Honeymoon: Day 10

Oh, our last full day in beautiful Maui.  Our last day was pretty low-key.  We didn't plan anything except shopping and a luau for dinner.  We figured we'd better come home with some good stuff for our families!  And we wanted to bring something home that was special to us from each island we stayed on as well.  So for most of the morning and early afternoon, we shopped!  And actually, that's what we were doing when we found out Steve Jobs had passed away.  We were in the Maui Brewing Company t-shirt shop when my mom called.  Y'all, he holds a very weird place in my heart, haha!  My entire family had microsoft computers before David came into the picture, and once he came along, he changed all of our tunes. :)  First me, then slowly the rest of my family.  (Not totally, thanks to my Grandmom, we had the first ipod that ever came out.  That thing is huge, by the way!)  So we spent the better part of the afternoon talking and then saying, "gosh, I can't believe he's dead!"

We did that even as we ate lunch.  And lunch?  This was our view:

Ughh, I could not believe we were leaving the next day!  I tried and tried to talk David into staying an extra week, to moving there permanently....but since we're back in good ole' Simpsonville, my begging didn't work! ;)  But really, people...can you imagine waking up anywhere more beautiful than this everyday?!

I also got a flower to bring home!  I still love it and I know it's going to get some great use this summer. :)

We really didn't take too many pictures during the day, we just enjoyed being with each other.  But we did take some at the luau!  David and I spent 5 days on Oahu and 5 days on Maui.  We made the decision before we even booked our trip that we wanted to experience a luau on each island we visited.  I know this is part of the "draw" for "mainland" Americans when they come to Hawaii, but it's also part of their rich culture that "mainland" Americans tried to force out for decades.  So, for our last excursion on our honeymoon, we attended the Old Lahaina Luau!

Of course we had our "before dinner" pictures. :)  It's just tradition at this point!

 Didn't my hubby look so handsome?!

When we arrived, they gave us our admission packet, with our names on it!  My new name!  Excited was an understatement.  I had to have proof!  And yes, I saved it for a scrapbook. :)

The girls were also offered a flower to place behind our ear-- but not just any ear!  If you are married, or taken, then the flower goes behind your left ear.  If you are single, or approachable, the flower goes behind your right ear!  Well, I'm taken!! My flower was worn proudly behind my left ear! :)

 We were shown to our seats and then left to roam the grounds.  They had a lot of craft areas where you could learn about Hawaiian culture or watch natives making unique things.  David and I still hadn't found that "something special" from Maui until we came upon this guy:

Making these:

 

We knew we had to have one.  We had been one of the few on our snorkel trip to see a sea turtle so we knew this would always be special to us.  The man even engraved the bottom of the sea turtle for us:

One of our few pictures together. :)  I love this picture for more than the fact that it has both of us in it! (Although I do love it because of that, haha!) But all of the boats in the background?  The Old Lahaina Luau is situated right on the coastline and boat after boat came in and settled to watch the luau from the sea.  It must have been so peaceful for them to be rocked by the calm waves at sundown, listening to the traditional Hawaiian music and seeing the traditional Hawaiian dances.  I bet they also really liked seeing all of the honeymooners come down to the front to dance. ;)

The show is a "must-see" if you ever visit Maui.  It was beautifully done, the food was delicious, and the dancers were magical.  It was the perfect way to end our honeymoon and say "aloha" to wonderful Maui.

Honeymoon:Day 9

We woke up bright and early on day 9 of our honeymoon because we had to drive about an hour and a half to Haleakala Crater!  We signed up for the all-day horseback ride into the crater!   It takes about 45 min. from the base of the volcano to get to the top.  When you first arrive at the base, they give you a helmet for the horseback ride and a bottle of water.  The elevation is so high, they don't want you getting light-headed.  We were instructed to drink the bottle on the way up to the top.  Looking back, I think I would have been fine without the water...  We kept going up and up and winding around curves.  You know you are high up when you are actually above the cloud line!

Once we reached the top, our guide, Rah, was waiting for us with all of the horses.  (I don't remember his real name, but all of his friends called him Rah after the sun god!)  There was a building of restrooms and he told us we'd better go now because it would be 3 hours before we could go again.  Okay, cool.  I went, mounted my horse, and immediately had to go again- dang water bottle!  I came to find out I wasn't the only one. :)

The horse Rah chose for me was named "Mele" as in "Mele Kalikimaka" or "merry christmas" in Hawaiian.  If any of you know me at all, it was like divine intervention that this was my horse!  Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday so this was completely fitting for me. :)  Mele and I got along just fine  and she was a beautiful horse.

