Hawaii Day 7 - Helicopter Ride & the Beach

Monday was our last day in Hawaii so Ashlee and I decided to live it up and go on a helicopter tour of a neighboring island, Molokai, and the west mountains area of Maui. Oh my gosh!! It was amazing!! I am so glad we went. We were able to see an 1,100-foot waterfall on Molokai that you can't see except by helicopter, and he flew over the mountains, over whales and sting rays, told us about the leper colony that was on Molokai, told us about the populations of Maui, Molokai and Lanai.... oh yes. It was amazing.

And I just have to throw in the random picture of the roosters. Those are stray roosters.... like you would see stray dogs roaming around. Roosters were all over the island! I couldn't believe it. These particular roosters were roaming around the heliport and hangar of the company we flew with. Kind of funny.

And then we rented body-boards again and went back to the beach. We just couldn't get enough of that. And this is the day when I sunburned my feet pretty good. They've been swollen ever since. Oh well. Life goes on!

Overall, we had a fabulous time. We lucked out with beautiful weather the entire time we were there - it only sprinkled once on us on Sunday. We saw nearly every inch of the island. We loved their shave ice, the music, the food, and everything! Even the airline employees at the airport were so nice. My mother ship of a suitcase was grossly overweight. So me, Janette, Teresa, and the airline lady were trying to come up with ways to lighten my bag so I wouldn't be charged the $100 fee on top of the normal $25 fee. So I was unabashedly exposing my suitcase contents and dirty laundry to all the world trying to figure out a solution. We finally put my two beach towels and snorkeling set in my laundry bag and then inside a plastic airline bag and I checked that as a separate piece. And then I also filled up two bags for my carry-ons and then I was finally under weight. This was my first time flying with my mother ship since I went on my study abroad to London... it was not hard to get it over the max weight of 50 lbs. I swear they've dropped the max weight. I swear it was 75 lbs when I went to London.... but then again that was 11 years ago.

Hawaii Day 6 - A Day of Rest

We spent Sunday going to church at the local ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and resting on the beach behind the hotel. Although we did have a little excitement when several turtles decided to come visit the waters of our beach. I snapped a few pictures them when their heads came up out of the water. Too bad they didn't come up onto the beach.

Hawaii Day 5 - Surfing Lessons & Luau

We took surfing lessons on Saturday. It was a blast! There were so many of us there and there were 3 instructors. We'd get in line behind the instructors and they would watch for waves and then push you off to get you started on the waves. Then you've have to figure out how to stand up and stay stood up! And because there were so many of us taking lessons, there were a ton of collisions! I started off strong and was able to get up pretty easily but then I got worse as time wore on. The instructors assured me that it was because I was getting tired. I'll believe them.

That night we went to a Luau in Lahaina. For the first time ever, I wore a real flower lei!! I was so excited about it. We had traditional seating on the ground right by the stage area. The food was served buffet style and I filled my plate up with a little bit of everything! I had octopus, ahi (raw tuna), lomi lomi (raw salmon salsa type stuff), fresh fruit, sweet potatoes, mahi mahi, chicken, kahlua pork, teriyaki steak, steamed veggies, banana bread, haupia (a coconut type pudding), and so many other types of food that I can't remember all of them. But I really liked most of it! And of course the dancing at the luau was amazing! How do they move their hips like that?! And we saw quite a bit of leg on those male dancers... ha!

Hawaii Day 4 - Road to Hana

Friday we drove to Hana on the other side of Maui. The drive is only 70 miles, but it took forever! 4 hours. This road has over 300 turns and curves on it, a ton of bridges, and a bajillion places that you would want to stop to take pictures. There were several places that the road became a one-lane rode and there would be a yield sign telling us to yield to oncoming traffic. We thought that was pretty bad until we got past Hana and headed to the O'heo Gulch area of Haleakala National Park. That was truly a one-lane road and that is where we met the most vehicles going in the opposite direction as us. But it was worth it to get back there. We hiked into a water fall, through a bamboo forest, and we went swimming in some fresh water pools.

This is where we were wishing we did not have the van. We ended up calling the locals locos because they would take the road so fast! At one point, we were going to meet this big Nissan Titan truck on a section where it was one-lane and we were all screaming in our van because he was not slowing down and we were sure he was going to hit us. He casually reached out his window and folded his side-view mirror in and sped right by us. No sweat. 

Then on our way back to Lahaina, we stopped by a black sand beach. That was probably the most beautiful and striking place I saw on the whole island. The contrast of the blue sky and water with the black sand and green vegetation was amazing.

We also stopped by a farmer's stand and bought some fresh pineapple, coconut chips, coconut candy, sugar cane juice, and tried some passion fruit, sugar cane, and bananas.

Hawaii Day 3 - Scuba Diving & the Beach

On Thursday, we went with a local dive shop to Molokini Crater. I went scuba diving while the other three went snorkeling. This is huge! We're talking a life list achievement for me. Check. Double check cuz I got two dives out of that trip and it was amazing! I went the deepest I had ever been, 60 feet, and for the longest dives, both were about 40 minutes each. I was pretty nervous about my first official dive in the ocean. What if there were dangerous fish and sharks down there?! But there weren't any. I decided that scuba diving is similar to snorkeling, but without the ocean waves dumping salt water down the snorkel and into your mouth leading to you gagging. :) I got some great pictures of the fish! I did see a garden eel and I tried to take a picture of it, but I haven't found any luck finding it in the picture I think I took of it. Ha! Oh well.

And then we went back to the beach. We rented some body-boards this time and found a beach that was perfect for it because it had a ton of good waves. We had a blast body-boarding and decided that we wanted to do it again another day. Although there was one wave that was too big for me to chew! It cleaned out my sinuses pretty good. Ha ha! We walked around to a rocky point and took some pictures and saw some crabs.