A Week in Maui

Remember the post about the incredibly long travel day Julia and I experienced on our way home from Vermont last winter? It paid off in a big way with a ‘free’ trip to Maui for me, Ray and Julia. Free in the sense of free flights – the rest? Not so free. Haha.

We really had a great time, spending eight days together on Maui. Here is a brief recap with (too many?) photos!

Great condo for relaxing – which we did plenty of! Don’t worry – they weren’t staring at screens much of the time. They were researching places we wanted to visit.

Watching the waves and waiting for the sun to set.
The opening in that seawall was great for the surfers to access the ocean right in front of us.

The views from the lanai were wonderful. We were entertained my many, many sea turtles swimming in the waves. Also, lots of surfers – most mornings there were great waves out front and lots of people playing in them.

Ray took our picture in front of this tree to show the massive size of the trunk. Crazy big!!

We walked a trail one day in Iao Valley State Park which was lovely – it was quite warm that day (really every day we were there!) so we were thankful it was just an easy walk and mostly in the shade.

Julia wrapped in a towel (over her sweatshirt). It was so cold up there!

Our favorite trek was up to the Haleakala Crater. We chose to do this in the evening so we could watch the sunset from the crater. The elevation is over 10,000 feet and we were literally above the clouds. The only time I have looked down on clouds is from a plane so this was spectacular.

This photo is untouched and it was so amazing to see.

Doesn’t this crater look like something on another planet? It was a challenge for me to be at that elevation. I was a bit dizzy and my stomach was very queasy – high elevation and I do not mix well. I really wanted to see this even though I was fairly certain it would trigger a migraine (and it did!). Gotta make choices, right? It was worth it.

Sunset at Haleakala Crater

The week we spent on Maui was unseasonably warm. Just our luck! The temps were in the mid-90’s and of course soooo darn humid. That was really unfortunate. Ironically, the temps at home that week were unseasonably cool with temps in the mid-70’s. Ah well, we got unlucky there.

Food, glorious food. Vacations always mean trying lots of different foods, right? Ray and I love wandering the grocery stores and looking at the differences between home and the destination. We went to a couple of farmer’s markets and bought different locally grown fruits. After a week of eating guava, papaya, mango, dragon fruits, pineapple, custard apple and star fruits, I would have to say that while they were fun and different, I am not a huge fan. They were too sweet for me. Plus the textures weren’t the best. Mango and pineapple are fine – and we eat them here at home all the time. The local pineapples were much nicer than what we purchase here but that makes sense as I am sure they pick them early for shipping here.

As we were driving around the island, we saw this road side stand several times. Finally we had to give it a try. Oh my gosh – it was exceptional. Fantastic rotisserie chicken and the best ribs. Smoky and tender, we brought quite a bit home to our condo and made a few meals with it. Seemed very strange to see a huge (really huge) bbq on the side of the highway but it was delish!

Maui Quilt Shop

Much to Julia’s dismay, I spotted this quilt shop one afternoon when we were out in search of a shave ice treat. It was tiny and carried a good stock of Hawaiian fabrics, batiks and summery novelty fabrics. Lots of patterns and samples were everywhere.

Surfboards, pineapples and palm trees scream Maui to me.

I was very good and just bought a couple of pieces to bring home as souvenirs of the trip. I look forward to making a little something summery that will serve as a fun reminder of the trip.

When we were getting to the end of the trip, I asked Julia to choose what she wanted to do on the last day. I was not even surprised at her decision. We went to Surfing Goat Dairy. (Of course we did!). They had a fun tour, goat cheese tasting, lots of goats to pet and the best part – we learned to milk a goat by hand.

Goat milking!

It was quite fun and the goat cheese was truly amazing! There was an incredible assortment of chocolate truffles with various flavors and you know we sampled several of them. We bought some frozen Quark to take home. We wrapped it well and it was still very cold by the time we got home. The flavor we chose was Passion Fruit and yum!! The usual goat cheese I buy here at home has a fairly strong, distinct flavor. But the Surfing Goat Dairy cheeses don’t have that harsh taste at all. We learned this is because they use vegetable rennet and not animal based rennet. This made such a nice difference in the flavors.

