I'm dreaming about Hawaii, Maui in particular. My husband and I got married on a waterfront estate there and then stayed three weeks for our honeymoon. If I had one word to describe it, which really doesn’t do it justice, it would be: AWESOME!!
We stayed in a condo about 50 feet away from the water. It had a huge lanai (balcony) that was the length of the condo with screen doors that extended from wall to wall. We ended up sleeping in the living room area every night so we could enjoy the warm breeze blowing with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep.
I am not a morning person but I woke up early every day just to sit out on the lanai for a few hours. I would just sit and watch the palm trees blowing in the wind and could hear a variety of birds singing. I would close my eyes and feel the warm gusts of wind on my face and just soak it all up. It was so peaceful just staring at the soft waves of the water and seeing mountains in the background. This is a view from our balcony. (Please excuse the quality of the picture.)
There were so many things to do and see there. Three weeks wasn’t enough time to explore everything. However, we planned ahead of time on several must do activities. One of those activities was to try parasailing, which is something I have always wanted to do. Everyone I know had a look of shock on their face when I told them we planned on doing this.
(O.k., he is not a friend or family member but you get the point.) Why were they shocked? Well, I can’t swim and I’m pretty terrified of water. I think I was so excited about doing it that I didn’t even think about being pulled by a rope while hanging 500 feet over the water. I was bummed that it only lasted about 15 minutes and as soon as it ended, I wanted to do again!
Another thing we did was jet skiing. Yes, another water activity for me. This time, I was scared as soon as I got on the water. We both drove our own jet ski and there was a large circular area that a big group of people would drive around. As soon as I started driving around, thoughts of falling in and being swallowed by a huge shark started to come to mind.
My solution to not falling in was to go really, really slow. My husband was having a blast driving like a madman around the course and he passed me numerous times. I was definitely the slowest one out there! Every time the jet ski would topple a little around the turns I would practically stop. Afterwards, my husband laughed at me and said that he reached speeds around 60 miles per hour. I think I didn’t even reach 25 miles per hour!
We did a lot of driving while we were there. We drove the Road to Hana, which is a long, winding road that goes around a large portion of the island. When I say winding road, I mean exactly that. You rarely went over 5 miles an hour because of the numerous, very sharp turns you had to make. In a lot of places, you could not see oncoming traffic and the road was just wide enough to squeeze two cars through. In some areas, the road only fit one car so you had to patiently wait until they passed you by before continuing to drive. The road did not have any side rails and during most parts you had the wall of the mountain on one side and a cliff literally inches from the road on the other side. This was definitely not for the faint at heart. I think I would have passed out if I saw one of these:
Here are some tips for anyone attempting to drive on this road. Please learn from our mistakes!
- First, if you get car sick like me, take some medication that will help prevent this.
- Fill your gas tank because you will drive for hours without seeing a gas station.
- Don’t drive at night if this is your first attempt.
- Don’t think you can drive the entire road all the way around quickly. (Ahem...it takes about 6 hours)
We recently decided to go back for our five year anniversary, which is next year. I am so EXCITED! More about this on a later post.
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