Maui - The Road to Hana

Our first stop on the cruise was Maui.  After lots of research we decided our top thing we wanted to do was do the Road to Hana - this road is incredibly scenic but includes an estimated 600 turns and 54 mostly one-lane bridges.  The negative side of this tour is the incredibly great risk of car sickness....and I am prone to it.  So, I was a little nervous and we decided our best bet would be to navigate it in our own convertible, where I could get lots of air and the best views in order to ward off that negative effect.  So, Neal so kindly offered to chauffeur me through this treacherous road and really it was amazing!

 Our convertible and driver for the day!

 There are tons and tons of places to stop and check out great views - we stopped at the first beach overlook, and although it might be hard to see in this picture, we saw an almost completely horizontal rainbow!

Then we saw these falls - that we heard another tour guide saying was used in Jurassic Park - pretty awesome!

In front of the falls

 Seriously, everywhere you looked there was something beautiful to see!

This was called Three Bears Falls -see Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby bear?

 After tons more twists, turns. bridges and beautiful sights (and a stop off to get some yummy fresh banana bread!) We made a pit stop at Wai'anapanapa State Park for the famed black sand beach.  We watched cliff jumpers and just wandered through the huge black lava formations for a long time!

 Then we headed down to the actual beach which was made up of tons of these smooth black stones.  Then we got smacked by a wave!

 Before heading to find some lunch we explored a lava tube that lead to the ocean

 We drove all the way to Hana, then turned around to head back.  On the way back, we found a great little Farmer's Market roadside stop where we each got Kalua pig tacos.

Another great stop on our drive back toward Maui before our last stop at Twin Falls

 We got out to explore at a place called Twin Falls - I was tempted to steal a fresh banana

 We finally made it to Twin Falls - so fun!

 The fun branch-covered walkway

At this point, we had plans to just head back to the boat.  But instead, Neal decided that maybe we should utilize our time with the car and head up to Haleakala Crater.  Now, if we had been smart, we would have thought through this possibility and brought warmer clothes because it is about 10,000 feet up and around sun-down temperatures get mighty chilly .  But, hey, we were living on the edge.

 It was a little overcast on the way up, so we stopped to take some pictures in case our view later wasn't that great. We just didn't think through the fact that when we got to the top we would be higher than those clouds and have the most breathtaking view ever.

 We're at the top

 Seriously.  Brrrrrrr. 

 Wow, it is gorgeous up here!

See, simply breathtaking!  In the end, after everything we did, we both agreed that this spot that we did on a whim was probably our favorite part of the trip!

All Aboard!

After our relaxing morning on Waikiki beach, we headed to the cruise ship to start our REAL vacation!  We kept commenting on how great it was that we had gotten to have such a great vacation in Honolulu before we even started the whole reason we came to Hawaii - our cruise!  The moment we got on the ship we got recruited to join in on the Pub Crawl.  This was so fun!  We met at one of the bars, where they assigned everyone off-color names and then we went to 6 different bars throughout the ship, got a drink at each one, played crazy games, and were basically just loud and had fun!

Here we are with our "off-color" nickname name tags.

As we were leaving one of the bars, we first saw this great rainbow....

Next thing you knew, it was a DOUBLE rainbow! And it had nothing to do with the drinks we had!

 After the Pub Crawl, we went up to see the ship set sail and have dinner in one of the restaurants.  We had great meals every night - steaks, lobster, fish, chicken - you name it!   Then we headed to the welcome show and up to get ready for our first day in Maui! 

Time to Luau

On our official anniversary (July 27) we decided to celebrate with a Luau!  We went to a place called Paradise Cove.  They had fun little "Authentic Hawaiian" games and other celebrations that led up to the actual luau.  

Neal and I both played this game where you threw a spear into a hay bail target.  And we both did not so bad!

Admiring the beautiful scenery

There was a Flower Shower - where one of the guys climbs to the top of the palm tree and drops flowers to everyone on the ground

Neal caught me one for my hair....awww!

 The next event was the Hukilau.  Our girls are obsessed with a Disney sing-a-long movie in which they sing "Going to a Hukilau" and so they were beyond excited that we actually did get to go to one!  This is where they throw nets out into the sea to catch the fish for dinner (ok, well this one was just a demonstration, but still!) 

 They also did an authentic pig roast, so we got to watch them pull the pig out of the sand.

 We enjoyed some fun drinks and dinner.

 And I even participated in the Hula demonstration and earned my first Hula certificate.

 And there was lots of beautiful Hula dancers.  Such a fun night and neat way to celebrate our anniversary!

The next morning, we headed out to actual enjoy Waikiki beach - we had heard that it was very crowded, but even with lots of others sharing the area, we really enjoyed our last bit of time in Waikiki!