Mid-March, Joel and I dropped the kids off and headed to Hawaii! He had a speaking engagement there and we figured having me come along and taking an extra day there to celebrate our 6-year anniversary would be good. Judah stayed with the Groskopf Grandparents and Joel was with the Penton Grandparents. We felt like dumping both of them on just one family would be too much.
The 10 hour flight from Atlanta to Honolulu was pretty rough. The distance between the seats was about 2 inches less than normal and I didn’t really notice but Joel suffered a bit with his knees wedged pretty much the entire time. We were slightly (well, ok..moderately to severely) disappointed that there wasn’t internet on the 10 hour flight but other than that we are super pumped to have this huge amount of time to read the Bible, talk, watch movies and just be together. It was fun. Oh yeah, and then at the end of it we get to be in Hawaii for 2 days! Woo hoo.
When we got to Honolulu it was 3pm but 9pm our time. We were pretty exhausted but it was easy to wake up with the awesome jeep wrangler with the top down and glorious weather!
We checked in, then went to Waikiki beach for a quick swim and then headed to Cheesecake Factory for Dinner.
When we got to Honolulu it was 3pm but 9pm our time. We were pretty exhausted but it was easy to wake up with the awesome jeep wrangler with the top down and glorious weather!
The next day we woke up at 3am to catch a 5am flight to Maui. We were slightly disappointed with the ‘island hopper’ flight, as we both thought something would be easier about them. .. like less security, ability to check in later, free checked bags.. something! But it turns out they are just like any other flight, just shorter. We got to Kahului, Maui and rented a mustang convertible then headed East to take the Road to Hana. We stopped at scenic views, and for a short hike during the sunrise.
We somehow passed by the Black Sand beach and figured that out by the time we reached Hana. Oops. However, We stopped at a beach with black
sand that wasn’t the official ‘Black Sand Beach” but we thought the
official one was probably exactly the same.
In Hana we stopped by the Hotel Hana-Maui to eat breakfast that was
surprisingly good but very expensive. My cup of coffee was $4.25! The
Breakfast helped wake us up. The next stop was Hasegawa's General Store
to pick up some snacks and drinks for the rest of the day. Then we
headed to Hamoa Beach. Hamoa beach was pretty gorgeous, the waves were big, the sand continued throughout the water without any rocks. The
beach sand was so pretty with browns and blacks and tans like some type
of granite counter top in an HGTV episode. Joel played in the waves the
entire time, I joined him for a bit and then laid down and fell asleep. Ahh:)
Then we headed to Kipahulu Falls and Haleakala National and went on a 2.5
mile hike. It was soooo beautiful and a great workout and a lot of
fun. Of course, near the top of the hike, we realized we were running
out of time. So we turned around and quickly rushed back down and headed to the West side. We wanted to eat there and catch our flight back in time.
We decided to continue on the road we were on instead of backtracking on
the Hana Highway. Suddenly we were on a dirt road ..then it was a dirt
road that was on a cliff.. not an uncommon thing in Maui, except this
time when I looked up I noticed that the mountain just beside our car
did not have a fence against it to keep the rocks from falling. In a
convertible with the top down this was a little scary.. Oh wow, what the
heck did we get ourselves into? The road continued on like this for
about 10 miles and it was so bumpy that we could only go 15 miles per
hour. It took us 45 minutes. We were considering turning around which
we really didn’t want to do but we continued to press forward.(these were the only 2 options for us.. Hawaii in general doesn’t have many roads, but especially Maui) but just when we had almost given up hope we came upon a paved road with even some white edge lines! Praise God. However, we were still very far from civilization and we were almost out of gas. We pushed ahead (I would have been asleep by now if it weren’t for all the excitement of almost getting pummeled by rocks and possibly running out of gas and ruining our rental car) ..and Finally we encountered a very small town with .. A GAS STATION! Praise God again. We continued the much easier drive to Lahina and caught the sunset while we were eating dinner.
We fell asleep in the airport and on the flight back to Honolulu. We slept in the next day until 9am.
We somehow passed by the Black Sand beach and figured that out by the time we reached Hana. Oops. However, We stopped at a beach with black
sand that wasn’t the official ‘Black Sand Beach” but we thought the
official one was probably exactly the same.
In Hana we stopped by the Hotel Hana-Maui to eat breakfast that was
surprisingly good but very expensive. My cup of coffee was $4.25! The
Breakfast helped wake us up. The next stop was Hasegawa's General Store
to pick up some snacks and drinks for the rest of the day. Then we
headed to Hamoa Beach. Hamoa beach was pretty gorgeous, the waves were big, the sand continued throughout the water without any rocks. The
beach sand was so pretty with browns and blacks and tans like some type
of granite counter top in an HGTV episode. Joel played in the waves the
entire time, I joined him for a bit and then laid down and fell asleep. Ahh:)
Then we headed to Kipahulu Falls and Haleakala National and went on a 2.5
mile hike. It was soooo beautiful and a great workout and a lot of
fun. Of course, near the top of the hike, we realized we were running
out of time. So we turned around and quickly rushed back down and headed to the West side. We wanted to eat there and catch our flight back in time.
We decided to continue on the road we were on instead of backtracking on
the Hana Highway. Suddenly we were on a dirt road ..then it was a dirt
road that was on a cliff.. not an uncommon thing in Maui, except this
time when I looked up I noticed that the mountain just beside our car
did not have a fence against it to keep the rocks from falling. In a
convertible with the top down this was a little scary.. Oh wow, what the
heck did we get ourselves into? The road continued on like this for
about 10 miles and it was so bumpy that we could only go 15 miles per
hour. It took us 45 minutes. We were considering turning around which
we really didn’t want to do but we continued to press forward.(these were the only 2 options for us.. Hawaii in general doesn’t have many roads, but especially Maui) but just when we had almost given up hope we came upon a paved road with even some white edge lines! Praise God. However, we were still very far from civilization and we were almost out of gas. We pushed ahead (I would have been asleep by now if it weren’t for all the excitement of almost getting pummeled by rocks and possibly running out of gas and ruining our rental car) ..and Finally we encountered a very small town with .. A GAS STATION! Praise God again. We continued the much easier drive to Lahina and caught the sunset while we were eating dinner.
We fell asleep in the airport and on the flight back to Honolulu. We slept in the next day until 9am.
The next day we ate breakfast at Lulu’s and spent 1.5 hours at the Halona Blowhole lookout (scenes from the movies From Here to Eternity and Pirates of the Caribbean were recorded here)where we encountered some crazy locals and watched them dive between rocks and stuff. It was nuts.
Then we had a late lunch at Dave’s and Joel had to leave for his speaking engagement. I spent the rest of the night relaxing at the hotel. Yeah, I know I should have gone shopping or something, but I was just so tired! Joel came back we had another ‘date night’ and then woke up the next morning, had breakfast again at Lulu’s and hung out at Waikiki beach for an hour. Then to the airport. So Sad.
We both agreed just 1 more day would have been perfect. We made numerous comments about what to do ‘next time.’ I really hope there is a next time!
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