Hawaii!!!

Aloha! I find it hard to believe that my last post was Christmas tree shopping, but I figure that our trip to Hawaii is a wonderful subject with which to start back up on my blogging again! Ben and I returned yesterday around 8:30 pm (that's 2:30 pm Hawaii time) from an incredible vacation to Maui. We saw some of the most beautiful sights, and were overwhelmed by what God has created for us to enjoy. Prepare yourself for a long post. It was extremely difficult to pick just a few pictures (we have exactly 714 pictures from our trip - after deleting blurry ones, and doubles). :) But I'll highlight some of the best we have and try to take you on a journey through our vacation. So sit back, sip some pineapple juice, pretend to smell salty seawater, listen for the waves in the distance, and enjoy!!!

Here is our rental car - a lovely Charger with a lot more pickup than our cars, which was needed especially on our trip up Haleakala! More on that later...


We stayed at Makena Beach and Golf Resort. Below are a few views from our lanai (the deck outside our room). We were on the 4th floor of the resort with an ocean view room. It was AMAZING to wake up, turn over, and see the ocean and palm trees out the sliding door. Wow! I will certainly miss that!





I had to include this picture of the gift shop in the hotel. We bought a grand total of 0 items from this store, yet we were there everyday to look at the bird and fish books to find the names and information about birds we saw perched in various places, or fish we saw while snorkeling. :)



We did drive the road to Hana, and yes, as you may have heard, it takes ALL DAY. And if you are like us, it takes a LONG day. Of course Ben got very into looking for little crabs, eels, and other creatures in the shallow water and waiting for the perfect wave to photograph. It was also Easter Sunday, so we stopped at a lovely overlook to have our own little service (what a beautiful place to celebrate!) I enjoyed singing hymns like "Because He lives" along the way as well (Ben helped :) ) But, I digress. Below are just a few of the many pictures we took that day. You get to see a lot of different landscapes on the road to Hana.


Here we are at an overlook of Hana Bay


These trees are called "Rainbow Eucalyptus." Take a close look at the trunks and you'll see why. We thought these were one of the coolest trees we've ever seen!


Here I am at the Keanae Arboretum. Ben likes to tease me about calling this a "fairytale land." But if you look at this little grove, it does look like something out of "Alice in Wonderland."


Gorgeous waves and ocean views...



If you click on this picture and look in the middle, you can see a whale breaching! When a whale breaches, 3/4 of its body comes up out of the water. It is incredible to see!


This is a lovely black sand beach at a park where we stopped.


One of many awesome waterfalls.



On Monday morning, we journeyed up Haleakala, a dormant volcano on Maui. This is what the road looked like the whole way up!


This is probably the best view of the crater.



Monday evening, we went to a Luau!! I was extremely excited about this. I was even more excited when anyone who wanted could go up on stage and learn the hula from real Hawaiians!! I went with another girl from our table. Can you find me there behind all the children? In any case, I now, am an official hula dancer. :)


We also saw a beautiful sunset. The luau took place right next to the ocean!




And we saw a fabulous show after a wonderful dinner which included pulled pork that I actually liked and ate. (Just thought I'd throw that in there.)


Wednesday morning Ben golfed. And yes, he even brought his special golf shoes all the way from Ohio for this event. Here is his first drive of the day...


He brought me along as he said, "to drive the cart and look pretty." But I also handed him his clubs and cheered him on along the way.



Wednesday afternoon, we went whale watching. We saw a lot of activity like this, pictured below, including a lot of tail action. We thought we were going to go back without seeing any breaching, but I spotted a double breach just as we were heading back! We got to see about 4 in a row. Unfortunately, we weren't very close, but I did get a few pictures (not included here). Maybe if we blow them up to a bigger size they'll be even better. :)




Here are some of the lovely flowers we saw daily. Everything is so bright and cheerful because of the plants there! My favorite was the hibiscus (the yellow flower below) which we saw in many different colors.




And here I am wearing my official Hawaii attire, including a plumeria flower in my hair. They smell really good!



Well, there is a small snapshot for you. We have many stories and a lot more pictures so come visit us soon and we'll share more. And if you've never been to Maui, start planning a vacation! It is well worth it! We'll gladly share with you from the list of inexpensive restaurants given to us by our pastor and his wife and tell you all about the fun things to do! Mahalo (thank you) for reading this long post and Aloha!