Maui Trip - Day 8 (Part 2 of 2)

After a morning of snorkeling, we were in dire need of some tasty lunch food.  We actually just kind of stumbled on this food-truck type village off of Alahele Place and S. Kihei Rd.  There were probably six or seven different food places, so we were each able to find something we like.

Here is Tara trying some sort of fruit thing she bought at one of the places while we waited for the rest of our food.  The shade tarps were a nice touch to keep things cool in the midday.

Here is the final picture of our trip...just a picture of the island.  What an awesome vacation week with the family!  We are definitely blessed to be able to afford nice trips like this, and I am thankful to be able to have shared this time with my family.  Hopefully, we made memories that we can all remember for a long time.

Maui Trip - Day 8 (Part 1 of 2)

With our last full day in Maui, the guys were eager to get one last good day of snorkeling in.  I think this was at La Perouse Bay (though I may be wrong).  This had a bit more of a rocky entrance to get in.

You can see these guys contemplating how to get from the rocks they are standing on out to the shore drop off.  With fins, it's always a bit tricky!

After a good hour or so of snorkeling, these guys slowly came back to shore.  Gage was the first one to come back.

You can see Gavin coming in here, with Tara still working to head out for a bit in her pink water shirt.  

Maui Trip - Day 7

After a few big days of activities, we thought today would be better as a semi-down day.  We took the boogie boards over to a close beach called Kamaole.  We had to drive but it was just a few miles down the coast from our place.  

The guys also did some snorkeling (though it wasn't the greatest spot) as well and even saw a pair of turtles coming in and out of the surf swimming around.  I also took the opportunity to do a bit of longer distance swimming along this cove and swam back and forth a few times to get my swim strokes in.

Any day is a good one that finishes (once again) at Ululani's Hawaiian Shaved Ice!  I think this was at least round two for us for the week.

Maui Trip - Day 6 (Part 3 of 3)

 

After the beach just beat the energy out of us, we came back to Paia for some late lunch.  Tara had been dying to try this Paia Fish Market Restaurant which got amazing reviews.  There was quite the long line, but we were hoping it was worth it.

Based on the above picture, I think we can confirm its reputation.  Tara got this really nice Mahi Mahi plate with fresh vegetables, and she would attest to the fact that it tasted as good as it looked.

After we got home, you can see that the battle with the coconut was kind of a dicey one.  I thought for sure we were going to have an injury here despite our best warnings.  In the end, they did get the coconut open, and it wasn't even rotten!  They had a few bites of the white coconut and then became a bit disinterested with the whole thing.    

Maui Trip - Day 6 (Part 2 of 3)

While the kids were checking out the ocean and exploring a bit, Tara and I snuck away for a beach walk and explored to the West a bit.  Tara is loving the views here!

We were also getting pretty blown around with the wind on the day.

And wouldn't you know, Tara found this amazing turtle chilling on the beach.  We had to be careful not to get too close, as it is against the law to disturb them...but they are quite amazing to see.

Here is another picture from around the side looking at this one.  It was mostly chilling here and sunbathing from what we could tell.  The waves would occasionally just crash on over it and it didn't seem to have a care in the world.

When we got back, Gavin had already found a Coconut that he was determined to figure out how to open.  This would prove to be a worthy challenge for him, heh!

Maui Trip - Day 6 (Part 1 of 3)

Starting out this morning, Tara and I headed out for a walk with a specific destination in mind.  If you head down towards the beach from our place and then head North up South Kihei Road for about a mile or a bit more, you end up at this magical store called The Cinnamon Roll Place.  The name is pretty accurate to what you can get in there and apparently, they are quite good, as seen in the above picture.  The only difficult part is walking the mile and a half back to our place after eating these monster treats.

When we did finally get back, we found our eldest son trying to figure out how he could get a lift in while we were on the island.  This is the best he could come up with.  Quite classic!

After packing a bit for the day, we wanted to head back out to one of our favorite beaches on the island which was Paia Beach.

The waves were rolling in fairly big for these guys, as there was a bit of wind kicking things up.  They tried to get in some boogie boarding, but they were kind of taking a beating.  I forget that most people didn't spend their middle school and high school years playing in the ocean like I did.

As you can see, Gage is about to take one right on the head here with a nice shore break wave.  At least they had fun for a while, but ultimately the wind and the waves had them retire after a bit.

Maui Trip - Day 5 (Part 3 of 3)

 

I took one last picture and headed towards the top for some more punishment.  The smile here is really hiding quite a lot of pain and suffering that was going on.  Up here, it was also a lot cooler, and you can see I put on my vest to try to keep a bit warmer.  Truth be told, though, I climbed about another mile or two and started to do some assessment on how I was really doing.  I had been climbing for just over four hours straight, had covered about 8200 vertical feet, and probably had another three to four miles to still go.  It doesn't seem like much, but at my current pace it would have taken about 30-45 more minutes.  That would have put me at close to 4:30-4:45 for the ascent and then I would have to deal with the full descent.

I ultimately (and wisely) decided to turn back just a bit short of the summit.  Part of me looks back at the decision and wishes I pushed through, but it's better to live to ride another day and I wanted to be a functioning part of the family for the days to come on the trip.  Truth be told, that was an absolutely punishing climb that was everything I had hoped it would be and more.  The descent was wild, as well as you just rip down this road the descends seemingly forever.  I did stop at this store about half-way down and consumed an entire bag of potato chips and a huge bottle of coke to try to get some more calories in my body.  All in all, the total ride time was 4:48 minutes with 8200 vertical and a 217 estimated TSS.  Besides the regret of not getting to the top, my other regret was not having my power meter to capture my power averages.  I am sure it would have been some of my best power output for that duration that I have put out.  I think this just means I need to come back for a 2nd attempt at some point.

After returning back to the family and taking a short nap, we were on a mission to test out Maui's legendary shave ice.  This is Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice in Kihei.  The line was long, so that is usually a good sign of things to come.

It was actually so long that we were getting nervous that we wouldn't make the cut before they closed for the evening, but we did in the end.  The shave ice is kind of weird.  It's like a nice soft, fine snow that is packed into a ball and then topped with tons of sugary flavors.  I will say it was quite amazing and do recommend it for anyone visiting!