they were fully booked so we have to get there early for walk-ins.  We rested in our lovely room until 4:45 pm and drove to Sansei (Kapalua Resort 600 Office Rd, Lahaina), we got there before 5 pm and there was only one group lined up ahead of us.  It started to rain a bit so Sansei opened its doors earlier around 5:15 pm.  We were 2nd in line so no problem getting a table.  Oh forgot to mention, we got here so early for the early bird special... 25% off your bill on orders placed by 6 pm!!!



Hubby is a sushi roll fan so here were the food we ordered, so many that I tried to remember what is what:

Mango Crab Salad Roll, their award winning roll, it was good!




Shrimp Dynamite, one of their signature appetizer but we thought it was okay:


Salmon sashimi:


Eel sashimi:



Lobster roll, no discount, it was just okay not really worth the $15:



Our cousin ordered the seafood pasta:


Hubby ordered the Shichimi Seared Fresh Atlantic Salmon and Tiger Prawn, he said it was okay:


I forgot this but I think it was the Grilled Fresh Hawaiian Ahi & Award Winning Asian Rock Shrimp Cake, the shrimp cake was really good:


I ordered the Dungeness Crab Ramen with Asian Truffle Broth, it was yummy!


Creme brulee:


Fried ice cream was so good!


Our dinner was good we thought but not awesome, our bill was $219.47 including tips for 4 of us which wasn't too bad for all the foods we ordered!

On our way back to our hotel, we passed by Times Supermarket so we stopped by and bought some groceries.  We decided to have BBQ in our hotel tomorrow (our last day in Maui) since our hotel has BBQ grills around the property.  We bought salmon, steak, and shrimps for tomorrow's "brunch".

We had a long day today since we woke up at 3 am but the sunrise was so worth it!  It was like a once in a life time experience....how often can you go up 10,000 feet to see the sunrise after all!  It was our cousin and his wife's first time seeing sunrise so I bet it will be very memorable for them!  It was also our first time watching the sunrise together :) I had suggested to my husband back then when we weren't married yet to see a sunrise together but we never had a chance to until now. But at least our first sunrise together was up at 10,000 feel at Haleakala National Park in Maui!!!!