Maui Part 1: Ka'anapali

Day 1-Wednesday 5/9/12
We arrived to the Hyatt in Ka'anapali around 1pm after getting a nice little free upgrade to a jeep wrangler for our week stay.  The hotel was perfect and they gave us a free upgrade to a partial ocean view room...I guess playing the pregnancy card works wonders. That first afternoon we just relaxed by the pool and tried to adjust to the time change.
Starving by 4pm we grabbed an early dinner at Star Noodle which had amazing reviews.  It was good, but nothing spectacular.  We started with deconstructed steamed pork buns, and then I had garlic noodles and Rollie had beef chow fun.
We headed back to the hotel and I feel asleep at 7:30...yep.  We had planned on trying to wake up and do the sunrise drive to Haleakala crater but when I woke from my 'nap' at 10:30 I knew that probably wasn't going to happen.

Flamingo's around our hotel

The grounds

Black Swan!

Walkway in front of all the Ka'anapali Beach resorts

Walking the beach

Paradise!

Poolside

Another view of the pool

...and my favorite, Penguins!

Day 2-Thursday 5/10/12

Since we didn't wake up at the suggested 2:30am to drive up and see the sunset we still thought we should take a little drive and see the Western part of Maui.  We left the hotel around 8:30 and drove to Iao State Park and took a little hike.  It looked like something straight out of Jurassic Park.

After exploring Iao we continued around the Western loop of Maui which had amazing views and some challenging one way roads!  We stopped off at Julie's famous banana bread stand and about a 1/4 mile past that we stopped at Lorriane's banana bread/shaved ice stand for more goodies.  After our little snack we found Honolua Bay which was supposed to have great snorkeling.  You park and walk a ways onto the super rocky shore.  It was quiet a challenge for me to get in and after finally getting in the water it ended up being pretty murky which was disappointing but at least I tried!

We had definitely worked up an appetite by that time so we went to Maui Brew Co. for lunch (which we had seen on our new favorite show 'Drinking Made Easy')  The food was great and Rollie loved the beer. We both had burgers and shared some fries and beer battered onion rings (its vacation!).  After lunch we got back to the hotel around 2 and sat by the pool before dinner.  We ventured down the great walkway in front of our hotel to see what looked good for dinner.  We decided on a casual outdoor/sunset dinner at Tropica at the Westin.  Great setting and good food.  I had the spicy lobster, roasted peppers, lemon pressed olive oil, tropica garden herbs flat bread pizza and Rollie had the tropica alaea rubbed tenderloin of beef with a glass of 2009 El Felino Malbec from Argentina.

Definitely looking preggo now

Iao State Park

Julia's banana bread...yum!

Honolua bay

Rollie doing the 'drinking made easy' sign

dinner at Tropica


Day 3-Friday 5/11/12

We slept in (sort of for Hawaii time) and then headed down to the spa for our couples massage...ahhh!  After the spa we had a nice relaxing pool day with our friends Pete and Kerry who were vacationing from Chicago.  It was really fun hanging out with another couple while in Maui!  That evening we celebrated Pete's birthday with a sunset cocktail at Merrimans in Kapalua, followed by an amazing dinner.  The views from Merrimans were amazing for sunset.  We started with the pupu taster which consisted of:

-Keahole Lobster, Avocado and Tomato Salad

-Eden Farms Kurobuta Kalua Pig and Sweet Onion Quesadilla

-Warm Crusted Big Island Goat Cheese, Kula Strawberries and Maui Onions

-Fresh Island Ahi Sashimi

all of which was AMAZING!  I opted for the macadamia nut crusted ono which was out of this world and Rollie had the peppercorn crusted ribeye. The four of us shared the Parmesan truffle fries (yum) and the black pepper gnocchi (which was super disappointing).  Of course we got dessert since it was Pete's birthday and we were all splurging being on vacation so we all shared the chocolate purse (a chocolate lava like cake with vanilla bean ice cream....yep, as good as it sounds) and the pineapple upside down cake...I didn't try any of this because I was too focused on the chocolate dessert.  As for adult beverages I did order a glass of wine but I didn't finish it all, although it was super yummy, 2011 Starborough New Zealand Savignon Blanc.  Rollie had a few glasses: 2008 Louis Lator Chardonnay from France, 2009 Tikal Malbec from Argentina, and a 2009 Louis M. Martini Cab from Napa.  All in all it was a great night... definitely one of the most expensive meals we've had but 100% worth it!

Day 4-Saturday 5/12/12
On Saturday we took a snorkel boat to Molokini Crater with Pete and Kerri.  We had booked in advance with from a recommendation from Kerri's good friend.  The company, Alli Nui, picked us up from the hotel and took us to the docks.  The boat was a beautiful huge catamaran and we had a perfect day to be out on the ocean.  They provided a full breakfast, beer, wine, champagne and a full (great) lunch after snorkeling...and a warm 'shower' after you came back in from the water.  The snorkeling was good but not great...I really wanted to see some turtles but no such luck.  The coral was pretty and the fish we did see were great.  Hawaii is gorgeous but I will have to say that the water and snorkeling in the Caribbean and Cozumel are much better.  After getting back to the docks around 2pm we headed back to the hotel and just relaxed in our room for a little bit before checking out Whalers Village shopping center just down from our hotel (we had enough sun for the day!).  We met up with Pete and Kerry around dinner time and headed into Lahiana for dinner.  I had heard about a great burger place on yelp (yep surprising...I wanted a cheeseburger) called Cool Cats.  It was actually really good and great location too upstairs looking out onto front street in Lahiana.  After dinner we got ice cream and walked around town for a bit before calling it an early night!