After driving through the central valley of Maui, we headed west for Ka'anapali. We checked into the Hyatt Resort and we refused valet or baggage handling because Steve and I are totally able to do those things on our own and I am too cheap to tip. Totally fansy pants. Chandaleirs everywhere and open corridors everywhere. There are brids of all sorts hanging out on the lobby and every nook and cranny you can find. They tell us that we should use the extras that the hotel offers since we are paying a resort fee. Tennis? Well, maybe not this time but the tea in our room, paper on our doorstep, and in room safe we used. Crazy. You can also charge anything that you do or buy in the resort to your room. Drinks by the pool? Room 720. Snacks at the shop. Room 720. Massage on the beach. Room 720. It was fun but is like a credit card that you have to pay at the end of a week.
Steve and I had a schedule here. We sailed to the island on Lanai'i on a Trilogy sailboat/catamaran. That was great fun. We took a speed boat around the island looking for dolphins which we didn't find but got to see the beautiful coast and learn a little about the island from our local guide. All food is shipped onto the island where about 2-3000 people live. Two resorts are still on the island where Bill gates was married and bought the island out for that week. People who are born there, grow up there and is one of the rare, Hawaiian places left in Hawaii. We went back to the beach, snorkelled a bit, just layed on the beach and then the crew made us dinner. On the trip back we had champagne and watched the sun set. We sat up front and got soaked from the water splashing up through the trampolines up front.
The next day we went on another sailboat trip that Mary Margaret and Jeff got us. That was awesome because they took us to a place off the southern area os the west coast and jumped right into the water to snorkel. We saw so many fish, swam right mext to turtles and through coral. That was awesome. That night we went to a luau that Roy and Julie Nelson got us as a gift. That was great to see. I learned a hula on stage, Steve ate his weight in pinapple, we saw apig come out of the ground (makes you appreciate the life given for your meal when you see that). There were hula dancers doing many different types of Hula with drums going and guys twirling fire. It was great, still kind of like Disneyland but I think it was good to learn about some of the culture of Hawaii.
The rest of the days were spent lounging on various beaches up and down the coast, watching the stars with an astronomer pointing out many interesting stars, getting a couples massage on the beach, and hanging out at the pool, sauna, and spa. We ate at the Lahiana Fish Co. which was awesome. He met this guy who talked like Boomhower that night. I tried, but couldn't hear what the was saying. We ate at an Italian Tapas place called Vino that was awesome. We had a chianti rufino that was just like the wine we drank like water in Italy.
It was marvelous. I love vacationing with Steve. He is my Honey.
Wow. Talk about a tropical paradise! Well, it's great but of course America has capitolized as much as possible on it. Look at this beautiful beach! Not only is it a beautiful beach but we will build about a hundred resorts to exploit it as much as possible!
No, but really, it was a fun trip. Steve and I landed in the northern central part of Maui and drove in our Jeep Wrangler towards Hana. We saw some beautiful coastline, ate lunch (ahi tuna sandwich is to die for) at Paia fish market which is a local favorite that is being tripped upon by tourists like us. The coast is awesome. We found out that the water wasn't that warm in April, but very swimable. We continued to drive through cane and taro feilds, catching patches of rain here and there, sun most of the time.
In Hana we stayed at the Hana Kai which has suites right on the ocean. It was like our own private beach for the hotel. The beach was black and pebbly. We found out that there were only 3 restaurants in the whole palce, two of which were closed due to the town meeting Monday night. We gave in and ate at the resort restaurant which was outrageously priced and mediocre. We bought our groceries at the general store the next day and cooked ourselves. Hana has some amazing beaches. There si a black sand beach, a red sand beach due to the clay rish mountains that frame it, a great pool called Blue Pool which we had to trespass in order to get to but swam under a water fall in a very blue and cold pool. It was amazing. Right on the shore of the ocean. We went to some caves that were lava tubes from about 190 years ago. They were amazing. When we got to the caves, the guy who lived by them said we could go free if we could help him burn a CD of a book he wrote. Umm, awesome! Steve strikes again.
After a couple days of solitude, we drove the south road out of Hana, which we found out we were not supposed to do with a rental care, but it was not bad at all. A couple spaots were unpaved but a high car like ours cleared all pot holes. The views that way were amazing. We were high on the cliff of lush vegitation, looking over an ocean of absolute blue and mostly untouched land. Then as we drove, the landscape turned into bare lava fields with only desert plants growing out of them. Often, volcanoe landscape reminds one of being on Mars and that is what it was like. The top down, the sun beating on our skin. It was hot.
We began to drive North through the middle of Maui which is called the upcountry. We stopped off and had Pinapple wine which was horrible. California has made me partial to grape wines I guess. Futher up the road we stopped off in Gramdmo's Cafe and had a supern sandwich. We may have been hungry but I think it was sincerely good. This area was still underpopulated.
That was a great place to be for our first three days on our honeymoon.
(Written in March, from Ontaria, CA to Oakland, CA)
Brian and Julie drove me to the airport and there was heavy traffic on the way here. I have never checked in so fast (there was no line) and got on a plane ever in my life! 20 minutes flat.
As we pull away from our gate I began to cry. The tears start to well up in my eye sockets and I try to hold them back. Then I look around and nobody is around me to ask why I am crying so I just let it out. My next question, as is always the case when I sporadically cry like this, is why the heck am I crying? We’re on the runway, my favorite part of any flight. As I look out the window I realize that I am leaving my hometown and will be returning as someone different. Not altogether different. A different name and title. It takes big events such as weddings to make you feel that you have grown up and are now an adult. But I am not really an adult. A whole new adventure in my life is about to begin. I have done so much in the past years that make me happy to be independent. I have made decisions regarding my life for about six years but now I am cutting any dependence I have on my parents by marrying a man, the man. How old fashioned is this? They will always carry the dependence of a phone call for advice or to talk. It is a weird feeling. I am excited, nervous, all feelings that you feel before you start a new adventure, travel to another country, or take a step in a direction you aren’t sure about but need more than anything to do. No wonder weddings are such sob fests.
I am lucky to be able to start this part of my life with this guy who is my friend and with whom I trust the world. Many new steps will be made and feelings I have never felt before. The flight, with its dips, take offs and landings, is so fun. I am so excited and can’t wait to see what is up there.