Living a Sain Life in an Insane World: July 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Maui

After a great visit on the Big Island we took a short plane ride over to Maui and we had to ride on a tiny plane. Not sure how this came about, but it worked out okay!

The pilot was a sort of one-stop shop as he checked us in, loaded our bags, assigned our seats, reviewed safety instructions, piloted the plane and then unloaded all of our bags – ha! There were eight of us on the plane so it was sort of a “party plane”. It was actually a really fun ride because everyone was super chatty and I talked the whole ride over with a girl who is from FL and shares my mutual dissatisfaction with the Casey Anthony trial – boo!

I was so excited to get to Maui because everyone had told us such great things about this island. We definitely felt like it met our expectations and so much more! We hope to go back one day since we only had three days there.

We mostly hung out at the beach on the first and third days. We stayed in Kannapoli and it is basically a chain of ten or so hotels right on the beach. They are all connected by a nice boardwalk that you can exercise on or stroll along in the evenings. They have a nice shopping center in the center and it was fun to walk around and people watch at night. I think most of the hotels had some sort of free entertainment each night as well.

The one thing that stuck out to me about the beach at Maui was that the waves where we stayed were very strong. It wasn’t exactly a current where you get in and then five minutes later you’re half a mile away, it was more like the waves would suck you out really far, but then push you all the way back with a great force. There was also a steep drop off and you only had to be in a couple of feet and an adult would be in to his/her chest.

The second day we were in Maui we did what was called the “Road to Hana.” It was beyond words. So many people had told us to make this drive and we didn’t know what else to do besides go for it. It’s only about a 52 mile drive but it has 600+ curves and 54 bridges so you have to drive extremely slow – under 25mph the entire time and usually closer to 10 or 15. The curves were so sharp that you could not see where you were going or who was coming at you so you would have to honk the horn as a warning!

There were many stops along the route where you would see amazing views of the ocean or mountains and it was just the coolest thing because we were literally in the middle of the Hawaiian jungle. There were waterfalls right on the side of the road or short walks to them and lots of one-way bridges. I tried to get a shot of how tight the roads were but I didn’t do that great of a job. Let’s just say it was closer than you would ever park to another car, and it made one very nervous, especially driving in a rental.

The best thing about this road trip was just feeling like you were in a jungle. It sounds so crazy to say that, but even in a car you just felt like you were not in the US. The flowers and trees were indescribable. I've never seen anything like it, and if I have, they would be much dollars at any nursery. Here on the Road to Hana they are just growing in the wild!

One of the stops was a beach that was once voted the #6 Most Beautiful Beach in the world. And it was so gorgeous – and almost deserted because it was near the end of this crazy long drive.

At the very end of the drive was a stop called the “Seven Sacred Pools”. You had to walk a little ways to get there, but it was a nice stop and there were lots of people swimming and picnicking here.

We saved a couple stops for the way back so we would have a chance to stretch our legs on that drive too. We saw a beautiful black sand beach and some caves that some goofballs were swimming in.

This was one of my FAVORITE days on our entire Hawaii trip. We got some great advice to start early so we were in the car by 5:45am and on the way. Most of our stops we were the only people there so we had plenty of time to snap pictures or take in the view without feeling hurried. A lot of the stops really just had one pull off spot so if you leave later in the day then you risk not even having room to stop as. And of course it was easier to driving knowing there were less people on the road. I can’t imagine having to drive that road in the dark because there were no lights at all and many times there was a complete drop-off on one side of the road with little to no railing. Thankfully we made it back in time to grab some shave ice and spend the afternoon on the beach. Maui had the most amazing shave ice so we ate it almost everyday!!! I miss it already L

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Big Island Days 4 and 5

Days 4 and 5 on the Big Island were much more low key and laid back than our super sonic drive tour the day before, and we really needed the rest.

We started Day 4 at a local hangout called Kapaa Beach. It was not a typical beach that we're familiar with in the Carolinas. This was all rock with no sand.

Obviously this wasn't a beach where people lay out all day and the kids build sand castles! We grilled some food and spent our time hanging out in the tide pools.

Snorkling

Hung out talking and laughing

We did some fishing

Brad and Robin had fun jumping off the rocks and I wanted to include this picture because you can see us in the background plotting our way back to the other side of the rocks. It was a slippery walk! Those shoes Brad has on are dorky, but they are the best things to wear when walking or climbing in the Hawaii waters.

Day 5 started off with an ATV excursion (or 4-wheeling as we call it!)

We rode by the beach and they stopped and took our picture. I look totally crazy in this picture, but it was a pretty view so I included it :)

After that we changed and drove down to what is basically the only "big" city on the island, Kona. We spent the afternoon having lunch, shopping and some more beach time.

