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 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! :)

Honeymoon: Day 6

We made it to one week of marriage!  Yeah!  We woke up bright and early to catch a plane to Maui.  I have never been one to be afraid of flying in a plane, but I'll admit, I was a little nervous!  The inner-island flights are on small propeller planes and I know those don't have the greatest reputations for safety.  Luckily I had a window seat and y'all it was such a beautiful sight.  We made a pit-stop in Molokai (that flight took about 15 minutes!) which is one of the islands near Maui.  Actually, Molokai used to have a community of lepers.  When Hawaiians would get leprosy, they were abandoned on Molokai and left there to live.  I don't think that's still true today and I don't think they would appreciate me telling you that, ha!  

We made it to Maui in a total of about 45 minutes.  I wish I would have taken pictures from the plane but they said no phones on and I wasn't about to risk our flight with some crazy radar from my phone just for a few pictures.  We had to get up so early that we skipped breakfast, so I was thrilled when we got to the airport and realized there was a Starbucks there!

I grabbed a coffee, we got our luggage, our car, and headed to the hotel!  The first thing we noticed was that Maui was completely different than Oahu.  The part of Oahu we saw was complete city.  There was always something going on, the typical hustle and bustle of a city.  Maui was calm, open fields with cows, sugar fields, and gorgeous mountains off in the distance.  The clouds from the mountains caused the sky to change colors- rainbows of colors.  The drive from the airport to our hotel in Oahu was 15 minutes.  The drive from the airport to our hotel in Maui- 45 minutes.  It was probably the shortest 45 minutes of my life!  At one point on the drive, you can see both Molokai and Lanai (islands) and the water was such a translucent blue.  Absolutely gorgeous.  My only regret is that we didn't stop to take pictures.

We got checked in to our hotel, was showed to our room, and this was the view from our balcony:

Breathtaking, right?!  It was such a beautiful day, you'd think we would have spent it outside exploring...but no.  We were starving and it was lunchtime.  And we knew there was a Clemson game on back home!  So we asked the concierge about any good bars around town...specifically those that had ball games on, and maybe some Hawaiian brewed beer?  She pointed us in the direction of Maui Brewing Company- the perfect spot for us!  We got to check out a number of wonderful Hawaiian beers and were happily surprised to see quite a few football games on!  We weren't the only mainlanders who wanted to catch a game! ;)  But our tigers won big on our wedding night (our awesome DJ Joe had the game going on his phone for us!)

-- and again on our honeymoon! 

What can we say?  Our blood runs orange. :)  We were happy campers and left the bar to get ready for dinner.

We grabbed our "before dinner" pictures as we had in Oahu, but for some reason, it didn't quite work out as well for David--maybe it was all the Hawaiian beer? ;)

Take 1...

Take 2....

Take 3...

Take 4...

And take 5....

After 5 shots, we just gave up and went to have our "happy we made it to one week of marriage" dinner!  Dinner was at the Lahaina Grill which is a "must" if you ever make the trip yourself.  They use fresh, local island ingredients to make the most delicious meals.  Both David and I thoroughly enjoyed our dinners.  My dress even got to enjoy a little bit of the red wine sauce that came with my meal!  (Yep...so sad :(  But I got the stain out enough that I don't think anyone can really tell unless they know where to look!)  They took our picture together with their camera and said they would send us the picture but we never got it.  We did get a card, though!  

Our first day in Maui was completely different than I would have expected to spend it, but absolutely perfect in every way!