The last ten days I have been on my honeymoon with my lovely wife Jocelyn. We left on Thursday morning for the islands of Hawaii. Our flight left from Milwaukee and went to Hawaii via Houston. The flights, though long, went fairly well. We had a bit of a delay in Houston but it wasn’t much. We arrived in Oahu at four in the afternoon and took an interisland flight to Maui. When all our traveling was done it was quite a relief but it was time to let the good times roll. The Hawaii-Wisconsin time difference is five hours so I called my mom and told her we had arrived safely before she went to bed. It was strange walking around in the blazing afternoon sun after traveling for seventeen hours. We went to the car rental and got our Jeep Wrangler and drove to our hotel. We checked into our home for the next seven days, the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel. I was running on fumes and needed some food. So I took a quick shower and headed to the courtyard to get some food and drink from the Tiki Bar and the Tiki Grill. We got our complimentary Mai Tais from the bar and ordered some Hawaiian teriyaki pineapple burgers and some unbelievably delicious calamari rings. After we finished eating we got a couple seats at the Tiki Bar and enjoyed the live music of Rudy Aquino. Rudy used to play back-up for Don Ho and he is the consummate hotel entertainer and would account for hours of entertainment on our trip. The bar closed at ten which was just what we needed because we needed to get some sleep.

Day One: This is our first full day, hence day one. We got up early and headed down to the banquet room for our welcome breakfast. The welcome breakfast was a small sales pitch for the side tours that were offered through the hotel. It wasn’t all sales as there was some good information as well. They were giving away prizes to people who attended and Jocelyn was the Vanna White of the drawing and got to pick the names. We weren’t allowed to win but Jocelyn received a ticket for a magic show that we never ended up using. After breakfast we planned and booked all of our activities for the week. After that we hopped in our dropped top Wrangler and drove a couple minutes to Lahaina. Lahaina is a great little town that used to be a whaling village. Now is a little shopping town with small boutique store, galleries, restaurants and bars. Even with all the tourist shops the town is still able to keep its tiny town feel. We walked up and down Front Street which is the main drag in Lahaina. There were a lot of cool spots and one was the Banyan tree. It was a large tree whose branches put down roots and grow more trees. The one tree occupied an entire park, quite cool. After that we checked out a couple shops and snapped some pictures of the boats out on the bay. We ate at a burger joint called Moose McGillicutty’s. It was one of the many open air bar restaurants on the street. I had a Mai Tai in a souvenir tiki glass and a burger. Our server was from Madison and gave us some pointers on where to go. After lunch we headed back to the hotel. We put in some beach time and took at walk on the beach. We walked past all the fancy Ka’anapali hotels and down the beach to the end. On our walk we found a shopping area nestled in between the hotels called the Whaler’s Village. We decided we would eat dinner there. Once back at the hotel we hung out on the beach a bit more and then headed to the room to get ready. We had dinner at one of the trio of beachfront restaurants at the Whaler’s Village. We went to the Rusty Harpoon. We had a great dinner with a great view. I had a crab stuffed steak and some Hawaiian beers. After dinner we weren’t able to go to the Tiki Bar because we had to get up early for our first planned activity.

