Our Last Couple of Days in Maui

Yeah this is super late. Sorry. But anyways, I wanted to record the memories. [Quick Tangent-- do you find it hard to remember things from like, 5 years ago?? Wondering if I'm the only one.]

So we drove back from Hana and made our way to the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea. We scored an amazing deal for this hotel [they are renovating]. It was super nice but very upscale. Even during happy hour the drinks were like 10 bucks a pop. Brad and I of course improvised...

Umm yeah. The Hana condo owner left us this complimentary bag, so we put it to good use. And you better believe we marched our butts straight to the pool and killed them. It was a little awkward walking through the lobby because the bag was definitely dripping. Nothing but class.

The hotel was really nice. We got lei's (sp?) here!

The room was awesome although it was hella far away from the pool and everything else (but like I said we got a huge deal). I really wanted to steal the pillow from the room.

One nice thing was that they had a suite that we got to use when we first got there (and on our last day) because our room wasn't ready. We got to change into our suits so we could enjoy the day. On the last day we had a super late flight, so we got to enjoy the pool and beach all day, then shower and get ready in that room. Super nice.

The only lame thing was their gym. It only had 3 or 4 treadmills. Our room was bigger than the gym. On the last day I didn't want to workout, get sweaty, then have to put my stinky clothes in my bag. So again, I improvised.

Yeah, I showered in my clothes, then hung them outside. Looking back, I guess I coulda washed them in the sink, but where's the fun in that?

We ate at Spago (Wolfgang Puck) one night and we also went to the spa at the Grand Wailea (amazing!!). We usually like to eat pretty cheap (the whole first week we cooked at the condo) then pick one or two nice restaurants. Spago was great and like all the restaurants, amazing open air seating.

I LOVED this trip and was so sad to come home.

Road To Hana, Hawaii 2011

So I'm completely slacking in my Hawaii recap. I've finished two:
Kaanapali Beach
Traveling and Fishing Trip

After 5 great days in Kaanapali we packed up for the road to Hana. The Hana Highway is a beautiful coastal drive that's about 52 miles long. But get this, there are about 50 one laned bridges. (Not exaggerating, Wiki says 46 of them). I loved getting to see the coast and hiking to see the amazing scenery, but I hated driving and riding on this road. It made me NERVOUS, but it was worth it.

We stopped at several places along the way.

When we arrived in Hana we checked into our condo then went out to find some food. We stopped at the Hasegawa general store and drove around a little.

On Sunday we got up and went to a few places in and around Hana. A few waterfalls, a national park, and a red sand beach.

It was definitely one of the coolest parts of our vacation. We saw so many things that we'd never seen before. Beautiful.

Kaanapali Alii & Kaanapali Beach (Maui)

We spent the first 5 nights of our vacation at the Kaanapali Alii on Kaanapali Beach. It was beautiful.

I have so many pictures like this. Obviously beautiful sunsets were on the daily. I really enjoyed this part of our vacation for a couple of reasons:

Our room was more of a condo than a room. We had a full kitchen and washer/dryer. Because of the kitchen we were able to spend the WHOLE day at the beach. We came in for lunch then stayed back out until sunset. Didn't have to waste time getting all prettied up for dinner. Brad cooked up the fish and it was DELICIOUS. And thanks to the washer/dryer, I could work out without having to be worried about stinking up my whole suitcase (and trust me I'm OCD and would worry about something so silly).

The gym was awesome. Great views, lots of treadmills, all with TV's, and they had COOL TOWELS. What a great idea!

The waves at the beach were huge. Perfect for boogie boards. There were a lot of local guys doing some crazy stuff on them. 

Here's B-rad coming in from riding the waves:

There was a world famous snorkeling site right down the beach from us (walking distance), Black Rock.

 I LOVE to snorkel. And it was even more amazing than usual because this guy made an appearance:



Isn't he beautiful?!?! It was so amazing to swim with him!

Traveling and Day 1 in Maui

So we had to take 3 flights to get to Maui, but it was definitely worth it. It was pretty uneventful, but here are a few fun tidbits:

I saw this at the Asheville airport and got pumped!

(I didn't ask B-rad to take my pic with this, because he hates when I ask him to take pics for the blog it was early). I signed up for this 5K before we left, and get this... WE GET TO RUN ON THE RUNWAY AT THE AIRPORT! I'm pumped. Not at all like a four year old. I'm hoping I can break 30 minutes at this race. We'll see.

There was nothing evenful at Charlotte. Then all hell broke loose in Phoenix. We get off the plane and try to find our next gate. WTF THERE WERE NO SIGNS OR THE SCREEN THINGEES WITH THE DEPARTURES.  Who does that?! So we had to go outside (it's 42098 degrees in Phoenix BTW) then back in. Yes, through security again. Because that makes perfect sense.

What could make it all better?

Having a whole row on the plane to yourself! Perfect.

So we left around 8am NC time, and arrived at 6ish HI time (midnight our time). Not too bad by my husband had this horrible awesome plan. He wanted to go deep sea fishing and you have to get up super early to do it (I'm talking up at 130am early). He thought we should do it our first day, since we would still be on NC time (it'd be like getting up at 730am). Good idea in theory.

So we got up and found the boat. Die Hard at Lahaina Harbor.

This picture is from when we got back obviously. It was PITCH BLACK DARK when we got there.
We cruised out to sea for about 2 hours. And let me just explain this. I like to fish. A lot. But I do not like feeling stuck in the middle of nowhere and not being able to leave. Especially if I'm feeling sea sick. And that's exactly what happened.

I took some meclizine but apparently it didn't help. I started to feel like crap. But then we got to our first location, I got caught up in the moment, and felt better (or at least forgot that I felt bad). Brad caught the first fish, and I caught the second. Then out of nowhere, Brad gets sick (I felt so bad because he was the one who really wanted to fish). So I had to reel in the next two. And they were all ginormous mahi mahi. Talk about a workout. My arms were DEAD.

We moved to another location and started catching tuna. We each caught one big one, then several smaller. Then it was time to head back. And randomly I finally got sick. Super fun.

But it was neat that on the way back they put these flags up to show what we'd caught:

We got back to the dock and unloaded our catch (minus 1 mahi that our captain was chopping up for us):

All in all it was fun (while we were fishing, not while we were... well you know). Would I do it again? Probably not. But our captain was amazing. His name was Fuzzy and he was a baller. He cut up one mahi and one tuna for us, and gave us some recipes. We ate fresh fish for like the first 5 nights. SO GOOD.

 Brad with Captain Fuzzy:

PS - the only closed toed shoes I brought were my toms and my running shoes. I had a nightmare about a fish hook going right thru the toms so I had to wear my running shoes even though I don't like to wear them when I'm not running. (Stupid me, I know professional fisherwomen who wear their toms on the boat.)

And don't forget to link up with Jill for Fitness Friday:

aloha from maui

It's our next to last day so I'm a little sad, but happy to be here and make the most of it! I can't wait to share the stories and pictures with you guys, and I'm happy to let you know that I've done all my training runs, even a 8 miler!!

I've been keeping up with your alls blogs but it's hard for me to comment when I'm on my phone (not impossible, but hard enough to make me want to throw my phone into the ocean). I'll get back on my commenting A game as soon as I get back.

If you haven't done so today, go HERE and vote for the freaking amazing Rachelle. Just type in her name then click to vote. You can vote once daily unitl September 15th. Bookmark the page and vote for her!! Let's help send her to BOSTON!!!