Hawaii Recap

This is going to be a huge update.  I'm going to update from where I left off in the last Hawaii blog through the end of our trip.  And where did I leave off?  At the best part of our trip, the part when Kevin was (almost) finished with work obligations and was able to have some fun! 
Kevin spent most off his first day of fun on the slide:

We decided to take a shuttle into the neighboring town, Lahaina.  It was really cute.

There was a beautiful tree in the middle of town.

We were told over and over again to try a Mai Tai so we happily obliged. 

We made our way back to Ka'anapali, sat by the pool for a little longer, and then walked to a local restaurant called Hula Grill to listen to some music and to grab a snack. 

This may be the best thing we ate while in Maui.  If not it's a very close second.  It's Ono (Wahoo) ceviche dish with tomatoes, onions, and avocado. 

It was back to the room to get ready for a welcome reception.  Kevin had spent two days in conferences with about half of the people who were there.  The other half had just arrived for the recognition portion of the week.  He had only met the first half of his coworkers and was busy introducing himself to the rest.  Me?  I hadn't met a soul.  Three and a half years with the company and I'd never met a single coworker.  Crazy.  We sat down and were taking in the local music and some hula dancing when Kevin got pulled up on stage by one of the guys.  Now remember....he doesn't really know anyone.  I thought he'd be mortified but he actually handled himself really well!  I didn't have a camera but someone sent him a picture.

ZIPLINING
On Thursday we woke up and went down to the pool for a couple of hours before heading out to do some ziplining.  Neither of us had ever tried it.  We were so excited!  It was such a huge thrill and the view was amazing!

About halfway through we stopped for lunch at a lookout point.

I hope we have the opportunity to do it again someday.  It was so much fun!

SNORKELING
Several people told us about a spot to snorkel that was walking distance from our hotel.  We were able to rent equipment on the way and we were off to check it out. 

Here is the view from our hotel.  We walked to "black rock" and swam along the rocks.

I went out to about waist deep water and put on my mask.  When I looked down I was shocked to see hundreds of fish swimming all around me.  Most of them were tiny but they were all beautiful, bright colors.  If you know me, you know my fear of sea life, namely sharks.  I was proud of myself for swimming alongside Kevin and allowing myself to take it all in.  That is until I went out a little too far.  See the point of the rocks in the picture?  I swam around that.  When I looked up and realized how far out I was and then saw nothing but deep, dark blue water all around me I flipped out!  I'm sure if you were anywhere near me you could hear my rapid breathing coming through the top of my snorkel.  And the sight of my flippers kicking at a million miles per hour had to have been hilarious. 

I was back on the shore before Kevin knew I was gone.  About ten minutes later Kevin was working his hardest to convince me to get back in.  A small crowd had gathered so I knew they were looking at something but wasn't sure I wanted to see whatever it was.  I'm so glad he worked so hard to get me back into the water.  What they were looking at were HUGE sea turtles.  It did freak me out in the beginning but once I finally peeled myself off of Kevin's back I really enjoyed it.  It was surreal, watching them glide in the water.  When they'd approach us Kevin would dive down right next to them, looking eye-to-eye.  It was so beautiful to watch. 

Once home I googled snorkeling with sea turtles in Maui to find a picture to show Reese.  This is one of the pictures that came up.  It's an aerial view of the exact spot we were snorkeling.  I was pointing out where I was when I turned around to swim back.  It's right there where that big black shadow is at the point.  Well folks, that shadow would be A SHARK.  It is swimming by at the exact spot I was when I had my little panic attack.   Apparently sharks like to come in and feed on the turtles.    

Speaking of turtles.  This picture?  I might have turtled when I saw it and realized that's right where I was swimming.  Not cool.   

LAZY DAY
On Friday we decided to do a whole lot of nothing.  We scored the best two seats by the pool.  I dubbed the two people who sat in them "King & Queen of the Pool" while we were there.  And let me tell you, it was very nice to be queen for a day.  I pulled my towel to the edge of the pool and read for most of the day.  While on vacation I finished three books. 

