Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Hawaiian Adventure


Aloha. Apparently I can’t really claim to have been an official Alaskan until I vacationed in Hawaii. There are direct flights year round to Hawaii from Alaska, which at 6 hours makes it a surprisingly easy and warm destination for a tropical escape. I think Alaska and Hawaii have a kindred connection since they are both outcast from the contiguous United States. All those “free shipping” emails and advertisements you see, note the * with a special disclaimer on the bottom that says except AK and HI, where we will charge $20 extra to ship anything! Not that I’m bitter about shipping costs or anything haha. But free shipping is so exciting now that I'm back in Texas.

Anyway I was pumped to have a vacation to Maui with my good friend Jodie back in April. Yes this was 6 months ago and I am finally getting around to blogging about it, shameful I know :( Alaska Airlines passed out complimentary Mai Tai’s about 30 minutes before we landed which made for an excellent start to the vacation! Everyone on the plane was so happy and delighted. We were greeted with a cool island breeze in the wonderful open-air airport when we landed. I loved Hawaii from the moment we stepped off the plane. Things just kept getting better as we ventured over to the car rental place. National car rentals usually have an assortment of cars to choose from, so we were browsing the Camrys and Civics when all the sudden a brand new 2015 Mustang pulled up from the car wash and the attendant stepped out and asks us if we want the car. Of course we were thrilled to be riding in style across the island! We nicknamed our hot rod Mustang Sal for the week and tried to find good spots to take a photo for our island Mustang car commercial.

Alaska Airlines Hawaiian plane!

Lovely open air airport

Mustang Sal

Our first two nights were spent in Lahaina on the western side of the island. I tried Air B&B for the first time and found a little condo called “Million Dollar View” and it truly was just that. The room literally couldn’t have been any closer to the ocean and it was so peaceful falling asleep to the ocean breeze and hearing the waves crash right beneath us.

Our Million Dollar view in Lahaina

On our drive over to Lahaina, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks. This was when we discovered the amazing fact that Hawaiian grocery stores have a poke counter the size of the meat counter in most other grocery stores I’ve been to! We were obviously thrilled and of course had to try several different flavors. We ended up with 1.5lbs of tuna poke ranging from avocado to sweet chili flavors. This was the perfect picnic dinner as we ventured out to the blowhole on the north side of the island. We were the only ones there watching as the waves crashed and shot a tower of water up above the rocks. We ended the evening by catching the beautiful sunset on our way back to the room.

Treacherous walk down to the blowhole

The blowhole in action

Delicious fresh poke

1st Hawaiian sunset

The next morning we were up early and enjoyed coffee and whale watching from the balcony. We then headed down to South Maui to check out some snorkeling spots. It was a little treacherous getting into the water on the rocky spot, but we saw several huge sea turtles as well as a hilarious guy in boxer briefs with his go-pro swimming right next to one of the turtles haha. All that snorkeling made us pretty hungry so enjoyed some liquid aloha Kona beer and authentic Hawaiian fruit – guavas and star apples. We had to do a little google search to figure out how to eat these fruits. I absolutely loved the guava and have been on the hunt for them ever since I got back. We the ventured to Big Beach in South Maui for some sun tanning on our super pale Alaskan skin. There was a surf competition going on at the time so it was pretty crowded. We did enjoy some good people watching as several groups with various drums and instruments heading over this cliff to Little Beach, which we read later was a topless beach.

Morning coffee and whale watching

Rocky entry to the best South Maui snorkel spot

Yummy guavas!

Trying out the star apple

Beautiful South Maui day

We drove home along the NW side of the island to get some different scenery, which wasn’t mentioned at all in our guidebook. We soon figured out why that is, because it was a super scary one lane road most of the way! Thank goodness Jodie was driving because there were several stretches where I couldn’t look out the window as we drove along the top of the cliffs. We did stop for a couple photo ops though because the scenery was absolutely beautiful. We also stopped at a little artist shop and I found a cute sea turtle Christmas ornament souvenir since I saw my first sea turtle that morning.  I think we were both quite relieved when we finally made it home for the night.

Driving along the cliffs

Beautiful scenary

Terrifying one lane road

Pretty flowers

Church up in the cliffs

Hibiscus

Another sunset at the end of the windy road

The next morning we woke up super early to check out one more snorkel spot in West Maui - Honolua Bay. We were there by 7am and took a really neat 10 minute walk through the jungle to the cove, where the water was nice and calm. We snorkeled along one side of the bay and then decided to cross the open ocean to snorkel back along the other side. We swam pretty fast over the vast ocean cause we were scared of whales and ocean creatures! I made Jodie take the outside spot haha. I didn’t think the coral and fish were as good as the south maui spots we went to the day before, but it was a fun morning adventure and we avoided the afternoon sun on our backs.

