Hawaii Vacation Part II

Hi guys! I am back today with Part II of our Hawaii Vacation recap. If you missed Part I, you can read that here. I was hoping to have this post up at the end of last week, but unfortunately my blog was hacked 🙁 I apologize if you were trying to access this site last Thursday or Friday – it was down for maintenance in order to fix the mess caused by a not-so-nice web hacker. Nevertheless, we are back up and running now, so let’s get to it!

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We left off last time at the end of our first day of vacation. The next morning, Travis and I decided we wanted to spend the day just hanging around the hotel and relaxing. We woke up bright and early (due to the time difference) and decided to head straight to the beach. After about only 10 minutes of laying on our respective beach chairs, we were both getting a little antsy. There were lots of people paddle boarding, swimming and kayaking, so we decided to rent a 2-person kayak and hit the waves. Having been a coxswain (the little  person who steers the boat and commands a crew) in high-school and college, I put myself in charge of steering us and mainly relied on Travis for his strength to move us through the big waves. We had a blast and went pretty far out into the ocean. We even saw a GIANT sea turtle, which was the highlight of the day! In fact, we rented a kayak two days later just to see if we could find him again.

After a pretty serious workout on the water, we were getting hungry, so we hopped into our rental car and headed to a nearby spot for lunch. While I was researching before our trip, I found Coconuts Fish Cafe on Yelp. They have very high ratings and are known for their delicious fish tacos.

We ordered the fish tacos and coconut shrimp to share.  After my first bite, I knew immediately why this place had such rave reviews. Everything tasted so fresh and the flavors were out of this world! Check out that incredible mango salsa in the picture above!

The coconut shrimp came with a delicious sweet dipping sauce. I wish I had asked for the recipe because I would love to recreate it at home. We ordered the perfect amount of food because neither of us felt too stuffed and we were more than ready to hit the waves again after lunch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the beach and pool.  That night we had an early dinner reservation at Ferraro’s at the Four Seasons resort nearby. I read online that on top of it’s delicious Italian food, Ferraro’s had the best sunset views and it was considered a very romantic dinner spot. I knew it was a must-do for us!

I booked a 5:30PM dinner reservation to ensure we would already be seated by the time the sun began to set. Our hotel, the Andaz at Wailea, had a complimentary courtesy car that will drive you anywhere within a mile or two of the resort. It was a great amenity that we used multiple times during our trip. It is very helpful if you plan to have a few drinks with dinner so you don’t have to worry about driving afterward.

That night we had the courtesy car drop us off at the Four Seasons. The main entrance and lobby area was so grand – the klutz in me was nervous I was going to trip and break something! We walked down the stairs and through the pool area to the Ferraro’s entrance. We were actually the first to arrive for dinner that evening, which was strange for us. We are not used to being such early birds!

I am so glad we came early, though, because we got the BEST seat in the restaurant with a perfect view of the ocean and the gorgeous Maui skies.

The service was amazing at Ferraro’s. Our meal started with warm hand towels. The waiter poured warm water on these tiny towels and we watched them expand before our eyes. So cool!

To start, I ordered wine and Travis had a beer.

We browsed the menu for so long because everything looked delicious! We decided to order a few plates to share. We asked the waiter to bring our dishes out slowly so we could maximize our time enjoying the sunset. He did a great job and we ended up sitting at the restaurant for a little over two hours.

To start we had the Maui tomato and burrata salad. Whenever we see burrata on a menu, we have to order it. We can’t get enough!

Next we had the bruschetta trio: roasted red pepper, kalamata olive, and Maui tomato all on buttery grilled ciabatta. I would have happily ordered another round of these if we didn’t have our entree on its way!

As we dug into our bruschetta appetizer, the sun began to set. It was simply stunning!

For our final course we had whole wheat pasta with a braised lamb sauce. This was my favorite item of the night! The fresh pasta melted in my mouth and I never wanted it to end.

By the time we finished our meal, the sky looked magnificent with hundreds of shades of pinks and purples.

After our meal we decided to walk around the Four Seasons for a bit before calling the Andaz’s courtesy car to pick us up. We were so happy and just in vacation dream land (OK, maybe that was the wine I was feeling…) It felt so nice not to be in any rush to go anywhere. Best yet? We had a car that would come pick us up as soon as we called! Now that is the life…

You can continue reading about our final days in Maui in this post.