Life Lately: Our Maui Hawaii Vacation

A little peak at our Maui Hawaii Vacation during Roger’s final spring break of dental school in 2016.

 

Yes! I’m finally sharing the photos from our Maui Hawaii Vacation from over a month ago! 

As usual I took way too many photos (like several thousand) between my phone, roger’s phone, & my Canon. So as you can imagine it took forever to go through them, narrow down my favorites, edit them, & then narrow them down again to a select few (if you can call over 40 a select few) to share with you.

We flew from Chattanooga to Dallas early the first Sunday morning of spring break (like I woke up around 4am eastern time – so 3am in Birmingham time) & after a 1 hour layover we headed on an extremely long flight to Maui. 

 

 

I had never been on an 8 hour flight before, by hour 3 I was ready to get off the plane, but of course we were still over land… It was a really long flight!

We landed in Maui around noon Maui time (I have no idea what time zone!) & while I should have been exhausted because of the time difference (& I should mention this was also daylight savings Sunday), I was super excited about being in Hawaii.

But once we got in the car I started to feel super sleepy, & by the time we sat down at an awesome restaurant called Pita Paradise, it was all I could do to stay awake.

Needless to say I didn’t make it to see our first sunset in Maui & I crashed on the comfy bed at our hotel, the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, while it was still quite bright outside.

Speaking of the Andaz, I’ll be sharing a whole post next week filled with lots more pictures (yes more!) of the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort.

 

 

Our first full day in Maui we went exploring & Roger’s dad took us off the beaten path (seriously way off the beaten path, I don’t know if tourists ever go here) to see the stone drawings pictured above. 

It was a nice little hike & I couldn’t get over the contrasting scenery of the dessert & jungle mountains, seriously gorgeous! 

 

 

Since the time zone was so different & because I was uber eager to not waste a moment of the Maui trip sleeping, morning became one of my favorite times in Maui.

Although I slept in a little bit the first & second morning, I couldn’t help but rise before the sun & sit up in the lobby to watch the sunrise while reading my Bible.

 

 

Roger was a good sport & often joined me half an hour later for photography walks on the beach & boardwalk behind the Andaz.

 

 

There were so many natural beauties to photograph! And even though I use my Canon almost daily, it got a good work out in Maui!

 

 

While the majority of the beach in front of the Andaz was sandy, my favorite places to walk & take pictures were off to the side where there were lots of rocks & moss.

 

 

Next to the sandy Andaz beach was this little rocky cove, absolutely breathtaking!

 

 

The next day we headed to Lahaina to take a ferry to another little island off of Maui called Lanai. The little town was absolutely adorable & home to the biggest banyan tree of Hawaii! Doesn’t look too big, right?

 

 

But actually this whole thing is one big tree! I couldn’t even fit the whole tree in one picture! 

And as a huge lover of trees I could have spent all day gazing up into it’s branches. I would have loved to have spent the day climbing it, although I’m sure that’s not allowed…

 

 

Across from the cute shops & restaurants was this little sandy beach that you could gaze down upon while walking up & down the street. 

Our Lahaina/Lanai day ended up being one of my favorites of the trip!

 

 

Probably because I had so much fun taking in all of the gorgeous scenery & taking a million and one pictures! 

Even Roger couldn’t help himself, he was constantly reaching for my camera to get the perfect shot.

 

 

Although I was sure to be careful not to get too distracted by all the beauty, stepping on one of these little guys (who like to hide in the rocks right where you would step) would not be fun!

 

 

I feel like none of my pictures can even begin to do justice to the majesty & beauty of Hawaii.

 

 

While I spent the majority of my time in photography bliss, we also took some breaks to jump in the water & go snorkeling! 

It was literally like swimming in an aquarium, but way cooler! 

For some reason the big fish didn’t think I was cool enough to swim with & I’m sure I looked hilarious chasing after them!