Our first activity was a sunrise bike down Haleakala. We had to wake up at 2 am for our ride to the top of the volcano. Haleakala is the world’s largest dormant volcano. Though reaching a bit on facts Haleakela is one of the tallest mountains in the world. The summit is 10,023 ft above sea level and the volcano extends another 18,000 ft below the sea, which makes this one of the tallest mountains in the world ( Mount Everest is 29,035 ft). The bike company picked us up along with eight others to take us to the top of the mountain and view the sunrise. We got to the top between five and six. It was quite cold too. It was in the 40s and the wind was whipping off the crater. Luckily the company provides rain and wind jackets. The sunrise was amazing. A Hawaiian park ranger comes out and starts chanting as the sun is rising. It’s a pretty “at one with nature” moment. Another fact is its height of the mountain and the distance from the equator make this place one of the closest place to the sun on earth. I haven’t seen that many sunrises but I don’t think I’ll see a better one in my life. Once the sun was up we hopped on our bikes for the cruise down the mountain. I say cruise because although this ride is 38.2 miles you only pedal for .2 of the miles. You hop on these monster cruiser style bikes with fat tires and one speed. We then spent the next four hours gliding down the mountain. We saw some great views of the valley including a huge sugar cane fire. We also saw these cool plants called silver swords. This was the only place on earth that they grow. They’re a large urchin looking plant that has a metallic Etch-a-sketch-type powder substance on it. They then shoot up a tall “sword” from the center and then die. It was cool to see a plant that is so rare and only one place on this huge earth. The bike ride was great. Once we got toward the bottom we stopped at a town called Makawao for breakfast. Other bike tours were also having breakfast there so we had to wait a bit to be seated. While waiting we walked down the little town strip. We ended up wandering into this little shop that sold grills on one side and a plethora of hot sauces on the other side. The guy that owned the place was quite a character. He had a pet bulldog with a lei that was sleeping by the door. When we came in he told the dog to go do his job and greet the customers. He got up, licked our hand, then went back to sleep. After that he showed us a bunch of sauces and some spices in his own charismatic way. We bought a couple, said goodbye to the dog, and headed to breakfast. We sat with a couple from upstate NY. We talked about Hawaii as I ate the best ever breakfast burrito. Once we finished eating we hopped back on our bikes for the last half hour of our trip. On the way down we past the last place Jimi Hendrix played in the US before going to Europe for his final shows. We also cruised past Carlos Santana’s place before ending up in the small surfing town of Pa’ia. This small down is where some of the big wave surfing competitions that you see on TV take place. We checked out the beach for a bit then got back into the van our or ride back to our hotel. We got back to the hotel about one and hit the hay for a couple hours. After my nap I got ready and headed to the Tiki Bar. Jocelyn laid out on the beach while I conversed with the travelers at the Tiki bar. Jocelyn met me a half hour before sunset and we headed down the beach to watch the sunset ceremony another hotel. They had hula dancers, Hawaiian chants, torch lighting and a cliff diver at the very end. What a way to end a day. Seeing such a spiritual sunrise and sunset in the same day made me fall in love with Maui right there. After the sunset we went to the Hula Grill in the WV and had dinner. I had my first fish tacos in the Hawaii, yummy. The vistas at the WV restaurants are great. After my fish tacos we headed back to the Tiki Bar and wound up the night with the ballads of Rudy.

We woke up to another gorgeous Hawaiian morning. With your stay at the hotel you get either a free dinner or a free Sunday brunch. Since one of Jocelyn’s colleagues was nice enough to get us a gift certificate for dinner we chose the brunch. The brunch was huge. It took up the entire ballroom and had tons of fresh seafood, breakfast meats, Asian cuisine and countless other things. I filled up on oysters, crab legs, prime rib and bbqed prime rib. I definitely ate enough. After lunch we drove about thirty minutes from the hotel to Maalaea to go snorkeling. The boat that we had booked our trip on didn’t have enough people booked to go out so they moved us to another larger boat. The boat left on the hour ride to Molokini which is a large crescent moon shaped crater that is a good snorkeling spot. The ride to Molokini was smooth but as soon as we got in the water the trade winds picked up and the waves tossed us around while we were in the water. We swam around for about half an hour. The snorkeling was ok but Mexico is better. We went back to the boat, had some lunch and a mai tai and laid in the sun. We headed back after about an hour and on our way back we saw a whale in the distance. It wasn’t a Free Willie moment but we did see the whale’s tale and some spouts, still cool. Also on the way back we stopped in a sea turtle area and saw massive sea turtles floating no the water. The turtles were as big as humans. Once back on shore we hopped in the Jeep and went back to the hotel. After getting ready and some beers in the room we walked down the beach path to Giovani’s Tomato Pie. They had delicious bread and oil that I proceeded to fill up on. I ordered a pizza and J got some baked pasta. We drank some wine and ate at the breezy pizza place. The food was delicious. We headed back to hotel afterward and called it a night to try to catch up on sleep.

