Hawaii Day 7: Iao Needle, Maui Brew Co., and lots of time in the Airport

Sunday morning, travel day. We woke up got a run in before we packed up and checked out of the condo. 

Run day 2! 

We had a FULL day to kill since our flight didn't leave til 10PM, yes PM! We had to be out of the condo at 9 or 10, then we had planned to go to the aquarium... but when we realized the cost it just wasn't worth it to us.  We went back to that whale watching spot to fly my drone in an attempt to capture a whale from above. Spoiler alert no whale capture, but we did SEE a lot of whales and even closish, just nothing via drone. 

We are there at that parking lot pull off spot. 

So instead of the aquarium, we pulled out Thomas's 'Goodnight Maui' book for ideas and read about the State monument: Iao Valley State Monument (pronounced ee-yow like you burnt yourself) 

We hiked up the many steps.... realizing we were at the top when we were expecting to only be halfway... so a little disappointing, haha. Didn't take us long and we still had a whole day to fill. 

We hiked down to the river. 

Then hiked over to the garden. 

Next up was lunchtime. We'd seen a bunch of people in Maui Brew Co. attire so we decided to go there. It was a 30 minutes drive back over by where out condo was but what else were we going to do? :-) 

We had lunch then decided to go find the beach called Jaws. We thought it was the big wave place we went with the Hana tour guide, so we started there. CHICKENS: 

Got to see all the sea turtles again and a Hawaiian monk seal! 

We figured out where the real jaws was. It's not called jaws because of sharks it's called jaws because of the big waves. We drove a ways but then discovered the only way to get there was in a 4WD vehicle or to walk a mile. The kids were not up for walking... which stinks cuz Kyle and I wanted to. So we decided to abort mission. We drove back over to the north west and hit a beach in the Waiehu area. 

Played some football catch and the girls found sticks. 

We stayed there as the sun went down. Our flight wasn't until 10pm but we had to return the van at 7PM so we planned to just eat dinner at the airport. 

Made it back to the airport for our long night ahead. Had a meh dinner at an airport restaurant and then just chilled as we waited to board the plane. 

Made the kids sleep as best they could on our flight into Seattle. Thomas got the most sleep. We were all pretty tired during our 3 hour layer over Seattle. Got breakfast and more screen time, then back on the plane for our last leg home. 

 

Hawaii Day 6: Saturday Snorkeling and Sunbathing

Saturday was our final full day on the island. I had dreams of 'running everyday in Hawaii' but between the jet lag, the head cold, and an injury I was nursing from mid-december it didn't happen. But Kyle and I made it happen our second to last day! It felt good!! 

Once we got back to the condo we convinced the kids to come out to th beach with us so we could try and snorkel out to see the turtles. It was our last chance... and I also realized even though my water camera LCD was broken it still sounded like it was taking pictures so I brought it along just in case. These are the photos I got with it! 

As soon as I stuck my head in the water I saw this large trumpeter fish! I couldn't believe it was right under me, I then stood up and my feet in the sand scared him off. 

We snorkeled around a bit, but it wasn't very clear, Kyle and Emma went out closer to the rock's edge but I don't think they saw any turtles. 

We rapped up at our condo beach and headed south to check out a new beach. This time we went to another black sand beach... but it was more like salt & pepper. It wasn't the rich black rocks like we saw on the Hana side of the island. 

This beach was called Oneuli Beach and was just north of Makena State Park. The area in the water wasn't great for swimming, it was a big rock and would better be served for snorkeling. We could see Molokini pretty well from here. 

Mary loved playing in the sand. While the others enjoyed the boogie boards. We didn't last long at this beach, they were getting their feet banged up on the rocks. 

A couple of goals before we left the island: Emma wanted to drink out of a coconut: CHECK! 

And Kyle wanted to try the MaiTai from Monkey Pod that we learned about at the distillery. So we went back to MonkeyPod (a different one from the first one we went to, this one was in Wailea) for lunch. 

Next we found another beach in Wailea, this one had hidden parking but we were specifically wanting one with a shower and bathrooms cuz we kept getting the van a sandy mess. This was a really nice beach and we spent the rest of the afternoon there. This one was called Ulna Beach. 

 

As you can see Mary spent most of the time playing in the sand. Kyle and I took turns swimming with the kids, I borrowed Thomas's goggles at one point, looked down into the water to see a HUGE sea turtle swim under me!!!! I couldn't believe it, there was a group that were following him as he went from one rocky edge to the other. So cool!

Mary was finding these snails and making a home for them. 

We beached hard on our final full day, left as the sun began to set. Went back to the condo to wash up and change then went to a little pizza place for dinner that evening.