As you may know Keao is from the Big Island but went to school on Oahu. She left Honokaa in the 7th grade and attended Kamehameha Schools until she graduated from High School. This, of course, meant she boarded and live with the other outer island girls. One of her best friends during this time was a sweet Maui girl named Kelii. Kelii has since left the islands and moved to North Carolina but she comes back to visit from time to time. So right after the Great Aloha Run (and I literally mean right after) Keao and I hurried home to shower pack and then head to the airport. We had a 12:44pm flight to catch and we were both exhausted from waking up at 4am, running 8.15 miles and rushing to the airport. We did make our flight pretty easily but by the time we arrived on Maui we were both starving and wanting food badly! Luckily for us there was a Ruby’s Diner in Kahului.

The entrance to our heavenly meal

Ruby’s Diner is a 40’s style diner that specializes in burgers, fries and shakes. They also have the waiters and waitresses dress up like they did back then (or at least what I imagined they wore back then). Because we figured that we ran enough calories off in the morning, we decided to treat ourselves to whatever we wanted to eat.

Keao was so hungry she couldn’t even look at the menu (or camera)

She opted for a peanut butter cup shake which was so huge they brought out the extra in another cup!

I opted for the sliders and rings (which were perfect even though there were only five of them)

After lunch we took a nap and met up with Kelii and her family in Wailuku. We hung out with them for a bit and got ready for our big adventure to the Maui Ocean Center the next day.

The Maui Ocean Center is an aquarium that sits right next to Maalaea Harbor. Probably the thing it’s most famous for is its shark tunnel. That is, there’s a large tunnel in the middle of the tank so you can watch the sharks and rays swim above you. There are also a lot of other fish and mammal displays as well.

The large sign beckons you to come on in

One of the first tanks had a bunch of flounders which was cool because they have both eyes on the same side of their heads

This is what they look like from above

This is me holding the water back (Moses style!)

Although it’s not a petting zoo, the shark lagoon is a popular draw

These are called hammerheads for very obvious reasons

Keao and Kelii before the fun began

There is a section at the center completely devoted to Hawaii’s official marine mammal the Humpback whale. Lahaina used to be the whaling capital of the Pacific because the whales come to give birth right off the shores of Maui every winter. So because of their importance to our history and our tourism industry when the whales come to town people from all over the world come to look and study them.

One of the interactive displays in the center focuses on whalesongs. Keao, ever the scientist, wanted to see if she could one day communicate with the huge beasts. How’d she do? I’ll just let the video explain.

Pretty good eh? After that stunning display of talent, we saw more sharks and a few rays.

These guys had their own special tank

This is a ray swimming away

If you were being eaten by a ray, this would be the last thing you would see

After we left the Maui Ocean Center we were all pretty starving. Of course we looked for some lunch, but dessert called us first and we couldn’t resist.

Hula Cookies and Ice Cream makes an ice cream sandwich with what else but their own cookies and ice cream

Keao and I split a scoop of chocolate between two chocolate chip cookies

After dessert we decided to get some real food and we drove over to Kihei to go to Da Kitchen. This is one of Kelii’s favorite spots and she highly recommended it.

Notice it’s “local and Hawaiian” style food

Who do you think they modeled the wall art after?

Our Hawaiian plate was definitely enough for two

Of course you can’t go to Maui without going to the beach can you? So after lunch we headed down toward Wailea to hit the beach. By hit the beach, I mean Keao and the girls all went into the water while I took a nap on the sand. I could only nap for a few minutes because it was so darn cold. I can’t imagine how crazy those girls were since I was cold on the beach they must have been colder in the water.

See how cold they look?

After the beach we headed back to Wailuku and played a quick game of Farkle (hot dice). Then it was more eating. As this would be our last meal on Maui and no one wanted to make a decision Nani (Kelii’s sister) suggested we eat a food court. Since no one objected we drove down to the food court. Now I’m not saying that Maui doesn’t have good food courts, but this one had four eateries. Yup, four. It had an L & L, a Bale Sandwiches, an Aloha Grill (which served up burgers and whatnot) and Fernando’s (Mexican). Since I had burgers the day before and we have Bale and L & L’s everywhere I opted for the Mexican. I kind of felt like a traitor not eating at La Bamba’s but what are you gonna do?

The Kau Kau Four Court

Fernando’s from a distance

I had the alpastor sandwich

The food was pretty filling and tasty. I had an alpastor sandwich which is kind of like having a Portuguese sausage sandwich except it’s, you know, Mexican. Overall it was really filling considering it came from a fast food Mexican place.

After all that we finished up and headed back to Oahu. It was a short trip, but a fun-filled memorable one nonetheless.