Hawaii!

Earlier this year, Mike and I met my sister and her husband in Maui for our big yearly trip. Mike had never been to Hawaii and I had only been to Kona with my sister for her bachelorette party. I was excited to introduce him to the delicious food and views. I was a little nervous about him getting bored, but we planned plenty of activities to go with the lazy beach relaxing. We had a great time even though it's not 100% our type of vacation...a little too much driving and not enough power walking to cheese plates, if you ask me. Mike said it's something he could see himself doing about every five years to relax and eat our body weight in fish.

Here are some photos!

First, we landed, went grocery shopping, and got settled in our Airbnb. We stayed here, which I highly recommend (aside from the god awful pillows). For dinner that night, we ate here and it was fine, but not anything THAT exciting. I dunno, if you put cheese on your fish tacos, I'm not buying it. BUT the service was really good and they were very accommodating with my sister's dairy free and her husband's gluten free diets.

The next day, we started early with snorkeling with The Pacific Whale Foundation. I'm so glad we chose them to snorkel with because they are a nonprofit who are awesome and also educate about conservation. Mike had never been snorkeling, but I knew he would love it and he took to it...like a fish to water...sorry not sorry. It was really fun and we got to see a turtle! They told us to alert each other if you saw a turtle and I was lucky enough to see it and screamed TURTLE to everyone like an insane person. You're welcome, everyone else in the water.

Snorkel time! I loved my suit bought here and am proud I didn't get sunburnt!

I 100% don't remember what we did the rest of that day, but I think Mike, Brian, and I went walking around an indoor/outdoor market, had some shaved ice, and had cocktails here. 

To end the night, we drove to a beautiful cove not far from our Airbnb to watch the sunset and Mike and I had dinner here which was amazeballs. We ordered from several food trucks, trying ahi sliders, fish tacos, and more. You sit outside surrounded by tables, food trucks, and twinkly lights, and try not to be scared of the wandering chickens because they are cute, but also...are they going to peck my toes?!

SERIOUSLY this sunset?!

The next morning, Mike and I had breakfast here, a place we ended up going to multiple times because it was SO GOOD. Look at these dishes! Kimchi bloody mary!

NOT the world's most flattering picture...

Then, Mike and I went for a hike here and it was freakin' gorgeous and also a damn hard hike. We took a ton of photos, it was just too pretty...

If this photo doesn't make you think of Lost, I just don't know...

THERE WERE COWS!

Nope, nope, nope.

Later that night, we went here because everyone and their mom said we had to try their mai tais and they were not wrong. 

After drinks, we had dinner here and it was so good, I got genuinely emotional about it. This was our view, which of course only made the meal better:

The next day, we went to Lahaina to walk around, shop, and eat. We had lunch here that was really good, even though I dipped my sleeve in something and looked stupid the rest of the day...

Here is Mike getting a pineapple at the Maui Pineapple Store because what the eff else do you get there?

That night, Mike and I, in true Mike and I fashion, walked the couple miles to Maui Brewing Company to have some beers and feel like we were back in Colorado. Then we walked back and had dinner at Nalus again because we couldn't help it.

I'm pretttty sure the next day we went whale watching? Let's say we did! We did it through Pacific Whale Foundation again which was great, but we did the sail boat which was more expensive and honestly not really worth it? It was fun though!

This paparazzi, I swear...

That night, we went to dinner here, which I was SO excited about. Mike and I fell in love with the chef/owner Sheldon on Top Chef and couldn't wait to try his food. It for sure did not disappoint.

The next day was our last day, so I think we drove around to see some sights? I have no short term memory guys, sorry.

We had some snacks and cocktails here where Laura and Brian had had dinner earlier in the week and went here for some drinks and lunch? I think?

After dropping off Laura and Brian at the airport, Mike and I had time to kill so we did something that we should have spent a whole previous day doing - resort hopping. We had drinks and dinner at a few of the resorts and walked the gorgeous beachside sidewalk to each one. It was such a perfect ending to our trip.

Then we flew home!

One of those days we also had a beach day and I forget which one? This is a great blog. Oh but at the beach, I ventured out into the ocean because Laura convinced me and then,while alone, saw another turtle and lost my shit and ran/swam back to the beach because I thought I was going to hurt it or it was going to bite me? Either way, it was graceful AF.

And here are some random pictures Mike took because he woke up earlier than us every day and went for walks: