Our getaway to Maui

When we started Chiro school some friends suggested we start collecting sky miles with a credit card since we would be spending a lot on tuition each trimester. We took their advise and we've been glad we did. We've used the miles a few different time and most recently used them for our trip to Maui. I found some available flights from Pasco, called Grandma Shauna to make sure she'd be able to keep the kids, booked Jon's sister's timeshare and we were off! We spent 5 nights and 6 days in Maui basking in the sun, playing on the beach, snorkeling in the beautiful ocean, relaxing, and viewing some of the most breath taking scenery we've ever seen. Not to mention eating some delicous fresh island fish (and a new favorite food of mine pictured below).

Thursday (our 1st real day there) we rented some snorkeling gear and by doing so were able to go on a snorkeling excursion fairly cheap aboard the Boss Frog. Sounds like a pretty cool Catamaran, huh?

Definitely one of my better shots! Thanks Jon :)

Drying off after a fun snorkeling adventure.

We snorkeled at a place they called Corral Gardens. I was amazed at the beauty of the ocean. Crystal clear water, phenomenal reefs, thousands of different fish... awesome experience! Snorkeling would be my number 1 recommendation for anyone going to Hawaii. You can do it almost anywhere and it's fairly inexpensive.

The water looks like a pool not an ocean but, yes, that really is the ocean Jon's swimming in.

The ride back on the Boss Frog

Friday we went up north to Lahaina town. It's sort of the more happening of the towns there. We stayed in Kihei, which was smaller and not quite as touristy. A lot of the good snorkeling is by Lahaina so we checked out a few of those spots.

One thing we didn't know before going to Maui was how popular the timeshare industry is there. Pretty much every corner has someone trying to get you to sign up for a timeshare presentation by offering you cash or "free" excursions for going. We fell prey ONLY becuase we had debated on going to a Luau but didn't want to spend the $100+ it would cost to go to one. The timeshare guy offered us a free Luau, $5o in Mahalo certificates (gift certificates), and a future two night three day stay. We caved and attended the Luau that night and the presentation the following morning.

These are all pictures of the Luau. We were late getting there because we signed up for it last minute with the timeshare guy, which actually turned out to be really good. They didn't want us at a table all by ourselves so they put us in VIP seating.

This is the Imu presentation where they take the pig out of the Imu (underground oven) and present it to the audience.

To start the Luau off they asked for volunteers to come up on stage and learn the Hula. Jon jumped at the opportunity! He's a fabulous dancer:) You can see for yourself in the video below. Actually, he's just a care-free spirit who enjoys doing things like that. I quite enjoyed watching him. Sorry, for the 1st half of the video you'll have to turn your head to the side.

Most of the food at the Luau was pretty good. There were a few questionable things. Like the pudding mixture under my pineapple, which looked like banana pudding, but caught me quite off guard with it's unique flavor. One bite was more than enough. Jon had some chocolate pudding looking stuff so I stole a bite and quickly regretted it. I spit it out immediately; in a concealed sort of way. The Hawaiians have some interesting food...

Sunset at the Luau

A selling point of the Luau is the fire knife dance at the end. I have to admit this guy was pretty good. Something I would never try.

Saturday morning we drove back to Lahaina and attended the timeshare presentation. After that we drove further north to some "pools" a couple we met at the Luau had recommended to us. They said they were warmer than the ocean and pretty good to snorkel in. We didn't care too much for snorkeling in them because they were cold, dirty, and small, but the view was beautiful from there so it was worth the drive.

Tell me the blue of the ocean is not breathtaking. Amazing.

Jon snorkeling in the pool.

Next we went to a Bay known for it's good snorkeling. I don't remember the name of it because I never could pronounce anything there! It was a little frustrating and kind of hard to find our way around because people would tell us the name of something or the name of a street and we could never remember what they said. Probably a small glimpse of what it would be like in a foreign country. To get to this bay we had a nice little walk through some beautiful trees.

Even in Hawaii the water was still a little cold for us. We never managed to stay in the water too long because we'd both be freezing. We decided maybe wetsuit tops would be a good idea next time.

Food is pretty expensive in Hawaii. The night we arrived we found this Maui Taco only a couple blocks from our condo. They happened to be having a $5 special on all their "Surf" Burritos. They offered local fish for the meat, which was delicious. We ate there DAILY-- no joke!

