Take Me Back To Hawaii

Okay friends, this is a long one. Not even kidding. Grab a drink and a snack and settle in…or just scroll through quickly and move on.?  I took so many pictures and just want you to see all of them. And by the time you reach the end you won’t believe me, but I promise I left out a bunch. I’ll tell ya’, as soon as we got there I was Snapchatting my kids and brother and trying to show them every little thing.

We had a 7:00 a.m. flight and it was a gorgeous day to fly. On a side note, we flew Hawaiian Airlines and I can’t say enough nice things about them. They are awesome!

Yes ma’ma (or sir). By 9:00 a.m. Hawaii time we were on the ground and ready to begin our day.
ALOHA!!!

On the balcony of our room.

I picked all of these up in the airport. I felt like I should have been wearing a tee that said “Yes, this is my first visit to Hawaii”.

And this is the view we woke up to everyday.

The first thing we did after checking in and taking our things to our room was go out and explore the grounds of the resort. There were so many fun animals to see all over the place.

The atrium of our hotel was open…meaning it didn’t have a roof. I’d never been in one like that and it was really cool.

And I had no idea penguins could live in warm climates.

The hotel had an awesome continental breakfast as part of the Regency Club package we purchased. I sent this snap to Katie and here was her reaction…hahaha (don’t fret, I had fruit too and most morning I ate oatmeal?)

 We drove to the top of the summit which is the top of the volcano.

After we left the top of the volcano we drove part of the Hana Highway to Twin Falls

Oh, you know…just a rooster on the side of the road eating a coconut.

This is some serious bamboo

We pulled off at a beach area and there was an International Windsurfing Competition going on. The water was beyond gorgeous.

 Check out these GIANT turtles

It’s funny… Kent wore several Oklahoma t-shirts on our trip and they were real conversation starters. (and he got the evil eye from some University of Indiana people…they wouldn’t even speak to us in the elevator…LOL)

Went through the little town of Paia and got the BEST shaved ice.

Thanks to Jenny’s recommendation we walked to Leilani’s for dinner and had the fish tacos. Kent is pretty much a self proclaimed fish taco aficionado and declared these the best he’s ever had. It was the first time I’ve ordered them and from what I could tell, I’m in total agreement. Thanks Jenny!

Every morning I’d get up and go downstairs, get a cup of coffee do my bible study or some work while Kent slept. What a view.

These little guys were everywhere and very tame. This one came walking right by my chair when I was laying out and nearly scared me to death. I saw his shadow first (I was lying on my tummy and he about brushed my elbow)

We came across a delicious ice cream shop that served ice cream that was a cross between regular ice cream and gelato.

I’d been told the Old Lahaina Luau was the best and we thought it was really good. Here’s our take on the Hawaiian luau food, it’s rather boring, but that’s not really why you go. Oh and this one includes alcoholic beverages in the price, so for a lot of people that’s worth the high price.

This dress was made for a luau.

This is the pig buried

You know I couldn’t go on vacation without my favorite sunscreens and then posing them for a picture.??

We drove up to another part of the island and saw a blow hole.

Kent did more snorkeling than I did. It was really rocky where we were and to get out far enough past the rocks made me nervous. He went down the beach about a mile and found a great place and saw tons of fish and a big turtle. He was so excited.

So we are always complaining about the size of parking spots here in California and how small they are. Well let me just tell you that the ones in Hawaii are even worse. We saw this guy back into his spot and then have to crawl out the back of the van. UNBELIEVABLE. I told him he deserved a medal for that.

The morning we were leaving?

Can I just tell you that I was not ready to come back home. I’ve decided you need at least 10 days. A week just isn’t long enough. BTW…this sweater has been my faithful travel companion ever since it arrived this summer. It’s been on every trip with me since.

We stayed in the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa. It was a great place to stay and the location was perfect.

If you made it all the way through, thanks for sticking with me til’ the end. We had the most relaxing vacation we’ve ever had. While we absolutely love having our kids with us, there’s just something so easy about traveling with just the two of us. This was the first trip other than house buying trips we’d taken alone since our honeymoon.

Aloha friends???