Luau Recap!

My Saturday morning was spent exploring the neighboring hotels. The Kaanapali Alii, which is where we are staying, is actually a huge building full of condos. So while it absolutely beautiful and has great amenities (like the gym, pool, BBQ, and clay tennis courts that I want to try), it is pretty laid back in relation to some of the other Maui hotels. The Kaanapali hotels are all laid out on the beach next to each other so my family did a little exploring. 

Our afternoon was spent looking for a beach to go snorkeling. We ended up not finding the exact one we were looking for, but instead ended in a secluded, amazing Napili beach. 

While there were no huge turtles I did see a lot of colorful fish and a lone angelfish. 

That night we went to the Late Lahaina Luau. I’ll admit that when I first heard we were going to a luau, I wasn’t that excited. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to have a luau in Hawaii experience but I just wasn’t expecting it to be fantastic.

It. Was. Incredible.

We were instantly given leis and flowers and a drink (fruit punch for me…dislike being under 21) that smelled and looked super pretty. 

Sneaky Jessica

We had a little down time before dinner was served, so we walked around the area. It was right on the beach and so so pretty.

Our family is easily entertained.

Dinner was beyond delicious. It had so many foods that I’ve never had before (what’s up octopus?) and everything was incredible. Sadly, it did not look as pretty as it tasted (food can definitely taste pretty in case you were wondering) so you’ll just have to take my word on it. #bloggerproblems.

On my plate is steak, terayki chicken, pulled pork (cooked in the ground), ono fish, some kind of clear noodles, fried rice, steamed veggies, crab salad, pork wrapped in some kind of spinach, salad with taro bread croutons, and a little piece of banana bread. We were also given a bread basket with taro rolls and guava butter.

I’m usually the type of person to finish everything on my plate (not a good habit), but I came no where close to finishing this. I had at least two bites of everything to try it (including my sister’s octopus salad), but was too full at the end to even look at the remaining food.

We were also given another drink called the Melodramatic that tasted a little bit like Shirley Temple.

Dessert came right when our plates were collected and consisted of 4 sample desserts: coconut pudding, coconut dusted brownie, macadamia nut pie, and a chocolate cup with banana filling. I was still full so I had one bite of each (they were tiny), and only ate the little cup.

The show was really fun to watch too. I’ve decided I want my workout of choice to be hula dancing.

Finally, Happy Father's Day to my Dad! 

I love you!

By the Sea Heart

Thursday my brother, sister, Mom, and I went zip lining for the first time. The course we went on was in the woods and consisted of 5 zip lines and a wooden bridge. The zip lines started off really easy and built up to the last one that was apparently the fastest one in Maui. It was really fun, and actually not that scary. My littlest brother and Dad ended up not going because they are both not a fan of heights.

Whee!

The last huge zip line. It went to the clearing on the other side.

 After zip lining, we drove to a nearby town to go shopping and look around for a little bit (my brothers were not happy campers…for the last hour they stayed in the car and whined). I ended up picking up a really cute jar of Strawberry-Guava jam for a gift, and had a lot of fun window shopping (most of the stuff was CRAZY expensive) with my sister and Mom. I did end up getting one thing…a seriously adorable notebook.  It says “It’s all for you and your other-worldy, by-the-sea, magnificent heart” on the front and “It is hear where she must begin to tell her story”.

Of course I would spend an abnormal amount of my post talking about my notebook. I am obsessed.

I have a huge weakness for pretty notebooks. Even though I never write in them (and have a blog which is kind of counterintuitive for notebooks), I love looking at how cute they are. I promise I’m really going to try to write at least something in this one though!

Yesterday was spent frolicking in the water (hehe), sitting on the sand, window shopping, finally running those three miles (YESSS), and getting ready to BBQ. I actually finished one of my books on the beach today and it was SO, SO GOOD. I highly recommend it. It’s a bunch of short stories so it is perfect for traveling. “The King and Queen of the Universe” was by far one of the best ones.

A better view of  Black rock beach (and where I jumped off!)

My 3 (3.1 actually) mile run felt amazing! Maybe all I needed was just to enjoy the past few days of my vacation by going easy/not going at all on my workouts because this run felt great! I ran on the treadmill and actually did not spend my whole time watching the miles go up by every .01 mile. I paced myself, and kept increasing my speed throughout the workout. After my run, I felt great and realized that runs like these were why some people love running so much.

My food highlights include a mountain of Hawaiian shaved ice

Lime, mango, and pineapple flavors

and lots of summer BBQ food.

We actually haven’t been to any restaurants lately because having 10 people (my family and my grandparents) makes already high prices even higher, so we’ve been BBQing all of our dinners.

It usually consists of salad with oil and vinegar, garlic bread made with sourdough bread, butter and garlic toast along with a little steak or tri tip.

Pretty view from the table

I posted this picture only because of the mini salt and pepper containers. They are so cute.

Hawaii has been incredible, and I can't believe we just passed the half way mark. It's been so much fun, and I am so lucky to be able to experience this (Thanks, Nana!).

