Harry and I flew to Phoenix, AZ and from there to Maui, Hawaii as our resort week with All Points travel this year.
The weather was great, although not better than home and everyone we met who found out we were from Florida wanted to know why we were in Hawaii. Most of these people were from Alaska or the midwest and really needed some nice weather.
Our resort was the Maui Banyan right across the street from a wonderful beach where we snorkeled for the first time in our lives. It was really nice but you had to go to the beach early or the waves would knock you down because of the afternoon trade winds.
We went to a luau which was great fun, met some really nice people at our table, the food and drinks and entertainment were really wonderful. I thought it would be too cheesy and, although it was, we had a great time.
Drove up to the Iao Needle, another really pretty area.
Took a ride up to the volcano Haleakala (didn't make it for sunrise for it was a great trip anyway). Wonderful scenery on the way up and we stopped for great pizza on the way back down.
Went to Lanai and took a whale watching trip and saw lots of humpback whales, even the tour guides said they had never seen so many whales on a two hour trip.
Took a tour bus on the road to Hana, an all-day excursion on a one lane windy road. We made lots of stops at waterfalls taro fields, bamboo forests and the O'heo pools, then had a nice catered lunch at a flower farm where we bought some plumeria plants (the plants leis are made from), we'll try to grow them at home.
Another day we went to the only sugar cane farm still working on the island and learned a lot about the history of sugar cane in Hawaii and still another day we drove north to where the BIG waves are and watched the wind surfers and board surfers waiting for the perfect wave.
By the time we left we had gone all around the entire island and seen all the major sights. Really got a good idea of Hawaiin life. Beautiful beaches, tropical forests, flowers, weather and people but we still like Florida better.