Maui!

Mark and I celebrated our 5th anniversary with a trip to Maui! It was a wondeful trip but wouldn't have been possible without Bubbie, Zayde, Grammy & Gran who split the kid watching duties- thanks again! And thanks to Roz, Aunt Nan, Nana/Aunt Lynda and Memaw for helping out during the week too!

On the way there we flew first class which I LOVED- we had our own little pod and the seats practically laid down like beds. And we drank champagne! I could get used to this!

Maui is my new favorite Hawaiian island. For our honeymoon we went to Kauai and Honolulu but Maui is the best of both worlds- a great combo of lots of beautiful stuff to see plus great resorts and restaurants so there is stuff to do that is adventurous and relaxing which is a great combination for Mark & I, since he likes to be active and I like to relax!

We stayed at the Hyatt which was a 5 star hotel on Kaanapli Beach (a strip with a bunch of other huge resorts) so we loved our hotel- it had flamingos, penguins and parrots walking around in the garden! It also had a really great pool with waterfalls and waterslides and the view of the beach was beautiful. It also had big hammocks on the lawn we sat in a bunch. So we had lots of pool time.

Tropical Penguins at the Hyatt

Flamingos in the courtyard

Mark at the Grotto Bar at the pool

For adventurous stuff, we did a lot of snorkeling- I swam for about 20 minutes right next to a huge sea turtle and saw a ton of fish- even a whole school of thousands of them which I'd never seen. Mark took these with his great new underwater camera!

Also we had a convertible and we drove all over the island. We drove to the top of the extinct volcano and saw inside the crater which was really cool and we drove the "Road to Hana" this windy tiny one lane road up a mountain that is 34 miles and takes 2.5 hours bc it's so winding! Along the way there were lots of waterfalls and black sand beaches and all these natural freshwater pools we swam in.

At the top of Haleakala- an extinct volcano

Swimming in a fresh water pool on the road to Hana

Mark on a black sand beach

Another day of the trip, I had a really great massage ocean side and it was so relaxing I fell asleep for part of it! The spa was right on the beach so I read my book in my robe overlooking the ocean. Mark took surf lessons earlier that day and that was fun to watch- he actually did pretty good!

Mark and his teacher

The food was AWESOME- so many good meals it's hard to describe but we had some of the best sushi ever, a cheeseburger at Cheeseburger in Paradise which is the actual place Jimmy Buffet wrote the song, a ton of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, white chocolate chip macadamia nut panckes and a ton of really great seafood. Plus we drank of ton of pina coladas and lava flows!

Black pearl dessert at Mama's Fish House

My white chocolate chip mac nut pancakes and Mark's fried rice at The Gazebo

If you like Pina Coladas.....

Cheeseburger in Paradise at Cheeseburger in Paradise!

Ben &Kate did great- we heard they hardly asked about us at all and I think they had more fun since they were constantly being entertained and spoiled by the grandparents!

 It was a great trip thanks to Mark and all his planning. I'm a lucky lady to have spent the last 5 years as his wife- I love you Mark! I'm already looking forward to our next trip to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary!

Our wedding was many years ago.  The celebration continues to this day.  ~Gene Perret