Now that we are fully rested and recovered from our beautiful two weeks in Hawaii, I’m back to share the highlights of our trip with you. I hope you enjoy them! Feel free to ask any questions. Our first day in Maui, we woke up to the disappointing sounds of rain. We had originally planned to head out to the Haleakala Crater early that morning (since we were still on East Coast time) but we had to postpone it until the weather cooperated. Even though the rain was ruining our plans, we were happy that the rain gifted us the beautiful rainbow you see right outside our condo’s lanai.
I had read in a lot of the tour books that weather on Maui can vary drastically from one town to another. So I suggested that we pack ourselves into our car and drive out of the rain. From the radar, we were able to see to Lahaina, Maui’s largest town, was pretty dry so we decided to head there for the day.
Lahaina is home to Maui’s largest shopping district, Front Street. It’s a town to be experienced, not conquered, which seemed appropriate for our first jetlagged day. In Hawaii’s old days, Lahaina served as the capital for the entire Kingdom.
Our first stop in Lahaina was the famous Banyan Tree Park. This Indian banyan tree was planted in front of the old courthouse in 1873 to memorialize the 50th anniversary of the first American Protestant mission in Lahaina (Hawaii, and Maui in particular, is littered with Christian influences).
Nearly 150 years later, the tree has grown to 50 feet with 16 different trunks. Many of the branches and trunk offshoots are supported by lumber manmade supports.
It’s hard to really capture the enormity of this tree but here’s Mr. A for comparison purposes.
Unfortunately, the roots have become the victim of some love-struck vandals.
Directly in front of the banyan tree is the old courthouse of Lahaina. There were lots of exhibits inside showcasing old photos of the square and the tree. It also made for the perfect opportunity to get a framed shot of the tree. No, I didn’t open these windows
Beyond the courthouse is the pier. This pier used to be the main hub for Hawaii’s whaling operation, now it serves as a means of transit for tourists looking to snorkel and fish.
If you look out into the distance in this picture, you can see another island. That’s Lanai. It’s the smallest inhabited Hawaiian island. With no traffic lights and almost no paved streets, this 140 square mile island is home to only 3,000 people.
From here, we walked up and down Front Street, gazing at the artwork and touristy shops. Eventually, we worked up enough of an appetite that we decided to try some shave ice. Luckily, the island’s most famous shave ice chain Ululani’s is headquartered out of Lahaina.
I started with the chocolate/coconut combo, by far my favorite combo of the whole week. As a girl who grew up eating snowballs every summer, I highly doubted that Hawaiian shave ice was really as incredible as everyone had proclaimed. Turns out I was wrong. Throughout the week, whenever we were even remotely close to one of Ululani’s four locations we would make a beeline to their front door. Best $3 I’ve spent in a long time.
When we finished with shave ice, we realized that we were actually pretty hungry for regular food too. We saw Cheeseburger in Paradise, not the Jimmy Buffet kind, across the street and decided it fit our bill.
Our table’s view was exactly what I pictured every Maui restaurant to be like, a glimpse into the beautiful blue ocean. It felt so good to hear the waves crashing and to feel the ocean breeze on our skin. We were really in Hawaii.
The food was pretty standard, nothing special but nothing terrible—although it was nice to have a homemade veggie burger instead of a frozen Boca one. The view more than made up for the standard fare.
With that our three hour free parking spot was about to expire so we shuffled back to the car and headed back to the condo. We decided to head up to Haleakala Crater at 3 am the next morning so we were happy to call it a day early. The best of Hawaii was waiting just around the corner—if only it would stop raining.