Our Maui Story
From Dublin to the Pacific
We are Irish to the core, Nicole from the wild beauty of Killarney, me from the lively streets of Dublin, yet somehow life carried us from soft rain and green hills to the warm breath of the Pacific. We married on January 7th, 2000, and Nicole’s parents gifted us a week in Maui at the Lahaina Shores. One sunset in, one of those molten, gold drenched evenings that could make a poet out of a computer guy, I turned to my new bride and said, “Someday we will own a place here.” It was a mad notion, the kind you say when your heart is full and your head is on holiday… but Maui has a way of making dreams feel like promises.
26 Years of Coming Back
We moved to Seattle in 2004 with our little Mia in tow, and from then on Lahaina Shores became our pilgrimage. Every trip felt like returning to a place that remembered us. I taught Mia and Sam to swim in that pool. We snorkeled the reef like curious seals. We walked the long stretch from Lahaina to Kaanapali, the ocean keeping pace beside us. It was paradise, yes, but it was also becoming our 2nd home. In 2021, the dream came true; we bought our unit 121. We spent long stretches there during the pandemic, grateful for the calm, the sea, the sense that life could still be gentle.
August 8th, 2023
Then came August 8th, 2023. A friend staying in our unit texted me: Lahaina was being evacuated. The days that followed were heartbreaking. The fire took 102 souls, and almost the entire town was lost. The grief was heavy, the kind that sits on your chest like a rock; and yet, miraculously, Lahaina Shores survived, scarred, but standing tall. In addition, the great Banyan Tree, Lahaina’s old spirit, battered but unbroken, held on.
Rising Again
The building needed repairs, and we also took this time to fully renovate our unit. In 2025, the Lahaina Shores reopened, renewed, restored, and shining like a place that had weathered darkness and chosen to rise anyway. Lahaina lost so much that day, but its spirit is fierce. The people of Maui depend on visitors to rebuild their lives, their economy, and their town. When you stay in our unit, you are not just stepping into the magic that captured us all those years ago, you are helping Lahaina heal, grow, and come back stronger.
The Happy Place
We have always called this ‘Our Happy Place’ but as many guests who kept returning to our place were calling their happy place, we decided to rename it “The Happy Place”, Ka Wahi Hauoli… With 125+ 10/10 ratings on VRBO, this unit has never had an unhappy visitor… I believe it never will!
Welcome to our place in Paradise!
