Aloha friends!

I'm gonna jump right into this with a catch up of the last couple days.
Wed Jan 30- My night got frantic as Aaron texted me reminding me to check in to our flight. I rushed home and got on the computer just in time! I clicked on "change seats" and was amazed to find empty seats in 2 of the emergency exit rows! Being a lil superstitious I chose 2 seats in row 14 instead of 13. Moments later I decided to confirm my great luck by seeing what seat guru had to say about these seats. "Although row 14 is an exit row, there is no extra leg-room, and the seats do not recline." I sorrowfully told the news to Aaron and felt like an idiot for G-balling us!
Thurs Jan 31: We checked in at the airport and were greeted with pure joy on the plane as we saw that our seats indeed had more leg room and reclined! I was also debriefed as to what to do in case of an emergency. This was our best flight ever as we could have crazy jimmy-legs without bothering anybody! We also snuck some small vodka bottles on the flight and enjoyed our own cocktailsJ We arrived safely in Maui at around 10:30pm, picked up our rental car, and headed to a hotel close to the airport for the night.
Fri Feb 1: Today we drove to our fancy hotel after having a traditional Hawaiian meal at IHOP. We were able to check in early and then soaked up some rays at the pool. For lunch we tried a top rated place for fish tacos called Coconuts Fish Café. It was amazing. The tacos were huge and served open faced. Juicy mahihahi and ahi tuna grilled to perfection, topped with a coleslaw and unreal mango salsa. It was our first fish taco and it will not be our last. Everything there is homemade and cut fresh daily.
Sat Feb 2: This morning we biked to Denny's for breakfast before driving south to some good snorkeling spots. The first spot was a little bit dis-heartening as we found a rocky cliff jutting out into the water with waves crashing all around. We did see a boat about 100meters away with lots of snorkelers around it. We abandoned the plan and found a safer spot. We did some snorkeling and saw some fish, coral, and sea urchins and dried off before trying another taco spot; Maui tacos. They were also very tasty. We had some pool time before getting cleaned up for our Luau! The hotel shuttle drove us 10 minutes down to Mailea. We're staying in Kihei which is really nice. Mailea is even more nice and is full of Fancy hotels like Fairmont and the Four Seasons. Our Luau was at the Marriot and the hotel was gorgeous. We had a great couple from Alberta at our table and we spoke with them most of the night. We all made full use of the open bar, enjoying Mai Tais and Pina Coladas all night. Just before dinner we all watched the sun set as our the luau is set up just off the waters edge. One of the nicest sunsets I've seen. It came time to hit the buffet and we went in with a solid strategy. Do not fill your plate with salads and breads as they just take up space that the wonderful meat could fit. Halfway through the table my plate had a small mound of noodles on it. I then heaped on a ridiculous amount of the roast pig that we witnessed them dig up, and the chicken, and Hawaiian style steak. The pork was the best I've had in my life. Insanely tender and juicy. I hit the dessert bar hard and piled on coconut cake, macaroons, key lime pie etc. At the end of the night we stayed at our table for a solid 30 minutes chatting with our Albertan friends as the crew cleaned up and stacked chairs all around us. We walked to the reception area and the woman called our car which had apparently been waiting for us and just left. They turned around to collect us and waited even longer because I didn't know about this so I wondered off to find the bathroom. The drive back could have been awkward if I had realized that they all waited for us, but my ignorance (and several Mai Tais) kept me care-free. I even whispered to Aaron "we were sitting for like 30 minutes, and these people just got picked up now! What great timing!". I hope no one heard that! After getting back to the hotel Aaron slipped the driver a tip and we hustled to the beach to star-gaze. The clear sky, and minimal city lights made for some great views. We even caught a shooting star which seemed to shoot across half of the night sky. It was magical. We brought our portable speakers so we had some nice music going. It was still early at this point, maybe 9:15. But we were hit by a bright light nearby. We turned around and someone sitting 30 feet behind us was shining a light at us. I turned back and gently shouted, "could you please turn that off?" My request was met with "could you guys stop talking so I can get some sleep?" I didn't respond any further and we just kept staring at the stars, and turned our music up a little bit louder. We left a little while after the "light battle" and as we walked past the guy he turned off the light. I couldn't help but to giggle. Shining light at people is a pretty good strategy to get people to leave the beach I guess.
Sun Feb 3: This morning we grabbed McDonalds breakfast on our way to the Pacific Whale Foundation to go whale-watching! We are incredibly lucky as it's peak whale-season, and its one of the best seasons they have ever had! We saw so many whales! The highlight was when a big boy breached (jumped out of the water) directly in front of the boat as we were sitting there watching a group in the distance. He was maybe 5 feet away. He then plopped up again on the right of the boat, and then for a third time maybe 15 feet away. It was truly incredible. On our way back to shore we were followed by some dolphins for a short time as well. It was a really good time. We stopped at Coconuts for more fish tacos for lunch, and then found a table at the poolside bar to watch the big game. Happy hour started at 3 so we enjoyed some fruity drinks along with the game. We enjoyed another sunset on the beach before heading back to Maui tacos for dinner.
Mon Feb 4: Right now Aaron is at the gym as I sit here writing this. It's 8:30 and I'm getting hungry so I'm gonna cut this short.

Hope everything back home is going great!

Lots of love, Jen and Aaron:)