Bring me to Paradise
Hawaii was everything I had hoped it was and so much more. There was a scene in the television show, Mad Men, that I feel explained it really nicely. Let me first set up the scene. Don Draper and his wife were asked to go stay at a hotel in Hawaii and come back to try and come up with a way of convincing people to go there. When he came back, he said “I think we’re not selling a geographical location. We’re selling an experience. It’s not just a different place, you are different. And you’d think there’d be an unsettling feeling… about something so drastically different, but there’s something else. You don’t miss anything. You’re not homesick. It puts you in this state. The air and the water are all the same temperature as your body. It’s sensory-the music, the fragrance… the breeze, and the blue.” While we were there, the only thing that I ever missed was my bed and that was only due to sleeping on two twins pushed together. Otherwise, I could have stayed forever! The warmth, smells, breeze. Everything just made you feel at ease and calm. From the first step off the airplane to the first step back on the airplane, everything was perfect! Throughout this review, I will inform you of the places we ate at, the experiences we took and the overall thoughts about traveling to Hawaii.
The first day we arrived, we got in around 6 pm so we mainly only got to go to the resort we were staying at and get some supper. We ended up staying at the Honua Kai Resort and Spa. It was really nice. We were walking distance to the beach and had our own pool and hot tub. We went with two other couples, so our condo was the perfect size. It had three bedrooms and three bathrooms, so we never felt like we were on top of each other. There was also a full kitchen and a nice size living room. There were some food trucks close to our resort, so we walked there when we got there for some supper. We tried the Jambon Pork sandwich and the Spicy Lemongrass Chicken sandwich from the Da Best Pho food truck. It was fine. I think we were just hungry after a long day of flying.
The next day, I decided to walk out to our little porch and get a good look at our view since it was dark when we got in. Right from that moment, I was not disappointed! After a nice breakfast at our condo, we headed out for a submarine tour! It was not what I was expecting. I assumed it was going to be one of those gray submarines that you see in the movies. Instead, it was a short white one that had peep holes for us to look out to see the ocean life! Honestly, if you are able to do this, I highly recommend it! It was so amazing!! All the different ocean life was so much fun to see. It was also really cool to be that far down under the ocean! For anyone curious, the submarine was called the Atlantis! After that, we went down to the main street area for some gelato and saw a really awesome tree. We then came back to our condo and went down to the beach for a little bit before heading to the luau at Old Lahaina Luau.
The luau was a lot of fun! There was so much food and the entertainment and views were amazing! We started off with Kalo and Sweet Potato Chips and Kalo Hummus. Our next course, Salad course, was the Local Grown Green Salad, Bread Basket, and Butter. Following this was the Traditional Hawaiian course. It included Pua’a Kalua (Imu Roasted Pork), Laulau (Lu’au Leaf Wrapped Pork), Poke ‘Ahi (Tuna), Lomilomi Salmon and Pa’I’ai. If that was not enough food, we then had the Main course of Braised Beef, I’a (Maui Style Fish), Moa (Island Style Chicken), Stir Fry Vegetables and Sweet Potato Mash. Before we get to the dessert, one neat thing about the sweet potatoes there is that they are purple instead of orange! How neat is that! Finally, we had the dessert course. It was Haupia, Kulolo, Pineapple upside-down cake and House-made ice cream. We also got some delicious banana bread as we were leaving. Everything was so much fun, but I will say to pace yourself with the food. There is a lot of it!
The next day, we had a nice relaxing beach day! It was kind of perfect after having such a big supper the night before. We also went on a nice walk down to a pier where we were able to get a really good look at the ocean and other islands around us! I may have gotten a little burned during the walk. The ocean felt so good and the sun was so warm! I will say though, the wind was so strong that when I laid out, didn’t fully go into the ocean, I got covered in sand. It also hurt when the wind picked up the sand and blew it all over. After getting fully covered in sand, we decided to instead go to the pool next to our condo!
We also went and ate at the Whaler’s Village as well as window shopped a little bit! We ate at a fun little place called, Hula Grill Kaanapali. It was really cool because there were some tables actually in the sand as well as some live music! We ended up having the Grilled Fish Tacos and the Chinese Chopped Chicken salad. We both said these items were some of our most favorite items we ate the entire trip! We ended with the Original Hula Pie which seemed to be a very popular dessert on Maui. It was tasty. It has a chocolate cookie curst, macadamia nut ice cream, hot fudge, toasted mac nuts and whipped cream. I really liked the crust!
