On Saturday, a few of my coworkers and I volunteered at BGCH’s biggest fundraiser of the year in Ko Olina. We took a few of our awesome kids as well. It was a beautiful event!
This evening, we all headed to the Paradise Cove Luau. It’s one of the more popular luaus on the island and Bailey wanted to go to one while she was here….this worked out well for me too as it is something I wanted to cross off my list! We had fun relaxing and enjoying the food and entertainment. Success!
On Sunday, we woke up and had some time to kill before I hung out with Laura. We drove down to where the road ends at La Perouse Bay to see if it was something we wanted to check out on Monday during the day when we had more time. After that, we headed to Kihei to have lunch and to meet Laura. Since I didn’t get to go to her shower or to her bachelorette party, I wanted to treat her to a pedicure and spend some quality time with her before the wedding. Josh and I had a quick lunch at Cafe Olei and then I met Laura.
After getting our nails done, we headed back to the hotel and had a drink at the pool bar before getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. It was so good to sit and catch up with Laura. After that, we changed and headed to the Wailea Beach Villas where her parents were staying for the rehearsal dinner. Her uncle had made AMAZING food and we all got to enjoy it in the beautiful surroundings of the villas. After dinner, a few of us wandered to the beach area to see the views. We got to see the sun setting behind Lanai. We then went to catch the shuttle back to the hotel, but missed it…so we ended up walking three miles in the dark, many times without a sidewalk. It doesn’t seem like much, but when you don’t exactly have the right shoes and are carrying leftovers from the dinner, it was a loooonggg walk. We had all had a lava flow upon our return and then headed to bed :).
On Saturday, Josh and I arrived bright and early on Maui to celebrate my friend Laura’s wedding. Our plan was to meet them around 9:30 to do the Four Waterfalls hike on the Road to Hana. Since we landed a few hours before that, we decided to stop in Paia for breakfast and to kill some time. However, before we even made it out of the airport Josh’s bag decided to quit on him. In a matter of 30 seconds he had all three straps break. First, the carry strap, then he picked it up by the handles and one of them broke and then finally we started walking again and the last one broke. He had to carry it the rest of the way without any handles. This early in the morning, we found it absolutely hilarious as it just disintegrated in front of us.
Josh and his disintegrated bag in the Maui airport.
We headed to Charley’s in Paia because we were starving and it had great reviews for breakfast. I ordered the breakfast burrito and Josh had an omelet. We had planned on sharing (thank goodness) because mine was HUGE. I ate about 1/4 of it and made Josh eat the rest. All of it was delicious and I would highly recommend it to anyone. To top it all off, it is Willie Nelson’s favorite place for breakfast and we are 98% sure he walked in as we were finishing and hung out at the bar.
After breakfast, we changed and headed towards Hana to where we would start our hike. The hike would take us to four waterfalls. Two of which you could see staying dry. If you wanted to see the third and fourth waterfalls, you had to swim. We came prepared with our dry bag so we could take our camera to take pictures. We met up with everyone (SO HAPPY to see some of my best friends) and then started the hike. There were about 20 people total of friends and family that had come for the wedding. We hiked to the first and stopped for a bit to take pictures, then continued to the second to take more pictures. After that, we hiked up a ladder (with the help from a few ropes) then boulder hopped to the stream where we had to jump in to swim to the third waterfall. It was a BLAST!!! We all jumped in and swam up to the third waterfall. After that, we had to climb the falls and boulder hop again upstream to get to the final and biggest of the falls. It was beautiful! But I will say, the journey is what made it so fun. It was a great hike to do with a big group of people. See the pictures below!
After returning from the hike, we changed and drove back through Paia for lunch. We stopped and ate at the Paia Fish Market. It was delicious! Josh had a sandwich and I had blackened cajun fish. We then wandered around the town and headed to our hotel in Makena to check in and take much needed showers.
