A couple of minutes later, I practically swim straight into a giant sea turtle. While snorkeling, you have a tenancy to always look mostly down. I was not expecting the turtle to be hanging out at the surface – makes sense, being an air breathing animal like ourselves. The turtle’s moves were slow but deliberate. As the turtle scanned the ocean floor and reefs, dozens of fish emerged. The fish seemed to be inquisitive and checking out the foreign intruders in their environment. Again, like swimming in an aquarium.

We were running out of energy and headed back to shore. We tried to check out the first reef again, but the tide was starting to come in and the wind was picking up. The choppy water made it difficult to breath through the snorkel as the waves frequently washed over the top. The waves started to stir the sandy ocean floor and started to make it difficult to see.

After the snorkeling adventure, it was time for some more relaxation. Miriam headed to the salon to get her nails done. She wanted pretty nails because she would be showing off her hand frequently. I took the time to nap and read, Nap some more…

 Saturday evening we headed to Luau at one of the neighboring resorts. The Luau consisted of basically a buffet dinner and a show with unlimited cocktails – Mai Tai’s for me please. I gave Miriam a Lei to get in the spirit of things. We shared a table with two couples and shared our adventures and a couple of laughs. The buffet dinner and cocktails weren’t all that spectacular. The roast pig was good and with enough Mai Tai’s – you were hydrated and had a little buzz.

We headed back to the hotel and crashed pretty early again. We weren’t making it much past sunset into our evenings, but the early mornings were nice. Sunday would be our last day in paradise.

After checkout, we headed to the mall to grab some trinkets and good coffee. We wandered around the outdoor mall for a bit then decided to explore the northern side of the island. We headed to Kaanapali and Kapalua to see the other side of Maui. Kaanapali was the tourist trap area for lack of better words. Large high-rise hotels, fast food chain restaurants and more traffic were common place. We continued through to Kapalua, which is basically one very large, very beautiful golf resort. We took a short walk to explore the coast and dip our toes in the ocean one last time.

The road between Kapalua and Kahului was a thrill ride. Mostly narrow, single lane roads perched on the side of  a cliff was the norm. We stopped at a few of the scenic overlooks when we could, but the drive was much more challenging than the road to Hana. We wondered what the people did who lived out here other than take in the endless scenery – think Jurassic Park or Lost.

We had a couple of hours to kill before our dinner reservations at Mama’s Fish House and spent the time sitting on the beach watching the wind surfer’s at Hookipa Park. It was a busy trip and we were about to head back to the real world. We needed a few moments for everything to sink and in and enjoy the slower vacation pace of life.

There were many highlights to the trip. Food overall to this point was decent. In the last few days counting down to the trip, 3 different people recommended Mama’s. When we told the Activity Coordinator that we wanted reservations there, she lit up and told us how wonderful the restaurant is and how she and her husband always made it their last stop before getting on the plane. Mention Mama’s on the island, and you will get similar stories.

Valet parking greeted us at the restaurant. After a short walk down the path to the public beach in front of the restaurant, we were rewarded with an storybook view. Palm trees dotted the beach which sat in a small cove. The setting sun painted the sky with pinks, purples, reds and oranges.  The restaurant was mostly open air seating right on the beach. We were fortunate to have a table right next to the beach.

Immediately, I found the cocktail menu with original tropical drinks. There are the juicy Mai Tai’s, then there is the original Vic Bergeron Mai Tai. These delivered! I could have sat there all evening and sampled each one of the cocktails. The service was fantastic – always there when you needed it, but not interrupting us while we enjoyed the food and view. Now what makes this restaurant so spectacular other than great cocktails and the view, is the food.

The menu is basic and updated daily. The fish is not only identified by what is in the dish, but also who caught the fish, where and how. All of the fish is fresh from the ocean and never more than 24 hours old. The sashimi melted in our mouth while the freshly ground wasabi and ginger rounded out the flavors. I am still at a loss for words for the dinner. Look up delicious in the Thesaurus and start listing the words. You won’t go wrong.Miriam has the signature dish of maui maui stuffed with lobster and crab, while I had enjoyed the Ahi with peppercorn sauce. Salivating just thinking about it.

