ALOHA

Matthew and I just got back from an amazing vacation in Hawaii. Matthew had work there so we decided to make a trip out of it. We went to Maui for 5 days, then Oahu for 2. It was AMAZING! I'm going to be pretty specific about what we did, but mostly so I can remember...:)

We got a lei greeting in Maui, we were SO excited to be there! It was hard to leave the girls, but we have never really gone anywhere like this together. We arrived Sat. night, found our condo that was in Kihei, then went to Outback for dinner. We then went to the beach by our condo and took our first walk on the beach...the water is SO warm!

Sunday we went to 9 a.m. church, then took off on the road to Hana. It is a gorgeous scenic route with stops along the way at different beaches, hikes, tropical gardens, like I said, GORGEOUS!

One stop was a garden area with a lot of the tropical plants, and it had these fresh water pools. We decided to take a swim! They tell you to start on the Road to Hana early, so we were pretty much behind everyone going up. It was nice because we ended up having most of the stops to ourselves!

Just gorgeous....

There was a guy along the way cutting coconuts, so Matthew had to get one. It was pretty good, but Matthew still claims the ones in the Phillipeans are much better!

Here we are at the black sand beach. There's only one on Maui, and one on the big Island of Hawaii. It was pretty neat. Not soft sand for sure. Above is what we saw as we were walking down, this guy had this octopus he had just speared. It was pretty gross, no calamari for me!

One of the many waterfalls

A little past Hana, is the Seven Sacred Pools. Seven waterfalls and seven fresh water pools. You could cliff jump off of a few spots, and it was so pretty.

Monday we went to the beach, Matthew did a little surfing. Then Monday night we had a dinner cruise.
Tuesday, we woke up early and went on a snorkeling expedition to Molokini. We had 2 different stops, one at Molokini and another at Turtle Town. Molokini had great coral and some fun fish and obviously turtles at turtle town. All of our pictures are on an underwater camera getting developed!
After snorkeling we mapped out a 6 mile run and went for a run down by McKenna Beach and Big Beach. After our run we ran into the ocean to swim. That night we had an amazing dinner at Serranos on the Beach. Yummy fresh fish!

This is the sunrise at 10,000 feet, on Haleakala, a volcano. We took a bus all the way to the top to see the sunrise, then they hooked us up with bikes and we were able to bike 36 miles down the volcano (it wasn't hard at all cause we just coasted downhill). The sunrise was amazing, and the bike ride was fun.

We stopped at a local Inn for breakfast....one of my favorite meals all week. Buttermilk pancakes with macadamian nuts and coconut syrup. YUMMMM!

Thursday we did a little sleeping in, then went for our same run by Big Beach. This time we took our snorkeling stuff and actually saw some great stuff. After that we went to a spa for massages, & scrubs. It was so relaxing!

Our last sunset on Maui. We ate at Mama's Fish House. They had THE BEST seafood we've ever had. Great location watching the sunset and great food. Desert was a yummy banana crisp.

Friday morning we got on a plane to Oahu. Our next 2 days were packed but fun. We went to the Dole plantation and had lunch and the great pineapple whip. Then we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center and saw some shows, ate at the Luau and saw the night show. It was really neat.

The fire dancer at the night show.

Shark Time! Yes these are sharks, and yes, we swam with them! We headed out Sat. morning and got on a charter boat. They took us out about 15 min. As soon as we got to the spot we could see sharks swimming and I got really nervous. They put us in a cage and pushed us out. We had snorkeling stuff and were able to dive down a little, but there were probably about 15-20 sharks swimming around us. It was quite the rush! You'd see one, want to keep your eyes on it, but would look down or turn around and there'd be more!

After the sharks, we got ready and headed into downtown Honolulu. We hit the swap meet for an hour, then headed to Pearl Harbor. What a sobering but neat memorial. Matt then had to work for a little while and the shooting range was right by the International Market.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory then took off for the airport. What a great trip! It was so nice to spend some time with just each other. I don't think you realize how much you need it until you have it! It was so good to see our girls again though, we missed them tons, and were glad to be home. If anyone is thinking about Hawaii anytime, I'd strongly suggest Maui! We loved it!