The Big Island: Trip 4 – Day 1 & Day 2

Posted on November 13, 2017 by sandersnm

In the beginning of September, Josh, my mom, Tom and I all took a much needed vacation to The Big Island for a whole WEEK. This is the first trip to another island that lasted longer than a few days for Josh and I…which was wonderful!

Josh and I met them at the airport and we all flew to Kona together. We checked into our hotel in Waikoloa (which was lovely) and then headed to Lava Lava Beach Club for drinks, dinner and a beautiful sunset.

Cheers!

The next day, we didn’t have a ton planned (on purpose) so we could relax and explore where we were staying. We had coffee on our lanai and then my mom and I went on a walk to explore. It was a gorgeous day and we had the walk along the beach mostly to ourselves. After that, we ran to the grocery, took a nap and then got dressed for dinner at Roy’s. Linda had two restaurants that she wanted to eat at and this was one of them. The food did not disappoint and we lucked out with a corner table surrounded by water!

There were lots of cats by our hotel ❤

Crouching Lion Mini Hike

Posted on August 22, 2017 by sandersnm

This weekend Josh and I decided to try the Crouching Lion Mini hike. It’s been on our list since we lived here the last time so we were excited to try something new. We ended up going the harder way up and coming back down the easier way (not on purpose). We could not have asked for a more beautiful day or better weather!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 4

Posted on June 24, 2017 by sandersnm

We had one day on Kauai to explore the rest of the island. We decided on breakfast in Hanalei (delicious) and then driving around the rest of the island. Our first stop after breakfast was Kilauea Lighthouse and seeing the bird sanctuary. We then made it to Waimea Canyon where we spent most of our time stopping to see the views. It looks so much like the Grand Canyon! We made it to the top of the Kalalau Valley lookout. It was so weird to think we were down there the day before. Our last stop before dinner was the glass beach. There were tiny bits of sea glass all over the beach. We treated ourselves to dinner at Duke’s in Lihue before catching our flight back to Oahu. Had such an amazing trip!

Kilauea Lighthouse

Cousin love

Josh & Kyle

Waterfall!

Kalalau Valley

Looks like a painting

Glass beach

Our view from dinner!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 3

Posted on June 23, 2017 by sandersnm

On Sunday we woke up early to get started on our long hike back. I definitely did not sleep well the night before as I was dreading the hike and I was worried about the little black kitten. He turned out to be totally fine, but I was still dreading the hike. Once again, at about mile 9 I think we were all pretty done. It was a gorgeous day and much hotter than the hike in so we went through all of our water and had to stop and refill at the rivers. We were thrilled to make it to the last river and see people! It meant we were almost back. I was so happy to get off that trail and see our rental car! We all took showers and had a ton of food in Hanalei. This is the second hardest thing I’ve ever done (only being trumped by the first time I did it). Such a fun experience, but we were all thankful to sleep in a real bed that night!

Good morning and goodbye to the beach!

I think this was on accident but I loved it.

The long hike up the red dirt hill.

The sun on the ridges in the morning is beautiful.

Group shot!

Crawler’s ledge on the way back.

Finished!

Looking back at crawler’s ledge.

Love the trees against the water.

Made it to the first river/beach!

Looking back at what we accomplished.

We did it!!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 2

Posted on June 22, 2017 by sandersnm

Day two started out with all of us being just a bit sore (maybe not so much Kyle) but the rest of us were feeling it. We made coffee and breakfast and then set out to explore! Our day consisted of checking out the the rocks at the end of the beach that had all sorts of things growing on them, walking the beach and visiting the caves at the end, lounging around camp (including in our tents when it decided to start raining) and then enjoying another beautiful sunset on the beach after it rained. We finished the evening by enjoying the stars. They were absolutely breathtaking. We also made friends with a black kitten. It took everything I had to not take him home with me. ❤

What a view.

Cousin love

Walking to the caves

Enjoying the shade and coolness of the caves!

Kyle relaxing in the cave

Sibling love

Bailey enjoying the waves

Walking back from exploring the caves

These birds were everywhere and not afraid of us.

Camp!

Enjoying the rain

Rainbow!

Getting water

Such a beautiful waterfall!

Just beautiful

Loved these flowers. They were everywhere.

Love that you can see the rain in the distance.

This cat..I was so upset I couldn’t take him home.

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 1

Posted on June 21, 2017 by sandersnm

A few weeks ago, my cousins Bailey and Kyle came to visit Josh and I. It was deja vu as four years ago they came to visit to celebrate Kyle’s graduation from high school and Bailey’s graduation from college. This time, it was Kyle celebrating graduation from college and Bailey celebrating graduating with her PhD.

They spent a couple weeks each on Oahu, but the highlight of their visit for all of us was hiking the Kalalau trail. This would be the hike that Josh and I did as our first date here he tried to kill me. It rained the entire time, which made crossing three rivers rather interesting and terrifying. Luckily, this time we didn’t run into that issue!

We spent the days before buying supplies, organizing our packs and making sure we had everything we needed.

Getting organized!

Osprey Ad.

We left on Thursday evening and checked into our Airbnb in Princeville. It was close to the trail so we didn’t have to drive too far on Friday morning to get started. We ate dinner at Barrel Chicken in Hanalei and then prepared for the next day.

We got up at 3:30 AM to have coffee, finish packing and arrive at the trail early. It was dark out when we started so we were able to enjoy the sunrise.

The moon

Ready!

Gorgeous

Gorgeous view with the sun starting to rise.

