Road to Hana

The road to Hana is the most famous drive in all of Hawaii.  They say that this trip is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey.  We left early one morning on our journey and we are so glad that we did this.  We rented a convertible and drove with the top down the entire day.  I drove and Charlie navigated since the trip ahead was filled with one lane bridges and over 600 turns.  You literally do not drive faster than 15 m.p.h for the entire trip.  And if you ever even consider going faster the roadside crosses every few miles marking where someone had died are a quick reminder to SLOW DOWN!

 

This part of the island is considered to be like the garden of Eden.  They can get as much as 360 inches of rain per year here where other parts of the island get only 16 inches a year.  That is why on this drive you are in the most lush rain forest you can imagine and then on  the way home you see the exact opposite.  It was amazingly beautiful.  The total trip took us 13 hours with lots of stops along the way.  It is beautiful waterfall after beautiful waterfall and you never have to go more than a few miles before it is time to stop again and see the most amazing sights.

 

 The road has signs like this all along the way.  I think this sign I found is far more descriptive of the road ahead.  There are switchbacks every few feet and many corners that you just hold on to the steering wheel and pray that no one else is coming the other way because the turns are so tight you can't even see where you are going until you are 1/2 way around it already.

As I said we rented a convertible and I would not have done this drive any other way.  We saw things with a completely unobstructed view.  Our lungs were filled with clean beautiful air all day and the wind in our hair and the sun on our faces felt oh so wonderful!

 

This was the first waterfall we stopped at.  We saw countless more.  We had a short muddy hike to get here and we were literally standing on the edge of a very high cliff and it made me nervous so we did not stick around too long.

This place below was breathtaking I could have stayed here all day.  There was a house just outside of where I took this picture.  I could not believe that someone lived right here.  You would expect it to be a giant home owned by someone rich and famous but no it was a small grubby house.  Do  the people that live there have any idea that they live in paradise? 

 Looking down at the ocean.  Just one of many of these kinds of views.

 

Here we are at the Three Bears falls.

 The picture below gives you a small idea of what this trip was like.  If you look closely you can see the small road and below is a waterfall that drops several hundred feet.  Many of these waterfalls you would not even know were there as you just drive by unaware of what lies below you.  We had to follow our guide book every mile to know when to stop. 

 

This was where we stopped to eat our afternoon snack.  The picture is not that great of us or at capturing the beauty of where we were but we have so few pictures of the two of us on the trip I threw it in.  This was by far the most beautiful place I have ever stopped for a picnic.

 

 Not that I think my feet are cute or anything but this was a fun way to see all the kinds of sand I stepped foot on in just one day.  We saw regular sand, red sand, black sand and a multicolored beach that was more rocks but so neat to see all the colors on one beach.



This is a shot of the black sand beach.  We loved it here.  The contrast between the green trees and the black sand was beautiful. We had been out for about 7 hours already by the time we made it here so we found a quiet little nook and laid out our towel and took a nap on the beach and it was fabulous!

Next stop was this red sand beach.  It was a scary hike in.  So scary in fact that we stopped 1/2 way and turned around to go back.  Luckily on the way back we found some other people that pointed out another trail that was not as bad.  We hiked back in and it was well worth it.  I don't have a great picture of the actual beach part but you can see how red the sand was from the picture I showed above. 

 

This place was cool.  The red of the sand and the blue of the water and the green of the trees and the black of the rocks was like nothing I have ever seen before I or will probably ever see again.  You can see in this picture that there was a line of rock that calmed the water just a bit to make it a great place to swim right by the beach.  The beach is just around the big black rock on the left of the picture.

 One of our last stops was at the seven sacred pools.  It was hard to capture this place on my camera but it was waterfall and then a pool and then a waterfall and a pool and then another waterfall and another pool....get the picture?  It was crazy beautiful.

 It was a little cool by the time we got here and technically you are not supposed to swim here but had it been a bit warmer I think we both may have hopped in.

 This was the bottom of the pools where the water flows out into the ocean.  Again the colors....there are no words to describe.

At  this point it was time to start heading home.  We still had about a 2 hour drive ahead of us and it was getting dark and we were getting to a part in the road that was even more dangerous than what we had already driven.  Remember those crosses I mentioned?  Yeah, there were even more of them along this section of the road.  It made us laugh when 11 hours into the drive we came across this sign.  Really narrow winding roads the next 7 miles?????  What the heck had we been on for the last 11 hours?  