We walked down the path next to our hotel and had a snack at a beach side restaurant.  There are so many birds all over the place.  This guy hung out with us while we ate.  

After a nice day of relaxation we had to attend the recognition dinner that evening, marking the very last work obligation for Kevin.  Hooray!

ROAD TO HANA
On Saturday we ended up taking surfing lessons.  The disc with the pictures is in Kevin's computer so that post will be separate.  On Sunday we woke up very early to drive around the island to Hana.  It's on the "must do" list.  It's definitely an all day affair.  Because we would be spending 8+ hours in the car, we decided to splurge on a convertible. 

Couldn't miss us in this thing!  We dubbed it the "Ken Mobile" because it looks like something out of Barbie land.  The drive was absolutely breathtaking.  I'm so glad we made the time to do it.  Kevin was thrilled to drive it.  The roads were extremely narrow winding.  We had to cross over 59 bridges (46 are one lane so you have to hope the person on the other side is paying attention and yields) and they estimate that there are somewhere around 620 curves.   Kevin likened the drive to a long game of Super Mario Cart.  Thank God I don't get carsick!

We rented a GPS that acted as a tour guide.  It gave us a narrative of what we were seeing, what to look for, when to pull over, where to hike, etc.  That really made our drive.  There was so much to see and so many spots to pull over that we would have been completely overwhelmed without it. 

Here is the spot we stopped at to enjoy our picnic lunch:

After that quick stop we were on the road again. 

We took the advice of GPS narrator dude and made a short hike down to a waterfall. 

Something on Kevin's "must do list" was to swim at the base of a waterfall.  He was so happy to have the opportunity.  I wanted to join him but the water wasn't near warm enough for me!  It was plenty of fun to watch him swim.

We made it to Hana decided to continue past to Haleakala National Park.  We heard about some good hiking there and decided to take a 4 mile hike to Makahika Falls.  Because of the difficult hike, we were able to take advantage of very few spectators compared to the crowded roadside waterfalls along the road to Hana.  Again, breathtaking views.  

To get to the falls we had to hike through a bamboo forest.  There were bamboo trees surrounding us on both sides of the trail as far back as we could see.  We were in awe.  There wasn't a soul to be seen therefore it was very quite.  The sound of the trees hitting each other in the wind sang out like wind chimes.  We would just stop in our tracks to look up and listen. 

It was almost eerie in spots, so thick with trees that the sun wasn't shining through so it was dark and quiet with the "chimes" ringing all around us. 

We got through the forest and knew we were getting close to the base of the falls. 

And finally we arrived.  It was well worth the work it took to get there.  

We left our hotel at 7:30 in the morning and pulled back into town at 7:30 that night.  We were exhausted but it was so well worth it!

LAST DAY
Monday was our last full day.  We decided to take the entire day to relax by the pool.  The view didn't suck at all. 

We did take a break to head back into Lahaina for lunch.  A local clued us in to a poke (pronounced po-kay) bar at the Safeway.  We were so excited for that meal.  The best food we ate while in Maui was always something recommended by a local.  Well, after they did their whole "the bacon burger is good" bit after which we'd respond "no, we want to know what YOU order".  In addition to some ahi and octopus poke from Safeway we went into the food court and ordered another recommended dish, kimchee fried rice. 

I was so excited I could have cried.  I'm sure it's not normal to get that emotional about food but who said I was normal?  After round two at the pool we headed out to the beach for what was probably the most beautiful sunset we had.

Just when we thought it was all coming to an end, we happened upon a hula show put on by some adorable young locals. 

The kids were all excited to run around the audience taking photos afterwards. 

FAREWELL HAWAII
Our shuttle to the airport on Tuesday left at 10:20am.  We were up early and took advantage of a couple of hours poolside (in the King & Queen thrones!) before we had to go.  After a long day and night of flights we got home at 5am on Wednesday.  While it was nice to have this time away, it was even better to wrap our arms around Reese & Talan when we got back.  It was a long time to be gone!  Fortunately the kids behaved and knowing that they were in very good hands (thank you, once again, Mom & Dad!!!!) really enabled us to enjoy the heck out of our time away.  Aloooooooooha.