Halloween

Halloween this year was sort of on the fly because of our trip.  We did make it back in time for our ward's chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat.  I'm still not the biggest fan of trunk-or-treats.  In communities where they make sense and it's too dangerous to go door to door... sure, they work.  I made the mistake and bought really awesome, expensive candy.  It seemed that it got snatched up rather quickly, and some of it by teenagers with no costumes.  What?!  2 bags of candy were gone in under 5 minutes!  That's the LAST time I do that.  Oh well, at least we could still carve pumpkins and go trick-or-treating on real Halloween.  Dallin and Anna were really into it this year.  They ran from house to house and stretched out the fun.  The Colemans were frying donuts in their front yard, so we made sure to stop by there.  We did our normal route and came home with a load!  The kids pigged out and went to bed sick.  What a day!

Mt. Haleakala

I had this desire to do something totally crazy for our last full day on Maui.  A recommendation was to mountain bike down the spine of Mt. Haleakala.  Sure, you can bike down the paved road from the summit... but that sounded too easy.   Mountain biking down the back-side of a dormant volcano sounded thrilling!  I wanted to try it, and finally talked Bevan into it.  We rented bikes in Haiku in the morning and drove to the summit of 10,023 ft!  It's a barren wasteland with only lava rock and no plants.  It felt like Mars, but the views were amazing!  We took a few pictures, mounted the bikes, and started down down DOWN!

What was I thinking?!  I've never really mountain-biked in my life and I pick this place to try it out?! Bevan gave me some pep talks and taught me about which brakes to use. He was a natural, of course, and was always waiting for me. Who had to talk WHO into doing this in the first place?! I thought I was never going to make it off the mountain alive! But... little by little, we kept going down and the time kept flying.  We did see a couple hikers and another mountain biker near the bottom. He probably thought we were real dorks! We passed through all the different ecosystems really fast.  Barren-wasteland turns into lush forest pretty quickly.  That's the coolest thing about the ride, so many different landscapes! The loose lava rock turns into a dirt road, and then a single track trail (which was more fun than the road), and then another dirt road, and then finally, a freshly re-asphalted single lane fire road with no cars on it. It was the “wa-hoo!” part of the ride.  We made it back to the main highway and I almost kissed the asphalt.  Now, the tricky part was getting back to the summit, to our car.  We hid our bikes in the bushes and I showed Bevan the tricks of hitch-hiking... pretty woman stands in front, big smiles, and a positive attitude!  It totally worked and soon we were going back UP the mountain, yet again.  It was a good thing we got picked up when we did because we barely made it back to the bike shop in time!  It was such an exhausting day, but soooo worth it!

We bid farewell to Maui the next morning!  It was such a different world.  Permanent paradise.  No seasons. Far away from absolutely everything.  The humidity did not agree with my skin. I don't particularly care for swimming in ocean water.   And yet... there's reason that people DO live there. And tourists spend thousands and thousands of dollars to visit. It's so unlike where the rest of us live. To have a place like this within the United States, where it's safe, yet so apart from the rest of the country, is nothing short of a real vacation!

Snorkeling in West Maui

Tuesday was our day for West Maui. Ah... this is what people talk about when they say Maui is a sunny, calm-sea, relaxing place! We stopped at the first calm shore we saw and immediately started snorkeling. Little did we know, there was plenty more to come! There's considerable more traffic in West Maui and a LOT more hotels! In order to swim at Black Rock, you had to park at the Sheraton and pay! Oh well, it really was the best snorkeling ever! We saw so many fish, and 4 turtles!  We headed up to another snorkel spot called Kaanapali Beach. It was designated beach park with showers and free parking! I tried to relax some more but I was facing directly into the sun. Instead, I wandered out to the ocean, draped my upper body over the boogie board and just floated in the water. I could've stayed out there all day.  It was heaven!  We drove up to Napili for some food and once again found ourselves trying to find a strip mall with teriyaki and rice. Found one! We wanted to wait-out the traffic and stay to watch the sunset on a beach.  So we walked around another high-rise hotel and found a perfect sunset!  We started making our way back around the island when we decided to detour by the historic "Front Street" of Lahaina. We saw the Banyan Tree Park, Cheeseburgers in Paradise restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp.... but not a single parking spot! It was crazy! So, we just kept driving and promised ourselves we would come back some day. It was a long drive back to Haiku in the dark, and we were exhausted!  I had crusty/salty hair, a blister from the snorkel fins, and  a sun-burned butt.  What a day!

Road to Hana

The Road to Hana is one of the most popular things to do on Maui!  It's a road, that leads to the village of Hana and continues around the east and south side of Maui.  So what's so great about it?  The absolute BEST hikes to waterfalls can be found along the road, as well as some amazing beaches with red or black sand.  According to Bevan's souvenir t-shirt, there are 600 turns and 50 bridges (most of them one-way).  It's the rainiest side of the island so all the vegetation was lush, green, and wet!  We splurged for a day and rented a convertible... but it ended up raining a good chunk of the day.  Oh well!