 We did not plan it this way but we somehow managed to hit the side of the island right by the ocean right at sunset.  I have never seen a sun set so fast in my life.  We pulled over to snap some shots and before we could even get out of the car it was gone. This was the coolest sunset I have seen in my life.  The picture we got was a second or two late but this gives you some idea of what we saw. 

 One really fun moment before the sun went down was captured in this video below.  We had hit the side of the island where the road straightened out a bit and this is where the island goes from rain forest to death valley.  It was such a stark contrast after being enveloped in green canopy all day to all of a sudden be in a dry expanse.  Still beautiful but just very different.  The best moment was as we reached the peak as the sun was starting to set Beautiful Day by U2 came on and it was the prefect anthem to pump up the volume with the top down and just grin ear to ear.  I could not have said it any better, it was for sure a Beautiful Day!

The Four Seasons

 

Charlie and I are fully aware that when we go on a trip like this it may very well be the last one in a LONG time so we always splurge a little (or maybe a lot) and try our best to REALLY enjoy ourselves.  Our biggest splurge on this trip was that we stayed at The Four Seasons hotel while we were on Maui. 

 

Charlie and I both agree that it was worth every dime.  We both spent most of our time there just shaking our heads in disbelief of the beauty of this resort and the AMAZING customer service.  We had a hard time even wanting to leave to go do things....it was just that good.  If you ever want an opportunity to be treated like a queen I highly suggest you give this place a try.

 

We knew we were in for a pleasant stay when we pulled up with our car and were greeted by no less than 3 staff member that greeted us with leis and whisked us off to the front desk and took care of all of our luggage for us.

From the time we reached the front desk until the second we checked out we were from then on greeted by every staff member by name.  While checking in we were given heated towels to wipe our hands off and some of the best lemonade and pineapple skewers to munch on.  As far as making a good first impression....these people have this down to a science.

 

 

We were then taken to our room.  From the second we walked in the door I knew I never wanted to leave.  Let me just name just a few of the amenities of this place:  robes and slippers, the best pillows and bedding I have ever slept on, closet lights that turn on automatically when  you open the doors, homemade marshmallows, L'Occitane bath products which I am pretty sure is french for "Hi, am expensive and fabulous!", built in sound system and a bathroom bigger than even my own.

Oh, and the breakfast buffet...don't even get me started.  Let's just say they had every food you could possibly imagine and I ate the best bacon in the world every single day I was there.  In fact, we ate so much breakfast each day that we never ate lunch even one day on our trip.  I still managed to gain 5 pounds but every delicious bite was well worth every bacony pound I put on.

 

Have I convinced you yet that you MUST go here one day?  If not, keep reading.  I am pretty sure that I have been spoiled for life and any hotel after this, no matter how nice is going to pale in comparison to this place.

This was the garden view from our room.  To afford an ocean view would have left us bankrupt but I assure you the grounds here are breathtaking and every room has a good view as far as I am concerned.

  Here is a view from one of the pools.  Yes, one of the pools.  There is also a kids pool and an adults only pool just in case the whole 2 kids that were there were getting on your nerves. 

 

One of the best parts about the pools again, was the service.  They had pool people assigned to each small section and as soon as they see you walking towards a chair they coming running down to set your chair up with towels and get you anything you may need. 

 

They also come around all day and bring you ice water, and cold towels, and muffins, and pineapple, and freezy pops and this is where I am not joking people...they even have chilled bottles of Evian water that is in an aerosol can and they come and mist you down when you look like you are getting a little too warm from the sun.  I honestly feel like laughing even typing this, that is how ridiculously nice the service was.  I mean if getting misted down with Evian while you lay in your cabana staring out at the beach after a hard day of reading, swimming and napping while listening to the waves does not make you feel like a queen....I don't know what would. 

What made us laugh was that we kept looking around at everyone else to see if they were as amazed by this place as we were.  Surprisingly they all seemed like this was just normal life.  We were also astonished to say that the average age of the people staying there was maybe 36.  And as if I don't already feel uncomfortable in a bathing suit it did not help that every other woman there was tan as could be and all weighed less than 120 pounds.  No joke...not one.  Charlie and I were for sure a little out of our league with this group and we were the ones that looked like the old out of shape couple. 

 

One of the things we really loved were the ocean front cabanas.  They have these cabanas that look right out to the ocean but they have hedges all around them so they are totally private.  We spent hours and hours here just napping and reading and watching the ocean.  It was so relaxing.

