Prologue

After reading my 7 day journal, you could probably feel we had a lot of fun. At the same time, we had high expectations too. Our verdict: Maui is overrated and overhyped by all these travel guidebooks. For example, the Haleakala crater is special but not that special. Biking down it is fun but not that fun. The sunrise is awesome but not that awesome. The twin falls on road to Hana is beautiful but not that beautiful. You get the idea. Nevertheless, I would still recommend it to anyone. Just don't set the expectation too high.

This visit to Maui made me even more appreciative of California. Scenic road? We have Highway 1 and the 17 mile drive in Carmel. Challenging bike route in the mountains? We have Mt. Tam. Ocean kayaking and surfing? We have Pacific Ocean too. Beautiful beaches? Just head to So. Cal. Aquarium? Check out Monterrey. Golfing? We've got Pebble Beach and Harding Park. BTW, this was taken at 900 ft in Palo Alto but I think it is almost as pretty as what I saw at 9000 ft in Maui.


Our rental car earned an honorable mention here. It was a Hyundai Accent without power lock, power window, remote key. So glad it still has A/C! I have not driven a car like that in 16 years. Too bad I forgot to take a pic of it.

I wish I have visited:
-Wai'anapanapa black sand beach. We were a few miles from there on the road to Hana. Too bad we had to turn back.
-Seven Sacred Pool. Also on the part of road to Hana we didn't travel.
-Iao Valley. It is a state park on the Western mountains of Maui. Judging from the reaction of the kids to the Eastern mountain (i.e, Haleakala) I decided not to go.
-Kapalui.

Finally, I gotta try stand up paddle surfing next time I visit Hawaii.

Day 7: Maui Ocean Center, Paia (reprise)

It's so hard to say goodbye to beach and sunshine of Maui but this was the last day of our trip. I got up early to swim in the ocean one more time. I could count the number of times I swam in the ocean after I've grown up in one hand! I've almost forgotten that experience. At first, I was scared away by the powerful waves near the shore but I realized I just needed to swim a bit further out from the shore. I still needed to "fight" a bit against the power of water current but that's the fun of swimming in the ocean. I wish my kids would be able to enjoy that soon. Well, they had their fun in the swimming pool again. Then it's time to pack and check out of the beautiful Fairmont Kea Lani.
For lunch, we went to the familiar Safeway in Kihei. We bought bread and sushi and drove down the nearby road to the beach. Having lunch in the car while enjoying the view of Kihei beach was a popular activity. A few cars were already there when we arrived and more came after us!
The final must-see for us was the aquarium. People who didn't snorkel or scuba dive, like us, could still enjoy the large variety of marine life found in Hawaii at the Maui Ocean Center. We had a great time watching the smaller ones that live in the coral to the big ones like this:

It featured a transparent tunnel that we watched sharks and stingrays swimming around and above us.
The original dinner plan was the famous Japanese restaurant Sansei in Kihei but we saw a big crowd outside at 4:30pm. The restaurant won't even open for another half hour! It's not worthwhile to risk missing the flight for this so we went to another restaurant we really wanted to try, Flatbread, in Paia (my 5th time there,) known for its organic pizza ingredients. And it turned out to be a great choice, not just for the tasty pizza.

Here was the story: my son absolutely didn't like pizza. We usually order garlic bread for him when we have pizza. Flatbread didn't make garlic bread but the waiter offered us bread stick, which is basically a plain pizza without tomato sauce. It tasted good and my son liked it. The best part? It's free!
And the orders arrived quickly so we had plenty of time making it to the airport. And the plane was there ready to fly us back home. However, the flight was still sitting there when the departure time had passed! We were told there was a problem related to navigation. The airline found a solution 45 minutes later and it took another 30 min to implement (reloading the navigation database. Maybe they should use a faster flash drive next time) We arrived in SF at 6am. The end.

