Our First Visitors!

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long since we've blogged! It was so great to see our friends and family over Christmas. We definitely did not get enough time with everyone, we had pretty much every second of our trip mapped out as best we could.















Our first visitors were here! Carly's friends Dani, Lisa, and Jake came to stay with us from January 8th to the 17th. We thoroughly loved having them here with us and showing them all our favorite Hawaii spots. We also took the superferry to Maui for a weekend.



We picked them up from the airport








The morning after their arrival, we woke up before 6:00am, drove through Waimanalo and watched the sunrise at the top of Makapu'u. We were super excited when Jake pointed out a whale! It was so cool to see it blowing water up into the air while we were at the top of the mountain.







Later that day, we went to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, dropped Kev off at work there



and spent the day on the beach.




Then we had a happy hour cocktail at the Hilton Bar.

We climbed down the hill to the Spitting Cave of Portlock and saw some pretty good waves.








Then the next day we waded over to Goat Island (we mastered 250 yards in 9 minutes there and 7 back)!!












Then we continued driving up the North Shore of O'ahu, stopped for some dinner and shopping along the way.

On Saturday morning we shipped off to Maui on the Superferry (without Kev; he had to work). The Superferry is a topic of a lot of debate in Hawaii. The island people don't like how easily tourists can get to Maui and the big island from O'ahu and they protest that studys the superferry's effect on marine life have not been done thoroughly. We also got really seasick from the harsh waves for the 3 hours it took to get there.








Once we got to Maui, we met up with a friend of ours from high school who lives on the west coast of east Maui. She works at a little t-shirt shop in Kihei. From there we drove to several different beaches, and as far west as the roads would allow. What we thought were fields of torn up dirt were, upon further inspection, fields of lava rock.








We stayed in a hostel that night and the next day Kev joined us in Maui and we started our trip to the Road to Hana--a 54 mile road with over 600 curves and 54 bridges (mostly one-lane). It runs along the north shore of east Maui where there are no gas stations, and very few other roads to turn onto.

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The following is almost a minute of video demonstrating a typical section of the Road To Hana.
Imagine repeating this video for 2 straight hours. Your arm never stops turning the steering wheel for 36 miles.... enjoy responsibly.


Along the way, we stopped to hike to waterfalls in a bamboo forest, a black sand beach, and a red sand beach.






black sand







red sand




We slept at Joe's Place in Hana and shipped off the next day back on the Superferry (with dramamine this time) to O'ahu.





Unfortunately, Kev had to work but the rest of us went to the Paradise Cove Lu'au. This was the Lu'au we got to go to for free 3 years ago along with the Pro Bowl. We watched hula dancers, went for a little canoe trip, got tattoos painted on, ate a wonderful hawaiian meal, and saw a show with fire dancers and other hawaiian performers.












On their last full day, Car had to work so Kev took them to climb Diamond Head crater, then shopping at the International Marketplace in Waikiki and finished with a sunset dinner at Dukes overlooking the beach.



We met up with Tom (our friend we connected with through CouchSurfing from Long Valley) and went bowling.



O'kole Maluna!! "Bottoms UP!!"

Finally, on their last day, we relaxed on the beach at Waikiki, had a nice lunch at Coconut Willy's and said goodbye to paradise.

We're pretty confident we planned a vacation they'll remember forever.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES GUYS!! :)