David's horse was named Rocky and he was a little spunkster!  David rode right behind me and Rocky would start walking really slowly, and then all of a sudden speed up to a gallup!  Rocky was having too much fun. :)  Rocky is also known to like sneakers.  His favorite are Nike and lucky for him, David was wearing Nike's on our trip.  Rocky was spotted quite often turning around to lick David's shoes. :)

Our ride took us all the way down into the crater and from the first moment, it was breathtaking.  The pictures don't do the colors justice.  We had to wind our way down a path and eventually hit some pretty steep areas- areas even the horses were wary about.  Obviously these horses travel this path daily, but they still didn't like it too much!  Mele would hit a spot and stop, look back at me as if to say, "You're kidding right?  This is really what you want me to do?"  So I'd do a little coaxing and she'd look back at me to say, "You're absolutely sure about this?"  And then she'd slowly saunter down the steep slope.  Too stinkin' cute.  

There is one part of the volcanic crater that has since crumbled off.  It drops off about a 40 degree angle, but it doesn't look like it.  It looks as if it just ends and you're so high up, all you can see is sky in front of you.  So gorgeous.

 About 30 minutes before we made it to the campground for lunch, we were all looking for a building.  Rah said we could use the bathroom when we stopped for lunch.   We looked and looked to no avail and finally Rah stopped us and said, "we're here!"  Umm, I'm sorry- where are we supposed to go to the bathroom?  Rah pointed the boys towards this bush:

And the girls towards this bush:

Ahh, I see now.  Luckily one of the other ladies on the trip had been smart enough to bring some extra toilet paper with her and was so nice to share! 

Lunch was a yummy turkey sandwich on a croissant with chips and pineapple for a snack!  Rah also brought some sugar cookies that were pretty good, too!  And just for the record- Hawaii does have bees and they do like food.

Rah loaded us back up on our horses and before we set off, took a picture of us with Mele and Rocky. :)

 The trip back up was another 3 hours but we felt like old pros at that point so it was a lot of fun.  We had too book it back to our hotel to get ready for our festivities that night!  We heard about a magic show that was "absolutely wonderful and fantastic and if you ever visit Maui you have to go there!"  So we booked tickets for Warren and Annabelle's before we left.  It's such a popular show, they sell out pretty quickly.  You all know me, I do my research and I found out the magician, Warren Gibson, actually went to Clemson!  WHAT??  David and I were so excited!  David ended up sending them an e-mail letting them know we were coming and were from Clemson and wanted to bring Warren a Clemson shirt as a souvenir.  So of course I had to dress up in Clemson colors that night!

 

 And of course I had to talk to Spike before we left.  (The hotel pet, ha!  He is an East African Crown Crane.)

Warren and Annabelle's is a dinner comedy place.  When we first arrived, we had to sign in and when we gave our names David leaned over to me and said, "did you hear that?  The lady just told that other person, 'those are the Bell's!'"  So they were expecting us!  In order to get into the piano dining room, you had to go through a secret passageway and with a key and a clue, find out how to get through to the other side!  I was excited because they handed me the key!

We got through to the other side pretty quickly, but I won't ruin any surprises in case you go one day. :)  We were seated and menus were brought and then Annabelle started to play.  Annabelle is the ghost of this little village whose lover died at see and now she plays the piano to try to draw him home.  She's invisible of course, but plays the piano in the middle of the room.  You can shout out any request and she'll play it.  It was pretty cool!

While we were waiting, Warren's wife came up and introduced herself to us and asked if we would like to be "a part of the show"- absolutely we would!  We got front row seats, at the front of the stage with 3 other couples and helped with the magic tricks.  Warren is such a funny person and that is half the fun of the show!  He picks on people when they do silly stuff and uses characters from The Andy Griffith Show.  Warren wanted David to look at a card, put it back in the pile and then shuffle through the cards until he found his card.  Warren handed David the stack of cards face down and David started shuffling through them face down!  Warren was like, "How are you going to find your card with them face down, Goober??" (Goober Pyle...Gomer's cousin).  It was just funny stuff like that, but the man is a real magician!  He was doing tricks we couldn't figure out!  The best one of the night was when he asked someone if they had a $100 bill and when a man held up his hand he asked him for it.  Come to find out the guy was a Gamecock fan and we all had a good laugh about the fact that Warren was for the Tigers and he wasn't giving back the $100 bill.  He made one of the girls write down the bill serial number, put the number away, burned the dollar bill.  We watched it burn to ash.  At the very end of the show he handed me a lemon, a knife, and the paper with the serial number on it and told me to cut open the lemon.  I cut that lemon open and don't you know that stinkin' $100 bill was IN the lemon???  It had the same, exact serial number.  What on earth?!!

After the show was over, they had a meet-and-greet with Warren and we were able to give him his shirt then.  He was so excited and kind!  Because we brought him a shirt, he ended up letting us each have a shirt for free!  It was such a neat experience and we would definitely go again if/when we go back to Maui!

