Four years ago Karisa and I went to Hawaii to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. This year is our five year anniversary and we figured it was time to go back. Actually Karisa was going anyway for her work so Kalini and I met her there when she was done with her obligations.
Kalini and I started by flying over to met Karisa on Oahu. We stayed in the 'Pink Palace' downtown Honolulu (Sheraton Royal Hawaiian). Things haven't changed much downtown, it is the same busy city with a lot of people everywhere. Our room was right on the beach, but it was still quite crowded. Honolulu is a great place, but I wouldn't want to stay there more than a day or two. We probably will skip it altogether in our next trip. Unless we get a place that is less crowded.
Our next stop was the island of Kauai. Kauai is the complete opposite of Oahu. It is very quaint, quiet and very scenic. We reserved a two bedroom cottage at the Waimea Plantation Cottages, but we got a huge house instead! This place was overkill for our family which included Karisa's parents. It was a neat place that sat right on the ocean front. We only had 2 days there, I wish we had more. Highlights of Kauai was the trip to the East Shore and the Waimea Canyon. The east side of the island is gorgous, however the surf was as rough as I have ever seen. At times it looked the waves were two stories high with violent crashes, it was scary but at the same time cool. Too bad the pictures won't do it justice. They call the Waimea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We spent half a day there, but I wish it was more. The views from the peaks looking into the canyons amongst the clouds was breathtaking. Again, pictures just don't do it justice. Once our time on Kauai was up we sent Kalini home with the grandparents and Karisa and I headed to my favorite island, Maui.
On Maui we had the best hotel room ever. It was on the eighth floor looking west over the ocean. We watched the sunset over the water every night from our room. In the distance we could see the islands of Lanai and Molokai. Our room had a great patio where we spent a lot of our time. Highlights on Maui was driving our rented Mustang convertible to Hana on one of the greatest roads on earth. Fifty two miles of the best scenery Hawaii has to offer on the curviest roads you have ever seen. I could write on and on about that drive, but I don't want to bore even more. We did drive the "north loop" of Maui, which was scenic, but it is no road to Hana. It was actually a bit creepy. During the months of February and March, Maui is a very popular spot for whale watching. In the past whale watching season is usually over at the end of March. We didn't expect to see any whales on our trip since we were going in late April. But...we for some reason or the other saw a lot of whales. Not only did we see a bunch of whales on a whale watch cruise, we could sit in our room for hours and watch them from our balcony. It was awesome. Between Karisa and I we saw at least 7 whales breach the water (jump completely out of the water). It is an amazing site to see a creature of this size get airborne. Unfortunately, we were not able to capture any of the jumps on film. However the images will remain in my mind forever!
After this trip my love for Hawaii has grown. Since I labeled this vacation the best one ever, it will be hard to think about going anywhere else. But if there is sun and sand I guess I can be talked into about anything...hmm...Mexico?!?!
Pictures: Unfortunately I had a technical glitch and lost all the pictures from Oahu. Too bad because there was some good ones including one of me and Kalini in a Lamborghini Gallardo. Shit happens I guess.
Kauai Pictures
Maui Pictures
