Hawaii 2

In January I had an ophthalmology conference on Maui.  It seemed like the perfect chance for Kristel and I to get away for a trip we have been wanting to take for several years.  On Friday, January 14, Grandma Mindy flew in to San Antonio to spend a week taking care of the kids, and early Sunday morning Kristel and I boarded our flight to Maui.   

On the small island Maui lodging is limited, and with my late registration there was no housing near the conference for the first part of the stay.  However, with a commute of about an hour we were able to stay at Kapalua Bay where we had spent our honeymoon 12 years earlier.  Unfortunately the actual hotel from our honeymoon was torn down to make room for multi-million dollar Ritz-Carlton condominiums (where we did not stay), but the Kapalua Villas was very nice.  This is the view from where we stayed.

The Kapalua Villas were condos and ours had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a kitchen and living room.  It had been recently updated and was beautiful. It was on a different part of the island from my conference so it took an hour to drive each way.   

We explored the local restaurants and ate some great food.

I went to the meeting in the morning so Kristel ended up with a lot of relaxing time to catch up with reading.   She read books 2 and 3 of the tiger series and got into them enough that she brought her book along on a walk despite my teasing.  

We only stayed at Kapalua for 2 nights and then moved closer to the conference at Wailea where we stayed the other 2 nights.  We stayed at the Hotel Wailea which included a traditional Japanese bathhouse which I don't think we completely figured out.  The actual room was a little older and different from a typical American style hotel, but the gardens were beautiful.

We enjoyed Maui Tacos multiple times. 

Wailea Beach

The view of Molokini from Wailea beach.

The kids had a great time with Grandma Mindy and probably would have been content if we had stayed another week.  We were very happy to see them.  There is no doubt they are extra cute after having been away.

This is the schedule we printed out and left with Grandma Mindy.