Trekking through the jungle

Ready to snorkel

Neat jungle trees

Post-morning snorkel

Wild chickens near the bay

We then started our trek to Hana, the most famous drive in Maui, but not before we stocked up on some more poke. It was a beautiful drive with lots of waterfalls and beaches to explore! We ate lunch at the top of a waterfall and stopped to take a dip in the chilly water of Chings Pond (aka the Blue Sapphire Pond). There was this neat shop on the side of the road selling all types of Hawaiian treats like macadamia nuts, pineapple  and coconut. This is where I tried liliqoi for the first time, the Hawaiian passionfruit! I found another Hawaiian treasure and my newest obsession. From then on I got liliqoi flavor everything - jams, ice creams, syrups, etc. 

Ready for the Road to Hana

Lunch at the top of a waterfall

Lots of waterfall sitings

Fruits for sale

Chings Pond

Chings Pond

Jodie in Chings Pond

Just floating around

Chings Pond

Chings Pond

We stayed in a cabin at the Wai'anapanapa State Park on the East side of Maui for the next two nights. It was so cute and rustic and could sleep up to 8 people if you had a large group. We explored around our cabin and found a neat path to the ocean surrounded by mangroves. The waves were really strong crashing against the volcanic rocks along the coast. The turquoise water against the black rocks and lush green plants was gorgeous. The coastal path took us to the Black Sands Beach where we relaxed for awhile and then Jodie was brave enough to take a dip in the ice cold freshwater pools in a cave behind the beach.


Our cabin 

Mangroves lining the path to the beach 












j
Heading down to the freshwater cave





Jodie braving the cold pool, I watched from above 

Ending the evening at Wai'anapanapa State Park

The next day we finished the other half of the drive past Hana. Unfortunately, the Seven Sacred Pools were dried up, so we hiked to the huge old banyan tree and turned around. We made a pit stop at Laulima Farm where they made me a salad with all locally grown produce, it was kind of a hippy place and the salad was super tasty. We then went to Homoa Beach for several hours for some sun tanning and body surfing. The beach was nice and tucked away with a super consistent wave break spot so was perfect for body surfing.


Jodie in the banyan tree


Laulima Farm

Tasty salad

Jodie found a kitty

Homoa Beach waves for body surfing!

Views along the road to Hana

I found a Packers fan!

Jodie saw an ad in our guidebook for power hang gliding in Hana so we signed up the day we arrived and were finally headed out to the Hana Airport late afternoon. I was pretty terrified so Jodie made me go first. Our German pilot took each of us up in a motorized hang glider for an hour. We flew by waterfalls and beaches and even above the clouds! Yes I’m a child, but I’ve always wanted to stick my hand out of the window of an airplane and “touch” the clouds. So I totally stuck out my hand, knowing good and well I wouldn’t feel anything, but it was still super fulfilling! Then the pilot turned off the engine and let us free glide back down to the ground, I was pretty scared but the views were simply incredible! We ended the day with champagne in Hana to celebrate the awesome adventure and Jodie's last night in Hawaii.


Suited up for our hang gliding

About to take off


So cool!

Trying to smile for the camera

Flying over the amazing landscapes

Above the clouds!

Jodie flying over our cabin

Jodie steering the hang glider

Jodie over the waterfalls

Cheers to Hana and hang gliding success

The next morning we got some coffee and ventured out to Venus Pool. We saw some guys jumping off a 50ft cliff with go pros! Super brave, we walked down to the base of the pool and I stuck my feet in while Jodie went for a swim. We hit up one more beach near Hana before heading back to town – the Red Sands Beach. The walk there was a little treacherous and we actually saw a couple people fall (didn't get seriously injured). Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to hang out because Jodie had a flight to catch, but we got a couple photos of the sand. I actually flew over this beach the day before in the hang glider as well. We definitely underestimated how long it would take to get back into town and Jodie got to the airport with 32 minutes before her flight… but she made it onboard! In her swimsuit haha.

Unattended fruit stand with a jar to collect money, so cute and trusting!

Headed to Venus Pool



Found Venus Pool

Jodie went for a swim

Red Sands Beach

The sand really is red


I had 2 more vacation days to spare, so I used my hotel points to stay at the Hilton Grand Wailea for 2 more nights. My life was about to become super hectic with a new job, trip to South Korea, and a cross-country move, so I wanted to relax for a few more days in the sunshine. It was the perfect end to my active vacation and my room had another incredible view with a full wall of windows! It was definitely tough to come back to real life after a week in paradise.

Amazing view

Beautiful hotel

I finally got a lei

Tropical drinks with a jalapeƱo kick

My last Hawaiian sunset