We checked in and then headed over to Big Beach to hang out with everyone for the rest of the day. It was beautiful and the sun was setting. After that, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We all met at the bar in the hotel to just hangout and eat. I had one of the best cocktails ever (Dancing Koi). I don’t even know what was in it but it was fantastic. After hanging out and dinner, we all called it a night and headed to bed. It was a long day!
On Monday after I got off work, we went and hiked Manoa Falls so my mom could see a waterfall. I have done this hike a few times and it is usually muddy..but NOTHING compared to what it was this time. People were going barefoot because it was easier. The mud was pulling my shoes off my feet and it was very easy to fall! However, the hiking through the mud was definitely worth it…the waterfall at the end was amazing. It’s normally just a light trickle of water…but it was flowing beautifully when we got there! After that, we headed home to take a shower and went to have drinks and dinner. We ate pizza at JJ Dolan’s, drank well-earned drinks and had dessert at Du Vin.
Today after work, we ventured out around downtown and wandered through some of the stores. We also stopped at a crêpe place for lunch. For dinner, we had Cuban food (probably my favorite restaurant here) and tried a few new things that Josh and I hadn’t had yet. Everything was wonderful!
My mom arrived on Thursday and since then we have been taking her all over the island doing as many things as possible! I picked her up on Thursday and in complete tourist fashion, got her a beautiful lei from Chinatown! We then stopped by the apartment before heading to the Kailua Farmers’ Market where we met Josh for dinner. After that, we headed home and called it a night!
On Friday, we stopped by Spitting Caves, hiked to Makapuʻu Lighthouse and then headed to Serg’s for fish tacos. It started raining so we headed back to Honolulu and wandered through Chinatown for a bit. For dinner, we were touristy and had dinner at Duke’s in Waikiki. They are famous for their Mai Tais and we decided my mom needed to try one! Dinner was delicious and was a perfect way to end a busy first day!
Saturday, we headed to the North Shore for some shrimp, açai bowls and shave ice. Our first stop was Giovanni’s. We had corn and shrimp (so good). After enjoying a fantastic lunch, we headed to Haleiwa for dessert. First, we all split an açai bowl (my mom’s first one) then headed across the street for Matsumoto’s famous shave ice. We all picked one flavor and split (mom: tangerine, Josh: coconut creme, me: cherry). Delicious! After our tour of food, we went off-roading on the trail to Kaena Point. It was an extremely bumpy ride with a beautiful rewards at the end. We wandered around Kaena Point and took pictures of the incredible scenery and the endangered birds (albatrosses and shearwaters). We then made our way back to Honolulu for my mom’s first experience of Shabu Shabu!
On Sunday, we hiked Mariner’s Ridge. It was cloudy and rainy but we still had a decent view at the top! After that, we went to Kailua to have lunch at Kalapawai Cafe and then Josh gave my mom a tour of base. We ended the day with dinner at home and some time enjoying the hot tub! First few days of her trip have been a blast :).
For our third day on Maui, Josh and I woke up at 2:15 a.m. to catch the sunrise at Haleakalā National Park. We viewed the sunrise at 10,023 feet above sea-level at the summit of Haleakalā well above the clouds. It was absolutely FREEZING at the top, but so worth it for the amazing view we received. The pictures below are in the order they were taken. The amazing thing is the clouds kept moving, so it constantly changed how much of the sun we saw. By the time the sun was in the sky, too many clouds had moved in to see it. It was a surreal view.
After the sunrise, we took a nap in the car at the visitor center. Our next activity was a horseback ride to the Haleakalā crater floor, but we had a few hours. We met the guide at the visitor center at the summit around 9:15 a.m. He handed out some rain suits for us to wear. He only had sizes L and XL, so needless to say I looked absolutely ridiculous. Our group had eight people in it and Josh and I somehow ended up on the two horses that liked to hang out in the back. At times, it was like we were on our own tour by ourselves…it was pretty comical. After awhile, it was just Josh by himself wayyyyy in the back as I had caught up to the person in front of me. Our view going down to the crater floor was incredible. Pictures cannot do the views justice. We rode down and had lunch on the crater floor and looked around a bit. Then we headed back up to the top. On the way up, the clouds started to come in and it got pretty chilly and misted a bit. By the time we got to the top, I was ready to be in a warm car again! The horseback ride was definitely worth it. Josh and I both decided that hiking it would have been too boring.
