Day 4 in paradise also coincidentally happened to be my birthday. My 30th birthday. What better way to spend your 30th birthday than in one of the most beautiful (and warm) places? (And by the way, holy CRAP, I'm 30...how did this happen?) To kick off the 30th year, I wanted a morning stroll along the beach and pancakes. I'm thinking the baby might have influenced part of this decision (clearly, the pancake part... although potentially the walk part- maybe he wanted a nap? I'm convinced that when I move, he sleeps...)
Hey, what do you know, it's sunny on my birthday! A few more to follow of our early morning beach walk:
God awful picture (of me), but whatever....
Seriously. Love. (and also related: I want to go back now).
Second love... so delicious. These were my first two. I went back for a third. Complete with coconut syrup. The baby was very happy.
Justin at breakfast.... once again the brunch at Duo was quite amazing.
After breakfast, we headed out for my second birthday request: a hike. We had researched where to go during breakfast and found one close by that we hadn't been to yet. It was at LaPerouse bay, which is a popular snorkeling spot and pretty much the most east you can drive on the south side of the island. We didn't really know what we were in for but were ready to give it a try.
When driving to the hike, the one thing we noticed as we passed the point of familiarity (meaning: unexplored territory by us), was how desolate it was. It was total lava rock, undeveloped land. Pretty cool.
We started the hike and had amazing shoreline views at first. To the right is where we spotted TONS of surfers and snorkelers. I'm not sure about the snorkeling here but I could vouch just by eye the surfing...it was SO windy and the waves were so big.
We continued along and had even better views behind us of the Maui coast.
At first on the hike we went through woods, which was sort of weird since the whole drive was pretty desolate and then all of a sudden: woods!
After the woods, the hike opened up to a white sand beach...
And then we got to a black sand beach...
And then we hiked on rocks for miles and miles and miles... it's actually quite the workout to hike over big stones. I had no idea.
In the background was Haleakala, the volcano that formed Maui. It was cool to see this view of Haleakala from the lava rock point of view. You could tell where the lava had run down off of the volcano into the ocean as the island was formed.
Eventually we made it out to some eastern point where there was a random lighthouse. I'm not really sure what the lighthouse was for but it was pretty cool. The coolest part was watching the ocean here... both Justin and I were almost knocked off our feet from the wind so the ocean and the waves were just insanity. I think our conversation was something like "I wonder how long it would take to get killed if you fell in the ocean right here?"
A picture of Justin taking pictures of the crazy ocean... I tried to get this to capture the wind but this really doesn't do it justice.
But we did have great views of the neighbor islands...
As we started to walk back, we noticed another trail that was the king's road trail... it was the original trail we were supposed to take and it takes you 2 miles to some remote beach. We'd already been hiking for quite a while at that point but we decided we'd take the trail and see how we did. Well, we did make it to the beach despite hiking on all of the rocks and in the blazing sun for what felt like FOREVER. Here is a shot of the beach, below us.
Here is Justin on the beach... again, stupid iphone... not sure what the gray thing is but you get the idea. I'm too lazy to try to fix it.
And a shot of the kings road going back from the beach. Somehow there were cars down by the beach and we couldn't figure out how in the world they got there. The rocks were really rather large and there really weren't any roads.
As we were almost FINALLY back (to the woodsy part) after 9 miles (we tracked it via GPS and it ended up being WAY longer than we expected), we saw wild goats in the woods. Crazy.
And one more up close and personal.
After we finished our hike, we headed back home and set out to have another beach day (birthday request #3). Unfortunately, on the hike, we both got completely fried. It was so windy that we didn't even feel it and despite applying a ton of sunscreen, it just wasn't enough. Fortunately, we were saved in that it clouded over shortly after we got to the beach... unfortunately, that meant for a rather cold afternoon by the ocean so we didn't last too long.
For my birthday dinner, we went to Nick's fishmarket which is one of the places I love on Maui. It has great views of the ocean and amazing food. Kind of spendy, but it's Maui... so it kind of comes with the territory.
A picture of the sunset... gorgeous.
The waiters were notified it was my birthday and brought us some custard-y type thing. I really dislike custard so of course we had to get something different...
So I got a chocolate something... I don't even remember exactly what now other than it was amazing.
And Justin satisfied his yearly craving for creme brulee. All in all, it was a pretty spectacular way to ring in my 30th year. I had put a text on facebook that morning on how very lucky I felt to have such a wonderful husband, a new little baby, two great stepsons, an awesome family and friends... I truly think that this decade is going to be amazing and I can't wait to see what it holds!
