Aloha (Part 1)

We've been back from our summer vacation for two week now... so I guess it's about time I catch everyone up on our travels. We had a great time in Maui! Nothing like visiting a tropical paradise for some R&R... although

 our trip didn't begin without some stress.

Our trip started with a little bit of stress... kind of like God was saying, "Yes you're on vacation... but you still need ME."  So what happened?  We landed in Maui at 2:30pm and after spending 90 minutes in baggage claim, we decided it was time to accept that our suitcase (the one with ALL our clothes no less) hadn't made it. Sigh. Oh well. Hopefully it's just delayed in Honolulu and not on it's way to India or something.  So off to Costco we go to by our groceries for the week.   Groceries on the island are CRAZY expensive.  Seriously, I've never seen prices like it.  Costco is 50 minutes from the resorts but so much cheaper so Justin and I were tasked with picking up the week's supply of food for all six of us (did I mention this was a family vacation with my parents, aunt and uncle?). Anyway, it turns out that Costco on a Sunday night is no less crazy in Maui than it is in the States! In between the 5 calls from the family, dodging people who are (literally) trying to mow us down with their cart and an unbelievable level of noise... we get more bad news. My uncle calls to tell us there's a brush fire and the only road to the resorts is closed indefinitely. Time for a Mai Tai! Fortunately my wonderfully resourceful hubby was able to satisfy my craving quickly. Afterwards we circled back by the airport and found our suitcase had finally made it! HOORAY! You've never seen a more excited person running through baggage claim! I f

elt like I was in a movie, running to embrace my husband after a long separation... only it was the suitcase I was running to embrace! Ha ha!

Since it was Sunday and everything was closing we 

figured we w

ould head towards the traffic... afterall, it had been 4 hours since the fire broke out. They have to be close to reopening the road, right? Nope. Fortunately there was a police car just a little ways up from where we were sitting so we walked up to find out the status. The answer was anything but encouraging... "well the last time this happened it burned for 12 hours

 but they're hoping they get the road reopened tonight." Me too since it's only 6:30! So Justin broke out the Mexican Train Dominoes and invited the family in the car next to us to a game.  We considered opening the case of beer we had just bought.  If the car is turned off... it's not considered "drinking and driving" is it?

Eventually we started moving and we finally reached the resort at about 12:15am. We were exhausted since it felt like 3:15am for us... but we were thrilled to be in Maui! Fortunately this was the most adventure we had on this trip.

Most of our trip was spent reading by the pool, working out at the gym (it was a nice gym!), shopping or enjoying the ocean.  Before we got married we knew that each of our "ideal" vacations was different.  For Justin, vacation is hiking, exploring and staying active but for me it's longing in a tropical paradise.  I always wondered how we would marry our dream vacations... and I discovered the answer in Maui.  There are coral reefs off most of the beaches in Maui so Justin did a bunch of snorkeling! He was so excited to go snorkeling that he had his gear out and packed 3 days before we left! So cute :) We also went snorkeling at Molokini... a small crescent shaped island about 2 miles off the coast. If you go to Maui... skip Molokini. The reef if dying and there weren't that many fish. The snorkeling is so much better just off the coast of Maui.

Justin and I also went ziplining while in Maui!  So awesome... although when we got to the first wire I had cold feet and asked him "Who's idea was this?!".  His answer was classic... "Uh, YOURS!"  Ha ha!  That's right.  I probably got this idea one night while researching Maui (with a bottle of wine next to me).  Well we had a blast ziplining!  There were 8 wires, most about 500-700 feet long, with one wire that was 1,100 feet!  Our favorite wire was #5 where instead of steps that you walk down until the tension lifts you off your feet... there was a ramp.  Yup!  We had to literally take off running down a ramp (at full speed).  It's one of those things that your better off not thinking about what you're about to do... boy was that fun!