I discovered another love in Hawaii. Coconut Milk Ice Cream. Next door to Maui Taco was Hawaiian Moon's Natural Health Food Store. It became a nightly ritual for us to pick up a fish burrito and a pint... or two... or four of coconut milk ice cream. I have discovered that a company I order food from carries it also and my 1st order is on it's way. I wasn't kidding when I said I fell in LOVE! If you're an ice cream fan you really must give it a try. Wow, they should pay me for the free advertisement I just gave them!

Sunday morning after attending church in Kihei, finishing off our Coconut Milk ice cream for breakfast, and picking up a fish burrito for lunch, we checked out of our condo and began the journey to Hana. More commonly know as "The Road to Hana."

This here was one of our 1st stops. I don't remember the name, but it's the most popular spot on the Island to surf. If you look really carefully you can see some black specks in the water; those are the surfers. After watching the surfers for a few minutes Jon decided it didn't look too hard and he wanted to try his hand at it. Watch the videos below to see if surfing's "not that hard."

All the dark spots in the water are reefs. I'm sure if the water was calmer this would be a popular place to snorkel.

This plant reminded me of some plants my neighbor has in her yard. Only they're about 1/2oth of the size.

We took a nice little walk/hike to this waterfall on our way to Hana.

After this picture Jon dropped our camera in the water. Kind of scary since all our photos were still on it. Thankfully, it survived and everything eventually dried up. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures on the rest of the Road to Hana or in Hana b/c we were letting the camera dry. Guess you'll all have to drive the road yourself to see how amazing the scenery is. Hana itself doesn't have too much to do, but it seemed to be a nice quiet town that actually had an LDS church. We decided that next time it'd be nice to spend a few days there. The tough part is getting there. While there we checked out the Seven Sacred Pools, which really aren't sacred I guess, but by then it was getting dark so our visit to the pools was brief. Our hotel was in Kahului that night (main city where the airport is). Probably only about 70 miles away but took us over 2 hours to drive . Yikes! Jon insisted we take the rental car FORBIDDEN road out of Hana instead of back tracking. It was by far the worst road I've ever driven. Not to mention the fact that it was dark. I realized that it being dark was probably a blessing though considering I'm scared of heights and had I been able to see the steep cliffs lining the very narrow dirt road I was driving on, that could have been very bad. Somehow we made it all in one piece. Thankfully, missing the few stray cows that managed to be in the middle of the dark, windy, narrow, dirt road. There's been few times in my life when I've been so extremely grateful to see civilization and that was one of those. Not a coincident that they've all included my adventuresome husband!

Sunday night we stayed in Kahului right on the beach in what I'm sure was a nice hotel back in the. Now it's beaches are a main hang out for homeless people. I realized that after going for what I thought would be a nice walk Monday morning. Since our plane didn't leave until 9:30pm that night we went back to Kihei to do some more snorkeling and enjoy the safe beaches.

Jon was determined to try our surfing so we drove to Paia, the hippie town. This picture was taken before Jon was greatly humbled by that board. The following pictures are of Jon's ATTEMPTS at surfing. Unfortunately, when he finally succeeded I was too busy talking with his surfing tutor to take any pictures. Sorry Jon! For those of you that don't watch the videos, which I won't put them all on here, after about six attempts a man in his late 50's came and asked Jon if he'd like a few pointers. By then Jon was pretty beat up and humbled enough that he was more than eager for a little advice. Jon's 1st attempt after his lesson he made it out and road a few waves. He learned by first hand experience that surfing is a brutual sport and far from EASY!

Jon's 1st attempt



2nd attempt

Jon with his surf instructor. The guy was 58 and appeared to have the build of an athletic 30 year old. He was saying that surfing is great for keeping you in shape. I think Jon would definitely agree :) He was wiped after his short experience with it. Which, he did finally get out and ride a few waves. The instruction helped!

My parents and sister kept Hyrum and Lydia for us. We're so grateful!!!! On our drive home from Tri-Cities we stopped at a rest area just outside of La Grande and this is what we saw. More beauty to add to the already BEAUTIFUL trip we had. God's creations are amazing!

I found a two photos from our video/digital camera of the Road to Hana. This is of the 7 Sacred Pools and the one below is my hot husband by some beautiful waterfalls.