Travel Series
How A Vacation to Maui Changed Our Life Forever
We had no idea that our trip to Maui would be a life-changing experience.
When my husband and I arrived on Maui to celebrate our tenth anniversary in May of 2001, we had no idea that vacation would change our life forever. Our time there was wonderful beyond belief. We loved Maui so much that we started discussing the possibility of moving there on the plane ride home.
By November of 2002, we had sold our home in Pennsylvania, quit our jobs, and relocated to Maui. That move required us to get rid of our furniture and many other possessions. It also entailed a cross-country drive to Seattle so our car could be loaded onto a barge and shipped to Maui.
Why we chose to move to Maui
As I said above, our vacation experience was wonderful beyond belief. We knew that living and working on Maui would be quite different from vacationing there, but still felt called to move to Maui for multiple reasons:
- We were tired of having to scrape ice off of the car’s windshield and shovel snow each winter in Pennsylvania. It also sometimes got unbearably hot during the summer there. Year-round temperatures in Maui’s coastal areas typically range from the low sixties to high eighties, which seemed ideal to us.
- Maui’s beauty, both on land and underwater, enchanted us. In addition to its numerous gorgeous beaches, Maui has waterfalls and mountains. It also has spectacular marine life. While snorkeling we saw sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, manta rays, dolphins, octopus, and lots of tropical fish.
- We saw a humpback whale calf breach and knew we wanted more experiences like that. Although we visited in May, when most of Maui’s humpback whales had already left to return to Alaska, we were fortunate enough to see a young calf breach (jump completely out of the water). Our tour boat captain said during whale season (December — April) there were so many humpbacks in the waters off Maui’s coast that the boat companies guaranteed you would see at least one on their whale watches. We were eager to experience that.
- We worshipped at a local church and loved it. The people we met at Kihei Lutheran Church were friendly, the music was outstanding, and we felt God’s presence there. We knew that we would enjoy being members of that church.
Our life on Maui
We arrived on Maui with no place to live and no jobs lined up in advance. Our first few nights were spent in a short-term rental as we searched for a condo. We soon found one and signed a one-year lease.
The next step was to find work. Within a couple of months, I had a job in an art gallery and my husband was the manager of a gas station.
Our new life on Maui was off to a great start. We spent most of our free time at the beach. Snorkeling gear was one of our first purchases, and we used it often to explore Maui’s underwater world.
We became members of the church we had visited during our vacation and got involved in various activities there. I joined the choir and the women’s group and later served as Council President. My husband joined the men’s group, taught an adult Sunday School class, and started a Contemplative Prayer group. We both served as Assisting Ministers and participated in a weekly Bible Study.
When our lease was up, we purchased a condo. At that time, large down payments were not required and our mortgage was comparable to what we had been paying in rent.
We also changed jobs and became activity agents. That meant we got to help tourists plan and reserve the fun things they wanted to do during their vacations to Maui. Because every luau, boat, zipline, and helicopter company wanted us to have detailed knowledge about the experiences they offered and recommend them to visitors, we got to do all of those activities for free.
We lived on Maui for ten years before deciding to leave, and I wish we could have spent the rest of our life there. We still take vacations to Maui whenever possible.
Why we left Maui
Although our life on Maui was good for the most part, there were some challenges that ultimately led us to conclude that it was time to leave.
The biggest issue was that it was so expensive to live on Maui. Our jobs were tourism-related and paid an hourly wage that was not enough to cover the high cost of living there. Most of Maui’s residents had at least two jobs, and we didn’t want to be working almost all of the time.
A related problem was the lack of opportunity for career advancement. Our Master’s Degrees were useless on Maui, and we wanted to resume the professional careers we had abandoned.
It was also difficult to be so far away from our families. The long plane rides necessary to see them were a luxury we could rarely afford, so we often missed family reunions, graduations, and other important events. We wanted to be able to get in the car and drive to visit them instead of always having to fly.
Final thoughts
A vacation to Maui led us to make a life-changing decision to move there. It was a huge risk with a lot of unknowns, including where we would live and what kind of work we would do.
Despite the challenges we encountered during our ten years on Maui, living there was a wonderful experience. I’m glad we made that choice and have many happy memories. It was hard to leave and I will always be grateful for our time there.
If you are planning a trip to Maui and would like my recommendations about what to see and do while there, read these articles:
I wrote this story in response to a prompt in an article from Sharing Randomly. If you’d like to write about an amazing travel experience you’ve had, make sure you read and follow the guidelines in that article.
I’d especially love to read stories from Anne Bonfert and Warren Patterson.
Last but not least, I have to give a shoutout to Adrienne Beaumont and her story about why she loved visiting North Korea. I have no desire to travel there, but reading about her trip was fascinating.