Brad is obsessed with breweries so we had to stop and have lunch at the Kona Brewing Company. Thankfully he let me off the hook and didn't make us go on the tour - whew! In the past I've not been so lucky ;-)

They had a little beach shopping area with some surf shops and we walked around and ended our day at a place called Magic Beach. They say it's called that because somedays it's sand and other days it's all rock. Thankfully it was sand so we relaxed for a few hours watching the surfers and sunset.

This was our last full day on the Big Island so it was a little bittersweet. I'll really miss the Big Island because it was so beautiful with the most unobstructed ocean views I have ever seen. No matter where you were on the island you could usually see a complete panoramic view of the ocean. Sometimes you could easily see the ocean in 180 degrees around you and other times you would be driving right beside the ocean and pasture land would be on the other side. The most spoiled cows and goats ever! The island was just so uninhabited and I’ve never been somewhere where there was so much beauty without houses or hotels clouding your view. If you’ve ever heard anyone say how great the Pacific Coast Drive is in California then this beats that by far. I can’t believe our friends live here and drive these roads everyday!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Big Island Day 3

Before I get started on my Day 3 details I thought I'd share this funny "stop" sign I saw in a parking lot in HI. I think it captures the spirit of the islands - ha!

Day 3 on the Big Island was crazy! I need one blog entry just to record it all.

Brad and I were so amazed by the island that we decided to take a road trip and see some of the high points. It sounded like a good idea in theory, except that we didn't really realize that it would take a good 6-7 hours of driving (without stopping) to make it around the entire island. We started very early and thought we were doing good, but we did have a long drive in the dark on the way home.

We started off at Waipio Valley Lookout. None of the pictures really capture the vastness of these views, but I tried to zoom in so that the scale of the mountains would stand out as much as it did in person.

I zoomed in on the valley because I saw some houses down there and I thought that looked crazy! I have no idea how they even get in and out because the park wouldn't let you drive down to the shore.

Next stop: Tex’s Drive-In where we had some famous Portugese Sweet Bread called Malasadas. They are very popular in HI and they taste like the sugared bread deserts you get off Chinese Buffets – except a million times better!

We went to see our first waterfalls at a place called Akaka Falls. There was an easy paved walkway through the jungle/rain forest that led you right to the big one and then in a circle to see some smaller falls.

Right after Akaka we stopped at Rainbow Falls which was another waterfall basically on the side of the road. Thankfully the Big Island wasn’t that crowded so all the places we went we could just stand and take as many pictures as we wanted.

You could walk up these steps and there was an upper view of the falls that was also neat to look at.

There were some crazy trees that were actually more interesting than the upper portion of the falls! I had Brad stand by them as a reference point so I could show how big they were!

We also made a pit stop by the Mauna Lua Macadamia Nut farm and got some free samples. There were just acres and acres of Mac Nut Trees everywhere.

I grabbed a nut off the ground and I was going to crack it open with my teeth but later we found out that Mac Nuts need 300 lbs of pressure per square inch to crack open so I had to use my fist instead. I kid, I kid.

We stopped for some more free samples at the Big Island Candy Factory which is supposedly a famous candy/cookie brand. I'd never heard of them before but we got these amazing dipped lemon shortbread cookies. I'm pretty sure they'll all be gone before we even get out of HI!

Our next stop took us forever because it was sooo cool! We toured the Hawaii National Volcano Park and we were such nerds and went around and looked at everything. This is one of the only places to visit an active volcano so it’s a very cool place to visit. We learned that Hawaii was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago and that the Big Island is basically one big volcano still today. We drove along the Crater Rim drive and made several stops.

The actual volcano:

We saw the steam vents where super hot air is being forced out of holes in the ground by the volcano.

There was a little path to walk to this tunnel called a Lava Tube that was formed after a volcanic eruption. It was super creepy inside because there was something water-ish dripping on you the entire time.

It sounds so dumb but one of the coolest things about the volcano park was just driving around because there is a windward and leeward side of the volcano because one side gets a lot more rain than the other. So you would see this on one part of the drive:

And just a few minutes later it looked like you were driving through the rain forest! So crazy!

After the volcano park it was getting late, but we stopped at one more black sand beach right before the sun went down.

Punalu'u Beach

There was some sort of swamp pond by the beach and I took a picture and I thought it was so neat how the reflections showed in the water :)

The other thing worth mentioning about our drive was that there were only a few radio stations available and Brad and I rode for most of our trip with no music. Sometimes when you would get a station it was - odd. The pop stations would play songs one after the other from the 90s as if they were new (think Boyz II Men and Keith Sweat) and I even heard the Electic Slide once. I mean, really, who listens to that on the radio?!?! We could occasionally get the one country station but it was more of a country, etc station so it wasn't that great either. Good thing we like talking to each other - ha!

Obviously we were extremely tired once we got back. I think we left the house around 8am and got back at about 10pm. Brad did a great job of driving us home in the dark silence as I was still not used to the Hawaii time zones and fell right asleep. By the way, the sun rises about 5:30am and sets around 7pm so the confusing start and end to the day does nothing to help the jet-lagged soul.