We have been to Maui, our first time in July of 2011. Nick proposed to Alona on a beach there. We have some wonderful memories. This year, all five of us went, and also Alona's dad to help with the children. Nick had a conference to attend to, while everyone else got to explore, as much as it is possible with three small children that is.
One thing we remember very well from 2011 is the wonderful food - fresh fruit and small, diced poke in grocery stores. We also remember fresh, thick cut, unlike anywhere else calamari - We were unable to find what we had back then - the closest was Eskimo Candy, but even that was not quite what we remembered. We remember getting fresh coconuts by the side of the road for $3 and they were amazing. This time, they were all sold for $6 as the lowest we found, and honestly, the one we had was not quite ripe.
It seems that times have changed and the food has along with it.
We were shocked to find that the best fish, really, was the sashimi we found at Costco. The poke at costco is NOT as good as the Times Food mart poke - Do NOT do salmon, but rather the ginger wasabi ahi was the best one that we tried. We tried poke at the Ohana restaurant in Kihei, but it was WAAAAY too sweet (we tried the trio) and not very good. We also tried the calamari from there, and again, it was not at all what we expected.
We had food at Da Kitchen, that was pretty good, although honestly, our food here in Albuquerque is better.
Kaspian discovered Spam Musibi and loved it! The best ones were the simplest ones for him like from ABC and Foodland grocery store.
Our last evening, right before our 10 PM flight, we had dinner at Poi by the Pound in Kahului, we tried the saiman and the hawaiian plate and their ice cream sundae. The poke was smaller cubed and more like what we remembered the majority of it being when we visited in 2011. The poi, still left us un-impressed. It does seem like it's more of an acquired taste.
We snorkled with Kaspian at keawakapu beach. We saw 3 sea turtles once and 2 sea turtles (although Nick saw 3) another time! It was pretty incredible.
We stayed right across from kamaole beach III.
The first few days the waves were fairly low but the weather picked up as the week went on and the water got choppier and the waves got bigger and the undercurrent was quite strong.
Orion loved getting knocked over by the wave on the shore (we held him the entire time of course!)
Astrid just enjoyed building sand castles. She also learned how to swim last week, on thursday, we went to the condo pool and she just started swimming! It was amazing! :) Now we have 2 out of 3 children swimming. Of course, she needs a lot of practice still but what she can do is pretty incredible. I am certain that she will be swimming by the end of next summer.
We looked at the tide pools at night and saw some crabs and seashells, and hermit crabs and some mudskipper type fishes.
One thing we remember very well from 2011 is the wonderful food - fresh fruit and small, diced poke in grocery stores. We also remember fresh, thick cut, unlike anywhere else calamari - We were unable to find what we had back then - the closest was Eskimo Candy, but even that was not quite what we remembered. We remember getting fresh coconuts by the side of the road for $3 and they were amazing. This time, they were all sold for $6 as the lowest we found, and honestly, the one we had was not quite ripe.
It seems that times have changed and the food has along with it.
We were shocked to find that the best fish, really, was the sashimi we found at Costco. The poke at costco is NOT as good as the Times Food mart poke - Do NOT do salmon, but rather the ginger wasabi ahi was the best one that we tried. We tried poke at the Ohana restaurant in Kihei, but it was WAAAAY too sweet (we tried the trio) and not very good. We also tried the calamari from there, and again, it was not at all what we expected.
We had food at Da Kitchen, that was pretty good, although honestly, our food here in Albuquerque is better.
Kaspian discovered Spam Musibi and loved it! The best ones were the simplest ones for him like from ABC and Foodland grocery store.
Our last evening, right before our 10 PM flight, we had dinner at Poi by the Pound in Kahului, we tried the saiman and the hawaiian plate and their ice cream sundae. The poke was smaller cubed and more like what we remembered the majority of it being when we visited in 2011. The poi, still left us un-impressed. It does seem like it's more of an acquired taste.
We snorkled with Kaspian at keawakapu beach. We saw 3 sea turtles once and 2 sea turtles (although Nick saw 3) another time! It was pretty incredible.
We stayed right across from kamaole beach III.
The first few days the waves were fairly low but the weather picked up as the week went on and the water got choppier and the waves got bigger and the undercurrent was quite strong.
Orion loved getting knocked over by the wave on the shore (we held him the entire time of course!)
Astrid just enjoyed building sand castles. She also learned how to swim last week, on thursday, we went to the condo pool and she just started swimming! It was amazing! :) Now we have 2 out of 3 children swimming. Of course, she needs a lot of practice still but what she can do is pretty incredible. I am certain that she will be swimming by the end of next summer.
We looked at the tide pools at night and saw some crabs and seashells, and hermit crabs and some mudskipper type fishes.