  Our first night in Maui we stayed at the hotel and ate at Spago which is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant and this was our view.  Really?  I can't even believe I was so lucky.  The food was delicious and I think I gained 3 pounds there just from the amazing bread.  I never knew I could get so excited over bread. 

 

So there you have it.  My official stamp of approval to anyone who ever wants to stay here.  We loved every stinkin' second and will dream of this place for years to come!

Pearl Harbor

 

Our first official vacation day we went to visit the USS Arizona Memorial as well as touring the USS Missouri battleship.  I am glad we took the time to go visit here as it was very different than anything else we did on our trip.  The memorial itself was simple and beautiful.  I found this aerial photo of the memorial where you can get a better sense of what lies beneath the memorial.

 

 Here is the wall of names of the people that were killed aboard the Arizona on December 7, 1941.  I loved the way this beautiful window let light into the room. 

This memorial was peaceful as everyone is quiet and respectful.  It was a moving experience to be there.  Below you can see the oil that is still leaking from the ship, they call it the "sailor's tears".

One of the most interesting things was that we happened to be there on a day when they would be burying one of the survivors with the ship.  There were few survivors but the ones that did survive are able to be buried back with their ship and their shipmates if they so choose.  The picture of the box below shows the survivors that have passed away since then that have returned to be buried here.  The red white and blue tape is covering the name of the man being buried that day with his ship.  I think they said that there are only around 17 remaining survivors.

Once we left Pearl Harbor we headed to visit the USS Missouri which is docked right across from the memorial.  We had a great tour guide who shared with us many interesting facts about this ship.

This ship is huge and it is hard to look at a picture and have any concept of it's size.  Wandering around inside makes me wonder how anyone knew where anything was.  They actually have a full dentist office inside.  I guess I've never thought about having your teeth fixed while on a battleship but it was sure cool to see.

This ship served in World War II as well as the Korean War and the Gulf War until it came to it's final resting place here in 1998.  Just one of the guns that Charlie is standing by weighs as much as a space shuttle and shoots bullets that weigh as much as a car that can hit a target with pin point precision 25 miles away!  Pretty darn amazing.

 

 

 

One of the coolest parts for me was getting to stand on this spot.  This is where the table was that they signed the instrument of final surrender that brought WWII to an end.  So while on this ship you could see the USS Arizona memorial where WWII began for us while standing in the exact spot where WWII was officially over.  Very interesting.

 

Aloha!

We have arrived home from our most relaxing and fabulous trip to Hawaii.  I thought I would give a quick preview of day 1 so that it will keep me going on the rest of the posts.  I will warn you that most of the pictures are of just the beautiful scenery and that my camera and my camera skills struggle to even remotely capture the beauty of what we saw.

 

We were off on a 15 hour day of travel getting up at 4 A.M. and LOVING every second of it.  It is amazing how wonderful simple things like driving in a car or flying on a plane can be as just 2 adults sans 5 kiddos.  We were in heaven! 

We arrived at the Turtle Bay Resort very tired that evening but were thrilled at the beauty of where we stayed.  We originally had booked a hotel right in downtown Honolulu but switched to this hotel on the opposite side of  the island and boy am I glad we did. 

 

Honolulu is a big busy city and felt nothing like what I wanted Hawaii to feel like.  The north shore however was far less busy and it was beautiful and tropical and everything we were hoping for.  A little bit longer of a drive, but well worth every scenic second.  Plus, we rented a convertible so we put the top down and just sucked in huge deep breaths of clean beautiful Hawaiian air. 

Ahhhhh...relaxation here we come!

 This was our resort and below is the view from our room.  We slept with our balcony doors open the two nights we were there and fell asleep and awoke to the sounds of waves breaking on the beach.  This hotel is as close to the water as you can get.  In fact, due to changes in building codes if this hotel were to be built today it could never be built as close to the water as it is. 

Going to this resort is awesome because you just walk right in.  No doors, no turnstile thingys....it is just all open to nature.  I can't even imagine living somewhere that it is so nice all year round that you don't even need a door!

Because of the time change we were pretty much up by 4 A.M. every morning.  I think the latest we slept was until 6:30 and one day we were even up and at it at 2:30 in the morning.  Don't worry, there were plenty of pool side naps and early bedtimes each  night.  We watched the sunrise each day and it was wonderful.

 

 

Here we are early morning on our first day of vacation watching the sun come up.  The moon and the stars were still out when we got to the beach. 

 

 

The rest of the shots are just from our sunrise that day.  There are many more of these to come.  I am missing it all already!