Honeymoon 2.0

Many prefer the "firsts" of everything, but I'm more of a fan of "the second time around." Blessed indeed, the husband and I got a second chance at Maui this year! We visited some old spots, tried some new, and instilled a new mid-day downtime habit so we wouldn't adventure ourselves out. Our trip definitely falls under a "mission accomplished" trip, and we're already eager to go back, of course.

Our main purpose for our Maui vacation this September was for it to be our late summer ocean trip. With our new-found, for me, and rekindled, for Justin, love for birding, we decided to make this a birding trip as well!

Birding at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Kihei, HI

Kitesurfers and windsurfers in Kihei, HI

One night we had dinner with my cousins who live there and they asked us if Maui is a mecca for birds, like it is for windsurfing, kitesurfing, and snorkeling. No, no.... Although Maui contains many species unique for me and Justin to see, by no means do people just come here to bird. As of five years ago, there were only 108 bird species on Maui, which is very few, considering.... And 38 of those 108 are said to be "rare/accidental" sightings, which means they aren't common visitors or inhabitants of Maui. We were able to spot 41 of those birds, which is great news! Which means, out of all the likely birds we could have seen in Maui, we saw 59% of them! Go team!

Craft fair in Kihei, HI

Okay, where to begin! Trip in recap, random facts at the end...ready, go!

Our first pit stop in Maui was, of course, Taco Bell. Why wouldn't it be? After that, we already started our souvenir shopping at local tourist stores and the craft fair in Kihei.

Then to our hotel...Sugar Beach Resort. #1, of course I wanted to stay there because of it's name, but #2, we chose this place because it was a condo resort, which proved to be such a lovely type of place to stay! We had our own spacious condo with a large bedroom (my advice to every engaged couple: get a king bed, you will not regret it, says the woman who insisted we have a double bed, but compromised with a queen bed, and not regrets not getting a king bed!), a kitchen with fabulous green cabinets (really, though, they were really awesome looking!), a comfy living room, and a rather large fifth-story lanai. Our "garden view" room definitely needs to include in the description that it has a smokin' view of the ocean too! Every morning we enjoyed sitting out on the porch (I can't use "lanai" and act like I actually talk like that anymore) and the room was also convenient to spy on how in-use the pool and hot tub were for the best times to go down. Although, every time was the best time, because, on average, there was probably no more than 10 people down there at any given time. I basked in joy one day when I was person #2 down at the pool. It was only 1:00 pm and people may think I'm crazy for spending the middle of the day doing nothing but relaxing, but this was part of our downtime plan we instilled on this trip. I must say, we both rather enjoyed that part of each day! Rejuvenation.

That's our hotel and I can see our room from this angle!

I must add, also, that the beach was only 8 steps away from our hotel pool's patio concrete (that's a mouthful). The hot tub was probably less than 20 steps away, which actually may be kind of frightening in case of a storm, but that was of no worry to us.

The wind was a little much this trip. We didn't remember it being as bad last time, but we realized we got the bulk of it with where our hotel was located. But Maui can do no wrong in my eyes, so it was easy to overlook, once I tied back my hair that is....

The first day we knocked off some common birds on our list, not even by birding, but just by them being around: House Sparrow, Common Myna, Japanese White Eye, Red Junglefowl, Cattle Egret, and Black-necked Stilt.

Red Junglefowl

Cattle Egret right outside our pool area

Red Junglefowl

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilts

There was a 3-hour time change, in our favor, we weren't prepared for. It was so exciting to wake up at what was 9:30 am to us, but 6:30 am to Hawaiians. We were early birds this trip! Our morning routine was to immediately go to the porch (tempted to use "lanai" again, but I can't...but I did?), open the curtains and sliding doors, and soak in the peacefulness Maui poured into our hearts.

"the crashing waves outside our condo"

The first morning we were there, Justin woke up first and came back to the bedroom with a sad look on his face, stating it was overcast. I had to remind him it was actually only 6:30 am, even though, to our bodies, it was 9:30 am. :) I made an equally silly mistake when I would wake up every morning and forget we were in Maui. I thought we were home and I was hearing cars drive by in puddles of rain...aka the crashing waves outside our condo. :)

Justin with the 'Iao Needle at the viewpoint
right before we jumped the fence!

One of our favorite parts of the trip was hiking the secret trail in 'Iao Valley. 'Iao Valley is always one of our highlights, but finding a secret trail (thank you, Google) always makes things more magical. You hop over the rails after the highest viewpoint of the 'Iao Needle (a tall, lush pinnacle), right where it says "do not trespass" :) ! The trail takes you so high up that you become eye-level with the 'Iao Needle and you can barely distinguish it from other hills and rocks up there! Justin is a great hiking buddy and this is the prettiest and best hike I have ever been on! (To-do list for next trip: research how far the trail actually goes and take it even farther next time!) It is too overgrown to bird effectively on this trail, but we somehow managed to see the Red-billed Leiothrix there, which is still one of the prettiest birds we have ever seen!

