Paradise 2011

Two Sundays ago Rob and I woke up at the break of dawn (well actually several hours before then) to the Pollocks ready to load up the car and head south to DFW....because we had to meet the Kovash's and make our flight to paradise, otherwise known as MAUI! The trip was originally supposed to be a surprise to celebrate Ashley and Whitney's 30th Birthdays but being as we have a bun in the oven plans changed a little. And it could not have worked out better.

Normally this early in the morning we would not be this cheerful but everyone would smile this big if they were headed to Hawaii!

 After our 8 hour flight and 2 horrible in flight movies we arrived at the airport to beautiful, sunny, warm Maui. Check out our rides!

 The boys each had to bring their clubs so Rob & I had three extra passengers in our car.

 My parents good friends the Goodfellows live in Maui and have a condo they let us stay in. Are we not the luckiest people ever. Thank you so much Mom & Dad for having such cool friends. As a thank you Rob and I brought a cooler full of venison sausage (Steve & Tamar's favorite). SO we made a quick trip to their house to drop it off.

I caught this picture of Rob driving back in the incredible sunsets!

We met everyone at Sansei for Sushi for dinner. Of course I had noodles but the restaurant had incredible desserts. And when you are on vacation you must indulge. We called it an early night and woke up early the next morning. We all wanted to try out the hole in the wall Kihei Caffe and so everyone elected to "run" the mile and a half to breakfast. No worries though I left early and walked!

 It was so yummy, my favorite breakfast potatoes and french toast.

We all walked back to the condo together and made a pit stop at Snorkel Bobs to pick up some, you guessed it, snorkel gear. Doesn't Ashley look fantastic?

Rob and Wade made a beer and ice run while we all got ready for the beach. Matt was quite the gentleman and carried all our gear for us.

 Its a good thing I found 100SPF so that my honey would not fry!

 How amazing is it that this beach was a one minute walk from our condo!

 As a thank you for rearranging the trip on our behalf we took everyone to a Luau. The setting was exactly what you imagine Hawaii as.

 Don't we clean up well!

 There we locals around creating local items and I snagged one of these fresh flowers for my hair.

 I even had a few "virgin" drinks! So I could feel like one of the crowd.

 It was a wonderful evening.

The next morning the boys and Ashley woke up early and headed over to Kapalua. Ashley's sister and her husband happened to be staying at the Ritz and were leaving the next day. The guys all played golf at Plantation and Ashley spent some quality sister time. Whitney and I took it easy getting up and headed over and met Ashley and Kelli in Lahaina for lunch.

The guys finished up on the golf course and we all met at the Ritz pool for a relaxing afternoon of sun.

My legs were pretty red from the day before so I spent most of the day covered up. But Georgia loved it.

After a few hours of pool time we headed back to clean up. Steven and Tamar invited us over to watch the sunset from their incredible Lanai. Can you imagine waking up to this every morning?

The next day was another early morning. Road to Hana day! We drove up through Paia for breakfast at Charley's. It is a cool restaurant bar owned by Willie Nelson, and supposedly he stops in for pancakes himself from time to time.

 The it was off on one of the most beautiful drives in the country!

 We stopped for a few photo ops.

 The boys loved this lava area on one of the peninsula's. They could have spent hours here.

 We headed to the black sand beach and made a pit stop at the underground caves with freshwater. The boys took a plunge but it was a little chilly so we stayed up top.

 I could have stayed here all day! So I made sure that I had myself Coop and Georgia reminders.

After lunch in Hana we headed to Haleakala National Park and hiked up 2 miles or so to see Wailua Falls.

Here the guys are front of a HUGE Banyan Tree.

Closer to the top there is a huge Bamboo forest! You can't even see the sky the reeds are so tall. (Georgia had to peak out for this picture) 

 Once we finally made it to the top we were all pretty blown away. It was breathtaking.

Wade laid on his back so he could get the entire waterfall in one picture.

Once we hiked back down it was another 1/2 mile hike to the 7 sacred pools! Wade and Rob insisted on jumping off some cliffs. Their motto for the trip is "What would Bryson do?"

 I would like to personally thank my trainer Jon Hooper. I hiked over 5 miles that day 6 months pregnant and did not die or go into early labor, because he bust my rear in the gym every week!

On Thursday we had booked a morning snorkel cruise. Here is everyone else on the back of the boat still waking up!

 It was a ton of fun. The boat took us over to Lanai and we were able to see hundreds of Spinner dolphins and snorkeled at 2 incredible locations. The guys were like 3 little kids. They were the 1st in the water and last out.

March is the end of whale season in Hawaii and it did not disappoint. We saw them every day and on our way back to Maui from Lanai we we able to come up on 3 whales within 100 yards of our boat. You could see the from the shore everyday and even while we were driving.

We hoped to call it an early night. We grilled out at the condo and all went to bed and then within 30 minutes we were awakened by a familiar sound....but instead of tornado sirens it was tsunami sirens. Here is TGS tsunami central. They stayed up most of the night. No we did not evacuate, in hindsight we probably should have.

Luckily there was very little damage done in Maui. It is so devastating to see what had happened in Japan and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers. The next day the beaches were all closed so we took it pretty easy. Pool time and naps all around!

We made reservations at a highly recommended restaurant, Mama's Fish House, on the north shore and it did not disappoint. We figured it could be the other girls official birthday dinner.  
But not before we checked out the sunset

Breathtaking

Don't we dress up nicely

The next morning we headed to Steve & Tamar's house to do some kayaking and snorkeling. They live on Makena Beach which is one of the most popular turtle spotting places on the island. We sat up on the Lanai while the guys dragged the boats down.

Unfortunately I think the tsunami must have scared the turtles away because we only saw a couple. But it was still my favorite thing we did.  After we all were worn out from being out on the water we spent a few hours lounging by the pool.

And catching some sun. We headed out for some lunch and then spent the afternoon hanging out and napping.

 Then the grill masters took over and fixed us a wonderful last supper.

 We didn't take off until 5 pm so we were able to hang out at the beach most of the morning and then we headed out for some local food from the Taco Trucks.

 And Ashley just had to try drinking from a coconut and posing for this picture!

 The coconut milk really doesn't taste good. But it makes for a nice picture. Don't you think?

Well that pretty much wraps up our trip. It was absolutely perfect. We cannot wait to go back. We are incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity and want to send a sincere thank you to Steve and Tamar Goodfellow for their hospitality and the Pollocks and Kovashs for joining us on this amazing trip. Until next time....ALOHA!