Well, we made it back from Hawaii and are now suffering that weird mix of happiness and sadness that you feel when you’re glad to be home after a period of time away but also wishing your holiday never had to come to an end.
I was going to try to do a list of my top highlights of our trip to Kauai and Maui but realised that just looking through the photos I’ve posted for the last sixteen days will accomplish pretty much the same thing – our helicopter tour of Kauai, swimming with turtles on Anini Beach, snorkeling at Molokini, etc.
So instead, maybe I’ll go play some catch-up with the odd day I missed posting due to, you know, actually staying away from my computer to do holiday stuff! 😉
Shea and I could’ve sat and watched this exhibit at the Maui Ocean Center for hours (except Pace was rushing to the shark tanks and it’s pretty hard to argue with that!)
Had our farewell dinner at very expensive but very delicious Sarento’s on the Beach…
Molokini is one of the world’s best scuba and snorkel spots. Shea and I went out yesterday for a tour and during the trip, I asked our guide to take our picture. I expected him to just snap a quickie from the surfboard where he was sitting watching our group but instead he hopped off and dove down, taking this photo from below.
(I haven’t regained ALL of the weight I lost last year – that’s a buoyancy belt making me look more rounded than usual!)
This beach had some of the biggest waves and shore break I’ve ever been brave foolish enough to go swimming in. I even tried boogie boarding and my ribs are still sore from how hard the water smashed me into the sand! 😉
A few shots from our trip on the infamous “Road to Hana” today.
You must stop for hot-from-the-oven banana bread around the halfway mark (coincidence – I have an Aunt Sandi who’s a major fan of all things Hawaiian!):
The view of a black sand beach:
One of the many waterfalls along the trail (the photos of me swimming in one of the waterfall pools are on my mom’s camera so I don’t have them ready to upload yet – pretty cool experience though!)
There are something like 56 narrow one-way bridges along the route (yet the closest call we saw was when a work truck and a tour bus nearly touched rear view mirrors while passing each other):
And this is the sunset I caught from the van window as we got back to South Kihei Road:
Discovered an ice cream shop near our condo that has 104 flavors!
So hard to choose so I didn’t – opting for shave ice once again! 😉
Just realised that most of the photos I’ve been uploading have been regular size (eg. 2-3 MB) instead of being properly re-sized for the web. Apologies to anyone who’s still on dial-up (uhm, is there anyone still on dial-up?)
Not sure if it’s been mentioned on my blog yet (if you’re following Shea’s Facebook photo album of our trip, it’s gotten a couple mentions there) but I’ve become a big fan of poke during my time in Hawaii. I had some shrimp kim chee poke tonight that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever eaten. So damn good.
Words can’t describe how much fun Pace had boogie boarding on Kamaole Sands III beach across from our Maui condo today. I literally had to carry him out of the water to get him to leave!
My final sunrise in Kauai…
