It had been 11 years since we vacationed on Maui, so it was time to experience the beauty once again. We were there for 2 weeks, but almost didn’t get to go because of Tropical Storm Olivia that hit Maui the day before we arrived. We watched the storm’s path every day, checked our flight # daily and we could see that every day the flight arrived safely. So, the day before our scheduled departure, we finally decided to make the trip and take the chance that there wasn’t too much damage. Hurricane Lane hit Maui much harder in August, so there was damage that we saw, along with a lot of burned areas caused by the hurricane. There was lots of standing water around, but the weather cooperated during our stay. It was very windy for the first 4 days, but it settled down after that. The humidity was extremely high and even all the locals said it was unusual for it to be that muggy… and it lasted the entire 2 weeks were there. But that’s okay because we were in Maui!!!
The third day there was a canoe race that people come from all over the world to participate in and it just happened to be around the corner from our condo! The Pailolo Challenge is a 26-mile race from DT Fleming Beach on Maui to the adjacent island of Molokai. The race is considered to be the most exciting canoe race in Hawaii.
Since the storm had just passed over the island 3 days prior, it was really windy and the water was very murky. Each team of 6 people had to paddle the 26 miles in extremely rough water conditions.
Since there are so many canoes, they are scheduled to enter the water in timed segments, where they wait at a starting point out on the water until all the segments leave the beach. 
There a ton of boats that hang out in the bay watching and waiting for the race to start. Then the boats follow the canoes to their destination.
The rest of these photos are in no particular order. We visited some of our favorite spots, as well as experiencing some new places. I went snorkeling almost every day… a favorite for me.
We heard about Ocean Organic Vodka Distillery so we went there for a tour and it was great! It was way up in the boonies with a beautiful view of the property and the valley. 
They grow bananas and they let us pick as many as we wanted. I got 5 and put them in my smoothies… yummy!!
Being on the west side of the island we saw some beautiful sunsets.
We rented clubs one day and went golfing at Pukalani, which is on the way up to Haleakala crater. 
We stayed at our favorite condos on the northwest side of the island in Kapalua. We had a 1 bedroom 2 bath spacious 1,162 sq. ft. condo with the most spectacular views. Although this particular condo needs updating, it still had all the amenities and we couldn’t resist the wonderful view.
This was the view from the kitchen window that we got to look at while preparing our meals.
Take a close up look at the very outdated tile in the background. We had the same tile in our kitchen back in 1987-2005…we cracked up when we saw it!!!!
Here is the same tile in our house in Milpitas… HAHAHA!!!
This medical office was on our property and we giggled when we saw this sign because the stethoscope looks like a martini glass… LOL!!!
One day we rented mopeds and had a blast!!! It’s an inexpensive activity that you can spend the day enjoying.
This is Iao Needle in a state park and it’s beautiful.
We found this lovely spider… YIKES, it was HUGE!!!!
We went to a WWII museum in the middle of nowhere… go figure! It was small because they had just opened and plan to get more memorabilia to display as time goes on. They had original newspapers, planes, and jeeps.
More beautiful sunsets
I saw this shadow, I stopped in my tracks and immediately got out the camera… love it!
I love my turtle creation!! I spent about 1/2 hour making it, took some pictures and then a wave came in and took it away. I’m so happy I had the opportunity to create it and snap a shot before the water got it. One of my favorite things to do in the sand… create!!
Visited Dan’s Greenhouse in Lahaina. They always have baby pigs that they sell and I was able to feed them, so fun!!
Of course, this is the famous banyan tree in Lahaina, it is very cool.
There are 2 golf courses at Kapalua and because we stayed there, we were able to use their putting green. We had some serious putting competitions almost every day… so much fun. All we needed was our putter and our sippy cups and off we went! 
The property where we stayed is behind me in this photo. We hiked out to the “Dragon’s Teeth”, which is a long outcropping that extends out in the ocean. It was extremely windy so we stayed away from the edges. During our stay almost daily, we could see some brave, or crazy people fishing on the edges of the outcrop. I could watch them with binoculars from our lanai. We also saw some “STUPID” kids jumping off the edge into the water, then crawling back up the rugged edges just to do it over and over again. We saw this stupid behavior on 2 different days… idiots!! I thought for sure I’d have to call 911 if I didn’t see them getting out of the water.
We took a ride to see the Nakalele Blowhole but decided to appreciate the view from a distance. We did not take the hike down to it because we only had flip flops on and you really should wear tennis shoes. We’ve taken the rocky and sometimes steep hike on previous vacations so we were okay with not doing it again.
These signs say it all… people have been killed here getting too close to the blow hole.
Although we did not take the next 3 photos, this is what it looks like.
Nakalele Blowhole is a natural geyser where seawater trapped in an underwater lava tube is searching for a way to escape. Since it can’t go back the way it came in (there’s too much pressure from the waves) the only outlet is a tire-sized hole in the jagged lava rock, where a column of water shoots up to 100 feet in the air.
This is part of the steep sloped trail that you traverse over to get to the blowhole and it takes a while to get there.
When you reach the area near the blowhole and look behind you, you’ll see a heart shaped hole that’s formed in the middle of some rocks.
We took these photos on the drive up to the blowhole… just breathtaking scenery!!
One day we took a ride up country to visit Maui Wine, the only winery on Maui and saw some beautiful sites.
After wine tasting we went to Kula Country Farms, a little farmers market and fun farm. They had some really cute things on the farm and lots of locally grown fruits & vegies.
This is a view of Kapalua golf course putting green above the condos where we stayed.
More gorgeous views from our lanai.
Loved this tree on our property with flowers growing out of the trunk.
This is an aerial view of Kapalua condos, villas, and golf course.
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