On the hike.... The 'Iao Needle is now to my right.

Oh, how could I skip the most important birding fact of our trip?! Exactly right when we were pulling into our parking spot at 'Iao Valley, Justin spotted a white bird flying high in the hills and clouds. THE WHITE-TAILED TROPICBIRD! No biggie...ONLY THE MOST EXCITING BIRD WE CAME TO MAUI TO LOOK FOR!!! Although we were not able to snap a decent photograph ever because it flies too far away and, also, too fast, we were enamored by our sights of it through our binoculars! We either saw two or three of these guys flying in 'Iao Valley right by the entrance. The best part is we were able to spot them three different times within an hour!

Tagged Nene

We knocked off more birds later in Kihei on our first full day there: Spotted Dove, Nene (aka Hawaiian Goose, which is the Hawaii state bird!), Red-crested Cardinal, Cackling Goose, Zebra Dove, Pacific Golden Plover, Muscovy Duck, Great Frigatebird, Black-crowned Night Heron, Java Sparrow, Gray Francolin, African Silverbill, House Finch, and Scaly-breasted Munia (aka Nutmeg Mannikin)! We did great work the first day for birding!

Nene

Red-crested Cardinal

Cackling Goose

Great Frigatebird

Pacific Golden Plover

Pacific Golden Plover

Great Frigatebird

Java Sparrow

Gray Francolin

Gray Francolin

African Silverbill

Scaly-breasted Munia

African Silverbill

Scaly-breasted Munia

The Java Sparrow was one of my favorites because it looks like a miniature puffin, and I love anything mini-sized! The Scaly-breasted Munia felt rewarding, because we had looked for it last year unsuccessfully. The Nene was my favorite of the day, though, because it is the state bird and actually somewhat hard to see, if you don't live in Maui. We only saw it once out of this trip and last! It's somewhat-striped design on its neck is breathtakingly beautiful!

Our most successful birding spot last year was at the Hosmer Grove Campground, right inside the Haleakala National Park, but not all the way up to the crater. We spotted 5 Chukar, 2 'I'iwi, lots of 'Apapane, 3 Ring-necked Pheasants (2 female and 1 dark male variant, we believe), Northern Mockingbird, and the Maui 'Amakahi! Hosmer Grove is an excellent place to spot native birds! The 'I'iwi is my favorite and this time they were seen in different plumage than the bright red we saw them in last time! The Chukar look like they belong in a circus, though, so they may be my favorite from that day!

Chukar

'I'iwi

Chukar

'Apapane

Female Ring-necked Pheasant flying away

'Apapane

We always kiss in bamboo forests...
it's one of our things

We visited another of "our spots" on this trip: the Garden of Eden on the Road to Hana. Although there is a $10 per-person charge (we got the second-timer rate, ohhhh yeahhhh!), it is totally worth it! Especially for the close encounters with Common Peafowl! The two babies were all the rave in the arboretum! But my favorite bird of the day there was the Chinese Hwamei! Their faces are beautiful and it looks like they are dressed for a masquerade! We also spotted Chestnut Munia, which are richly colored!

Chinese Hwamei

Common Peafowl, aka Peacocks

Common Peafowl

Chinese Hwamei

The itty-bitty islet where we spotted
the Red-footed Booby, Brown Booby,
and Great Frigatebird (again)

The winding Road to Hana took us to our next birding location: Ke'anae Peninsula. We had seen on eBird that the Brown Booby, Red-footed Booby, and more Great Frigatebird species were being seen on the islet (one of my new favorite words to say, besides "isthmus")! The birding was somewhat frustrating, due to how far away the islet was, but we got out our scope we drug all the way to Maui, along with the extremely heavy tripod, and we were able to distinguish all 3 of those birds! Hallelujah, what beautiful species! The pièce de résistance was another White-tailed Tropicbird sighting! This time we were able to see the top of the bird from far away, and could depict the dark colors on its back! What a beauty of a bird! (I recommend Googling it!) The Birding Master was very excited about our tropicbird sightings! Apparently, too, the Red-footed Boobies are nesting on top of the islet! We could identify about 7 Red-footed Boobies, 2 Brown Boobies, and a multitude of Great Frigatebirds! It was funny...the Great Frigatebirds looked similar to Bald Eagles way out there on the islet!