After our amazing day at Haleakalā, we went back to the hotel and showered and changed and headed to Mama’s Fish House. We were both really excited about dinner as this restaurant was supposed to be one of the best on Maui. We were absolutely blown away. I think it is the best meal I have ever had in my life. The atmosphere was so unique, the service was great and the food was amazing. We had so much fun and it was a great way to end a tiring day!
This past weekend, Josh and I traveled to Maui for the first time. I expected it to be very similar to Oahu and was excited to see a new island, but didn’t expect to be blown away. Instead, I was completely blown away and in awe of everything we saw. Maui was…incredible.
We landed late on Thursday and traveled to the Sheraton in Kāʻanapali on Maui’s West Coast. It was dark, but we could already tell it was beautiful!
In the morning, we woke up early and went zip lining in West Maui. We went with Flyin Hawaiian Zipline, which has the longest zipline in Hawaii and is the most extreme course on Maui. I had never been ziplining and it was awesome! We had great tour guides and our group was a blast! I also loved their focus on conservation. Along the way, we watered yellow hibiscus flowers that they had planted to help restore their presence in Hawaii (they are an endangered plant).
After a wonderful time flying through the trees, we grabbed lunch at Beach Bums BBQ in the harbor nearby (It was recommended to us by our guides). The food was pretty good. We split chicken wings and fish tacos…we were starving and so happy to be eating! After that, we ran back to the hotel to change and drop a few things off and then started our tour of West Maui.
The drive around the West Coast of Maui was gorgeous. So much ocean! We had great views of Molokai on the way. We stopped at Nakalele Blowhole where the ocean has undercut the shoreline and pounds underneath the ground and shoots through a man-size hole. It was incredibly powerful and you could get so close!
After the blowhole, we continued our tour around West Maui and headed towards Kahakuloa Village. The one-lane road leading to the isolated village was pretty ridiculous. It was pretty much impossible to capture on camera. We stopped in Kahakuloa to get some banana bread that is supposed to be the best on the planet (Josh and I both decided that even though the bread was pretty good, both of our moms made better banana bread). After our stop, we headed around the top of West Maui and made our way into Wailuku, which was a pretty cute little town.
We made it back to the hotel in time to shower and head out to the pool bar to watch the sunset torch lighting ceremony at Black Rock. The Black Rock (conveniently located right by the Sheraton) is a result of one of West Maui’s final eruptions. The ancient Hawaiians believed Black Rock (Pu`u Keka`a) was the jumping off point for their spirits leaving the world to join their ancestors forever. We had a great seat for the ceremony and celebrated the end of our first day in Maui with fun cocktails, the Black Rock ceremony and a sunset walk on the beach!
For our first day of Emel‘s vacation we planned an incredibly full day of fun! We started with the Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail hike. It was raining for a bit but turned out to be a pretty day, so the view at the top was definitely worth the hike up there. After that, we headed around the east side of the island where we saw TONS of whales. We captured a few pictures of the baby whales jumping out of the water (so incredibly cute as they didn’t make it very far out). There were also two swimming SO close to the shore…I was super happy she got to see them! We stopped and had the best fish tacos on the island and some veggie nachos at Surg’s and then headed to Bellows for some beach time. It was a beautiful day to hang out and relax after our hike! After that, we wandered around Kailua and got some frozen yogurt and toured the beautiful Lanikai houses and stopped at the famous beach, then headed back to Honolulu to get ready for a fun night out. We decided to head into Waikiki (so she could see all of the tourists) and had dinner with a few friends. Then we ventured to Duke’s for some of their famous Mai Tais. It was a jam-packed day and I’m SO excited she came to visit!!
365 Days Of Hawaii 