Honeymoon: Day 8

Our third day in Maui was snorkel day!  We woke up early, had a good breakfast, took some dramamine and started out on our walk.  We decided to walk to the place where we were supposed to meet the boat...catamaran (the Teralani 2) to start our excursion instead of drive.  The hotels are all along the shore and there is one long, winding sidewalk that takes you from place to place.  The walk was only 15 minutes and early in the morning, Maui is cool enough that you don't even break a sweat.  The meeting spot was on the beach and we found it with no trouble.  We were with a group of about 20 other people, were told the rules (including "don't forget to breathe!), and that we were going to have a fun day!  Then we had to get on the boat- easier said than done!  The boat is at the mercy of the ocean and therefore the waves.  The natives told us that waves come in sets of seven.  I have never in my life counted waves or thought that there was a rhythm to it, but lo and behold, the sea consistently churned up seven waves at a time.  We had to wait to get on the boat until each set of waves passed because the waves carried the boat in- and out- fast and hard.  Once on the boat, there were more rules explained (like, "don't forget to breathe!) and we headed out to our first stop!

When we were in Hawaii, it rained two times.  It rained in Honolulu during our trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center and on our snorkel day.  And by rain, I mean it was mostly cloudy and rained for about 10 minutes.  We had such a wonderful time, but if anything could have made it any better it would have been all sun!  Those of you who know me know I am not an ocean girl.  I love the beach, but I am petrified of the ocean.  The captain of our boat kept calling the water "sharky"- as in, "The clouds are making the water murky and hard to see through- perfect for sharks."  Joy!  

But I wasn't going to go all the way to Hawaii and skimp out on snorkeling just because it was "sharky"- it was a new adventure after all!  So I threw up my shaka sign to show I was in it for the long haul!

David was more than excited!  I think of all the things we decided to do in Hawaii, this one was close to the top of his list.

They had gear on the boat we could use and they got us squared away with the correct sizes, showed us how to keep our goggles from fogging up, and helped boost our confidence, ha!  The staff was incredible.  They were so knowledgeable and kind and really made us feel welcome.  They even took a picture of us before we hit the water:

You can see the clouds in the sky!  Because Maui is mountainous, there are always rain clouds rolling off the mountains towards the beaches.  Most of the time, the rain doesn't make it to the beach, but occasionally it does.  I think we look quite dashing in our gear...haha!

When we got in the water I seriously thought I was going to hyperventilate!  The rule, "don't forget to breathe" popped into my head and I realized why they had been harping on it so much!  I was not expecting the pressure of the ocean water to be so strong against my lungs.  It took a few minutes to get used to, but a few deep, slow breaths got me through. ;)  Of course I was constantly on the lookout for anything that could harm me, but I finally loosened up a bit and had some fun.  We had a wonderful guide who stuck with us a lot of the time we were in the water and he showed us some of the coolest creatures.

This was a fuzzy brown sea urchin.  Excuse my large thigh--I was still trying to figure out how to best stay under the water, haha!

David got to hold this beautiful red sea urchin.  And it peed on him.  Well, we aren't sure if it peed but it definitely excreted something while he was holding it!

We also took pictures of lots of brilliantly colored fish like this one:

We have so many so be glad I only chose one fish, haha! :)

I started feeling a little more comfortable so our guide was able to talk me into swimming a little farther away from the catamaran.  I have no idea what I was thinking, ha!  The coral started getting farther and farther below us, there was a shelf of ocean floor below us and then a complete drop off, like a cliff under water.  But we saw a see-through eel (try taking a picture of that!) and ran into this beauty:

That's right!  A sea turtle!  He was young and lazy, didn't want his picture taken, but stayed still long enough to let us get a picture :)  That was pretty cool to see!  The sea turtles apparently like the deeper waters so we had to go out farther in order to see them.

Our guide was kind enough to take our picture all the way out in the big, blue sea- far, far away from the catamaran. So nice of him!

  

And just when I was feeling nice and comfortable, our guide started laughing while he was taking our picture.  "What?" we asked with our eyes and shrugging our shoulders.  And he pointed behind us and as we turned around we saw this HUGE spotted eagle sting ray!  I so wish the sun had been out and the water had been clearer so we could have gotten a clearer picture of this gorgeous sea creature, but this is the best we could do.  She was magnificent and just cut through the water.  Our guide said that the rays hardly ever show themselves.  We were lucky to see her! 

 And then I was done.  I had braved the ocean long enough and being so far out with such huge creatures that I had no idea were swimming around me-- I saw all that I wanted to see thank you very much!  I made my way back to the catamaran just in time for lunch to be served!

