Will You Maui Me?

Matt and I recently ditched the kids and went for a sweet vacation in Maui!! When we started planning this vacation, it was supposed to be a family vacation to the Florida Keys. But as the planning progressed, it turned out that my lovely sister-in-law offered to keep the boys so Matt and I could go on vacation alone.

Most people drop luggage off curbside at the airport. Us? We drop off kids!!


This is a HUGE deal for us because we don't have family close enough to use as a regular babysitter. Plus our schedules completely conflict with each other so we don't see each other during the semester. (No lie, we will go 16 weeks without eating dinner together!!) So needless to say, we needed some alone time!

We decided that we better make this trip baller because there was a lot to celebrate. First off...no kids!! Besides that, we had my birthday, mothers day, fathers day, wedding anniversary and Matt's 10 year anniversary with Continental.

Because Matt works for Continental we fly standby. This can be tricky and definitely has it's good points and bad points. Good point, after 10 years of Matt being with Continental we now fly completely free...no more $25 round trip tickets, baby! Bad point, getting bumped off a flight by Revenue passengers and then enduring insanely long layovers (I'm talking 19 hours...) Oh, and then there was the earthquake that happened while we were in LAX, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find a way to blame it on Matt!

Bad point...Hour #15 in the Presidents Club


Good point...1st Class!! Margaritas, lobster, salads, steak and made to order ice cream sundaes makes for One Happy (and bloated) Amy!!


Landing in Maui confirmed that the good points outweigh the bad points!

Matt did a lot of research and found a great apartment in Paia which is perfect because it was away from all the tourists. We quickly became regulars at a little restaurant/bar down the street and the owner joked that we even had our own table.

Our Place


Backyard


Most of the trip was low key and only involved a bikini and local beaches.




While I'm a beach bum, Matt loves mountains so that meant that we had to venture to the top of the 10,000 foot volcano. I'll admit it, the volcano was amazeballs!! (10,000 feet is the point in a flight where they tell you that portable electronics can be used!)





Standing outside in 50+ mph winds and looking DOWN at clouds. A tad creepy...






I'm a secret Geology nerd which means that we had to hunt out lava flows and black beaches. Huge sea turtles were all in the shallow waters of Makena beach and would come right next to you. Best part of all, we were the only people there. Amazing!!





We made two trips ot Wailea which is a touristy part. During the morning the beaches only had a few locals along with the life guards in training. (They ran that beach for hours. Hence, I will never be a lifeguard in Hawaii!)

Better them than me!!


See them stiiiill running in the background. Sucka's!!


As the afternoon progressed, tourists started to hit the beach so we bailed and went back to our side of the island.

The last beach we went to was again a local spot. There I met my idols, Rhonda and Randy. There were Fabule$$! I'm not sure if you know, but I refuse to age gracefully. I'm hanging on to my youth and will fight this aging-thing tooth and nail. I have no shame in being inappropriately dressed at an old age and truly believe that gold lamé is the best thing ever. Apparently I'm not alone in this thought pattern because these two ladies rocked bikinis, tall boys and Marlboro Menthol 100's as they baked in the sun. I couldn't help but think that this will be me and Kisha 50 years from now. Of course I had to befriend them and managed to talk up a storm for about an hour. They were AWESOME and shameless about being cougars! Poor Matt was almost pounced on and I did nothing to stop it! Their stories about working for Playboy the 70's were amazing but not nearly as amazeballs as their gallbladder scars. I'm happy to say that I have their phone number and will surely give them a ring when we go back next year!

Amy & Kisha in 40 years. Future looks good to me!!


So did we have a good time? YES!! It can be so hard for me and Matt to kick back during the school year. His work schedule, kids in school and me in school quickly puts a damper on any fun that we try to have. The silver lining to our schedules is that when we do get away, we have more fun than any honeymooner can! We were laughing and flirting so much that a few people even asked us if we were on our Honeymoon!!