While we waited for desert and real Kona coffee, Miriam and I entertained getting married at Mama’s. There is an Inn, beach and restaurant. Plain. Simple. Perfect.We rounded out the meal with desert which I cannot remember what it named. but it was fantastic and looked like an open clam shell. Vaguely remember chocolate mouse. It was a perfect way to end the trip.

We dropped the Jeep off, checked in for the flight and headed home. I booked red-eye flights  for our return. BIG mistake. I didn’t sleep on the plane and needed to go to work Monday morning. Then again, I just got back from Maui, engaged. Work can suffer.

Mind you, the weather reports were calling for rain, and we had just stood on the top of a Volcano in a rain cloud; we were compelled to the put the top down on the Jeep. Wasn’t too big of a deal, and the sun felt good. Twenty minutes down the road, it starts to rain. It will pass. Continue driving, and it is starting to rain harder. It will pass. Continue driving, but the windshield wipers stopped working! Crap! No windshield wipers are working, just not on the inside of the windshield.  Must pullover and put the top up.  We had to read the manual to get the top down, and now we had to try putting it back up. After a few minutes of straining, cursing and having a nice, natural and cool rinse, we managed to get the top up and headed back down the road.

Ten minutes later, the rain stopped.

So now we are headed down the infamous Road to Hana. I don’t know the story, but earthquakes, stranded hippies, didn’t know if anyone survived have all been in various versions of the story. Regardless, it is like driving a paved road in a tropical jungle. The road side is dotted with dramatic waterfalls, and no place to pullover, let alone, park. This means you can get stuck in an endless stream of rental Mustangs, Sebrings and Jeeps. 99% of the road was two narrow lanes, but the multiple bridge crossings were almost all one lane roads. Yield means stop. Patience was running thin, because I found the road fun to drive and challenging and we were eager to get to the waterfall hikes. I can now say,  “I have driven the Road to Hana.” Never again.

Past Hana, there is a short hike with a couple of great waterfalls, the Waimoku Falls and the Falls at Makahiku. At 5am, I am not the most awake person. I don’t remember getting a receipt for the trip to the top of the Park. We had literally driven from the top of the volcano, around its base to get to falls. Luckily, the Park Ranger took proof of purchase with the pictures from earlier that morning.

The four mile hike to Waimoku Falls and back is easy. After the first “steep” mile, the trail levels to a much easier incline to the falls. Part of the hike is through the bamboo forest, a funky tree and the Falls at Makahiku. After a quick dip in the pool by the falls, we headed back down to start heading back.

The nice thing about the Road to Hana and the falls, is a complete lack of cell phone coverage. It makes the trip feel more remote than it actually is. Rather than torture ourselves on the return trip past Hana, we continued around the southern part of the island. The narrow, gravel road through the old lava fields made the Jeep worth having. We were rewarded with unspoiled views of the ocean and undeveloped beaches.

We arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon. We saw the same desk clerk who checked us in, and Miriam went over to show him the ring. He asked where and when we did it, congratulated us  and laughed. Suddenly my sudden change of topic the day before all made sense. We were tired from the days events, mostly from waking up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise. We hung out in the room, popped a bottle of champagne from Safeway and relaxed for awhile.

We watched the sun start to set while we prepared for the evening and headed down to the hotel’s sushi restaurant. It was nice to have a decent meal. We found the sushi to be very good, and recommended by Lucky – one of his two favorite sushi restaurants. The restaurant was empty so the meal didn’t take too long, and we didn’t make it much past that…

Saturday morning we searched for a quick breakfast at sunrise. We decided that we should go snorkeling before the waves and wind picked up. We rented snorkels, masks and flippers and we were off to explore the ocean. It didn’t take long before the ocean revealed its hidden life. Loads of fish, an octopus and sea snake surrounded us. It was like swimming in an aquarium. We decided that we needed to swim to the turtle cleaning station to try to see some sea turtles.

