Artisan and Farmer's Market, Makawao, and More

Beach Morning 

On the third day we woke up and enjoyed swiming in the ocean. Although I could have stayed in the water all day long, we mostly stuck with mornings and evenings to be safe with the sun. I took a bunch of pictures that morning of the hotel so that we could look back and remember. 

Scott and I ate breakfast by the pool and the girls ate a bit later at the Royal Scoop. (ice cream all day long and late into the evening, quick breakfasts/coffee/tea/breads in the morning) 

The grounds were certainly beautiful. It was a lovely resort, small, and never with chaos or crowded. There weren't rows and rows and rows of chairs filled to the brim. I'm not sure how they did it, but it was so peaceful and relaxing. 

It was right on the ocean with the most beautiful beach that we loved so much! 

That morning while we were relaxing on the patio Anna, Abigail and I wrote in our journals. We decided to start one before we left to keep track of all of the fun we would be having and little momentos along the way. 

Artisan and Farmer's Market ~ South Maui Gardens in Kihei, Maui 

We left mid morning and headed south on Maui to an artisan and farmers market that we had researched ahead of time. The setting really surprised me - all lush and green, tropical and authenic Hawaiian. We tried to find places where local of Maui would be and to do less tourist things. This maket was certainly one of them and we loved our afernoon there! We shopped and had the most delicious lunches. Here is a peek inside. 

Oh the fish and the papaya salad! 

We found this little shaded garden area for lunch which was so pretty! 

What a fun morning/afternoon! 

Makawao

This adorable town in Maui is known as upcountry. It was charming and filled with shops. We loved it so much! 

Leoda's Kitchen and Pie Shop 

Oh we H A D  to stop here and we ended up eating an early dinner and I ate a whole mini pie with Anna... banana cream! It was heavenly!  

Coconut Glens Ice Cream 

What a find! All non dairy ice cream! 

Sunset Swimming in the Ocean

Haleakala National Park and other parts of day 2

Haleakala National Park 

On our first full day we all got up at 1:45 and left our hotel at 2:30 AM! Scott read somewhere that it is good to do the sunrise on Mount Haleakala the first full day since we were still on EST. So 1:45 really felt like 7:45 am. I can honestly say it worked perfectly. Even our girls had no trouble at all getting up and out.

It took a few hours to drive there and it sure was a windy road once our car was at the base of the mountain. Back and forth, back and forth in the pitch dark. 

By the time we got to the summit it was still dark and around 4:45 am

We parked and walked up to the look out - got there just in time to grab a good spot and begin to watch the sun rise starting around 5:15 am. 

And then it was just the most spectacular sight I could ever imagine.  

We were above the clouds which made it a sight to behold. And boy was it cold! We honestly shivered though the first hour until the sun was all the way up. 

After the sun was fully up we hiked around up there - there are cool hiking trails everywhere! 

It was now around lunch time (for us time) but breakfast time in Hawaii - I found an adorable Hawaiian food truck. We ate yummy food and had mango black tea! 

We drove about an hour back to the hotel and then finally got into that ocean, ate icecream and relaxed!