First, we flew to Honolulu, where we got to stay with our awesome buddy, Molly.
She showed us all kinds of cool stuff. We got to hike to the top of Diamond Head Crater (as in volcano!) and saw the whole city and Waikiki Beach.
We got to see where over a thousand heroes still rest...
It's hard not to get a tear in your eye when you stand there and realize what the memorial truly means. Most of them were younger than my brother.
I stood on the memorial, looked up, and this is what I saw:
Then, we flew to Maui. On Christmas Eve, we went up 11,000 feet, above the clouds at Mount Haleakala, to watch the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen....
It was pretty chilly, but not as cold as everyone makes it out to be! I guess we're used to it, though.
Then, we got to ride mountain bikes 38 miles DOWNHILL...we saw some amazing views and by the time we got down it was very warm! I felt like such a tool as roadies climbed UP the mountain, while me and my rented mountain bike hauled down.... :) I decided someone needs to put an Ironman course on it...but shuttle you back up to the top and get all 112 miles downhill. Now THAT would be the only way I could break 11 hours in an Ironman... :)
When we drove back to our hotel, we stopped at this beach to watch the hardcore surfers. If you look really close, you can see tons of 'em. I couldn't WAIT to get my turn!
This just made me laugh WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY too hard. Outside a swanky resort, on Christmas Day...
We got to see some humpback whales from a distance, which was amazing...
On the Hana Highway, we stopped here for some banana bread...mmmm....
Everywhere we turned on the Highway to Hana, it seemed there was another beautiful waterfall!
The views were unbelievable. We had a red Jeep Wrangler so it was a fun drive!
We stopped here for lunch. The black rock was awesome.
We found a black sand beach! The contrast of colors was like nothing I've ever seen before.
We made it all the way to the O'heo (sp?) Gulch, which is otherwise known as the "Seven Sacred Pools," and we jumped in!
It's hard to NOT relax when all you see are things like this:
Finally, we got to meet up in Lahaina, an old whaling town, with my friend Vicki, her husband Jeff, and her little guy Aidan, who just happened to be vacationing there the same time we were!
And we got to do some surfing, which I can't wait to do again:
Woo hoo~that's me, standing up, with some help from some surfer dude!
Now, here's me on my VERY FIRST WAVE ALL BY MYSELF so you're NOT ALLOWED TO LAUGH TOO HARD...
Okay, you can stop laughing now. Seriously. It's not bad for my first one ever, right? Right?! Come on! Cut me some slack, I'm from Ohio!
Definitely....the trip of a LIFETIME. Soooooooo far away from everything, though....it's strange to think that it's 2,500 miles away from CALIFORNIA, let alone from Cleveland! I knew it was far, but I guess I never realized just HOW far until I was on that plane ride and saw nothing but water for four hours.
So I'll leave you with this, your moment of Zen..... :)
31 comments:
It's a dream of mine to try surfing sometime! I would only be lucky to do it in Hawaii! Wonderful pics Sara! Looked like a very very fun trip!
An Ohio girl, and Iron(wo)man, and now a surfer girl!! Sweet. What's next? Valley girl? LOL. Those pictures are all very cool, and nice job on the board. I grew up on the gulf coast and I never surfed very well. You did magnificent!!
Cool video, NOt to shabby for Buckeye, then agan? :)
Looked like a blast, especially the mountain bike ride. I'm sure it made IMWI look like a mole hill.
thanks for the photojournal - i agree, probably the most beautiful and relaxing place i've been... my favorite part was walking along fresh lava in the volcano fields south of hilo.
Gorgeous pictures. Looks like you had a great time. They make me want to go back.
Lovely pictures. Glad you had fun!
looks like you had an amazing holiday in hawaii!!! i would NEVER laugh at your surfing attempts! i was too pansyassed in australia to try it and im kicking my own ass that i didnt! thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and making us all green with envy!
Great photos!
Glad you had such a wonderful time!
Thanks for sharing the pics. So when are you going to surf Lake Erie? You can paddle along on a surf board during open water swims.
Awesome moment of Zen
Amazing Sara!
That is just beautiful! I so need to get to Hawaii. NOW.
Thanks for sharing those with us! It's definitely on my list of places to see. The moment of Zen was beautiful!
Great pictures. Super, now I'll be daydreaming about beaches all day today and not get any work done.
It's great to hear that you had a fun time because I remember you blogging earlier that you didn't think the vaca's timing was right.
No matter what we think or do, life seems to work out on its own sometimes.
WHAT A VACATION!! The video was mostly of your ass, you DO realize that, right? Sweet.
Oh, by the way, your team crashed and burned. CRASHED AND BURNED! No sympathy.
Be careful on those huge tidal waves!!! ;)
You rock, sara...what a great trip and photos!
Awesome photos Sara. Great job on your first wave. It's freakin' hard!!!
wow. looks amazing. i'm so glad you got away from everything for a while. welcome back to the continental us. :)
Great pictures! I know you had a blast!
loved that black sand beach!
and, well the surfing, you ARE a natural!
Mahalo!
I picked up your comment and understand. Email me and we can go over the plan.
Wow!!! What an awesome vacation. Hawaii looks SO beautiful! My parents went a few years ago and they are constantly telling us we need to go.
I heart Maui and the road to Hana. There's no place on earth like it. Glad to read and see you both had a good time.
Stay tuned...
Please take me with you next time!!!
Wow- those pictures are awesome! I love the deer- how funny!
I'm so glad that you got a chance to relax and enjoy life for awhile.
:-)
Jodi
Good grief those are beautiful pics..glad you enjoyed it. I'm going there!!!!!!!
Great pics, video, and vacation. Totally jealous. :)
Not bad for an Ohio girl on the board. Beautiful pictures!
Awesome, awesome, awesome pictures!!!! Looks like you guys had a blast! I love the surfing video - I gotta try that ASAP!
You did much better than I did when I first tried! At least you got your "first time" on tape! Very Cool! I even took classes through Surf Diva in LaJolla-it's not as easy as it looks (at least for me!)
Went to some of the same places a couple of years ago- Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor memorial- everything you just "must" do in Honolulu.
You sure packed in a lot of great times and memories! Thanks for sharing your photos and bringing back memories for me! :-)
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