As we ate lunch, the sun came out and David and I headed out to sit on top of the catamaran with another couple we made friends with.  They were probably in their 40's, she works at a ski resort and he was the president of his own video technology company.  We had a great time talking and getting to know each other so before we got off the catamaran they asked if they could buy the newlyweds a drink.  Of course, we obliged. :)  The guy grew up coming to Maui so we knew some great spots right on the beach where we unloaded from the snorkel trip.

As we got off the catamaran, we had to be just as careful getting off as we did getting on...and as I stepped off the last step, a wave came and smashed the stairs into the back of my foot!  Oh my word, it hurt like nobody's business!  I ended up with a nasty bruise on the back of my foot that was still there when I got home!

Our one drink turned in to 4 hours worth of sitting around talking, relaxing, and having fun.  That's one of the wonderful things about Maui, time slips away and it's okay.

We stayed so long, the sun started to set.  We ended up taking pictures at the most popular picture spot in Maui.  It was absolutely beautiful.

And then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Dinner was at one of the hotel restaurants- Japengo- and we had a little problem:

My husband had a little too much to drink :)  This his how he looked the whole way back to the hotel.  The walk that took us 15 minutes at the beginning of the day ended up being about 30.  We got back to the hotel and I hopped in the shower with about 30 minutes to spare before dinner (luckily we didn't have to leave the hotel!) and he was fast asleep when I got finished getting ready.  There was no waking that boy up!  So, I went ahead and went to dinner!  I had a wonderful salmon and rice dish with edamame.  Everyone was so nice to me because I was on my honeymoon and eating by myself, haha!

When I got back to the room, I got ready for bed and was on my way to sleep when he woke up and said, "are you ready for dinner?"  WHAT?!!  I told him I had already gone and he slept through it and he said, "Oh, ok.  Well I'm gonna go to dinner, do you want to go?"  "No honey, I think I'll just stay here." Hahaha!  I couldn't believe it at the time but it is such a funny story to look back on now!  So needless to say, we don't have before-dinner pictures from this night! ;)

PS: David and I found out about a month ago that the couple we met in Maui and spent the afternoon with had ended their relationship amicably.  We were sad to hear, but glad we were all in the right place at the right time and shared some fun times together!

Honeymoon: Day 7

On our first full day in Maui, we decided to drive the road to Hana.  Anyone ever done this?  Let's put it this way, they have t-shirts in Maui that say, "I survived the road to Hana!"  Ha!  It was a 3 hour drive there....and back.  The longest road trip ever.  It goes to the complete other side of the island and it is the curviest road!  And there are curves that are literally one lane so you have to make sure no one is coming from the other direction!  But it was a beautiful drive!  And I can imagine that it is even more beautiful during the rainy season!  

There is a look-out along the way so we stopped to get some pictures.  The waves were pretty big here so there were quite a few surfers out there!  I just couldn't get over how gorgeous the weather was while we were there!

 The handsome hubby :)

 There was another honeymooning couple at the stop and so we took a picture of them and they took a picture of us!  Teamwork! :)

 We drove another hour or so and made a pitstop at a restroom along the way.  (Totally disgusting by the way...and there were roosters, chickens, and wild cats roaming all around...)  But the view was beautiful!  You could see how the island curved and the water was just as blue here!

 The water is so clear!  This was looking straight down from the rest-stop.

 One of the waterfalls we saw along the way.  We were in Hawaii towards the end of the dry season so the falls weren't as bountiful as they should be!  I can only imagine how beautiful they are when the water is freely flowing!

 There is only one place to eat in Hana, and once we got there we were starving!  As was everyone else who drove the road to Hana that day, ha!  But we threw up the shaka sign to show we were going with the flow!

 David throwing up the shaka sign!

 On our way back, we found a place off the main road called Pa'iloa Black Sand Beach at Wai'anapanapa State Park and decided to check it out.  And I am so glad we did.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  The plants were so green and the rock structures were so black.

 And we made our way down to the black sand beach and that's exactly what it was!  Black sand beaches form when lava flows out under the water and hardens, and over time gets beaten down by the water and waves and creates these black sand beaches.  They don't stick around for long (I think a couple hundred years?) but they are beautiful!

 At the tall point to the left of my head, there were campers who were swimming out to this structure, climbing all the way up and jumping off.  Oh my gosh, I was sure they were going to smack into the rocks, but they didn't!  It was fun to watch!  We started our long trek back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.  Dinner that night was at a sushi restaurant called Sansei and it was delicious!  We were so exhausted we forgot to take dinner pictures before so we took them after dinner and this is what we got:

 Hahaha :)

So our final picture was of us cracking up.  We were delirious, haha!  Unfortunately we didn't buy the shirt that says, "I survived the Road to Hana" and now I'm kicking myself for not getting it!  Oh well, I guess that just means I'll have to go back! :)