It was another early morning for my wife, but luckily I slept very well. I felt nearly fully recovered from my cold that had held me back the previous day. It’s no fun feeling under the weather on vacation but at least it seemed like it would only be for a day.

Laundry Day

When we packed at home we planned to do laundry at least once on the trip. It was getting to the point where we were all running pretty low on things to wear. We knew we’d have laundry facilities at all three properties we’d be staying at, but we didn’t have a lot of time we wanted to devote to these chores. Unless you have laundry in your room, it’s a pain to organize and time-consuming to do. With that, I was inspired to look for a laundry service nearby with a wash and fold service. With Google’s help, I found one just a few miles away that had good reviews so I decided to check them out and drop off some laundry to outsource the task.

After meeting my wife for breakfast we gathered up all the dirty clothes and I took the kids with me to the dry cleaning place I had found. They offered a wash and fold service for $3/pound for next day service and $4/pound for same-day service. Since we didn’t need it the same day I figured I’d save the money and get the next day. They quickly got my information and gave me the receipt and I was off. It was much easier than actually doing the laundry myself!

Exploring the Blowhole

With that, the kids and I drove to the Nakalele Blowhole. We had several people recommend it to us so far on this trip and it was something we had on our list during our last trip that we never got to so I was excited to see it.

It was a 30-minute drive on some winding and hilly roads. There were some other cars on the road with us but no real traffic. You had to take the hairpin turns slowly, though. Cell phone coverage was spotty as well, though there was enough to keep my google maps directions flowing and updated. It was pretty rural but other than a single one-lane bridge, the roads were well paved and marked the entire way.

There were a couple of parking lots and a lot of cars when we got to the blowhole but luckily a car was backed out just as we arrived. The parking lot was up on a hill with great vistas from the cliffs overlooking the ocean. There was a small sign at the top indicating you were at the Nakalele Blowhole though no marked trails. That said there were several well-worn paths and it was obvious which way to go. You couldn’t get lost and there were lots of other people there you could follow. It was about half a mile down the steep hill. You would definitely want to wear sneakers rather than sandals. You would definitely NOT want to be in flip flops, though we saw several people trying that with mixed success.

If you haven’t done much hiking the trails could be a bit treacherous though with a little experience it wasn’t too difficult to find the stable places to step on. It took us about 15 minutes to get down and we did bring a bottle of water for each of us, just in case. It was in the morning but the sun was still intense.

Down by the ocean, we saw where everyone was gathering and saw the blowhole in action. It’s a literal hole in the ground and every minute or so you’ll see water mist spray up and then a gush of water come out. The timing depended on the size and timing of the waves below.

There were several signs warning people not to get to close and to stay on dry land. It’s the type of thing which attracts wanting to get the perfect selfie are drawn to. Luckily none of those people were around that day. There were several people with fishing poles fishing off the rocks (not in the blowhole, of course) and some had caught several good-sized fish.

We took some pictures and videos of the blowhole in action and it really was neat to watch. It was getting hot so we started climbing up. In some ways climbing up is easier because you can keep your balance better and it’s easier to see the better footholds, but of course, you expend more energy. It took about 20 minutes to get back up as we took a few extra rest stops to catch our breath. I’m glad we each had a full bottle of water because they were all gone by the time we got to the top!

Lazy Afternoon

It was a great hike but we were happy to be back in the car out of the sun. It takes so much out of us. On our way back we decided to get some takeout for an early lunch and bring some back to the room for my wife. We planned on having an early dinner before a sunset sailboat cruise we had booked for the evening. I had booked it online the previous day.

Back at the hotel, we found the parking garage didn’t have any free parking spots which was… frustrating. I send the kids inside to give my wife her lunch while I figured out what I was going to do about parking.

Luckily, as I was waiting, trying to figure out where to park, a lady came up to me and offered an arm full of foam pool noodles that she couldn’t fit in her car. I, of course, said yes as they would make me father of the year in the kids’ eyes. It also meant I could take their parking spot, which was even more important!

Back at the room, the kids were super excited to see the pool noodles. Since it was too hot to go to the beach or the pool, we played soccer and frisbee between the spots of shade provided by the palm trees in front of our room while my wife napped. The hotel has a huge amount of green space and our ground floor room and patio gave us direct access to it. After about half an hour of playing, we retreated inside to cool off and recover.

We spent the time watching TV before heading into town to get an early dinner at 3:00. We decided to go to the Paia Fish Market again. Despite being 3:30 in the afternoon it was still jam-packed and we had to find a table outside. The shade made the outside table bearable. The food was still excellent, which is probably why it was so packed even at that odd hour.

After eating we did a little shopping. We were looking for a new hat for me since mine somehow disappeared. Tomatico has been using it to help shelter his neck from a sunburn earlier in the trip and now it had disappeared like far too many other things. I didn’t find one I liked, mainly because I like the one I had so much. I keep hoping it’ll show up again…

After hitting a few more shops it was getting time to check-in for our sunset sailing cruise at 4:30.

