Hawaii

Now that our 20-day vacation in Maui is over, let’s recap the best beaches, food and other activities of the trip for future reference! Beaches Nipili Bay – My favorite beach of the trip! A small gem with deep water for swimming and virtually no waves, ideal for the baby to splash around. Plus, a nice…

On Sunday afternoon, after we had spent the morning cleaning and preparing for Haley’s return home, Rob and I decided to check out the other end of the Road to Hana.  You can technically drive all the way around the east side of Maui, but the road after Hana is unpaved and quite dangerous. At…

We arrived in Hana just in time for lunch. A tasty kalua pork sandwich with pineapple slaw from the snack stand facing Hana Bay. A black sand beach was easily seen from across the water. A very pretty whitewashed Buddhist temple sits on the road out of Hana. With the sun now out, we stopped…

Still raining on the Road to Hana, we turned off the road on a whim to follow signs for the National Tropical Botanical Garden. At $10 each, entrance to Kahanu Gardens wasn’t cheap but it was interesting to explore the grounds and see the largest ancient temple on the Hawaiian Islands. 300 by 400 feet,…

I was just getting ready to post the recap of our Maui vacation, when I realized that two days were missing! First, our Saturday drive on the Road to Hana. It was a stormy day. Between the rain and it being a week after New Year’s Eve, we had Hana Highway largely to ourselves. Rob…

Hawaii is extremely casual.  If you’re a man wearing a t-shirt and shoes inside the grocery store instead of just cargo shorts, you’ve earned points for being well-dressed. Dressing nicely while on vacation on Maui is completely noncompulsory…but fun! My tropical wardrobe consists of a handful of floaty maxi dresses with light shirts for layering. With…

Along with swimming in crystal clear water every day and cooking with amazing tropical ingredients, my highlight from our trip to Hawaii was a ritual of playing badminton before sunset. Technically, it was “Smashminton” – also known as, the best $6.00 I ever spent at Ross. The game brought back fond memories of playing ping…

We made a huge sushi spread at home to celebrate our last night in Hawaii and to thank our hostess, Haley. The meal made the most of the delicious fresh ahi tuna and opah belly available at the local market. To start, I prepared a remake of the opah tataki with lime butter vinaigrette, plus an…

We made it through the last of the tropical fruit last night! Our final experiment was the ghoulish green fruit called “cherimoya.”  With a leathery exterior that is almost artichoke-like and a surprising heaviness, I wasn’t sure what to expect inside. The cherimoya fruit is white and the consistency of papaya with giant black seeds…

The Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters, in an endlessly confusing array of combinations. Without fail, I forgot every street name I was told on the trip. I think that this sign in Kihei translates to “waterworn lava stones” – used as a musical instrument.