Monday was our first day that we didn’t really have anything to do so we decided to rent a cabana on the beach. In the morning we had signed up for a lei making class at our hotel. We met a nice couple at lei making while the activities director showed us how to string flowers. We ended up making some nice flower leis that we got to keep at the end. After we completed the flower leis we got to make hair pieces from flowers and tea leaves. They turned out great too. Finally the instructor was nice enough to teach us a third style of lei even though we weren’t signed up for it. They were the more male leis that you see that are of the green rope variety. J was a little better at making those than I was but mine turned out ok. Once we were covered in flowers and leis we headed up to the room to change into our beach gear. The rest of the day we hung out in our cabana and enjoyed the beach. We rented snorkeling equipment and went snorkeling at the end of the beach at Black Rock. The snorkeling was by the cliff where the sunset ceremony is held. The snorkeling was just as good as Molokini and we saw plenty of humuhumunukunukuapua’a ( Hawaii’s state fish). Then the Hawaiian in me came out and I had to jump off the cliff. The cliff was only a couple stories high but the jaggedness of the cliff made me a little nervous. But I pounded my chest and did it. After that we headed back to our cabana until it was time to get ready for the Luau. The luau we went to was up the beach at one of the fancy hotels. The luau was cool. We met a super nice couple from Arizona that we ended up sitting with and watching the show. The food was good and extremely plentiful. The dances were also fun to watch and I got a bunch of pictures. Another good time. After the luau we headed back to the Tiki Bar to end the evening.

The drive to Hana was probably our fullest day that we had while we were on vacation. We woke up early and hopped in the Wrangler for our adventurous drive. We stopped at a gas station in Kahului by the start of the “Road to Hana” and picked up a sites map, a tour guide CD and some food, water and snacks for the trip. The drive really has too much to explain everything so I’ll give the brief description. The drive to Hana takes you on a small highway that winds back and forth (they say there are 600 turns though I only counted 575) through the countryside, cliffs and waterfalls that make up this side of Maui. It is like driving through a rainforest that sits on a beach. The road is a little treacherous at times but it isn’t nearly as bad as driving on the death traps they call roads on the Virgin Islands. On the drive we saw countless waterfalls, black sand beaches, red sand beaches, trees with rainbow colored trunks, lavender fields, Charles Lindbergh’s grave, a “This is Packer Country” sign, the garden of Eden of a religion and of course the little town of Hana. Those were all the smaller landmarks but halfway through the trip we stopped at a state park and hiked the trail up the Seven Sacred Pools. The pools start at the ocean and go up the mountain until you reach Waimoku Falls, a 400-foot down lava rock waterfall. The hike wasn’t too bad and took us about an hour and a half. The nature was great and about a half mile of the walk is through the thickest, eight foot tall, bamboo forest. The bamboo forest was amazing and there was a small path that felt like a tunnel going through the bamboo. Finally once you emerge from the bamboo you are swallowed up by the massiveness and beauty of Waimoku Falls. It truly is a weeping wall with though water flowing down the entire wall and the massive waterfall in the middle. It’s rocky at the bottom of the waterfall’s pool but its good luck to go into the falls so Jocelyn and I carefully made our way to the pool. The water was ice cold but still felt good after the hot uphill hike. We dipped in and the spattering of people around us applauded for our braveness for withstanding the cold. After our lucky dip we hiked back down to the car and finished our drive around the backside of Maui over the narrow, dirt and potholed roads. We got back to the hotel around seven, twelve hours later. We laid down for a couple hours and then got ready for dinner. For dinner we headed to the WV to eat at the last of the beach front trifecta of restaurants, Leilani’s. Leilani’s was the most casual of the three and also ended up being the best of the three. We got an awesome bartender that hooked us up with a bunch of free food. He made our drinks too large so we always got a drink and a half as well as free appetizers, salads and a piece of ice cream cake as big as a loaf of bread. Not only did we get all that for free but the food we actually paid for was great as well. I had the best hamburger ever. It had mushrooms, bacon, Swiss cheese, red onion and a big scoop of guacamole, man was it good. After we ate we waddled back to the Tike Bar and sat there for a bit before waddling to our room.

