ALOHA!

Other than September 22nd, September 23rd was the next best day of my life. After seven long months of wedding planning, me and Andrew were able to get on a plane headed to paradise and leave all the cares and worries of our everyday lives behind in Louisiana.

We had been dreaming about Hawaii for months and it was finally happening. Our flight was to leave Monroe around eleven o'clock Sunday morning and at ten o'clock we were at Sam's Club buying a  new camera. Nothing like living life on the edge - Andrew is definitely teaching me patience. But anyway, we made it in time to board the plane, first stop Atlanta, then Los Angeles and on to Kapului.

We made it to Maui around 10 p.m. local time Sunday evening with all our luggage intact and took a $100 taxi ride to our hotel on West Maui (a 40 mile trip). We decided real quick that we would be renting a car - and we ended up finding the perfect Mustang convertible for our travels around the island. Andrew quickly fell in the love with the car and I immediately began to wonder how I would pry the keys away from him at the end of the week. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the car and some of our favorite memories from the trip involve times spent exploring the island in our convertible.

We splurged and spent our first full day relaxing at the award-winning Kapalua Spa - enjoying the peaceful views and a fabulous 80-minutes couples' massage that was worth every penny.

 

Everyone had told us and told us to make sure and go on the Road to Hana - so we bought a guide book and studied up on all the stops and all the sights to see. The only thing we didn't realize was how much hiking was required to get to most of the prettier sights. After trying to follow the guide book directions such as "travel .6 of a mile past the third dirt road to the right, past the crooked tree, look for the covered path under the fifth light pole.." and missing most of the trails, we finally found one certain light pole and hiked through mud hole after mud hole (I will never take lightly the term rainforest again) - and finally found a beautiful waterfall, though from a distance I might add. We took some pictures and climbed back in the car in search for the next stop. After getting my shoes and socks soaked through with mud, and discovering a less than extraordinary waterfall at the end of a really long trail - I had just about had enough of Hana. Now those of you who know me are really laughing at this point, because I am not typically one who likes to get muddy and I will admit when I am being somewhat of a diva, but even Andrew was a little bit disgruntled at this point. We decided if we had seen one waterfall, we had seen them all and threw away the guidebook and drove on to the Black Sand Beach (because if I had come this far, I at least wanted to see this beauty). The Black Sand Beach was really beautiful and I stood in awe at God's wonderful creation, how something made of lava rocks could be so beautiful.

I have always dreamed about horseback riding on my honeymoon - and although it wasn't exactly how I imagined it, we did have an awesome time. Even if Andrew's horse was slow and liked to stop for "snack breaks" on the sugar cane along the trail. And even if I had never exactly ridden a horse before and had a little trouble getting the hang of it at first.

We also toured West Maui and nearby island Molokai'i from a helicopter. I was a little nervous about how my stomach would handle the trip so we spent $15 on a bottle of "Quease Ease" and I was good to go. I'm telling y'all, that stuff really works. It's a natural scent, a combination of peppermint and some other relaxing scents and you smell it for only a few seconds when you start to feel sick. We laugh because they had cameras inside and outside the helicopter to film the tour in case you wanted to buy a DVD of it later - of course we bought the DVD and everytime they show us inside the helicopter I'm sniffing my "Quease Ease" - and look like I'm getting high. Oh, fun times.

We also really enjoyed the Feast at Lele - a luau right on the beach with beautiful sunset views. One of my favorite (and most romantic) dinners we had on this trip.

 

Other things we enjoyed were the breakfast buffet in our hotel which was absolutely fabulous - we especially loved the omelette guy who made fresh omelettes with all the ingredients you wanted. We also went on a submarine tour and went 129 feet below the water and saw some beautiful coral reef, other beautiful fish, and one white fin shark.

Some pictures just speak for themselves -