Maui 4th day....

Day 4



Snorkeling at the Molokini Crater and dinner at an incredible restaurant, what else can I say? Such a fun day out on the ocean in the clear blue water, we saw several whales which was a bonus since this was a snorkeling tour and so many beautiful fish! Great food too! They served grilled chicken, rice and salad. Seriously better than expected on a tour like this.

Inside of the catamaran and Brad and I on deck!

Brad was swimming back to the boat and since he was using the dolphin kick to move faster, he didn't realize how close he was to the boat... that is blue paint from the where he made contact! :)


After spending a day on the ocean we headed back towards the airport and the Hana highway to to Mama's Fish House. The view from our table and the walk in were amazing!

Below in front of the restaurant... soooo beautiful!

View below from our table of the ocean and the restaurant from the front.

Walking up to the restaurant... too many great photo opportunities...

View from on top of the restaurant. Yes they had a walkway on top of the restaurant.. very cool.

Great food in fact they have a new menu each day which tells you which fisherman caught each type of fish and where they caught it. Incredible and sooo tasty!

Maui 3rd Day... The Hana Highway

Day 3

The Hana highway... the most horrible drive that I have ever been on (TWICE) but it is incredibly beautiful! The first time I drove this road was over 14 yrs ago.. and I told myself I wouldn't subject myself to that drive again but I caved and went again so that Brad and my family could have this experience. Here is what the road looks like in most places..


The Hana Highway is a 60 mile stretch of road that connects the small town of Hana to the rest of Maui. The Hana Highway winds its way past waterfalls, beaches, bridges and spectacular ocean views. The entire drive is a narrow 2 lane road with switchbacks that in places only allow one car to cross at a time. I can get terribly car sick and therefore narrow with switchbacks does not make for a good combination for me! After Hana, the highway becomes even more like a footpath than a road and heads to the Kipahulu Visitor Center at Haleakala National Park. I finally had to drive the last few miles to the 7 sacred pools and have to say it was less than spectacular. I guess hiking into Havasupai last May set the bar way to high for beautiful waterfalls!


Here are more pictures of the road to Hana and the one on the left shows how my mom and sister made it the long 3 1/2 hour drive by sitting on the back of the convertible, while unsafe gave them a lot more leg room! We were only driving 10 to 25 miles an hour.. that's ok right?

This picture is looking back at the road carved out of the mountain we had just driven on. I am bummed that there was a fire on the Big Island of Hawaii which made several of our photos hazy.

Here is the beach at the base of the 7 sacred pools. Soooo beautiful... maybe not so much Brad and I in our bathing suits but the scenery! :-)

The picture on the left is the bridge we drove over to get to the Haleakala National Park and then hike down to the pools. You can see 2 of the 7 pools on the left and then the 3rd one in the picture on the right. The other pools are really small and for some reason I didn't get a great photo of those.

The pictures below are at The black sand of Hamoa beach is one of our favorite beaches on Maui. The water was not too rough, there are no rocks in the surf, the crowds are minimal, and the scenery is amazing.

I was extremely car sick by the time we got back to where we were meeting for dinner. So my cute husband and wonderful sister missed dinner to take me back to the hotel. (After getting some ginger ale at the store and soup from Outback for me to eat.) I was also craving a turkey club sandwich, I know totally random! Brad and Jamie went on a search to all the restaurants at the hotel and finally found that I could have just ordered it via room service. I felt much better after eating and resting, but that was an extremely long day!

On a side note.. I was just thinking about my journey to motion sickness. I used to be really car sick growing up and then it got much better until a few years ago (except when I read while in a car). I was at Lagoon with my family and my friend Kristi when I started feeling sick from the motion on the rides. That had never happened to me before, I had been on these rides many times before. It was very strange, I even had to lay down on the grass for a while. I felt really embarassed but Kristi was super nice about it and my family took her around while I recovered. (We were in college at this time so yes it was ok my family left me alone.) I can still ride most rides at amusement parks just not ones that turn around in circles rapidly or dump me upside down for more than 15 sec. I know that was random but thought I would share.

I have so many things to blog about but I like to do them in order.. hopefully I will have the rest of Maui by the end of the week. I know.. promises, promises!

Anyone else have a problem with motion sickness?

Maui 2nd day

Day 2

Ok.. I know this is a lot later than promised but better late than never right? I had youth conference last weekend and we head to San Diego tomorrow and will be spending time with Jenn and her family. I will also be visiting 2 of my branch offices on Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully, I will have time next week to finish up the posts on our Maui vacation.

So...Day 2 started out a bit slow.. we were all tired from the time change and flight experience from the previous day. We went to the Wailea shops next to our hotel to rent snorkel gear and boogie boards, we also did a little shopping...ok a lot of shopping! Then headed back to our hotel to swim and lay around the pool/beach.

Here is a picture of one of the many man-made waterfalls at this incredible hotel. We ate lunch here by the pool, which was yummy! Then played on the slides and in the ocean the rest of the day. This hotel has many water slides, a lazy river, rope swing etc.. it was really fun! We had a great time!

Then we had to get ready for the Luau that evening. My dad's company was having a luau awards ceremony that evening where he received an award for being the #2 producer in the country last year, he is already in the running to qualify for a trip to Europe next year! Way to go dad! He worked really hard to qualify for this trip and it was great to celebrate his success with he and my mom. The luau was really great! The food was amazing and they had several dancers representing different islands in the Pacific. It was one of the best luau's I have been to!

