Hawaii

Spring break 2012 was freaking amazing. Did it consume all of my money? Yes. Do I regret any of it? Not in the slightest. I don’t know if there is any way that a spring break could beat this one (and im not willing to put out any more money trying to beat it). If you have never been to Hawaii GET THERE. We spent all 6 days in Maui and I could definitely go back to do the billions of things that we didn’t have time for. But lets get into the story of the thing. So we left school early. Yeah, I don’t do that for anything so this was a big deal. We loaded KJ’s car with all our stuff and made the unforgettable drive to San Jose. Freak that was a long drive.  We left logan at about 5:30 and drove straight to the airport. Lots of peach penguins, twinkies, reeses pieces, and who knows what else were enjoyed. I drove for a few hours and had a Monster to keep me awake. Bad idea. I hadn’t had one for a couple of years and my body said “No way Jose.” Luckily Stuart had eaten an entire pack of redvines so stopping every 15 minutes wasn’t complained about. The girls slept during most of that part. We made it to the airport at about 5 and still had to wait a few more hours before they would even let us check bags. So we got to know a few of the people who we would be spending our time with. It was funny to see people walk into the airport and just assume they were with our group. There were like 60 of us going between 3 or four flights. The flight was torture for me. I was freaking tired and maybe got 15 minutes of sleep. All I remember about the flight though was the weird curry pasta and a crappy movie about birding. Getting into the room took a little bit of time but it was so nice to be at our destination. Our condo was awesome. Right in the middle of Lahaina and it had really nice rooms. I’m not going to go through a day by day report (though I wish I could remember all of the details) but you can check out facebook if you want to see the bazillions of pictures. Best things- Coconut shrimp, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Big Beach, snorkeling, lahaina shops, more coconut shrimp, more snorkeling, sea turtles, lots of sun, I’m pretty sure everything we did could be considered best things. And I legitimately bought two entrees at every meal. True story. I took advantage of every opportunity to eat shrimp and calamari that I could. Haha so far ive talked a lot about food. Though definitely something I enjoyed we really did do awesome things. Not to sound like a Hawaii expert, but my ideas were best. From day one we should’ve realized this. I had done my research and had found a nice little beach super close to the condo that we told everyone to go to. It was right by the Japanese Dojo place and it was beautiful. Unfortunately only part of the group made it to the right beach. The majority had gone a little further north and so they made us go to them. The beach was gross. The water was murky and rock filled and a monk seal was owning a good section of the beach. There were jillions of people there. The little “baby beach” we had just been to had maybe 25 people on it. I think we planned on getting back to “baby beach” every day, but it didn’t happen until one of the very last days. Big beach was also my idea. I knew we had to get there sometime and so I did my best to gently force the plan for Sunday. My plotting worked and we made it down there. Holy freak. Most. Beautiful. Beach. Ever. Golden sand. Crystal blue and green water. Huge waves. Amazing.

Molokini—Also my idea. I had wanted to go snorkeling from day 1 but couldn’t ever convince people of its awesomeness. It wasn’t until Tuesday that the group got its first snorkel on.  A trip out to Molokini and Turtle town was all it took. They were hooked. Why they wanted to do anything else before this I couldn’t understand. If there was any one thing I could spend 6 days in Hawaii doing, it would be snorkeling. Kaanapali was a great place to snorkel too. We went to Black rock and ran into some turtles there as well. 

Not driving Hana. Yep, my plan too. But only a few people stayed back that day. Kj and I went and spent a good chunk of the day at “baby beach”. Then we met up with Lindsay and enjoyed some shaved ice from Ululani’s and just chilled. The car that went to hana ended up getting cursed by their visit to a black sand beach. They locked their keys in the car and were stuck for a while.  That trip took their whole day.

I will admit that a couple other awesome things were not my ideas. First the Gazebo. Mmmmmmmm………… pineapple coconut white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes…………. Kj’s suggestion. Honestly probably one of the best meals of the trip. Another was a trip around the north side of the island to find the elusive Lorraine and her chocolate covered banana bread ice cream sandwiches. We risked our lives to get there but it was worth it. Sooooo goooood. Again I’m focusing on food.

I’ve skipped a million things but it was an awesome trip. And on the way home I got to visit the Donkersgoed fam from my mission. So there, one new post down.