We decided to do the "holy grail" of all waterfall hikes first.  It's called Na'ili'ile Haele Falls and there's actually 4 falls on that stream and 1 falls next to the stream, with the water coming down from the reservoir. So, 5 waterfalls total in only about a mile of hiking! Best bang for your buck ever! The tricky part was hiking past falls #3. You have to climb up some shifty ladders and hike in the river, boulder-hopping. Then, when the gorge narrows and you can't hike any further, you have to jump in and swim about 50 yards in this deep, narrow river. It felt like Swiss Family Robinson.... only without the giant anaconda (I was hoping).  It was absolutely amazing!  Our prize was a 40' waterfall practically to ourselves.  The flow was very heavy, since it had been raining so much, but the water was still warm.

Every other waterfall we stopped at was pretty amazing as well.  You can swim under almost all of them, unless they were too tall or the flow was too heavy.  We definitely got our fill!  Waterfall hiking, check!  Teriyaki plate lunch in Hana, check! Getting so sick of windy, narrow roads, check!

Maui!!!

Oh, Maui!  Island of gushing waterfalls, sandy beaches, and calm waters... or rough waters, depending on which side of the island you're on.  We stayed in Haiku, which isn't directly on the shore, but more inland.  It's also more wet than West or South Maui, but that's what we were going for.  It was so lush and tropical, quiet and private.  The B&B we stayed in was cute and had lots of gear for us to borrow! 

Our first full day on Maui was Sunday.  Bevan and I were actually looking forward to church without kids. It's totally part of the vacation experience! We found a little ward in Pukalani, but it took longer to get there than we planned, so we barely made it during the opening song. Even without kids, we STILL can't manage to make it on time!  It was a nice service. The speakers say, “Aloha, bothers and sisters” and the congregation says, “Aloha!” back. So fun!  Afterward, we drove to historic Pulehu chapel, the first LDS chapel on Maui, and actually the oldest still standing in all of Hawaii! The original inhabitants of Maui all lived in the upcountry area, because it was the perfect climate for growing crops. It was only when the tourists started coming, that South and West Maui became popular. They wanted the sunny beaches without the rain. Towards the end of our trip, I could totally see why. Rain every day makes the traveler weary!

Hanauma Bay and Downtown Honolulu

Our last day on Oahu was spent trying to get in some good snorkeling!  We drove to Hanauma Bay, paid the entrance fee, watched the orientation video, hiked down to the beach, waited for my sunscreen to soak in, and finally went snorkeling!  The ocean was a little rough and the wind was going nuts, but it was still fun.  I saw a little octopus in it's hole and bunch of cool fish.  Bevan went wayyyyy out there and saw a little more, but swallowed a bunch of sea water when the waves kept rolling over his snorkel.  I've never been a huge fan of the ocean, maybe it's because I'm not a strong swimmer.  There's just some comfort in knowing I can touch!  Pictures from this adventure accidentally got erased when I was messing with my phone.  D'oh!

We braved some traffic heading into Honolulu, but once we got to downtown, it was completely dead. That's the nice thing about visiting downtown on a Saturday, we had it all to ourselves! Of course, some of the tours through the old buildings weren't running, but we really didn't have time anyway. Bevan wanted to see the Hawaii Five-0 building, which is really called Ai'iolani Hale. Across the street was the Iolani Palace, which is just as grand! We walked a loop around down town and also saw the Kawaiahao Church, the public library, Honolulu city hall, the capitol building, Washington Place (another former palace), and the art museum. All such beautiful buildings!

A vacation rental on Ka'elepulu Pond

When we were deciding where to stay on Oahu for the few days, I knew that a high-rise in Waikiki was just not for us.  Thanks to the many online vacation rental options, we found one in the cute town of Kailua, over on the north-east side of the island.  The rental was a studio apartment adjacent to a real house, but we were surprised the privacy, the sleep-number king-size bed, and the free gear to check out, like beach umbrellas, chairs, paddle boards, and kayaks!  It was a wonderful rental and wish we could've found something like that on Maui.  I later read that cheap vacation rentals, like ours, is theoretically creating an affordable housing crisis for locals... but that's hard to gage.  We loved Kailua!  The local Safeway and adjacent strip mall had a dozen cheap eating options that weren't fast food and very good!  We lived off the "plate lunches" of teriyaki something, rice, and veggies.  Kailua Beach was only a 5-minute drive, or a 20-minute kayak paddle from our rental.  I came to find out that it was hard to pick a "favorite" beach on the islands.  EVERY beach had soft sand, warm water, and was great for either surfing or snorkeling, depending on the surf.  Oh, Kailua!  We will be back!