Here are a few pictures from that evening.. we all wanted to look the part so we dressed in our best Hawaiian gear! I already had the sarong from a previous trip but we bought Brad his shirt during our shopping adventure that morning! It is actually funny that we all ended up matching our spouse/significant other, we really didn't plan it that way - well maybe Carly and Travis did!

Cute waiter with my sister.. she was sooo embarrassed when I asked him to take a picture with her!

My sister and I got pretty good at the self portrait thing! I think this was our 3rd try!

Interesting dessert plate! I would have to say the dessert was not my favorite part but definitely worth a photo! More to come!!!

Father of the Bride....

Ok... did anyone else just LOVE this movie when they were younger? The first time I saw it, I remember thinking.. I hope I meet a guy like Brian MacKenzie he is soooo cute! I was a senior in high school when this movie came out and well.. it took me 12 more years to find my "Brian MacKenzie" but it was well worth the wait!

So, last Thursday while I was walking around the Gateway mall I saw and said "hi" to George Newbern (Brian MacKenzie, pictured below). Very uneventful but brought back some great memories of watching this movie over an over during my early twenties. BTW: He still looks pretty good! Apparently he is filming a new movie here in Utah.

I just thought I would share this random tidbit of info as a blog entry this week. I do have most of the pictures uploaded from Day 2 of our Maui trip but haven't had a chance to get them posted. Hopefully by Thursday.

As cheesy as this is...does anyone else have a star sighting to share?

70 mph wind?

I thought I would share a picture of what the wind can do where we live when it is in full force! We had heard about the fierce wind when we were building but couldn't have imagined what we were getting into until we actually moved into our home. We did get a taste of it during the framing of our home, when after a bad wind storm a co-worker of mine told me he drove by our house that morning on the way to work and one of our walls had fallen down. Seriously? I couldn't believe it until I actually saw the pictures Brad took after visiting that morning. I may add that picture to the post later.

Anyway, we have the unfortunate luck to have a BIG BOX store being built in the field behind our home. (Another long story I may share at a later time) They had all the outside walls built by this past Sunday with only wood poles holding them up until they get the rest built. Well, Sunday night we had 70 mph winds and this was the result. If you look at the left of the picture above the dirt pile you will see the jagged edge of what was once a full wall. It is amazing the way the wind blows down here in the spring and fall, I have been awakened on several occasions from the wind blowing against our home and you can literally feel the house move especially if you are upstairs.

More pics of Maui to come....

Maui Teaser

Day 1

1st day was mainly spent traveling to Maui. We left at 11:20am Utah time and arrived at 3:30pm Hawaii time. We were supposed to arrive at 2pm but our plane had technical difficulties and we were stuck on the runway for over an hour. They kept telling us it was no big deal but anytime there is a problem with the gas tank and you see smoke it makes you bit nervous. They also came through the cabin and used duck tape to fix a couple walls on the inside of the plane..yes I said "duck tape"! I seriously think this was the oldest plane in their fleet...if we were flying close like California OVER LAND.. I would have been fine but flying over the ocean with a VERY old plane made me a bit nervous. Thanks to those of you who text me that all would be OK! By the time we rented our cars and drove to the hotel it was around 6pm.

We went to Maui with my family. Here we are after we had landed. My dad won this trip to Maui with his company and invited us to come along. When we arrived we were greeted with the traditional Hawaiian lei greeting. Prior to this trip I had been to Hawaii 3 times and had never received a lei greeting. During this trip we received 3!

This picture is in our hotel lobby after check in... this hotel was incredible! It is called the Grand Wailea Hotel. Check out this link.. http://www.grandwailea.com/ I will tell you more about this hotel in the next entry.

That night we went to dinner and did some shopping to get ready for the beach on day 2. You gotta love the local ABC store!


Then we went back to the hotel to walk along the beach, I love the sounds and the smell of the ocean.

Stay tuned for Day 2....

Claim to fame? Well ....not really.

Ok.. so I keep getting bugged that I haven't posted for a while. I have several things in my head that I just need to get onto paper (into a post). We have been out of town for a week but I told my friends last night that I would post today so here it is.

**Disclaimer - If you find this boring or lame you can blame Linda and Melissa!! ***

Random fact about me. My friend Julie and I were in church one Sunday, I want to say at least 6 years ago but it may have been 7 years. Anyway, one of the photographers for the Ensign and other church magazines etc.. was in church because his son spoke (it was a singles ward). He came up to us and asked us if we wanted to be in some pictures he was taking for the church website. We said sure and after a couple hours of photos we were famous! Well, not really but our pictures were posted on the church website under the "handheld PDA" link..this was when handheld devices were just becoming popular. I wasn't sure if we were still on the website I haven't checked for a couple years- so I thought I would check.. lo and behold we are still there! There used to be 3 or 4 pictures of us in different scenes on Trax but now only the one remains...

Here is the link in case you want to take a gander... Enjoy!

http://www.lds.org/handheld/0,18493,5299-1,00.html

Stay tuned for Cinco de Mayo pictures, Our trip to Hawaii and who knows what else.....

Please take time to comment and share a random fact about yourself!