Off to the ultimate tourist dinner... a (buffet...nommm) luau! I'll take lots of pictures ;) 

Sea turtles and Waterfalls (and tons of other stuff)

Highlights of the past few days:

-       Going snorkeling and swimming with sea turtles. Our family walked over to Black Rock Beach, a popular snorkeling beach. By the rocks, not only were there lots of fish, but two huge sea turtles that over 4 feet long and were eating the plants off the rocks. It was an incredible sight and the best part was they were completely undisturbed by all the snorkeling gawkers. They were so huge that they would actually swim at you and make you move (some kids actually got hit with it’s fin because they didn’t get out of the way). I swam and touched the shell of the turtle…which I later found out is not allowed. 

jkjJumping off the black rock. The rock (which the beach is named after) is 15 feet high and a ledge where you can jump off into the water. While I would not say I’m scared of heights, I could definitely feel my heart pumping. I went first (between Jessica and I), and ended up doing it twice. Haha I was very proud of myself after.

-       Swimming in the waterfalls in/on the way too Hana. We drove to the tropical side of Maui in search for waterfalls and various other sights like the Black sand beach.

-       Our first waterfall we went to visit was beautiful, but we had heard there was an even bigger one just a short hike away. We trekked through the muddiest path ever, but came to a dead end. My family and I went back to the first waterfall to go swimming... my parents actually demanded that we did because we (especially me I fell on my butt at one point) were too dirty for the car.

Practice for my mud run

Not a great picture of me, but everything else is pretty :)

The second one we swam in was one of the 7 sacred pools of Hana. It was amazing because while you

were swimming in the waterfall, you also had a close up view of the beach.

Workout news: ran 2 miles on the treadmill, did a few minutes of weights with 7.5 dumbbells while

waiting for a treadmill to open up and spent a large part of the day in the water

Ran 1 mile on the treadmill but didn’t feel great so I just took it easy and did easy weights with 5 pound

dumbbells.

I’m a little stressed because I’m scared that after working up to running 3 miles with no breaks before I

left, I’m going to loose all my progress through this trip. I am definitely staying active, but I have not

gone for a long run yet.

Food Highlights:

-       breakfast was bagel thins, scrambled eggs, and a slice of bacon with papaya

-       Lunch was a turkey sandwich with Hawaiian bread and cheddar cheese, veggie straws, and mango

-       A cheeseburger at Cheeseburger in paradise (I forgot to take a picture but it was delicious)

-       Banana bread from a small random stand on the way to Hana. It was warm and amazing

-       Gelato

Cheesecake and sandy beach (coconut, peanut butter, graham cracker and sea salt) flavors

-       Unpictured fish taco that was so good. I want another one!

OiI was awarded the Operation Beautiful Award from Hannah! If you haven't seen her blog you should definitely check it out because she has the best recipes (they always are healthy and make me drool) with great photos, and always has such cheery posts. 

SaSadly, my wifi time is almost used up for this session, but my next post will be for Operation Beautiful! 

I Made it to Hawaii! Day 1!

Yesterday was my first day in Hawaii (today was my first day with wifi though so I’m posting this at 9:00 in the morning instead of last night).

Hawaii is absolutely beautiful. But before I start overloading you with tons of pictures, I thought I would attempt to go through what happened that day.

6:00 AM: Get up and load all of our luggage into the limo to head to the airport. Yes, you read correctly… our family and my grandparents took a limo to the airport. My grandma was the one planning how we would get a ride there, and discovered that it was the cheapest way to transport 10 people to the airport. So we rode in style.

7:00 AM: Deal with airport shenanigans.  Out of the whole group my sister and I were the only one to be frisked. I guess we were the sketchy looking ones. We also people watched (excuse me lady wearing platform stilettos this early in the morning, at LAX you’re just a tad ridiculous) and got breakfast at the airport McDonalds. Don’t judge me, but I love egg mcmuffins… like a lot. I never eat them unless we’re traveling though so I was happy camper with the continued tradition.

8:45: We’re flying! This is only my second time in a plane (first time was a 2 hour trip to Texas), and I had an ok experience. I could not for the life of my fall asleep, so I won an easy level Sudoku and read some of my book “Look at the Birdie” by Kurt Vonnegut. My little brother only made a mild scene once when we hit some turbulence. My lunch was half an airplane turkey sandwich and a carrot cake cliff bar.

11:30 (Hawaii time, 2:30 CA time): We arrive in Hawaii! The next few hours are spent renting a car, heading to Costco and eating lots of free samples before we get to our hotel

Our “official” vacation began when we got to the hotel. We’re staying at the Kaanapali Alii hotel and our condo was absolutely gorgeous. I was seriously speechless when I walked inside. We quickly grabbed our bathing suits and went for a swim in the ocean which was pool water temperature. Everything was amazing.

I’m a huge fanatic for hotel rooms so prepare for an extensive virtual tour. 

Outside of the hotel!

My sister and my bedroom

Living dream

Kitchen and dining room (yay tons of food!)

Master bedroom

Bathroom haha

The boy's room

The best part about the condo/hotel room is the back patio. It's beautiful and leads to a path that goes straight to the beach

The path to the beach!

Since yesterday was my Mom's official birthday, we went out to eat at the Hawaiian Grill. Honestly, this was one of the fanciest meals of my life.

Fresh mango smoothies

Crab dumplings with chili water (shared with my sister)

Fresh fish special of mai mai and swordfish and tomato fondu with sauteed veggies and rice (shared with Jessica)

Mom's ice cream birthday cake

The food was crazy good. The whole day was unbelievable. 

I can't believe this is only the first day. I'm so excited for the rest of the trip (don't worry the other posts will NOT be this long). Thanks for hanging in there on this one!