Day 6: Bike down Haleakala, Mama's Fish House

You might think a self-proclaimed "true" cyclist, who likes to brag about climbs like that ones I mentioned earlier in Day 3, would find the popular tourist activity of biking down Haleakala unattractive. Well, it certainly isn't challenging and doesn't require much biking skills but it still sounds fun to me (and to the couple who did the challenging bike tour with me on Day 3 as well) I decided to do it and this day started early, I mean, really early, at 2:30am! I was picked up at the hotel by Cruiser Phil's van to its HQ in Kahului. Then their bus drove the group up to the visitor center near the summit of Haleakala. The driver who also served as tour guide told us quite a few Maui and Haleakala related stories from Hawaiian mythology to entertain us during the long drive. I got a bit more sleep on the way though. It was 5:20am when we arrived. The goal? To watch the sunrise! (Yup, the same sunrise we decided not to take the wife and kids to see. I wore my bike jersey, a long-sleeve tee, a short-sleeve tee, a windbreaker and finally the jacket provided by the tour operator to stay warm. It's actually around 15 degrees Celsius. Not that cold but I just want to be on the safe side. The tour has provided wind pants and another jacket that I didn't use) Is it worthwhile to get up so early? I'll let you judge:

Because of regulation, the bike ride couldn't start at the summit. The bus driver drove us back down to 6300 ft. After some instructions from the ride leader, the ride finally began at 7:30am. We were all given a single speed bike with drum brakes.

The folks from Cruiser Phil's didn't even bother to adjust seat height because we were not expected to pedal for any significant distance. Well, that was applicable to every riders on the tour except me! The bike given to me was probably the worst bike I've ever rented. Maybe it had some bad bearings or brake rub, it just couldn't go fast, even though I pedal it as fast as I could to catch up to speed with the group, while no one else had to pedal, confirmed by the guy behind me, who rode the last one in the line of bikes. I had to heightened the seat by almost 3 inches or my knee would have hurt for pedaling hard with improper seat height. The average speed was ~20 mph, which was actually not that bad considered that the group doesn't solely consist of hardcore bikers. (For comparison, I estimated the speed would have been between 25-30 mph if I use that Titanium road bike from Day 3. BTW, the tour I joined was the type that has "no passing (the bikes in front of you)" rule, which did not worsen my ride with that poor bike anyway. I saw another tour company providing Trek mountain bike with disc brakes to their customers. I gotta find out what company does that if I were to do it next time. Oh yeah, it must not enforce "no passing" too)

The ride finished sooner that we thought. By 9:30am, we were driven to Paia (my 3rd time there) for breakfast. The driver recommended Moana, which was pricey but the food was good. I had a Mahi Mahi egg benedict.

It's lunch time when I was driven back to Wailea and we had burgers and wings at Cheeseburger Islandstyle there:


There was no better activity to burn off those calories than more swimming fun at the pool in the afternoon. And we gained them back by visiting this nice restaurant, Mama's Fish House at Paia (my 4th time there) It was probably equally well known for its high-end seafood and its unrivaled view of the beach:

Day 5: Kayaking, Makena beach

On the road I bike. In the water I kayak. These are 2 of my favourite sports (the 3rd one is golf) The first time I learned kayaking was in Pacific ocean near SF 16 years ago. I have kayaked in lakes but not in ocean since then. I was so happy to ocean kayaking again, and in Pacific ocean too! I still remember I had to wear wet suit because it was cold and the water was rather rough. My double kayak partner and myself were both exhausted at the end. The water in Maui felt completely different. It was warm, calm and clear. I spent an hour kayaking along Wailea and Kihei.

I rented the kayak from the hotel directly for $25/hr. I read that the rate was much cheaper down at Makena ($40/day) And that's our area to explore in the afternoon. We drove along Makena Alanui and visited Makena Landing and the Big Beach. The latter was a real popular spot. We turned around where the road got narrow. There were lots of dark lava rocks and goats on both side of the road.
After a bit of shopping and shave ice at Lahaina, we were unable to find parking space for dinner there so we went back to hotel for more fun at the swimming pool again. Dinner was take-out from Subway. I went to sleep early (9pm) to be prepared for the activity next day. Stay tuned for more details!

