Aloha, people!
Since I can still hear the ukuleles playing Aloha 'Oe in the back of my mind, I can't help wanting to share this with anyone who is reading my blog. I wrote this to post elsewhere with our photos, but it is appropriate for my blog as well. I apologize for no pictures yet, I'm still working on going through all of the ones we took, taking out bad ones, duplicates and changing the orientation of the portrait photos from landscape. I'll post again with a few photos when they're ready.
We started out at the Mauna Lani Bay resort on the Big Island near Kona for five nights of our trip. We did a "bed and breakfast" deal that gave us a full breakfast each morning, omelets to order, etc.
Big Island - Day 1 - We arrived after 8PM HI time. Upon check-in they gave us beautiful orchid leis. I was quite impressed, but at the same time a little sad at the orchid "carnage". I mean, they can be testy buggers to get going, and to think that there were probably upwards of 50 blooms on my lei, made me feel a little bad - that is, until we went to the gardens around the resort and saw that these suckers grow like crazy in HI. :) We went to our room and it was beautiful. There were deep dark wood sliding doors over the closet, bathroom area and over our sliding glass door that opened to our balcony overlooking the Pacific.
Big Island - Day 2 - Resort and Pool. We woke up to the sun pouring into our room and the blue water lapping about 50 yards our room. We weren't able to see much the night before, so to wake up to a breathtaking view of the ocean in front and Mauna Kea rising up to the right. Very beautiful resort. They had all kinds of natural ponds all around the resort that they would open these "gates" that would let in life from the seas. Then, they would shut the gate and "lock" the fish in. The first floor of the resort had small sea turtles and just outside and below our balcony was a pond with sharks! I would watch them flip their tails back and forth through the water as I sat on our balcony.
Big Island - Day 3 - Resort and Golf. I don't golf, but Chris does. So, he brought his clubs and got a tee time. I decided to ride along with him in the cart. A first for me. He's been telling me how good he is and it was really fun to finally watch him (I really have absolutely no interest in golf). The course was beautiful and it was really lovely driving around in the fresh air along the coastline. Before the tee time Chris and I walked around the resort and took some pictures. Oh, which reminds me. BUY A TRIPOD! It was great having it. We didn't have to stop every other person to take pictures for us. We just set up the tripod and got some great shots (we think ;)
Big Island - Day 4 - We drove to Kilauea, the island's active volcano. We left early in the morning and made a number of stops. We overlooked at Waipio Valley (which is in the opening shot of Jurassic Park), then stopped at Akaka Falls (waterfall drops 420 ft), then stopped at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden which was breathtaking. They had a whole section dedicated to orchids! We finally made our way to the Volcano National Park to see how Pele (the volcano goddess) was feeling. We drove the Chain of Craters Road to the lava flows. It was surreal. So much dried lava! We stopped before the flows and parked our car and walked to the point where sometime I think in 2002 (?) the lava flowed over the road. So, we have pictures of the road covered by lava. Pele was feeling good, so we were able to see three glowing flows coming down the mountain. Good thing we decided to go in the evening when you could actually see the flows glowing!
Big Island - Day 5 - Resort, swimming and snorkeling. We hung out at the resort, snorkeled, did some shopping. There wasn't a whole lot to see when we snorkled, but we went out to the closest reef and did see some tropical fish. My favorite was the state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (I spelled that without Googling! In Hawaii, you pronounce EVERY letter in a word, this makes spelling quite easy :) We also had our best meal on the Big Island at Brown's at the Orchid Hotel - next to our hotel. If you ever go to Hawaii, you HAVE to try the poke. If you are not familiar, it is like sushi salad! Yum!
Big Island to Maui - Day 6 - We hopped over to Maui to the Whaler Condos in Lahaina. Chris's parents have a condo there. Other than the almost rollercoaster of a puddle jumper plane ride to Maui, the day was pretty lazy. We hung out at the condo, got settled in, and went grocery shopping for the week. Word to the wise... Chicago style pizza on Maui isn't very good ;)
Maui - Day 7 - We had rented a Jeep first day we drove to the top of Haleakala with Chris' parents which was beautiful. Afterwards we went to dinner with Chris, his parents, his sister and her husband on the beach watching a breathtaking sunset.
Maui - Day 8 - We went snorkeling at Molokini Crater and another reef just off of Maui and saw sea turtles and other great ocean life. On the way back, we were treated to an impromptu whale watching site. We saw a mamma whale and her baby just off the Maui shore. In the evening we had a family dinner at the condo. Very relaxing!
Maui - Day 9 - Golf and Girl time. Chris, his dad and Chris’s brother-in-law all went golfing while the girls hung out at the condo. His sister Melissa and I did some shopping and I got my nails done. That evening Chris and I went on a "date" to dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Maui, near the condo. The restaurant was on a terrace facing the ocean. It was lovely!
Maui - Day 10 - Road to Hana. Chris, myself, Chris’s sister and her husband all road in the Jeep on the road to Hana. A twisting and turning 63 mile white knuckle ride with some 300+ turns with breathtaking scenery. It truly was amazing. We stopped a few places along the way. Hana itself isn’t much, but a few miles past there is the Oheo Gulch with the seven sacred pools of water. They’re basically waterfalls that empty into cascading pools which all eventually ends up in the Pacific. Staggering beauty for sure! We also became more familiar with the local rodent, the Muskrat. That evening, Chris’s brother, his wife and two kids made it to town (Chris’s parents were staying an extra week after we left). The next day was sure to be action packed family fun (and it was!).
Maui - Day 11 - Golf, pool and luau. The guys (Chris, his dad, bother and brother-in-law) went out for another round of golf. Us ladies hung back at the condo where we had some good pool time (you’ll notice my quite rosy cheeks - the only time I came close to a sunburn the entire trip, thanks to the continuous spray sunscreen, SPF 50 we bought!). Chris’s mom and I went to a local needle craft shop where I bought some local cross stitch designs and when everyone came back to the condo we all got ready for our big luau. We went to the Old Lahaina Luau, we saw it on the Travel Channel as a feature before we left, and as luck may have it, Chris’s mom booked that as our luau experience. It was said on the Travel Channel to be the most authentic luau on the Islands. When we arrived, we were greated by the staff with flowers for all the ladies for their hair and another orchid lei. I felt a pang of guilt again for the orchid carnage, but that was quickly alleviated by the open bar and all you could eat pork, fish, veggies and poi. We had a great time. What a way to put an exclamation point on an already wonderful vacation!
Maui - Day 12 - Return home. Funny thing, on our way back home, we had a flight from Maui to Kona back on the Big Island (that’s where our round trip ticket to the mainland was). When we checked our bags all the way to Orlando in Maui but when we returned home, we found out that our bags weren’t quite ready to leave the Islands yet. In fact, two of them found their way to Honolulu on Oahu. I’m very jealous. I would have loved to go to Oahu if we had the time this vacation (we’ll just have to go back someday!). Not fair that my shoes were able to be there without me! We got all of our bags back within a few hours of returning home, so no harm, no foul.
