Aloha from Maui! I could not be more blissed about my return to my second favorite state (don’t worry New York, you’ll always fill the top slot) or more fired up about all the new exploring I’m going to do while I’m here. As many of you know, Hawaii has been a healing place for me…

So far, my adventures in diving in Hawaii had been a pretty wild success. There were the teeming-with-life shipwrecks in Oahu, the awe-inspiring mantas of the Big Island, and now I had the abundant reefs off Maui to explore. I knew my week in Lahaina wouldn’t be complete without getting underwater, so I called my friend…

In addition to my time at The Banana Bungalow, I was lucky to spend an additional week in Maui hanging out at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Lahaina. I was really excited about this week for a lot of many reasons. First of all, I was getting to spent more time in Hawaii — hello…

At this point, you might think all I did at The Banana Bungalow was hike up enough muscle soreness to justify an entire evening spent in the jacuzzi. But far from it — a vast majority of every Bungalow week is spent beach bumming. Monday is hiking in the ‘Iao Valley, Tuesday is surviving the twisting…

Deep in the heart of a Jurassic Park-like jungle, you will find the 2,250 foot ‘Iao Needle, famous for gracing postcards all over Maui. On Mondays, you will also find a roaming pack of Banana Bungalow travelers enjoying their free hiking tour to the valley. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out for me to join the…

When I saw that my time at the Banana Bungalow would include a Saturday, the day of their famous Haleakala hiking trip, I briefly considered changing my dates. Yes, it’s true, I’ve become somewhat of a hiker lately, but this was another beast entirely. And while obviously the free tours aren’t mandatory, there’s no way I…