The last full day on Maui was a calmer more relaxed one. We woke up and drove to Kihei. We thought Kihei would be a smaller surfing town but it ended up being more of a city with smaller condos. We didn’t feel like staying there so we drove back to Lahaina. I was running out of clothes so I dropped Jocelyn off and went to the local laundromat to wash my Hawaiian shirts. Once I was finished I met Jocelyn on Front St. at a little bar. We sat there for a bit and then headed to Cool Cat Café. It was a sixties themed open air bar with specialty hamburgers. We ate our food, listened to a crazy local Hawaiian preach, and enjoyed the view. After we finished eating we headed back to the hotel. J headed to the pool to catch some rays while I showered up and got ready for our last night at Ka’anapali. I hit the Tiki Bar while J got ready. She met up with me for a bit and then we walked over to the Tiki Terrace restaurant for out last night. We drank some wine and enjoyed Rudy singing his songs one last time. I had some steak and shrimp and savored every moment of our last dinner. After we finished eating it was back to the Tiki Bar. We talked to a bunch of the people we had met and said goodbye to them. We also bid an aloha to the bartender and thanked for the countless drinks he “forgot” to charge us for. J bought a CD from Rudy and then it was time to wrap up our time at Ka’anapali. We went to Leilani’s for one last drink and a last walk on the beach path. After that we headed to bed for our last time on Maui.

Our last morning on Maui we took a bunch of pictures of the hotel. Since it was our last day at Ka’anapali Beach the staff has a farewell ceremony where they give you kukui nut necklace. The kukui nut has a long story and is the state nut of Hawaii. If you bring your necklace back on additional visits they take one of the nuts off and replace it with a lighter nut. All the people that work at the hotel wear the necklaces as well and get a lighter nut for each year they work there. When they give you a nut they sing you a song, it was a very nice gesture and I haven’t seen another hotel anywhere with better hospitality. After the ceremony we said goodbye to the couple we had met at lei making and took a picture. After the little ceremony we had some breakfast, the first complimentary breakfast I was able to make in our entire stay. After that we went up to our room, packed up our stuff and headed to the airport. I somehow took a wrong turn to get to the airport so we were a little late to the airport but we still made our flight. The half hour flight was easy. When we landed we got our luggage and went to the car rental place. We ended up getting the exact same car as we had in Maui, an orange Wrangler. We drove to our next stop, and Jocelyn’s hotel stay she won, The Royal Hawaiian. The RH is a super fancy hucky mucky hotel. It’s one of the older hotels and it’s right on Waikiki beach. It’s a famous hotel and many stars and royalty have stayed there. Not only were we staying at a fancy hotel but we got one of the best rooms in the place. We were right on the ocean and we had a view of Diamondhead from our room. Once checked in we showered up and hit the streets of Honolulu. I wasn’t too impressed with Honolulu. It’s very much like any other tropical and reminded me of Miami. There are high end boutiques everywhere and it’s all tourists. Another thing that I didn’t realize is the amount of Asian tourists. About half of all the tourists were Asian and everything is written in English and Japanese. It wasn’t like that on Maui. After strolling the street along Waikiki we stopped at a Cheeseburger in Paradise to get some food. I had yet another delicious hamburger and some Hawaiian beer. After we finished eating J and I went to a dive bar in an alley that the bartender we had suggested we try. It was a true dive bar in every sense of the word. It was fun though. From there we walked back toward our hotel and had a drink at one more bar before heading the beach to watch the sunset. The sunset was pretty as usual. We headed to the hotel bar for pink beer (EVERYTHING at the Royal Hawaiian is pink) before returning to our room. The hotel manger actually gave us a bottle of Royal Hawaiian pink champagne and some strawberries since he knew it was our honeymoon. We sipped, ate and watched some TV before going to bed.