Three Bears Falls

The Road to Hana, for us, also included Three Bears Falls (my favorite waterfall on the road), our stop at the small town of Nahiku, and the glorious Waianapanapa State Park (say that 10 times fast...heck! I can't even say it once correctly!), which is the black sand beach! I still want to argue it is more like the black rock beach, but I guess it's just a different kind of sand.... We went as far as this park on the Road to Hana and then came back the way we went (the Road to Hana takes a very long time to travel because of all the winds, so it's an all-day adventure, unfortunately with no down time...but I accidentally fell asleep on the way back! WHO falls asleep on the Road to Hana?! Oops.) We saw reported sightings of the Brown Noddy and Black (Hawaiian) Noddy at this park, and, boy, did we see them! So close! The Black Noddy had amazing orange feet too! This park contains a cave the husband loves too!

Honokalani black sand beach

Is it really black sand?

Brown and Black Noddies

Brown and Black Noddies

Our trip settled down after checking off 'Iao Valley, Hosmer Grove, and the Road to Hana off our list. Those are the three main attractions for us on Maui. "Our spots." 

On Friday, we ventured over to Lahaina for a relaxing breakfast at Longhi's, which Justin remembered had the best breakfast potatoes (which makes this another of "our spots," thanks to the Tulsa family for the recommendation last year!). Not only does Longhi's have the best breakfast potatoes, but I got THE BEST muffin I have ever had! Lemon poppy seed with fresh raspberries cooked into it, topped with chopped macadamia nuts. The "cherry on top" was that it was steaming hot inside and out and the fact that it had more of a muffin top than a muffin bottom (which Gilmore Girls taught me, the top is always the best part!). And my Maui tradition is to have fresh pineapple at some point, so this was the perfect place to check that off my list!

THE muffin

Our view from our table at Longhi's

Unfortunately, an unappetizing picture
of the cheese ravioli's

We had a delicious dinner at Fabiani's with my cousins, who asked us if this was "one of our spots" and we brushed it off saying "no," not realizing that it totally is one of our spots! We verified that by going there again the next night and ordering the same entree to split! Who can resist THE BEST HOMEMADE CHEESE RAVIOLI'S IN THE WORLD?! But seriously. You won't believe it until you try them, and then you'll insist "perfection" is part of the ingredients!



Duplicating our dessert the previous night as well, we went out again to the Snow Factory, which the
cousins introduced us to. Described by my cousin as "it's just like eating snow in Shingletown" (where we used to visit our grandparents), snow is pretty much the best dessert in the world. Justin said I apparently went all "Elf" on him by ordering strawberry and cookies 'n cream snow with white chocolate chips and mini m&m's, topped with caramel sauce, so we got separate cups the next night and were supremely happy with our experience of snow (definitely one of "our things" now!). 

Hers

His

                       

Sunset at Makena Beach

You can't visit Maui without noticing the spectacular sunsets. Catching the sunset at different beaches is one of my favorite Maui hobbies. We got excellent ones at Makena Beach (we did this last year, so it is now one of "our spots"), and we tried two new beaches for sunsets throughout the week. We caught one at Ulua and Maakapo Beaches (they run right next to each other, or so I think?). This was my favorite beach we went to this trip! And it's also where we spotted our first Wandering Tattler of the trip! Maui has few shorebirds and practically zero gulls (we have never even seen one there, but apparently they show a few of their faces at some point), so it was rewarding to finally see a bird near the water!

Sunset at Makena Beach

Enjoying walking around Ulua/Maakapo
Beaches before the sunset

We kiss at sunsets

Wandering Tattler (picture not taken
at Ulua/Maakapo Beaches)

Sunset at Ulua/Maakapo Beaches

Our own "secret cove"

Our last sunset at the beach we caught was supposed to be at the "Secret Cove" (Paako Beach), but we couldn't find it in time, so we stopped at who knows where, but what a great spot it turned out to be! The sunset was amazing and the waves picked up while we were there, which made for great pictures!

Sunset at our own "secret cove"

The last few birds of the trip were the Hawaiian Coot, Rock Pigeon, Ruddy Turnstone, and Sanderling, which brought us to a total of 41 birds this trip!

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Sipping on a cappuccino,
watching the sunrise,
...on our lanai

I hoped on our last night there that I would be able to wake up the next, and last, morning for the sunrise to take pictures, but I didn't set an alarm (it's vacation!). What a treat...God woke me up in time! Waking up at 6 am is something I could definitely get used to, but I have to remind myself that I was "pseudo" waking up at 6 am, which was really 9 am for my body, unfortunately.

The sunrise was so peaceful that I even had to sneak-make (totally not a phrase, but I'm claiming it) a cup of cappuccino (I'm trying to eliminate caffeine from my diet, hence the sneaking) to top the morning off with perfection.






We ended our trip the best way possible. We opened both of the sliding glass doors all the way, pulled two chairs in front of the lanai (okay, last time, I promise!), and sat in silence as we watched the waves. Sigh. What a great trip!




