Maui Trip 2009

We've been together for all most nine years and never really taken a vacation.  Earlier in 2008 I qualified for something called "Clearly the Best" which basically means I work too much.  If I was chosen as a yearly achiever I got a free five day trip to Maui for me and a guest with all expenses paid.  Well, I won and we just got back from the trip.  They took very good care of us and for a few minutes I actually felt appreciated :)  We were able to extend our trip by five more days and had a fantastic time.  Here are a few pictures, we never get enough but it should at least give you an idea what we got to see. 

A view of the pool from the outdoor lobby, it was voted the best resort pool on Maui for 2008!

We went on a hike to this area that contained lava flows from the most recent volcano eruption on Maui, something like 2000 years ago!

From the cliffs above you can see this really cool looking tide pool, the surf came up and filled it up every few minutes.

There was a layer of red volcanic ash near the water, the whole area looked more like Mars than Earth.

We went back on a day that the surf was supposed to be abnormally high, it was totally worth it too!

This place is called the "blowhole" because of a hole through the lava tube that extends down to the water, when the surf comes up it shoots water well over 100 feet into the air like a geyser!

It was tough to grab a photo at the right moment because the wind would disperse the water over the cliff.

On the road to Hana we stopped to check out this waterfall and someone was nice to take our picture.

We found out about this place in a book, it was a 15 minute hike from the road and well worth it.

These are two of the famous "Seven Sacred Pools" southwest of Hana, well worth one of the most scary drives I've ever done

There were so many waterfalls on the road that I forget which one this was, they are all amazing looking too!

While out on our snorkling trip we got to see a bunch of sea turtles, this one was about as big as a car hood!

The hired photographers took some really cool pictures, I grabbed up this one.

We got to go to a Luau and the last performer rocked the fire stick, the drumming in the background made the whole experience even cooler.

We had some group activities to do for the "work" part of the trip, here I am working on a sand sculpture.

Our first night we had a welcome banquet to attend, the photographer got this as the sun was setting.

One night at dinner they had performers walking around and doing things like this!