Once again we were up pretty early so we could get to Pearl Harbor and beat the crazy crowds. We drove to the Arizona memorial and got there just in time. There was no crowd we got there in time to catch the next ferry to the memorial. The whole experience was pretty amazing. The video that they show you really gets the emotions going before you even get to the memorial. After the video a Naval ferry takes you to the memorial. When I was there the only thing I could think of is the mass chaos that was going around when this happened. I wondered how the people in Pearl Harbor and citizens of the island could handle the streams of emotions they must’ve been going through while being attacked from all sides by hundreds of planes. It was a touching and amazing experience. Once we were ferried back Jocelyn bought a book from a lady who was a “Pearl Harbor Child” and she signed the book. We then hopped back in the Jeep and headed to the North Shore. On our way we were by the Dole Plantation so we stopped in. I snapped some pictures of the pineapple plants and the big hedge maze they have there. The gift shop is really the main attraction at the plantation. The have an ice cream called Dole whip which is delicious. J got a cone and I got a float in a souvenir pineapple glass. It was delicious. After we finished our treats we headed to a little beach town called Hale’iwa. It was a stop that Jocelyn had been to before. She went to a sub shop called Storto’s to eat and I got another amazing hamburger from Kua Aina. I stuffed myself again which was just what I needed for some beach laying. We headed down the North Shore and stopped at Sunset Beach. The surf there was pretty amazing. We laid on the beach and soaked up the sun on yet another legendary beach. We tossed around the football and watched a guy boogie board with his baby that had to be less than two years old. These waves were huge and this guy had to qualms taking his kid out with him. It was nuts. Once the sun hid behind some clouds we packed it up and headed on down the road. We continued around the island through a ton of towns large and small. We drove by some amazing breaks, rock formations and mountains. Probably the most legendary spot in all of Hawaii’s history was on our route, the Magnum PI house. I was driving and don’t really remember what the house looked like on the show so I didn’t “see it” see it but we did drive right by it. Around five we arrived back at the hotel and showered up for our dinner. For dinner we had booked reservations for the hotel restaurant. J and I both got the seafood buffet and it was worth every penny. They had fresh sushi and every other fish you can think of as well as my downfall, lobster. They had halved small lobster tails baked in a ton of garlic and butter laid out in huge pans. Since it was a buffet I ate upwards of 30 of them. The lobster tails and breaded shrimp were really too much for me and I ate well beyond my capacity. Once dinner was over J and I rolled up to our room. We were going to go out for Cinco de Mayo but neither of us could move. I ended up passing out for the night in a lobster coma minutes after getting to the room, as did Jocelyn. Talk about an AMAZING dinner!

Our final day we didn’t do too much. I was starting to wind it down. We woke up and walked down the strip to check out the sites. There ended up being a military appreciation parade. With all the military bases on Hawaii there were hundreds of soldiers from all branches of the military marching in the parade, it was pretty cool. After the parade we went to a diner that Jocelyn really liked called Eggs n’ Things. I wasn’t very hungry but I saw this hot sauce that I had to try so I order the two eggs scrambled. It ended up being a whole bunch of eggs scrambled. The hot sauce they had there was some of the best I’ve ever had and my breakfast ended up being hot sauce with some eggs mixed in. Jocelyn didn’t eat all her pineapple pancakes so I polished those off for her as well. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel and lounged by the pool. After some rays we walked down Waikiki and sat on a bench to watch the surfers. We headed back toward the hotel and stopped for our final Hawaiian meal at a place called Duke’s. It was named after a famous Olympic swimmer and surfer. I had one last set of fish tacos and some beach fries. Once done we packed up our stuff in the hotel and bid an aloha to the ocean. We drove back to the airport and waited for our delayed plane to take off. We sat at the airport for about three hours but eventually we got out of Hawaii. Once in Houston we had to wait standby because our connection plane was already gone. J and I had to sit apart but luckily we got the last two seats on the plane. Once safely back in Milwaukee I had to file a claim for a bag that they had lost. The weather was great in MKE when we got back but Lake Michigan doesn’t have the turquoise hue that the Pacific has.

To sum it up, AMAZING! I had such a good time and this was far and away my best vacation ever. It was a great way to celebrate the start of the rest of my life with Jocelyn. There wasn’t one second of it I didn’t love and have the time of my life. Ahui hou!