OUR TRIP TO MAUI, HAWAII

I've spent, what feels like, forever going through all of our vacation photos deciding which ones should make the cut, and I still have, again what feels like, a bazillion that I want to share!! One thing I did realize while I was going through all of our pictures though was just how much I love doing these travel recaps. I love getting to see our trip all over again, and it's such a great way to remember things that you'd otherwise forget. We've only been back a little over a month and I'm actually feeling a little foggy on some of the things already. But thankfully I'll be able to come back here in the months or years to follow, and I'll be refreshed again in no time.

The downside to these recaps though is that they actually do take forever. So much work goes into these posts. Between the organizing, editing and the uploading of the photos, and then writing the post, it's so time consuming. But, not to worry because they are one of my favourites to do!! 

I figured for now I'll just chat a little bit about our time in Maui (with those bazillion photos, of course), but I'll do another post on more of the details of our trip later (things we did, where we ate, where we stayed, etc). And hopefully if you're ever thinking about going there yourself, this recap might help you (like other bloggers posts did for me....I'm a firm believer that bloggers give some of the best travel experiences out there).  So, let's get started! Maui, here we come...again!!

Maui was definitely our type of vacation spot! It was the perfect mix of relaxation with great weather and beautiful beaches, but it also had soooo much that you could see and do. Since we arrived late at night, the very next morning when we woke up early (thank you, time difference), we hopped in our jeep rental and just started driving, eager to explore every inch of the island!! From the moment we left our hotel, we were amazed at how beautiful the scenery was. Everything was so green and lush, just perfectly manicured, and you couldn't help but immediately feel just how laid back everyone was around us. I guess how could you not be laid back at a place like this?

We loved that you could drive for only minutes and find secluded beaches that you never knew existed. We loved seeing the surf boards tied on everyones vehicles at every stop we made, and then later seeing all of those suffers in action in the crazy waves!

Driving around Maui was a breeze, which made it so easy and much more enjoyable getting to explore new places. Although I wasn't the driver, it took me no time to get my bearings as to how to get around, and that speaks volumes because I swear I'm the worlds worst person at finding my way around new places!

Another thing we discovered pretty quickly was just how expensive Maui was though. The hotels, the food, the drinks, you name it, it was super costly. And since we were staying at a resort during the last few days we were there, we especially found it hard getting used to the prices since, up until then, we had only stayed at resorts that have been all inclusives. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wedding diet), I wasn't able to drink my usual jugs of pina colada before noon! But have no fear, we made sure to make lots of purchases from the liquor stores. Every morning before we left, we always made sure that our trusty little ten dollar cooler that we bought was with us and, of course, loaded down! 

We got very, very lucky with the weather while we were there. The few days leading up to our trip I had my eye on the weather like a hawk. A very obsessive hawk, might I add. Todd really loves this about me. Ha! Actually, I think this is one of the things I do that bugs Todd the most (this, or leaving every single cupboard in our kitchen left open!)! But I just can't help it, I really can't, especially when our trip is supposed to involve 99.9% of outdoor things!

So yes, I creeped the weather channel hard before we left and it was calling for rain the first 5 days that we were there. Of course I was disappointed, but I kept trying to tell myself that maybe Hawaii was like the Caribbean; just a downpour of rain for an hour and then sunny blue skies for the remainder of the day. But unfortunately when we arrived that first night, it was raining...hard. And after a few hours of tramping through the water in my flip flops, I was beginning to realize that these next few days might not just be quick rain showers.

The next morning though started off great and my spirits were completely lifted, until about lunch time when the rain struck again. I have never seen rain like that in my life. Within hours some of the roads were being shut down due to the flooding (leaving us stuck in traffic at one point for over an hour). So when we returned to our hotel later that evening, I did what any normal person would do; I sat on the edge of the bed all night, crossed legged, watching every news and weather channel on the tv. And I think my heart sank a little when I heard every single one of them telling me that flood warnings were issued all throughout Maui over the next few days. Say wha?!?

We decided to push off some of the bigger things we had planned to do while we were there for the first days, but ironically, every day after would pass and there wouldn't be one rain drop in sight. Not one. After about three days in (even with heavy rainfall warnings still being issued), there was no more attention given to the weather, and we had an entire trip filled with beautiful days! The weather gods had definitely come through for us!!!

So, the point of that whole story is that 1) the weather on our vacation was fantastic, 2) don't pay too much attention to the weather forecast, and most importantly 3) I'm a little crazy! You can ask Todd for further verification on all three of those if needed! :)

On our flight back home, me and Todd got to talking about some of the things we enjoyed the most about our trip. It's a fun little thing we usually do at the end of a vacation; just talking about our trip overall, reliving some funny stories and then picking some of our favourite things.

We both agreed that our funniest story happened on our first night there. While it was definitely a "you had to be there" type of moment, I'll share the gist real quick - it involved somehow winding up at a fancy restaurant that was way over our budget (and preference) in our beach wear, soaking wet, with our backpacks on! To this day, we still don't know how they didn't turn us away!!! We were too embarrassed to leave again, but still too embarrassed to actually enjoy our meal. I don't think we have ever laughed so hard (and eaten so fast) at a restaurant before. Todd says he'll forever have the image of me walking in with my backpack on and my head held high!!

One of my favourite things about Maui in general though had to be the beautiful sunsets. Just like with the rain, I have never seen such beautiful sunsets in my life. There were times I would rush out of our hotel room just to make sure I wouldn't miss seeing them!!

I mean....just look!!

As for some of our favourite things that we did?  Well, I'll chat allllll about that in the next post!

Until next time.