Overall, we had a lovely trip. Once home, it was back to business. My friend Sophia shipped orders for me while I was away and I am so grateful to her for the help. I had four custom orders for Chemex and French Press cozies to make and those are all finished now. There were also three boxes of fabric to deal with – I have listed some of it but still have a ways to go with that. Vacations are wonderful and it is a good for everyone to get away and enjoy a change of pace and scenery. But for me, I do love coming back home! I am such a homebody.

Looking forward to the first bit of piecing for the Mosaic Mystery QAL. Also I am just about done with the hand sewing on my friend Susie’s memory quilt. I also want to do a bit of big stitch hand quilting on it so that will be my project for evening time. Julia moves into her dorm on Saturday so she is busy packing and I am busy realizing she is growing up and leaving the nest! How about you? What does your week look like? Tell me in the comments. Happy Monday all. πŸ™‚

17 thoughts on “A Week in Maui

  1. Wendy Tuma

    Welcome home! What lovely photos; it looks like you had a delightful time. I hope to get to Hawaii some day, so I’m taking notes (must have roadside bbq)! I’m keeping my week open for spur of the moment fun with our daughter. Tonight, Twins game. This weekend, a few days at a cabin. Sewing inbetween!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks Wendy – always lovely to come home!! Enjoy your time with your daughter. There is not much better than having the kids home for a while. It is just the best! Hope you get over to Hawaii some day – it would sure be a long flight for you. Have a great week.

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      We loved having the time together. It was a very pretty island but if I were to vote, I think Kaui is a bit more lush. We went there in 2009. But we were there in spring, not the heat of summer’s end. That may have made a difference.

      Reply
  2. Janice

    What a great vacation! Loved the picture of being above the clouds and the spectacular crater picture. I’m glad you did get to bring some Hawaiian fabric home with you!

    Reply
  3. B2

    What a great trip! We actually set our alarm to see the sun rise at Haleakala but randy got sick! I love your pictures and am so glad you had such a nice trip!!

    Reply
  4. Kathleen McCormick

    Sounds like a wonderful trip to Maui. I know you are “accustomed” to it, but sorry you have to make tradeoffs for the some experiences. My week is finishing my Island Batik ambassador project and OMG for this month as well as 2 surprise sewing projects. It should keep me out of trouble!

    Reply
  5. Lisa

    Bernie what a wonderful trip to have before Julia moves to college. The photos are fantastic, they make me wish I could have been there with you.

    Reply
  6. Linda (txquiltgal on IG)

    I’ve been looking forward to this post! I loved all the photos and would gladly have looked at more. I laughed out loud at this: “Much to Julia’s dismay, I spotted this quilt shop” πŸ˜€ How neat is that road side stand! Those local places are always the best. So glad you guys got to do this.
    We are (finally) due some rain this week with a low pressure system sitting out in the Gulf. It will be a good time to be in my sewing room!
    Welcome back Bernie!

    Reply
  7. Carole @ From My Carolina Home

    Maui is wonderful indeed, we were there for a week some years ago. We hiked Iao Valley Park, and took a helicopter trip to the top of Haleakala at sunset for a champagne tour. It was a magical time, so lovely!! We were there in January, and was able to see the whales migrating, and go snorkeling at Molokini crater too.

    Reply
  8. Vicki in MN

    I enjoyed seeing Maui through your eyes. We were there several years ago-isn’t it just magnificent!! Did you do the road to Hana? And where did you find that little quilt shop?

    Reply
  9. Emily

    Sounds like it was a great trip! Love the samples in the quilt shop. My cousin got married in Hawaii yesterday, though we decided we couldn’t make the trip. I’d love to go someday!

    Reply

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