Day 4: Road to Hana

Road to Hana is another place that we had studied quite a bit and decided to go. It's famous for (1) the narrow and curvy roads and (2) breathtaking views along the road. Most guide books say it's a must-see. Some people recommend going with a tour rather than driving ourselves because of the poor road condition. Some even say that the car rental company would not allow normal cars to be driven there unless your rental is a 4 wheel drive. It seems to only be the case in the past before the road was improved. In fact, the road from Haiku to Kipahula which we planned to drive was fairly safe. Still, we expected a long drive and started from the hotel at Wailea around 7:30 and planned to be back before 4pm. It turned out we did get back by 4 but not according to the plan though (more on that later) The key to travel this road is to pay attention to the mile marker. Highway 360 begins after Haiku (MM resets to 0. Our plan is to drive to MM 42 or beyond) The first "major" (or well-known/well-publicized) attraction was Twin Falls at MM 2. There was a big sign on the truck that sold fruits mentioned Twin Falls. We thought it would be a short walk behind the sign to the falls. Wrong! We spent ~ an hour round trip! Rain came suddenly and stopped quickly. My daughter's dress got mud all over. We were not prepared to walk that far anyway. Our conclusion was that it was not worthwhile to hike that much to see the falls (and you'll know why soon) but if you insist to go, turn left at the intersection (there was no sign. We might have been able to reach the falls from the right side too but there were too many obstacles so we didn't find out)

On the other hand, it was a piece of cake to walk (less than 3 min) and see the next waterfall, Lower Puohokamoa Falls:

And we saw this waterfall, Three Bears Falls, right by the side of the road:

At this point my son complained about stomach ache a few times and fell asleep on and off (Maybe due to motion sickness. He didn't enjoy the scenery for sure) At MM 29 there were 2 road-side restaurant (or food stand if you will) and we went with Island Taco (for shrimp taco, pulled pork rice and hot dog) for lunch. The other restaurant had coconut shrimp but it was ~ $15. It also had similarly (over)priced Chinese dishes so we passed. We decided we were better off turning around there instead of going further because of my son. Both kids were really looking forward to be back to the hotel and swim anyway.

And I have been looking forward to have dinner at the hotel's featured restaurant, Ko. The hotel actually has 3 restaurants in total. Ko is the high-end one and it was part of the renovation so another restaurant in the hotel acted as Ko's "temporary replacement" every night and serving Ko's menu. Because of the renovation, the hotel has a discount on Ko's three course set dinner. It was $39 during 5:30 to 6:30. And our young kid ate free there. I chose Hawaiian steak for my entree:

Good deal!

Day 3: Road biking at Kula, Lahaina

One of my top priorities at Maui was road biking. There were 2 famous bike routes: (1) up from the shore to the 10000 ft summit of Haleakala, (2) the road to Hana. I ended up biking a less traveled but still scenic and challenging (incl. a category 2 climb) route around Kula, guided by Maui Cyclery at Paia.



I booked the tour way before my trip and have been eagerly waiting for this day! I brought my own jersey, shorts, shoes and pedals while Maui Cyclery provided the most high-end bike I've ever ridden: a Titanium Litespeed with Ultegra gruppo! This was the first time I did a guided bike tour. Even though I lost some bragging rights because the route wasn't as famous, I was still glad that I joined the tour. The leader from the shop was a really good rider so I have never ridden harder than this in order to keep up. Bikers get better by riding with better ones. In addition, I just don't feel brave enough to ride on my own in unfamiliar territory. The whole tour minus the leader and the driver were just me and another couple on their honeymoon (which were nice folks BTW. Both were very fit.) The bikes were loaded to a truck which also serve as SAG (support and gear) at the shop and we were driven to our starting point, Kula Community Center. We actually drove by the town of Kula the previous day as it's on the way to Haleakala. However, instead of biking towards that, we rode down Kula Highway and then Kalama Park Rd towards the south side of Haleakala. It was very windy but we got an awesome view of the islands (Kahoolawe and Molokini) We took the same route back and the final few uphill miles required quite a bit of work. The rewards were pastries at the end point, Grandma's Maui coffee.
I rejoined the family back at the hotel around 1:30pm and started our trip to West Maui. The kids will probably remember Lahaina for the shave ice place.

