Lately, when Mio hears the Japanese children’s song ito maki maki (ã„ã¨ã¾ãã¾ã, or “thread-winding”), she does the winding motion with her hands. She’s starting to catch onto things very quickly these days — I love observing all the new things she’s learning!
Mio couldn’t contain her excitement yesterday, while riding the swing at the park.
We checked out of our lodging in Lahaina on the morning of July 29, and would spend the rest of our day making our way over to central Maui until we got to the cottage we were renting in Kihei for the rest our stay in Maui. Before we left West Maui, though, we all agreed that we wanted to make one last stop in downtown Lahaina to get another taste of Ululani’s before we left the area.
Dan loves getting fresh fruit in Hawaii, so he had to make a stop when he saw this large fruit stand.
We then drove over to Iao Valley State Park, which is one of the top attractions in Maui. Iao Valley is formed from the remnants of Maui’s first volcano that created the western part of the island, and the valley is a narrow gorge 5 miles long, flanked by heavily forested walls almost a mile in height. Iao Valley is also the site of one of the Hawaii’s most famous battles, the battle of Kepaniwai in 1790 when King Kamehameha I destroyed the Maui army of Kalanikupule in an effort to unite the Hawaiian Islands.
For lunch, we stopped by Pukalani Superette and bought a whole bunch of poke, musubi, and other Hawaiian dishes to share and ate picnic style.
In the afternoon, we checked into the private cottage rental in Kihei and got settled in, resting and cooling down.
After getting some rest and settling in, we walked over to the ocean which was right by the cottage, so we could get some beach time before we lost daylight.
We retired early that night, since we had an early wakeup ahead of us the next day to catch the sunrise at the Haleakala summit! 🙂
Here’s a funny video we took during our vacation, when Mio picked up my iPod Mini and started treating it as if it were a phone. We don’t blame her for mistaking the two different types of electronics. iPod, iPhone… what’s the difference, right? 😛
Picking up where we left off on Day Two, we explored more of West Maui on our third day. This was our last day staying in the Lahaina area, so we wanted to make the best of it! 🙂
We spent much of the early half of the day at Napili Kai Beach and Kapalua Beach, which are right next to each other. It was a great area to snorkel in, as well as to just sit back and enjoy the beach.
We got some great underwater pictures thanks to the underwater housing that we brought along for my point-and-shoot camera.
We discovered some sea turtles while snorkeling! We’d seen them last time we were at Tunnels Beach in Kauai two years ago, but it’s always such an exciting experience to see them.
Here are a couple underwater videos we took of the sea turtles!
Some more underwater pictures that we took…
Returning to the shore, we had a great time playing in the sand together.
For lunch, we went to Star Noodle in Lahaina, as a bunch of us were craving some ramen.
Next stop was D.T. Fleming Beach! It was so hot and we were experiencing some major food coma, so we just wanted to lay out in the shade and nap.
Later in the afternoon, we drove up North to see the Nakalele Blowhole. Mio was napping in the car, so Ted (who injured his foot) stayed behind with her while Dan, Kosei, Miwa, and I made the trek down to see the blowhole.
We had a wonderful time in West Maui, and thoroughly enjoyed all the beauty it had to offer! The next day, we’d move to our cottage in Kihei, and explore the central and Eastern part of the island during the rest of our stay.