At the moment, Sunday is looking to be another beach day for us, although we normally don’t hit the beaches on the weekend. You see, unlike what some folks think about people living in Hawaii, they don’t actually spend each and every day at the beach. With the high cost of living the island life, many people work two jobs during the week, which makes the weekends with the ohana so special. Those weekends are generally when many residents make it out for some fun in the sun themselves.

We’ll probably be doing laundry at some point on Sunday, too, which would make this a pool day instead. Yes, we do laundry on vacation, one of the drawbacks of a two week vacation. It’s either that or packing two weeks of clothes, and trust me, we do not want the hassle of any more luggage than we already have.

Day one of our return to Hana. It will be our third time making the trip, but only the first time driving ourselves. Since we’ve seen many of the popular sights already, we’re not going to be in any kind of a hurry to fight the crowds, opting to take our time and finding the areas that are lesser known.

Also, as mentioned on Friday, we’ll be spending the night at the Hotel Hana-Maui, which will certainly include dinner at Ka’uiki. If there weren’t so many other great things we’ll be doing this trip, staying in Hana would be the hands down highlight of these two weeks.

One of the benefits of staying overnight in Hana is that we’ll be able to see the sunrise over the ocean in East Maui. Right now, I’m thinking of greeting the sun from Hana Bay. After that, we’ll probably head over to the O’heo Gulch for some photos, which we didn’t visit on our trip to Hana last year. The rest of the day is taking our time getting back to Ka’anapali and stopping at places we might have missed on Monday.

The day itself on Wednesday is pretty open right now. Possibly another whale cruise, a trip to the Maui Ocean Center, or maybe a day in Lahaina. The evening, however, is reserved for one of our traditions each trip, a Luau. We’re sticking with our regular Ka’anapali Sunset Luau as we have the past two trips, which is also right on the grounds of the Sheraton.

Another day at the beach on Thursday, to get the finishing touches on our tans before returning home to the final weeks of winter in Chicago. The evening will be our dinner cruise this trip, which we normally do on the last night, but will come a day early this time (and for good reason).

The last full day is always a somber one, so we’ll likely just take it easy during the day and not try not to dread going home. We’ll probably do the laundry again, just so we won’t have to when we get home. In spite of the mood of leaving Maui yet again, we’ll be ending this trip on a very high note. Friday is the HAPA concert at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, and seeing what a magical night the show was last year, it will be the perfect end to our vacation.

Alas, our wonderful vacation has to end sometime. With the changes to our flight plans this trip, it will be interesting to see how it works out. Usually, we take the red-eye home, which means requesting a late checkout and then driving around with a car full of luggage. This time, we’ll have less time to kill and possibly less of an impact on our normal sleep patterns by the time we get home.

Kinda of makes you wish you were coming with us, doesn’t it? While not intended to brag or boast about how great our trips are, I hope these plans give you a good sense of just how many great things there are to do in Maui. To some, this list might sound a little light, or a few might even thing we’re trying to do too much. It certainly is a balancing act, and we’ve been pretty happy with our past trips as far as not burning ourselves out.

It truly is better to pace yourself when visiting Maui, and accept the fact that you’re not going to see everything in a single trip. That might not sound promising, but the reality is that you just need to keep coming back, like we do. Trust us, after you’ve visited Maui and have seen all the magic it has to offer and how it changes you, that vacation savings jar at home becomes a lot more popular.

Mahalo.