Maybe the big banyan tree too:

I will remember Lahaina because of Betty's Beach Cafe. I love its signature dessert, which is a huge mud slide (mango ice cream with brownie) This restaurant is probably more well known for being able to watch luau (performed at the restaurant next to it) without paying the price of luau than its food though.

Day 2: Haleakala National Park

Haleakala is one of the most famous sightseeing spot in Maui. It is a volcano with summit at 10,000 feet above sea level. I learned of it because (1) riding a bicycle down Haleakala is a very popular activity (at least for tourists. Not sure if the locals do it though) (2) bird watching literature mentioned the park having several birds unique to Hawaii, e.g. the goose-like Nene, the tennis ball-like Yellow Honeycreeper, etc. (3) fabulous sunrise could be seen at the top. We debated for a while whether we should do (3) because (a) we needed to get up before 3am and drive the long and winding road up to the top (b) the temperature could get really low up there. We decided against it and saved us some luggage spaces that would have been occupied by thick and heavy clothing! Instead, we had a light breakfast and left the hotel at 8am for Makawao, a tiny little town at the foot of the hill. We grabbed a few donuts/pastries from the famous Komoda bakery there to prepare for our visit to Haleakala. I found out later that Komoda is kinda like the Golden Gate bakery in SF China town, famous for its treats as well as unpredictable schedule :P

We entered the park about an hour later and saw the state flower, Silversword at the visitor center.

The nearby Hosmer's Grove, according to the park ranger, was the best spot in the park for bird watching. I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to find any of those native birds though. Fortunately I saw a glimpse of Nene when it ran across the road to the crater/summit, which is lengthy (about another 10 miles) and curvy. The crater was another disappointment. I thought I would see red hot lava flowing out of it.

The only redeeming feature was the great view of clouds at about 7000 feet where we were slightly above them.

We left the summit and drove back down around noon and had a late lunch (Maui Taco and Panda Express) at Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping Center. Ironically, we saw more birds at that food court than at Haleakala!
We spent the rest of the day at the hotel for water fun. Dinner was poke/sashimi with rice and "room"-made roast beef sandwich with all ingredient bought from Foodland supermarket.

Day 1: Paia, Kihei, Wailea

Ever since we visited Oahu in 2002, Maui has been among the top of my list of place to visit next. Our first "taste" of Hawaii at Oahu was a great experience even though we found it a bit too commercial. I was looking forward to a trip to Maui for its natural beauty and it was finally materialized today. My first impression of Maui was not that great though: the wind was blowing really hard at the airport. And the lady at the Alamo's car rental counter was nothing close to being friendly. (She kept preaching us that if the agent (referring to herself) couldn't find our reservation using my last name, always provide the last name of the other person in the couple, as if this was a rule that we should have followed) After a long wait for Alamo's shuttle, we finally began our Maui journey around noon. First stop was the popular Paia fish market (we followed a Top Maui Restaurant guide that was thoroughly studied by my wife) Paia is a small old-style hip town, which I would visit 4 more times later on during this trip. I had a Obama burger (with Cajun style ono fish fillet and wasabi on top)

The dessert after lunch were shave ice (the lady was rather unfriendly as well) and gelato (from the Maui-only Ono Gelato company)
Next we stocked up some groceries from Kihei's Safeway supermarket. We shopped mainly for breakfast and snacks (Can't eat out all the time because cost of living is high in Maui) Then we checked into the luxurious Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea. A lot of reviews say this hotel looks old but that's why we could afford it. In fact, it was being renovated so it gave out a few discounts and freebies for the inconvenience.

After walking a bit of the trail connecting a few resorts along the Wailea area beaches, we headed back to Kihei for dinner at Cafe O'Lei, a restaurant known for good Hawaiian food without hefty price tags.