 

 

That evening we headed back to Lahaina & grabbed a (big) bite at Lahaina Pizza Company.

I was absolutely starving after all of the snorkeling & exploring of the day & I eagerly ate everything in front of me (but for real, the Pizzadilla with spinach, artichoke, and mozzarella on fresh pizza dough was super good).

 

 

Here is just one more picture of the west coast of Lanai, (so pretty!).

 

 

After dinner Roger & I split 2 scoops of gelato while we walked around Lahaina a little more.

Earlier that day, before we went to Lanai, I spotted a ukulele store. I didn’t want to buy one that morning because I wasn’t sure how it would fair with all of our adventuring. So on our way back through, we stopped in at the ukulele store & I bought myself a fun souvenir! 

 

 

I can’t imagine a better souvenir from Hawaii!

I think Roger has as much fun playing it as I do!

ps. Please ignore my crazy hair! I haven’t been to the salon in almost a year… Don’t worry I’m going to get layers soon! 

 

 

Later that week we took a special trip on the Road to Hana.

 

 

The road can be a bit scary with its steep drop offs, but my goodness was it gorgeous! 

 

 

We stopped many times to take in the natural beauty.

 

 

We even found this fun little mountain cave river.

 

 

We drove down a side road and came upon this little piece of paradise.

And directly behind me was the ocean with huge waves. We watched a few brave surfers ride the waves for a little bit before heading back to the car.

 

 

I fell in love with this church on the Road to Hana, unfortunately I could not get a picture that did it justice.

 

 

Please don’t mind my wrinkled dress, it had been a long fun day!

 

 

On the same grounds as the church there were these huge rocks that the waves loved to crash upon.

 

 

We had so much fun just watching them splash! It was kind of mesmerizing to tell you the truth.

 

 

Of course I got soaked.

 

 

This was one of my favorite places to relax at our hotel. I loved this grassy little area with the beach right in front of me.

I could sit & read in the cool shady comfort of the palm trees while watching Roger snorkel, as well as watching whales jumping out of the water in the background. It was super awesome! Actually one of my favorite parts of the trip was when me and Roger went snorkeling the first day right off the hotel beach & all of a sudden we were underwater & we heard the whale songs of humpback whales in the ocean right off the beach. It was really really amazing!

It was paradise!

 

 

And while I absolutely loved mornings in Hawaii, sunset was a very magical time.

 

 

Everything became so mysterious & moody. I loved it!

 

 

ps. I love my in-laws, I think they are adorable!

 

 

I’m hoping we can try to print this, but it was taken on Roger’s iPhone so I’m not sure of the quality, but it’s worth a try!

 

 

Roger was a good sport & took some photos of me for future blog posts. Although I also snapped a few of him, which came in handy when I wrote this post, about When Fear Breaks Your Heart.

While I thought this last semester of dental school would be relaxing & smooth sailing, it has been quite busy & full of twists & turns. 

 

 

There have been some scary moments, fear, uncertainty & tests of faith over the last few months.

2016 has been a crazy year so far. I can’t imagine what the rest of the year will hold for us, but I praise God for the family & friends that we have who have supported us & prayed for us.

 

 

And while I am greatly looking forward to this next big step in our life (moving back to Tennessee & buying our first house) as you can imagine we have really been missing Hawaii & are already planning a trip back for our 5 year anniversary!

 

 

If we are able to go next year for our anniversary I will be sure to post a little bit sooner after our trip & do more specified posts. Like one on where we ate (specifically what vegetarian dishes we enjoyed), where we stay (I’ll be sharing one on the Hyatt Andaz Resort next week), & our favorite excursions & day trips.

 

 

Until then I think we will be spending a lot of time reminiscing about the beauty of Maui & the amazing memories that we made together & with Roger’s wonderful parents.

 

 

Until we meet again Maui! Aloha….

 

 

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With love, G

For it is written:
“As I live, says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God.”
Romans 14:11

 

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