We made it to the first river and I was happy to find that I could hop along rocks to cross (very different than the last time). We made friends with a rooster who decided to cross it with us.

Josh looking thrilled

Around mile 6 we made it to the second river and stopped to have a snack. I also changed shoes as my feet were killing me. We were really psyching ourselves up for mile 7 and crawler’s ledge. Good news, is it was not as bad as we thought it might be!

Second river

Crawler’s Ledge

Made it! A boat stopped and waited for us to finish and then cheered us on when we were done.

One mile left!

Almost there..soooo tired.

We finally made it! The last three miles seemed to take days. But we crossed the final river and spotted the beach. We set up camp, then went to the waterfall at the end of the beach to refill water, made dinner and enjoyed the most incredible sunset ever on the beach. Not bad for the first day!

Mountain goats enjoying the sunset

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 3

Posted on May 2, 2017 by sandersnm

On our third day we again started our day with coffee on the lanai and a beautiful view. We were up early as our adventure for the day was riding a mule down sea cliffs to the Kalaupapa peninsula.

We arrived to the barn, checked in, and were assigned mules for the day! I was assigned the same mule that I had four years ago! Tita and I had just as much fun this time :).

Ready in our boots!

Linda and Makani. He was so sweet.

My friend Tita!

After we were all assigned and on our mules, we headed down the road to begin the 3.5 mile (and 26 switchbacks!) ride down the sea cliffs.

Plenty of spiders and webs on this trail.

We made it!

We were quite happy to give our bums a rest and enjoy the tour and beauty of the area.

Mother Maryanne’s Grave

Saint Philomena Catholic Church

Remains from the original settlement.

Love palm trees on a blue sky.

After an amazing few hours, it was time to get back on our mules and start the long journey back up!

Josh and Stripes ready to go back up!

Linda and Makani

EB! Josh’s mule from last time. He is retired now :).

After a long ride back up, we said goodbye to our mules and went back to shower before dinner. We decided to go to Kualapu’u Cookhouse (our favorite breakfast place from other trips) as we heard they had an amazing dinner menu. It definitely did NOT disappoint. We had three really unique entrees and all shared everything. After dinner it was time for what we had all been waiting for….Hot Bread!! We got the works (strawberry, blueberry, butter, cinnamon, cream cheese). It was just as good as I remembered it to be!

Stuffed shrimp with crab and bacon in a sweet chili sauce

Opa in Lilikoi sauce

BBQ ribs with homemade guava sauce (unreal..my absolute favorite)

Hot bread!

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 2

Posted on May 1, 2017 by sandersnm

On our first full day on Molokai we woke up to our incredible view of Maui. We sat and enjoyed coffee on our lanai and listened to the ocean. Quite the way to start our day!

Our morning view.

After a our leisurely start, we packed up the car to drive towards Halawa Valley. Our first stop was Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, another Saint Damien church.

Joshing signing the guest book with a gecko friend (above the painting).

Grave of a Marine.

Just love this shot.

It started raining on us, so we got back in the car and continued on our journey! The drive there was breathtaking and as we got closer, it stopped raining and we had a great view of the Halawa Falls.

Halawa Falls

We arrived in Halawa Valley and headed to Kalani’s Farm. We chatted with him for a bit and then we were able to sign waivers and hike to the falls since we had already gone on a tour with him a few years ago. We had the trail to ourselves for almost the entire way. Unfortunately for me, there were a ton of spiders (which I do not remember from the last time) so Josh took the lead and was in charge of knocking down webs. We made it to the river crossing but it was still flowing pretty fast. We decided to play it safe and head back. Sad we didn’t make it to the falls but it was a gorgeous hike.

Starting our hike.

Papayas

Waiting to see if we can find a way to cross.

GIANT taro leaf

Standing under the taro leaf

When we got back to the farm, Kalani showed us some of his flowers and gave us two different types of bananas…which turned into an incident for Josh. One of Kalani’s ducks saw that we had bananas and she started racing towards Josh (apparently they are her favorite thing). This turned into Josh running from the duck and her flying at him (I was in tears). We went ahead and shared some with her :).

The duck chasing Josh.

I fed her a banana :).

We were ready for lunch after our hike so we stopped at Manae Goods & Grindz for the best chicken katsu I’ve ever had. We ate lunch and then went back to our place to change and prepare for the rest of our afternoon.

Such a narrow road.

Love all of the glass bottles.

Veggie burger

The best chicken katsu

After lunch, we drove to the West side of the island to show Linda around. Our final stop of the day was Papohaku Beach for sunset. Once again we had the beach to ourselves. The waves break really late here so Josh spent most of the time chasing the perfect picture. He did an awesome job (please see his work below 🙂 ).

Linda and I enjoying the waves

Our first full day was packed and we were exhausted. We reluctantly left the beach for our long drive back. We weren’t super hungry due to our late lunch, so we stopped in Kaunakakai for some ice cream for dinner (my type of dinner). Great way to end our day!

How I’m Feeling About Monday

Image

Last weekend we went to the beach with my mom who is visiting us. Luckily for us, there was a monk seal hanging out. He/she decided they were done looking at everyone and decided burying their head was a great idea. Love this picture!

This is how I’m feeling about tomorrow being Monday.

Jan & Bob Visit Hawaii!

Posted on April 7, 2017 by sandersnm

A couple weeks ago, my aunt Jan and uncle Bob came to visit. We did all sorts of fun things including hiking, snorkeling, kayaking and eating all sorts of food. So happy they were able to come spend some time with us. We had an amazing time!