As some of you saw on facebook or twitter, I just got back from a fantastic Spring Break trip with my family to Maui. My mom was generous enough to offer up a few weeks of her timeshares for a big family vacation this year. On this trip were my family, my brother and his family, and my mom and step-dad Mike. It was the first time in about 4 years that my brother’s kids and mine got to play with each other for more than just a couple days in a row, so it was extra special for them. This is the furthest in advance that I’ve planned a trip in quite sometime, so the anticipation was killing me! So, let’s start from the beginning with some photos…
aerial view of LA beach area
…and the aerial view of Maui beach area
The girls played in the surf and resort’s pool for endless hours. One day my parents babysat while Jason and I explored the Wailea beach area…and mom swears the girls played on the beach for 7 hours straight without a single problem. WOW! Where can I find a beach for my front yard? We stayed at the Marriott Maui Ocean Villas…here’s a couple shots from around the place.
Sometimes the jacuzzi got a little crowded, kinda felt and looked like a giant crawdad boil. My kid is somewhere in there.
Grandpa mike was a great kid flipper in the pool. We splashed a lot of people, and I didn’t even care. LOL!
All the kids learned the Hawaiian hand-sign, even below the water surface.
Since my previous Hawaii experiences have only been on Kauai, I was a little skeptical whether I’d like Maui as much. Happily, I was beyond thrilled with Maui. What an amazing place!! The snorkeling was fantastic…I’ve never seen so many turtles before. We saw spouting humpback whales within 15 minutes of being on the island! The weather was also perfect…I think it was 82F the entire time.
Quite possibly one of the coolest highlights of the trip was hearing humpback whales underwater while we were snorkeling. I had no idea this was even possible without some fancy microphones or special trip to get close to the whales. I was totally blown away that I could hear them just snorkeling on pretty much any beach on the island’s south and west shores. I even managed to get a sound bite of it on my little underwater camera.
Humpback whales singing in Maui <---click here to hear for yourself
And we went on a whale watching tour one day. We saw many whales including a few sets of moms and calves. Impressive fact that I learned, biologists have never documented or recorded a live humpback whale birth. I would've figured that somehow, someway that would have been done before. In some way, I'm kinda happy these huge creatures still have a tiny bit of privacy.
Another favorite, of course, were the turtles. Lots of turtles everywhere we went. My little underwater camera (a Canon Powershot D10) did a great job at recording everything I saw. The coral was fantastic on this trip, too. Lots of colors and loads of different shapes. Even saw a couple of moray eels on this trip! One swam by me and I managed to hold myself together enough to take a photo of him after he went into his cave.
And what trip to Hawaii would be complete without these last two photos…a sunset and a forcing-your-kids-together in front of a sunset?
oh how you make me want to hop on a plane and go somewhere HOT right now!! (it’s snowing here right now btw! ICK!!!) looks like you all had an amazing time!
Amazing photos!! Looks like you had a wonderful time:) Thanks for sharing!
Wow, Katie! Eric and I will be going to the Big Island for our honeymoon… I hope it’ll be as awesome as your trip to Maui! The pictures are breath-taking!
Beautiful pics, Katie, as usual. Maui is my favorite place in the world. My husband grew up down in Makena; the oceans and beaches there were literally his playground. His family still owns a beautiful beach house down there and it is a slice of Heaven. Looks like you and your family had an awesome vacation. Now I’m dying o get back there again!