Evening Sail

The directions on the ticket told us how to get to the Lahaina marina but not where exactly to meet. The marina area isn’t huge, but there are a lot of operators there. We were looking for a Sail Maui booth or something but didn’t find it so I asked one of the other booths. They pointed me to a person standing under a nearby tree. Apparently, the company doesn’t have a booth and they generally meet on the dock where the boat picks up the passengers.

We went over and introduced ourselves to the person who was wearing a Sail Maui shirt and he was able to check us in. We filled out some required waivers on an iPad and made our way to the end of the town dock where some other people were gathering.

About 5 minutes later, the sailboat we were going to go on arrived and docked. Right on time, we were allowed to board with the other passengers. Everyone was required to take their shoes off before boarding. There were only 25 passengers and 3 crew so it only took a few minutes. The boat was a 65′ catamaran and could have held a lot more people so it was not at all crowded on board.

The crew pulled away from the dock and motored out of the channel before the captain welcomed us on board and gave the required US Coast Guard safety briefing. He then let us know how the rest of the evening would go and made us feel very welcome on board. There were some appetizers in the sheltered part of the cabin and we could move around pretty much anywhere on the boat. We could make music requests and get a picture at the helm if we wanted (we didn’t but in hindsight, we should have).

It was a very small group on board with one large family, a few other smaller families and another large group that was associated with Sail Maui, the boat operator. People were very chatty and Tomatico independently got into a conversation with a lady that was from Sweden and lives in California. He told her all about Boston and things to do there and about famous people from Boston and the Revolutionary War. It was pretty neat to watch and she was genuinely interested in what he was saying. I guess that elementary school education wasn’t as totally useless as he thought!

Our youngest had some questions for the captain though he was a bit shy about asking them. I was finally able to get him to ask the captain how deep the water was (250 feet at the time) which blew his mind.

After motoring out for about 10 minutes after the initial safety briefing, they cut the engines and raised the sails. The crew did all the work so we just had to watch. There wasn’t much to it, fortunately. The wind wasn’t terribly strong so we didn’t go very fast but it was certainly peaceful.

The crew didn’t have a lot to do other than wander around the ship and strike up conversations with us. One was from Wisconsin originally and the other from Texas. They both had no sailing experience before this job but had fallen in love with it. During the day they usually did snorkel trips which were a lot more stressful. In the evening the sailing trips were pretty easy for them so they really enjoyed the peacefulness. They seemed genuinely interested in striking up conversations.

Oh, and the views were of course amazing. The water was the most interesting shade of a deep blue-purple for lack of a better description. It was fascinating and so peaceful. The boat itself was a 65-foot catamaran sailboat so it’s relatively stable in the water which itself was pretty calm. Up front, there were nets on the floor so you could lie down on the right above the water and look up at the sky (or down at the water). Everyone on board did that at least once during the cruise.

Getting towards the end of the cruise the sun started to set and there were some fantastic photos to be taken. Because it wasn’t overcrowded, everyone got some great photos. Once the sun went down the crew lowered the sails and fired up the engines to bring us back to the dock.

As we were about to depart I started chatting with one of the other passengers who I found out was one of the owners of Sail Maui. They had just brought this particular boat into the company and they were onboard the cruise to check it out. Based on our experience they have a winner so I hope it works out.

The crew was amazing and we made sure the boys gave them a nice tip. They had a ton of fun and Tomatico said it was the best thing we had done so far on the trip. The crew was amazing and having relatively few passengers on board made a big difference in our experience. We saw another boat docking around the same time as us. It was a similar size boat but it had at least twice as many people on it and it looked overcrowded and not nearly as much fun.

I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, but it was fantastic. I’m glad I picked the tour we did. The other one I was considering didn’t have enough spots for all 4 of us and I’m glad. In hindsight, of COURSE, I wanted the one that was less full.

Plus, the price was reasonable in comparison to others. It was $75 per adult and half price for each child 5-12 with kids under 5 free. Many other cruises I was looking at were much more expensive, though some of those offered dinner. This worked out perfectly for us. It was kid-friendly, the crew was amazing, and the price was right. I would totally recommend it and I’d definitely do it again!

Dessert and Calling it a Night

After we got off the boat we were still a bit pumped from the great time we had, but it was getting into the night. The kids wanted a dessert since we had had an early dinner. We stopped at the ice cream shop near the Banyan Tree. They had several interesting flavors of ice cream and I ended up getting pineapple. I was as surprised as everyone else that I was trying something different, and it was pretty good. My wife got an orange creamsicle flavor with some other Hawaiian flavor added in. The kids got a version of chocolate chip and strawberry respectively. It hit the spot!

After that, we headed to the car and drove back to the hotel. Luckily this time we didn’t have any issues finding parking. We were all worn out and quickly fell asleep.