Maui Trip - Day 5 (May 15th)

As luck would have it (we felt lucky on several occasions), we won a drawing at our hotel's orientation our first morning. The drawing was for a humpback whale watching excursion. We almost didn't go because it was going to be on the very last day of the official whale season and the chances were very slim any whales would still be in the area. If that were going to be the case, we were thinking maybe we could spend the two hours doing something else. In the end, we decided to go because it was free and, if anything, it would be fun just to be out on the water. As we were leaving the harbor they gave us a big speech about how we probably wouldn't see any whales, etc. We were so glad we opted to go because within the first 20 minutes we saw our first whale. The tour guides were shocked and even more so when we saw an additional three whales. We were following whales the entire time and it was an awesome experience.

After lunch we took a drive to I'ao Valley (to see the historic I'ao Needle) located in central Maui away from the coast. I'd been there before, but couldn't remember it very well; just that it was beautiful and that you climb a bunch of stairs to see the Needle. I was hoping Danny would like it too and that it wouldn't be a waste of time. It was as I remembered: absolutely gorgeous. It is so lush and tropical, just how one would picture Hawaii. At over 5000 ft., the I'ao Valley terrain is completely different than that at sea level where it's pretty dry, brown, and kind of ugly as you drive the main highway along the coast. We had a great time up there and were glad we went.

We went to dinner at a Mexican place called Cilantro and had some yummy fish and shrimp tacos. Then from our hotel we walked south for an hour along the beach to beautiful Kaanapali beach. We were looking for sea shells to take home to Emily. We came across these strange little crabs (we learned later they're called ghost crabs) that dig holes in the dry sand and when you come close they disappear almost before you can see them because they are perfectly camouflaged. We tried really hard to get to them before the ducked down into their holes, but they were too fast. It was nearly dark when we got back, but I didn't want to go inside yet so we layed on some lawn chairs on the beach and set some goals for our family. It was a great final day!