The next day, we decided to venture out and do the Road to Hana. I will preface this by saying, we aware that the roads can be treacherous but many of the stops makes it worth it, in my opinion. We woke up early to try and beat most of the traffic. We also hit a lot of rain which, luckily for my husband and I did not make much of a difference since we are used to it! We ended up using the Shaka app to help us on our travels. It was nice because it gave some history and, if there was a place coming up that was not worth it, it would say we could just skip it if we did not have time for it. Our first stop was the Ko’olau Forest Reserve. It was a nice little hike to get our blood flowing right away in the morning. It also had some eucalyptus trees which were really neat! The next stop we took was the Maui’s Garden of Eden. If you are a Jurassic Park fan, this is where the rock in the beginning sequence is located. Since it is one of my favorite movies, I was very excited! There were also a lot of very pretty scenery and flowers all over the gardens. We then stopped at Aunty Sandy’s for some banana bread. It was neat to see these little stands all over the place as we made our way to Hana. We also stopped at a fruit stand on the side of the road and got fresh bananas. The Hawaiian people have an honor system where they leave fruit in a stand and hope that the tourists who take the fruit will leave money in exchange. They were very good bananas! We then stopped at the Hana Lava Tube. We had to walk through a small hole next to the side of the road. I thought it was really neat though to see the crawl space that was formed there! Our next stop was the Waianapanapa State Park where we would get to see the Black Sand Beach. This place was so cool! The black sand felt so different then regular sand. I cannot really put it into words. There were also neon green plants all over which really popped next to the black lava rocks. This are even had a couple of blow holes which were really neat to see them burst water into the air! We got to see many waterfalls from the safety of our car as we continued on to our final stop, the Haleakala National Park. We did a little hike here and got to see even more waterfalls and pools. It was so pretty! We decided to do the whole loop for the Road to Hana instead of turning around. I am just going to leave this here; the roads get windy and have no shoulders. I am not the best with heights, so there were a couple of times my heart rate went up, but I will say the views were very pretty! I know some will say do not do the Road to Hana, but I would say as long as you keep in mind that the roads are not always the best and to just take your time, you will really enjoy it! I loved the stops we took and the views were amazing!
The next morning, we decided to go check out the sunrise at Haleakala at the Haleakala National Park. We made sure to bring some warmer items with us as we knew being up that high, that early in the morning, it was going to be chilly. It was so pretty! I also was not expecting to be above the clouds! It was so serene! All of us even tried to do some yoga moves while we were up there! We decided afterwards to grab some brunch before heading back to the condo for nap time! One thing I never got used to was the amount of random chickens all over the place. The restaurant we ate at, had a few chickens just walking around. There was one that even jumped on one of the servers! The food was pretty good though. After we had a little nap, we went back to the beach! It was another nice day. Something that was really special was getting to see a sea turtle!!! I will admit, I was feeling under the weather that day and missed out on the turtle. I still kick myself today for not just sucking it up and going into the water! We finished off the night with a nice birthday dinner out for one of the people who went with us! We ate at Duke’s Beach House which was a nice walk from our condo. We got the Waipoli Farms salad and the Sauteed Mac Nut & Herb Crusted Fresh Fish. The table shared some Korean Sticky Ribs and we ended with the Hula Pie. It was a nice ender to the day!
Snorkeling was on the schedule for the next day. I was a little nervous doing this as I am not a strong swimmer and had never been snorkeling before. The people at Trilogy did a wonderful job! They helped me understand what to do with the snorkel and showed us how to properly kick our feet if we needed to. They even had someone out there with us taking photos of us if we wanted to pay for them. One other thing that was nice was that we had a breakfast and lunch included with our ticket. It was all very good! For anyone interested in this, and I would say do it!!!!, make sure you apply lots of sunscreen and be prepared to get wet if you sit in the front of the boat! That was the one day that I got a lot of sun, and I felt it the rest of the trip. It was totally worth it though. Once I got the hang of breathing through the snorkel, I was having so much fun. I could have stayed out there all day. That night, we decided to go down to the beach and watch the sun go down. I have seen my fair share of sunsets, but there was something magical of seeing it go down over the ocean. The reflections and colors were gorgeous! The company was also perfect!
On our last full day, my husband and his childhood friend went spear fishing. Unfortunately, they did not end up catch anything, but it sounded like they had a fun time. Would recommend, though, that if you have never gone before, go with a group. There may be a better chance of being taught how to properly do it. While they did that, the rest of us decided to take it easy at the condo and then go for a walk along the beach. When the guys got back, we all went down to the beach to enjoy our last day. The wind had died down and it was perfect! It was bittersweet coming to the realization that we would soon have to come back home.
The last day was also a special anniversary for a couple of our friends. For that, we decided to go out to eat that night and celebrate. We went back to Whaler’s district to the place we had eaten lunch earlier in the week hoping to have similar meals. Sadly, we did not think about the fact that they had different lunch and dinner menus. We were still excited to eat there. We had the Kiawe Roasted Chicken and the Wood Fired Ahi Steak. After dinner, we walked around the shopping district a little bit. I had been eyeing a place that was selling oysters with pearls in them. Since I have always loved pearls, I wanted to get one. I ended up getting two pearls, but only turned one into a piece of jewelry. I decided to wait on the other one to make into something for a later anniversary.
It was a wonderful week in Maui that felt like it flew by. We had some many wonderful experiences, ate a lot of wonderful food, and got a few sunburns. All in all, we cannot wait to go back! We have even talked about visiting other islands to see what they have to offer. I cannot recommend this trip enough. Whether you go with your significant other, friends, family, or just a solo trip, I feel like there is something for everyone. It was so relaxing and exactly what we needed after the last year and a half. I know this is a long post, but I wanted to make sure to give this trip a proper review. One last thing! I absolutely loved being able to see a rainbow everyday! There was something so beautiful about seeing the beautiful colors form after the sun hit the water droplets from the rain!
For a closer look at our adventures, check out our video on YouTube!
