I find it absolutely crazy that I am 3 weeks into my second to last Spring quarter at Stanford. Thankfully, I can safely say that there was no better way to kick it off than a trip to Maui with two good friends.
My advice? Pick a few friends to travel with to make a group sized small enough for bonding, large enough to avoid boredom. Pick a location that has all the perks of typical college spring break trips like Cancun and Cabo, but that's a bit more laid back and cultural. Pick a place to stay that's right on the beach so that the first thing you wake up to each morning and go to sleep to each night is the sound of gentle waves. Enter - a week full of laughter (sometimes at inappropriate times), singing during insanely long car rides, traditional luaus with an open bar (sad face because 2 of us were under 21), and of course, sunburns, my absolute favorite.
An overview of our trip and my favorite highlights-
Day 1: Arrive in Maui mid day. Secure a rental car from Hertz and push for the lowest fare despite a smooth talking, tricky saleswoman. Arrive in Lahaina to our little house on the beach. Discover Fish Market, an amazing lunch place a minute walk way from our place. Rest of the day spent relaxing on the beach - accompanied by two turtles who get very close up to us. Fun fact - there's a $10,000 fee for touching turtles. Don't ask why we know.
Day 2: Road to Hana! - A scenic drive with many stops along the way. Stops range from a waterfall to black and red sands beaches - products of volcano eruptions. The first of many acai bowls for dinner.
Day 3: Drove to the summit of Haleakala- it's a pretty sick view from the top. Apparently, seeing the sunrise from the summit is rather magical, but that would've required us to start driving at 3 am. On the way, we stopped at Paia, a town on the way for some window shopping and food. Topped of the long day with a fancy dinner at Leilani's. Yes, going back to college dining halls has been just a bit hard.
Day 4: Our chill day! Took some time to lounge around the house, watch Gossip Girl, and check out Lahaina town - which had more shopping and food, as always. Had more Acai, then headed to the iconic Kaanapali beach. Essentially, I welcomed my full body sunburn with open arms.
Day 5: Snorkeling and Luau - our attempt at being super cultured. We started the day off with a snorkel tour at Molokini crater and then turtle town. I've wanted to swim with turtles since I watched Nemo, so this was my absolute fave. We ended the night with the Royal Lahaina Luau - learned how to hula dance a bit, talked to a very nice older couple, watched some very fun cultural dances as well as a couple get awarded for 60 years of marriage (which again begs the question, what were three clueless teenagers doing there again?)
Spring break is a time where you can be completely unproductive, engage in self-care for a week, and be completely okay with it. As a busy Stanford student, this is quite a luxury and a good reminder to do things for you once in a while - not for your Google Calendar or your future, but just for you, here and now.
Also, I was super excited to take my camera out for the first time in a while. I was somewhat rusty, and out of laziness I've experimented with simply using the enhance function on Apple's photos app for editing rather than Photoshop or Lightroom.
Thank you to my two beautiful friends for being so easy to shoot :)
