The Day of the Honu

This past week, I had friends visiting Oahu after the wedding in Maui. On Saturday, we did the tour of the North Shore and on our way stopped at a beach close to Haleiwa to check out all of the sea turtles (Honu). There were probably about 20-30 turtles in the water that we could see and many of them came up on the shore. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it and am so happy I got to see these unique creatures up close while I live here!

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 4

On Tuesday, Josh got up SUPER early and left for Honolulu so he could go to work (sooooo sorry for him). I stayed for the rest of the day to spend some quality time with my friends. I got up and had breakfast with Brent and Colleen and then we hung out at the pool and the beach until it was time for me to go home.

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 3

Laura and Jim’s Wedding Day!!!

On Monday, we woke up and headed down to have breakfast at the resort. After that, Josh and I drove to La Perouse Bay to hike around and see what it was all about. It was beautiful, but very windy. Snorkeling is supposed to be great in the bay, but the ocean was pretty rough. On our walk, we saw several goats just hanging out on the beach and in the wooded area. It was kind of hilarious to see goats hanging out on the beach. I feel like that would happen only in Hawaii.

After we got done with La Perouse Bay, we went back to the hotel to grab lunch at the pool bar and then got ready for the wedding! We went to the wedding around 4:00. It was in such a gorgeous location! Everyone looked so beautiful and it could not have been more perfect! I am so incredibly happy for both of them :). Towards the end of the night, Laura and I even got to dance to our song (Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys). The night could not have been more perfect for the two of them!

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 2

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 :).

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 1

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.

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!

First Peak of Olomana

On Saturday, Josh and I hiked the first peak of the Olomana Trail. It has three peaks, but the first peak has the best views and is the highest. The other two peaks require you to be a much more advanced rock climber and since the best views are of the first peak, we didn’t see a need to hike past it (plus Josh has already done this hike a few times..including all three peaks). We could not have picked a better day to hike it. What can be a very muddy trail was dry and in perfect condition for hiking. It was a VERY humid day, but it made it quite the workout. We had a pretty steep incline the whole way there and towards the end, you had to start using ropes to hike up the rocks. I LOVED the rock climbing portion! Once we got to the top, the views were absolutely breathtaking. We could see Molokai, Maui and Lanai all at the same time. I didn’t even know that was possible! We had a beautiful 360 degree view of Kaneohe, Kailua and the Ko’olau mountain range behind us. One of the BEST hikes I have done on Oahu yet. Pictures below!

Kauai: Trip 1 – Day 2

On Sunday, Josh and I got up and checked out of our hotel and headed for the Maha’ulepu Beach Trail. On our drive there, we drove through the “tunnel of trees”. Our helicopter pilot had pointed it out from the air the day before saying how many tourists stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture. We opted to take a picture, but keep moving a the same time. It was definitely beautiful though!

Maluhia Road (Tunnel of Trees)

Maluhia Road (Tunnel of Trees)

We hiked along the South coast of Kauai for about a mile. It was a beautiful mix of sand, rocks and trees. It was a great way to start our day!

 

After the hike, we drove the short distance over to see what Poipu Beach was all about. It’s supposed to be a very popular beach on Kauai…turns out it is…it was extremely crowded, but looked like it was a fun place to go snorkeling.

 

We then drove over to Spouting Horn blowhole. The ocean was pretty calm, so it wasn’t that active. However, it was still a beautiful area…plus we spent time daydreaming about the incredible houses that lined the coast on the way there.

 

After that, we headed back toward Lihue to catch our flight back. SO HAPPY that we finally got to take a helicopter tour!