Ladies and gentlemen…for your viewing pleasure…the Feast at Lele!

Note: the clip of the fire dude at the end is a bit long so if you get bored you might want to just skip to the end for pics of us at the Luau.

I finally got around to editing down all the dolphin videos to these two short clips of all the good stuff. Enjoy!

I know we have been home a little while now, but I decided to go ahead and post the highlights from the remaining days of our trip. I know you are all dying to hear all about it, right?

These pics represent 4 days on Maui’s south and western shores. We went snorkling, went on a dolphin watching cruise, went to a Luau, swam at several different beaches, went to an aquarium, and watched the sunset twice. How I love vacation!

P.S. If you want to see bigger versions of the pics you can click on it, then when it opens on another page click again and you will get a full screen.

Well, we made it home safe and sound and we’ll soon be adding the rest of our trip as well as links to all our beautiful Hawaii photos on Flickr. For now, sit back and watch this tranquil fishy montage, taken with my new toy, the Flip UltraHD:

[We had a lot of issues trying to make this post. We spent WAY to much time and all the problems are not fixed... but the words and pictures are at least all there... almost in order. We hope you enjoy despite it]

Imagine waking up to the birds singing outside and then taking a nice refreshing shower, outside under a tree! Our bamboo shower has bird of paradise flowers and coconut trees growing just outside. I love the little geckos darting through the bushes and the bright stars at night. I love that there are not really any other tourists out here. Just dark skinned locals driving beat up trucks waving at us as we pass on the narrow one-lane dirt road.

On our last day in the jungle was my favorite! We went hiking in a bamboo forest on an unmarked trail.

Bamboo Forest

We crossed an irrigation ditch and kept going until we found several waterfalls. Some local people had tied ropes with hand-hold knots in them to the sheer rock cliffs that allowed us to travel up some crazy terrain. I had not anticipated this level of hiking… I was wearing my swimsuit!

Nathan enjoying our first waterfall of the day, and climbing up the bamboo

We kept following the trails until we were too exhausted to continue, after maybe three hours. We decided to stop when the trail led directly to a pool of water requiring swimming 100 feet upstream, then scrambling up a sheer rock face about 50 feet high.




After all our hiking and swimming and sweating a lot (freakin hot in the jungle) we came back and took showers and then went to what many consider the best restaurant on Maui: Big Mama’s Fish house in Paia.
It was sooooo yummy. And romantical. We shared crab cakes and Macadamia crusted Mahi Mahi stuffed with crab and lobster. If ever in Maui, go to Mamas!



Friday started off with a delicious breakfast at Charley’s in Paia (endorsed by Willie Nelson). Amy had Hawaiian sweet bread French toast with almonds and pears topped with coconut syrup. I had the less picture-worthy but still tasty biscuits and gravy.

After window-shopping, we spent some time at the beach with Jaws. And, despite the SPF 50, we got burned like lobsters.

Apparently, he washed ashore about an hour before we got there.

(That’s me out there)

After some more good food, we took another road trip–this time an even scarier and death-defying-er one-lane road to Nakalele to see the blowhole. On the way there, it took us about 2 hours to get 30 or so miles.

Then we went to this place:

Finally, we made it to the blowhole…

…and got totally soaked. Click on the picture until you get a big version and you can see a huge wave just about to crash over onto Amy.

Nathan and I are no longer humans, but lobsters. We have been too casual about our use of the SPF 50 and have learned our lesson. First, let me tell you about Hana and the jungle.

Yesterday we saw lots of waterfalls. Lots. And lots. Apparently the mountains up above the Hana highway receive 400 inches of rain per year (making them the second wettest place on Earth… says our guide book).
It is lush and green and the road is narrow and winding. See the pictures for yourself!

Despite being pretty hungry and worried about running out of gas we stopped every few miles along the road to explore the fabulous scenery. Hawaii contains the most remote islands in the world. Out in this isolated part of Maui we really felt like we were in an undeveloped country. Maui must have been such a natural paradise when first discovered-there are no indigenous snakes and until last century there were no mosquitos either. The geckos eat the roaches and we haven’t noticed too many weird creepy crawly things. Although we do have some mosquito bites to match our red lobster skin.

We explored some beaches in Hana and checked out a national park with freshwater-filled caves. The water in the caves was really cold! Brrr.

We will have to fill you in on today’s activities later. Sneak peak: we saw a shark, a goat, a chicken, cows and a 200 ft blow hole. Whoo Hoo!

We made it here with no problems! We rented a jeep wrangler and headed toward the jungle along the famous coastal road called Hana. Of course, we stopped at Costco first and stocked up on all the necessities like macadamias and chocolate covered pomegranate. YUM!

After a very jungle-y night (the wind in all those trees sounds like a pounding rain storm to our Seattle ears) we are now getting ready to head out for a day of waterfall hunting, guide book in tow.

Love to everyone!

A&N

The suitcases are packed!..well mostly packed. The boarding passes are printed.

Now time to go to bed and dream of
Fresh Pineapple,
Waterfalls that we can swim in,
Sea Turtles,
Pina Coladas,
Dolphins,
Getting a good tan.

Pictures and tales of our adventures will be posted regularly. Check out the “where we’re going” page in the meantime (link is at the top left).

Now, where did I put the sunscreen?

FYI we did not take this pic