Hawaii 2014

 

And then some pictures from Tyler's Go Pro:

And lastly, some iPhone pictures:

 

 

 

We went to Hawaii with Tyler’s family from January 10-22. Yes, that is 12 nights. Crazy! It was beautiful and we got to do some cool activities while we there. When we first arrived we picked up the rental cars and barely fit into two of them with all of our luggage. We then stopped at Costco and got tons of groceries and then were absolutely packed into the cars like sardines. Lindsay and Tyler sat in the back of our car and we piled groceries on top of them, and then I sat in the front with Carol sitting on my leg and my leg falling asleep all the way to the hotel. It was funny. We then pulled up to Marriott’s Ocean Club and it felt like a movie where you get out and the hotel has tiki torches burning and flavored water to drink. I felt like I was on Gidget goes Hawaiian. We made it!!!

We shared a suite with everyone that had one master suite, a living room and a bedroom. There were two bathrooms, two beds and two pull-out couches, and then Lindsay had a rollaway bed. Our view from our condo was amazing. You could see right out to the ocean and when you opened your balcony doors you could hear the ocean crashing about 40 yards away. Not too shabby! The Marriott had two pool areas that were gorgeous and the landscaping with impeccably groomed. On the first morning I woke up at 5:30 am and surprisingly, no one else was awake so I went to the gym by myself. There was a cool area where you could workout outside and watch the ocean while on the elliptical, treadmill or bike. I could get used to that! Everyone woke up about 2 hours later and then we all worked out again and Lindsay trained us. She would do HIIT workouts every morning with us and I actually lost 2 pounds while on vacation. I’m not sure how I pulled off that! Our hotel was cool too because they had free movie rentals on new releases so we were able to watch a bunch of movies at night. 

One morning we woke up and went to this place where they load you into a van with bikes on the top and you drive an hour and half up to the top of Haleakala, the volcano. We got helmets at the shop beforehand and then we had to wait for this guy that was late for a while. He ended up sticking with us the whole day and was quite the character. When we were talking about where to go to lunch, he said, “yeah, where should we go?” He had a crush on Lindsay J Our driver was entertaining and told us about his nomadic life living in various countries and just finding jobs along the way. We went to the very top which was 10,000 feet and freezing cold! We saw a plant that only grows there. Out of everywhere in the entire world it only grows there. Very cool! We also stopped at the visitor’s center. After that we got off, hopped on our bikes, and coasted down for about 30 miles! At first it was really freezing because we were literally in the clouds. Once we got lower and lower it started to get warmer. The views were absolutely stunning. We also passed this charming lavender garden that had several patches of lavender. It seemed like out of a dream. There was also a Victorian blue house, and the back of the house had the best views I have ever seen! My mom called Tyler and I on the way down and so I stopped and called her back and she told me that the tickets to NYC were a good deal. I had some flight vouchers from getting bumped so we booked a trip to NYC in April! I have been dreaming of going for quite some time now and I sort of feel like if I see Newsies on Broadway then I’ll be able to die happy.

Anyway, we stopped in a little town on the way down and ate donuts at this place our driver recommended. Then we had Mexican food at this tiny, cute restaurant. It was such a darling town and the weather was literally perfect. We went into some of the shops after, then continued our ride down. Tyler raced down and finished way before me.  Afterward we went on a little hike to a waterfall. My one big regret of the trip is that Tyler and I didn’t take off for a day and drive to Hana. We did it on our honeymoon and it was the most gorgeous views with a lot of waterfalls. Tyler gets car sick pretty easily though and there are about a million switchbacks along the coast so he didn’t really want to go and I didn’t make it a big enough priority. 

On Rachel’s birthday we went to a blow hole which was really cool and we also saw a heart in a rock which was beautiful. We went on a little stop through the jungle where Casey and Tyler attempted to swing from some vines. We got in the hot tub afterward then went to Ruth’s Chris for dinner. We also went to some other great restaurants throughout the week. At Kimo’s we got a coconut crusted fish, at Cool Cat’s I got fish tacos and Ty got a burger, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise, Lahaina Pizza Co, Leilani’s for chicken nachos. We went to church both Sundays we were there and the first Sunday we went to Longhi’s afterward for breakfast. Tyler and I shared mac nut pancakes with coconut syrup. The next Sunday’s brunch was even better though at a place right by the beach that Tyler and I had heard about from a lady we started talking to the night before. I got white chocolate mac nut pancakes with coconut syrup. And the best brunch of all was at Duke’s. I got eggs benedict that were to die for and the mac nut pancakes were amazing! We had gone there the night before for dinner and the setting was amazing. We had a gorgeous view of the ocean with the sun setting and tiki torches lighting everything up so nicely. I was in heaven! 

One day we went on a zip-line and I think it would have been a little more fun had the zip lines been higher in the trees. They weren’t that high up and I honestly didn’t get a rush at all when going down! The scenery was cool though. I want to go in Costa Rica someday where you swing through the jungles and the trees are really, really tall! Afterward we went to a beach and saw a TON of huge turtles coming up on the beach for the night. It was so cool. That night we went to the taco shop that Tyler and I had gone to on our honeymoon. It was delish!

One of my favorite activities was the whale watch. We woke up early one morning and went out on a boat and saw whales jumping and surfacing all over the place. It was one of the coolest things I have seen. One of the whales swam really close to our boat and Tyler put his Go Pro under the water and filmed it. Most of the whales are size of a school bus in girth and weigh one ton per foot. Kind of scary to be so close! Throughout our trip we were able to see whales jumping off the shore all the time. We even saw some spinner dolphins that were giving us a show. I loved it! I’ve never seen anything like it. 

I absolutely love Hawaii and I think if you haven’t been there it must be on your bucket list. It is so relaxing and like nowhere else in the world. Our friends Jenni and Mitch are moving there so we are already thinking about when we can make it back!