Maui Birthdaycation: Day 1

Aloha, aloha! If you didn’t catch this post, check it now to read about how I’m recapping my recent trip to Maui! Today I’m jumping into our first full day on the island.

Date: Tuesday January 3rd
Itinerary: Coffee & sunrise, breakfast at Kihei Caffe, grocery shopping, beach time, lunch, more beach/lounge time, and BBQ dinner at the condo.
Highlight: Waking up to the ocean right out our door
Favorite eats: Banana macadamia nut french toast, Maui gold pineapple, BBQ pork & grilled pineapple
Drink of the day: Kona Longboard Lager (at sunset)

So, I woke up at 4:11am on our first morning. What the heck, right? Even with the time difference, it was only 6:11am at home, which is still waaaay too early. I would’ve gotten up too, if only it were light outside! I forced myself to go back to sleep and woke up exactly one hour later at 5:11am. Seriously. I couldn’t fall back asleep after that, so I woke Merry up and we started to get ready for the day to kill time until it got light out. As soon as we could see outside, we were out on the beach to watch the sunrise. We poured ourselves a cup of coffee that our condo provided, and walked on the beach, swooning at that beautiful light you only get at twilight.

Shortly after seven, we all loaded up and headed to breakfast at Kihei Caffe. We went here last time we were on Maui and loved it. Since we hadn’t gotten groceries yet, we needed to eat out for breakfast – and I needed banana macadamia nut french toast. Merry and I shared the french toast slam which includes two pieces of french toast, two eggs, and two pieces of bacon. We got home fries on the side as well as two strong cups of coffee. The french toast was delicious – a must.

After breakfast we walked across the street briefly to the park to see the water and all the crabs that roam on the rocks. Then it was off to Costco! We got there right when they opened at 10. I had meal planned and written up a grocery list before our trip and it worked out really well for us. I’m planning to do an extensive post of our meal plan and grocery list :) After Costco, we got the remainder of our groceries at Safeway.

When we got back to the condo we unloaded all our goodies and went straight to the beach. (Sugar Beach was literally steps from our condo.) We swam in the warm ocean and relaxed on lounge chairs (since our condo was small there were always three available right next to each other). We cracked open our first Maui Brews and read in lounge chairs by the ocean while the sun thawed out our skin that had been in 15 degree weather just the day before.

We made lunch at the condo when we got hungry: turkey/ham/cheese sandwiches (which Merry and I typically split), and Maui sweet onion potato chips. After lunch we decided we needed a sweet treat and headed to Ululani’s for some authentic Hawaiian shaved ice – an absolute must when on the islands. It was super close to our condo so we got to walk along the beach to get there. I ordered the coconut and strawberry with vanilla ice cream at the bottom. Holy yum. We walked back across the street to the beach and ate our super melty treats. Then it was back to the condo for more relaxing beach time.

To wrap up our day, I cut up one of our pineapples so Merry could get her first taste of Maui gold pineapple – AKA the best pineapple ever. Then the husband grilled some pork tenderloin and pineapple and we all had Kona lagers by the beach as the sun set on our first full day on Maui. We ate our tasty dinner in our condo, then sat on the beach until it got completely dark outside. By the end of the day we were. So. Tired. We hit the hay pretty early in anticipation for our early morning the next day.