Road to Hana with Kids: Part I - Garden of Eden Arboretum - Haiku, Hawaii

Beautiful ocean overlook at The Garden of Eden, Maui

Greetings from paradise - Garden of Eden, Hawaii

Gorgeous peacock plumage on display

Rainbow Eucalyptus trees - Garden of Eden, Maui

Exotic bird welcoming committee; what a sight!

Idyllic view at The Garden of Eden, Maui

We spent one of our final days in Maui making the full Road to Hana travel journey. The kids were along for the ride and they truly loved this travel adventure. We saw beautiful rainforest plants and animals, incredible waterfalls and stunning beaches and sea views. They enjoyed the long drive, mainly due to the many fun stops we made along the way. The first stop being the lush tropical paradise known as the Garden of Eden Arboretum located in the town of Haiku. The name is 100% on the money, this place is so beautiful it's almost unreal. When you drive up toward the entrance of the garden, you are surrounded by a myriad of tropical plants and trees. The most unique of the bunch are certainly the Rainbow Eucaplyptus trees. The layered bark on these trees are multiple colors of the rainbow and had girls quite intrigued. Elise declared that, "this is the most special place in the world to have rainbow trees", yep, that would be here in The Garden of Eden, Maui. 

Once we drove further up the road and parked we were greeted by a welcoming committee of peacocks, ducks and geese. The girls loved the birds. Although one goose got a bit aggressive when we were feeding them and went chasing after little Alina. She was not a fan and quickly swung her finger in protest saying, "you're a bad boy, goose". This had us all quite amused.

After feeding the birds, we made our way toward some of the hiking trails. Most of these trails lead to beautiful ocean and waterfall overlooks. The Keopuka Rock Overlook is perhaps the most pictursque, and well known; the opening scene in Jurassic Park was filmed here. We also made the short hike up to the waterfall overlook for an incredible view of Puohokamoa Falls. From this vantage point you also have stunning views over the Hana Highway and lush surrounding rainforest. There is plenty to do here and many more trails through beautiful tropical landscapes. We saw all kinds of unique plants and flowers. When traveling the Road to Hana, The Garden of Eden is a must see stop. The kids will especially love it!

The girls admiring beautiful Keopuka Overlook

Gorgeous purple water lilies

Skipping toward Rainbow Overlook

Unique tropical plants and flowers - Garden of Eden, Maui

Stunning Puohokamoa Falls Overlook

Love the fuchsia Ti plants brightening up the landscape

Mt. Haleakala - Maui, Hawaii

Beautiful views of Haleakala National Park

Haleakala Crater is a very unique and stunning spot

Haleakala Silversword thrives in the otherwise barren terrain

Closeup of Haleakala Crater's volcanic cones

Mt. Haleakala is a must see when in Maui. I know most people go crazy for the whole Haleakala sunrise thing, but with young kids it's really not feasible. Also, it is very cold and windy at the summit especially during early morning hours. On our first trip to Maui, before kids, we did watch the sunrise atop Haleakala and while I remember it being a beautiful sight, I also remember the freezing cold and shaking uncontrollably despite being mummy wrapped in a warm blanket. With that in mind, we make our drive to the summit in the afternoon. It was a partly cloudy day, which made for great photos. The views on the drive are stunning, and there were moments when the windy road appeared to veer off into the clouds. The summit views and Haleakala Crater are even more breathtaking. It's interesting to see the volcanic cones up close, and realize that you're standing atop a volcano that essentially created the majority of the island of Maui. Another unique feature at Haleakala are the abundant Ahinahina or Silversword plants. They are large silvery light-green plants that resemble cacti and flower only once in a lifetime. They grow on the slopes of Haleakala and nowhere else in the world. I wish we had more time to explore and hike Haleakala National Park, but there is always next time once the girls get a little bigger and and can keep up the pace.

Haleakala summit - elevation 10,000+ feet

Velvety green silversword plant

Haleakala road to the clouds

Watching the sunrise on Mt. Haleakala...before kids

Valentine's Day 2014

Elise's cute owl Valentines, she proudly signed them all

Sweet Alina helped make these Mickey Mouse Valentines

The girls surprised mom with this photo gem

Lucky girls saw Disney on Ice for Valentine's Day weekend

Tangled performance - Disney on Ice

Guess who else had a great Valentine's Day? The parental units ;)

Rainy Day Trip to The Maui Ocean Center & Aquarium

A very fun day trip to the Maui Ocean Center

This pink frogfish topped the girls funniest fish list

Elise giggling at another "silly fish"

Spotting the brightly colored fish and cute sea turtles

"Hello seahorse [repeat 10 times]" - Alina :)

What do you do when it pours rain in Maui? Head on over to the Maui Ocean Center & Aquarium. We debated whether to book an underwater submarine or glass bottom boat tour with the kids, but the fact of the matter is that the Maui Ocean Center is much easier on the pocketbook, and you are 100% guaranteed to see hundreds of different fish and other unique seas creatures. We didn't regret our decision one bit. The girls loved spending the morning there, and for them this was probably one of the highlights of the trip. They had fun pointing out all the silly fish, among the top silliest were the frogfish (a face only a mother could love) and the blue "lumpy-nosed" parrotfish (in no way is that the technical name, but Elise bestowed it and hey, it fits). The aquarium isn't super large, but they do have a pretty awesome shark and ray aquarium tunnel. We spent about a half hour in the tunnel itself just shark and ray spotting. Our timing was perfect because once we left the aquarium, the sunshine returned and we went off and enjoyed dinner with Aunt Robin and Uncle Greg. Mahalo for a very fun Hawaiian day!

Sharks above us in the aquarium tunnel

Huge stingrays, a lemon shark and an awesome tiger shark

Stylin' girls in their shades

Cute Elise striking a pose

Touching the whales teeth in Whaler's Village, Lahaina

Our littlest explorer, Alina 

Dinner with Aunt Robin and Uncle Greg