Random facts of The Great Maui Trip of 2014:

• Our trip had two theme songs. The first, Fire Blazin', was stuck in my head on the way there, and I succeeded in getting it stuck in Justin's as well. I always thought "underbeats" was a musical term, but apparently I coined that one in regards to this song. But you gotta listen to it...great underbeats!!! You can't deny it! And the second song was our theme song (more about this down below).
• Our pool had 4 magical mosaic dolphins in it. Need I say more?

• The keynote address for Apple occurred on our trip. That was a must-see for the husband. I love him.
• We were the youngest vacationers at our resort. It was funny sunbathing by retirees...what a life they must live!
• The drive to 'Iao Valley is one of our favorites. Many parts of the road are covered with arches of trees, and the street contains a beautiful historic church and some building that may also be a church, but it looks like a castle. In front of the church contains a tree that Justin claims as "his favorite tree ever," because it is a "very handsome" tree.

Driving back to Kihei from 'Iao Valley 

• Eating Safeway deli sandwiches is apparently our go-to meal in Maui, besides Taco Bell (which goes without saying).

• If you do something twice and you intend to do it again, it starts becoming "your thing." Great news! We now have a spot where we eat lunch always at 'Iao Valley. Our very own spot! Well, a bench, but still! Who would've thunk we'd have a spot in 'Iao Valley! Oh life...
• I conjured up nicknames for us on this trip. Hello, I am Nature Babe, and you can call my husband, Mountain Dude. We are working on our theme song, which was stuck in our heads nearly the whole trip, and we are even thinking about expanding into the business of children books (I say this with jest, but I so wish this was true!). Get this.... "Nature Babe and Mountain Dude's Fun with Trees" and "...Fun with Moss" and "...Fun with Sailboats" and "...Fun with Trails" and "...Fun with Kites" and...are you ready for this... "...Fun with Birds!"
• Best equation ever: relaxing at the pool + toes in sand + no cares in mind + ocean breeze + no schedule to keep = happiness
• We found a consignment store in Maui called Rainbow Attic. Perfect name, right?! It gets

  

  Northern Cardinal

  better.... We walk into the store, not knowing what to expect, and the first thing we see on the right is a section devoted to bird stuff! Um, perfect?! Bird stuff is my favorite! :) I walked out of there with a picture of bird eggs in a nest and a glass pitcher with a Blue Jay and Northern Cardinal on it. Um, perfect again?! Wait...it gets better, indeed! Later that night, walking back to our car from Makena Beach's sunset, we spotted a Northern Cardinal! Not only is that the first Northern Cardinal I ever remember seeing, so I can finally count it, but I've been reading a book (The Song of the Cardinal I found at Justin's thrift store), where the main "character" is a Northern Cardinal! Now, how perfect is that! My main character came alive to me in front of my eyes! Then we heard rats. It was dark. And I clinched Justin's arm and couldn't scurry away fast enough.

Northern Cardinal and a Hawaiian man

• We had a first together this trip. I grew up eating Round Table Pizza and becoming obsessed with their Garlic Parmesan Twists. Justin had never heard, let alone eaten, these majestic twists of glory. We got a box, oh boy, did we get a box! Bliss. Enough said.
• Don't go to Maui craving corn. $4.25 at Safeway for one measly ear of corn. 
• We found a sea cave at the Kihei Boat Landing. My husband is really into caves.

• I insist on finding a rainbow before leaving Maui (it's one of "my things"). Check! Saw a rainbow over a beautiful golf course in Wailea.



Cattle Egret "home tree"

• Apparently there is a little bit of Avatar on Maui. We found a Cattle Egret "home tree" and also a Myna "home tree!" And there are hiking trails after the cliff beach on West Maui (was on our to-do list for this trip) that Justin says looked like a movie set. There was an "Avatar tree" there that had wisps hanging down that I swear looked like they would start glowing any second, like in Avatar!

 

Myna "home tree" (they were all on top, so you couldn't 

see them, but, boy, could you hear them!)

Movie-like tree

Avatar-like tree

• We saw over 20 deer climbing the hill behind Makena. Who knew!
• There is apparently a rat problem in Maui (gross). They brought in mongoose to solve the problem years ago. But now there is a mongoose problem, because mongoose and rats are on different sleeping schedules. There's a knee slapper for ya!

• I found my new favorite apple! They are called "Envy" and are from New Zealand. Has anyone ever seen them on the main land?
• Last trip we frequented Bounty Music three times. This time, our "3-timer" was Sports Authority. :)
• We got our yearly "cat time" at the Maui Humane Society again (one of "our things"). Those cats there have a pretty good life living in all of the cat rooms there!

Every blog should always end with kittens...

Ahhhh, Maui...until next time, aloha!