With memories of our most recent Maui trip getting older by the day, and it never being too soon to think of our next trip, we thought we’d jot down 10 of the things we still want to do in Maui on our future visits.
1. Go Whale Watching
We’ve been told that during the peak of whale season, you can’t be on a boat for more than an hour without seeing the whales. Seeing that we’re members of the Pacific Whale Foundation, we doubt we’d have a difficult time catching a ride. We’re currently planning for a February of 2009.
2. Witness a Haleakala Sunrise
There’s no disputing that the sunsets in Maui are spectacular anywhere on the island, but seeing the sunrise from above the clouds high atop of Haleakala. We had had hopes this past trip to make the trek, but the thought of being picked up at our hotel at 3:30am for the tour we were looking at sort of turned us off a little bit. We’re hoping again to give it a shot next year, and we’re thinking that if we schedule it for our first morning on Maui, while our bodies are still on mainland time, it might be easier to get out of bed.
3. Watch the lighting of the Banyan Tree for Christmas
With less than four weeks to Turkey Day, the holidays will be here sooner than you think. We got our November/December issue of Maui No Ka ‘Oi magazine and it featured all the holiday events happening on the island, one of which is the lighting of the Banyan Tree in Lahaina for Christmas. December in Maui or snow in Chicago? Hmm…
4. Ring in the New Year on Maui
On the topic of winter holidays, how great would it be to start off a brand new year than soaking up the sun on a beach on Maui? Besides, with the time difference, you can watch the ball drop in New York Times Square before heading out for dinner. 
5. Dress up for Halloween and party on Front Street
We had known how big the Halloween celebration was in Lahaina and how Front Street is shut down and transforms into something like a Pacific Mardi Gras, but it caught us by surprise when we walked into a local Halloween store on the mainland and saw a contest the being put on by the store franchise for trip to Lahaina for the celebration next year.
6. Celebrate Valentine’s Day under the stars
We absolutely loved our Dinner Under the Stars evening at the Sheraton Maui Resort this year, which we enjoyed for our fourth wedding anniversary, and it instantly made it on our 10 Musts list for every Maui trip. We figure if it was that perfect for our anniversary, why not for Valentine’s day, especially if we’re hoping to go whale watching in ‘09. I’m sure we’re not alone in this idea, though, so we should probably try to reserve it now.
7. Spend both of our birthdays in Maui (at least once each)
With all these holidays, we’ll probably be in Maui at least once each month of the year. I’m an Aries and Cindy’s a Leo, so April and August for vacations would not be that unreasonable.
8. Visit Lanai and Molokai
Maybe it’s just to say we’ve been there, but we’d like to at least see what the other islands in Maui county have to offer. I’m not a golfer and we’re not big hikers, put I’m sure a day excursion out to these islands would still be worth it.
9. Go Parasailing (at least Cindy wants to)
When Cindy first saw people parasailing right there on Ka’anapali Beach during our first trip, she said she wanted to try it. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I’d be there right on the boat with the video camera to capture it for everyone back home to see.
10. Take a professional astronomy tour
I could go on and on about how incredible the stars above Maui are, but that’d be kind of redundant. We found out on one of our last nights this year that the Hyatt in Maui actually had a professional astronomer on staff and offered regular tours of the skies. Definitely something we’d be interested for the future.
An update to this list can be found in this post.