Thought I could finish this up, but there is more to come…

Thursday we headed to Maui for a long weekend. After our trip to Iceland and London, we were stuck on the runway close to four hours. United gave us each a $250 certificate towards a future flight. Since I thought it was a mistake, I thought we should use it. Originally, we were planning on weekend get-away, I thought, “I haven’t been to Hawaii, Miriam hasn’t been to Hawaii. Let’s go to Hawaii!” It didn’t take a lot of convincing to make it a four day weekend get-away.

Trip planning was way too easy. Then two weeks ago, the hotel announced that it was being foreclosed. Ah, but I prepaid for the room. This could be disastrous. A week later, the bank found a new management company, and the hotel remained open. Prepaying for the hotel saved us a load of money. Wanting to make this a special trip, I really wanted an Ocean view, which adds to the cost of the room dramatically. Less than a week before the trip, the weather reports took a turn for the worse. For awhile, it looked like rain for all four days while we there. As the trip drew closer, the reports improved enough that one day was going to be sunny.

As we were loading onto the plane, the flight attendants (or whatever they are called these days) held up boarding for a couple of minutes while the maintenance men got off the plane. By the time we reached our seats and settled, we had already received an email apologizing for the delay, and another $250 certificate. Not bad. A couple of cocktails later, we were landing in Maui.

We landed mid-afternoon in Hawaii. It gave us some time to rent the car, and head to the hotel. We wanted to check-in, change and grab a drink before we watched the sunset from the beach. The rental car agency took too long as expected. I surprised Miriam by renting a Jeep, and quickly learned that there is only one stretch of road in Maui that is over 45mph. No need to rent a sports car in Maui.

The front desk clerk at the Maui Prince Hotel, The Makena Beach and Golf Resort was extremely friendly, though asking a few too many questions.

“Just married?”

“No.”

“Celebrating an engagement?”

“No.”

“I am waiting for him to ask.”

“What are you waiting for? Are you going to propose? Lot’s of people come here to propose.”

You get the picture. Turns out that we were upgraded, and visions of full ocean view instead of partial ocean view filled my head. There are different levels of partial ocean view, I guess we were upgraded to the sunset side of the partial ocean view. What a view it was! After changing into proper, beach attire, we headed to the poolside bar where we met Lucky.

Before leaving for Maui, a friend commented that you don’t feel so good paying so much for stuff in Hawaii. Lucky enforced that. A couple of fruity Mai Tai’s, the juice based version and a half of pineapple worth of garnishes, I was feeling relaxed. We had plenty of time to get to the beach, dip our toes in the warm ocean and watch the sun set. We wanted to get up early to make it to the top of Haleakala for the sunrise. It is one of the those ‘must-see’ events in life. With jetlag, it would be easiest to do the first morning there.

Multiple alarms were set for a 3:30am departure. The trip to the summit is close to 2 hours from the hotel. Sunrise was at 6:15am. I have been looking forward to this for weeks! As soon as we hit the 3000ft elevation marker, we drove into the cloud. The cloud never ended. Arriving at the parking lot, a short distance to the overlook, we found the weather to be cold, wet and windy. With plenty of time to spare, we bundled up, and prepared for the event of a lifetime.

For the next hour, we stood in the cloud. Saw the cloud get lighter. Even got glimpses of the sky from time to time. No sunrise. Cold and wet, I forgot everything that I was going to say, dropped on one knee and proposed. Miriam said, “Yes!” After exchanging some warming kisses, I asked, “Are those tears of happiness? or just wet?” “Both…”

Soaked to the bone and probably starting down the road of hypothermia, we headed back to the Jeep. Yes, you can get cold on Maui. Before heading back down the Volcano, we realized that there was another summit, a couple of hundred feet higher. As we drove up the access road, the wind carried the cloud away. We were able to get the above the cloud feel briefly and then were rewarded with a 10,000ft overview of Maui. Glorious.

More to come… Road to Hana, Waterfalls, Luau’s…