The first trip of 2016! With my girls officially out of school, we were able to start the summer travels, and Maui seemed the perfect place to start because we'd never been before. We had gone to Oahu a few years ago because my oldest had had a soccer tournament there, but we were unable to fully explore. This time, however, we had no prior engagements and were ready to fully enjoy what Maui had to offer.
Bye LA
From the moment we landed, we were immersed in the beautiful nature that makes up the island. The sky was bright blue with barely any clouds, and if there were, they were fluffy pillows of water. This landing strip pictured above was just a sneak peek of the verdure we were to be engulfed in throughout the next week; once we were finally able to get a rental car (the wait took hours), we enjoyed the drive to our AirBnb, which included a view of the emerald Pacific Ocean that stretched into the endless sky, and then, upon reaching the AirBnb, we were pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of green bushes overflowing with flowers in full bloom. This instant introduction to Maui's splendor made us very excited for our week ahead.
Acai Bowls
For breakfast our first day, we had to try the famed Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade. My youngest daughter wouldn't stop raving about it- apparently, all the Instagram models she follows go to eat here. It was pretty good, not worth all the hype in my opinion. We got acai bowls that didn't do the IG models' reviews justice; I guess they haven't been to Tru Nature in Long Beach (they have the BEST acai). I did think it was pretty cool how when you got a lemonade from them (that was worthy of all the high praise), you got to keep the giant mason jar they put it in. All in all, it was pretty good, but not worth the high prices and rave reviews.
While most of our days were spent lounging on the beach near our AirBnb, we did manage to conquer the Road to Hana. Basically a long, winding road up a mountain, the Road to Hana had many sights to see and places worth stopping at. The drive itself took about two hours, along which we did two minor hikes that were each only about ten minutes- we didn't want to tire ourselves out for the hike we were going to do at once we reached the top. This hike began on a black sand beach. Yes, black sand. It was so cool because it had turned black from the volcano nearby, unlike other "black sand" beaches, which are only black because the sand is dirty. The actual hike itself took place on the volcano- hence the molten rock in the picture above- and was definitely the best part of the trip. The hike had a great view of the crystal blue water below, and the waves kept crashing against the rocks and spraying us. The Road to Hana was definitely my favorite part of the trip; I already wish I could go back.
All Three
For the last night, I had made a reservation to eat at the world-famous Mama's Fish House in the North Shore. Every morning, the restaurant's fishermen go out and catch the fish that will be cooked all throughout the day. It was completely packed (making me grateful that I'd made a reservation) and, once we started eating, it wasn't hard to see why- it was amazing. I've never had better fish, and I couldn't think of a better way of ending such a great trip.
Maui was definitely an unforgettable experience, even with island fever kicking in after a few days of being there. Though I probably can't stay for more than a week, I'd love to go back to Maui another time.
Tools
My company Netlandish built a software suite called AnyHow that makes it practically hands off to run my businesses. It's a one stop package that will handle things like invoicing, timesheet management, employees, internal discussions, wiki's, company transparency, client management, project management, etc. It's not yet released to the public but enter your email address on the sidebar and you'll get updates on it's public launch.
Note
This is part of an ongoing series about traveling with teenagers as a remote worker or "nomad" if you must. The end goal is to show that it's totally possible to work from anywhere in the world, with your children, and also be a tourist. I'll also discuss the tools I use to help make this possible.