For our girls trip this year we decided on Maui, Hawaii! It's Lisa's #40 birthday and she wanted to do something special. The only sad thing about this trip is that Tami couldn't come! We are all sad about that! Lisa and I flew out of Phoenix July 31 at 9:50am and Kari flew out of LAX. It was a 6 hour flight, but we all made it. We gained 3 hours, so that made it so we could do a lot more today. By the time we got the rental car, Kari had arrived, so that worked out good. We were all hungry, so we found a little taco place, then headed to do our first hike-- Makamaka'ole stream hike, also know as 13 crossings! We started around 4pm and got done about 6:30pm.
DAY 1 Monday JULY 31st
It was a beautiful hike and I think we crossed the stream more than 13 times!
At the end there was a beautiful waterfall! Then someone on the trail told us about another one, so we found two waterfalls.
This was the second one!
It was a good hike, we were hot and sweaty and hungry again. We found a grocery store and spent $136 on hardly any food!! We ate some of the chicken we bought in the car on our way to our Airbnb!
DAY 2 Tuesday Aug. 1
Today was a hard hike, but beautiful! Right at the beginning of the trail, we started hiking with another girl, her name was Celeste. She grew up in Hawaii and she showed us lots of things on the trail that we would've missed without her along. We ate lemon and red guavas, she pointed out eucalyptus trees and told us about Hawaiian history. She was a good hiker and the girls basically left me way behind, which was fine. I had to stop a lot, it was all uphill!!
When we finally reached the top, 2.5 miles later, it was so fogged in, we couldn't see anything! The girls made a friend, Celestine.
After the long, grueling hike, we stopped first at a farmers market and then for shaved ice, which we ate on the beach!!
We had some really good dinner at the Tin Roof!
Another great day on Maui, Hawaii!!
DAY 3 Wednesday Aug. 2
Today was our snorkeling day. We had to be at the boat dock by 7am. Lisa booked through Maui Snorkeling and they did a great job. We stopped in 4 different areas so we could see different things. Kari was hoping this time snorkeling that she wouldn't get seasick, but even taking dramamine she got sick. She got to snorkel a little, but she didn't really enjoy it much. This was a first time for me and Lisa and I have to admit that after we jumped in the water and I tried to put my face down under and breathe through my mouth, I panicked! I think I started hyperventilating and couldn't catch my breath! I finally settled down and slowly, little at a time, I was doing it--snorkeling!! What a different world it is down there. We saw so many different kinds of fish and the coral reefs were so beautiful.
We got on a big raft that took us out to the Molokini Islet. It's the southern rim of an extinct volcanic crater. The island itself is uninhabited and has been designated as a Marine Life Conservation District. 
Our trip was over around 1pm and we were ready. None of us were feeling all that great and ready for some food to help us feel better! We went to Nalu's, they had great food!
On our last stop we swam with the turtles!!
After resting a little we decided to head to Lahaina to do some shopping! Front street has lots of shops, places to eat and history of the island.
Kari remembered a tree from when she had been here before and we found it. What a tree!!!
We finished the day off just going to 'Baby Beach' and watching the
sunset!
DAY 4 Aug. 3! Lisa's Birthday!!
Today, ALL DAY, was 'the Road to Hana!' We started the day being at 'Twin Falls' park at 7am when they open because if there is no parking places, you can't stop there!
We saw a couple of waterfalls and lots of flowers! It was a beautiful park!
Our friend, Celeste told us where to stop to see some 'Rainbow Trees'. If she wouldn't have told us about them we would've missed out!They were amazing!!
We continued down the road, seeing waterfalls, hiking trails, eating strawberry guava, stopping for ice cream and swimming.
We were hungry and shared a $26 plate of ribs.
We could've had her cut the top off a coconut for a tasty drink too.
This waterfall was really hard to get to!
More trails, more wonderful sights!
The trail to the Redlands beach was a little scary, but there were lots of people on it to get to this really cool beach.
We had to wait until 3:00, when we had our ticket, to get into the State park that had the black sand beach. Also a lava tube!
The last thing we had to do on the 'Road to Hana' was hike the 2 mile one way Pipiwai Trail to the tallest waterfall- Waimoku Falls! It was now 4pm and we were getting tired! At least I was!
It was around 6:30pm when we were finally headed back home. We went all the way around on the Hana side of Maui. It was a long, windy road home. We got to our Airbnb around 9pm.
DAY 5 Friday
We were sad to have to leave the next morning. Our flight, another 6 hours, was early, at 7:15am, we had to return the rental car after we gassed it up, so we were up at 4:30am! Lisa never did get her birthday dinner because we were hiking all day, so when we landed in Phoenix, we had lunch at the airport.
