Aloha - Day 2

Due to the time difference Andy and I awoke at 4am and were ready to start our day.  Since there is not much to do at that time of day we had breakfast in bed while watching TV and figuring out what we wanted to do for the day.  We were going through the Maui Revealed book the Campbell's let us borrow to plan our day an discuss activities for the week.  This is such a great book to have if you plan to head to Maui as there are plenty of hikes, activities, restaurants and great suggestions to do while you are on vacation.

First up, we decided to head to the Nakalele Blowhole.  This was a short drive from our resort and such a beautiful drive too.  What is not a beautiful drive in Maui???  The blowhole is where the ocean hits against the coast where there is a lava shelf and a man-sized blowhole in the shelf.  The water goes underneath and shoots up water through the hole and can get to 70 feet tall at times.  We hit this spot on Saturday morning and there wasn't much "spitting" of the ocean.  It was really small, so Andy and I decided to come back another time during the week in hopes of seeing the blowhole in full force.  Unfortunately, for us, it never happened.  While we were there we did get some great photos of the coast line.

The warning sign to not get too close to the blow hole.  A man died in July from getting sucked in.

This is pointed at the blowhole that is not blowing.

Andy in front of the blowhole down below.

There's me hoping the blowhole blows!

Check out that coast line.

Do you see the small water peaking up down below? That is where the blowhole shot out some water.  It was small, but that's ok, we got the idea.

 

 

 

 

 

A view from looking to the left of the blowhole.

Andy climbing back up the rocks from our short hike down to the blowhole.

After spending time at the blowhole we went back to the resort for some lunch and pool time.  On this day the Badgers were playing at Michigan State, so of course I am an amazing wife and we watched the game together on our honeymoon.  We started in the resort sports bar, but the workers were terrible at controlling the TV's as they kept changing the channel every time a new guest came in and asked for the TV to be changed.  They never even asked if anybody was watching it.  The Badger game had been changed a few times and we were not the only Badger fans in the bar so we left during half time to watch the game in our room with beer and wine.

A lucky guy as he watched the Badger game with his wife on their honeymoon.

After the game we went to Whaler's Village for a nice dinner at Hula Grill.  We of course had fish for dinner and both of our meals were extremely good.  After dinner we were so full so we walked the beach on the way back to the resort instead of taking the shuttle bus.

After dinner at Hula Grill.

Happy Halloween everybody!  I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday!!!!

Aloha - Day 1

The six hour flight from Phoenix to Honolulu was 6 hours and kind of long.  It was not a bad flight for someone who is absolutely scared of flying.  I made it through without panicking a lot.  The movie on the flight was The Green Lantern, not my kind of movie so I passed on watching it and preferred to read a book.  The short flight from Honolulu to Maui was a little more rough on me since it was a small plane, but I pushed through and was able to survive the short flight.

Once we arrived in Hawaii we got our Jeep and took off to Costco and Safeway to stock up on snacks, breakfast and lunch items for the week.  Since we were staying at the Westin Villas we had a mini kitchen in our room so we thought it would be best to do breakfast and lunch to help save on money. Especially since everything in Hawaii cost a lot more than on the main land.

The Westin Villas!

The first event that happened is I think I broke or sprained my big toe/foot.  When the bellman delivered our bags and groceries to our room he set the bottle water and beer on the kitchen counter on top of a pyrex cutting board.  When I went to move the items I didn't know the pyrex cutting board was underneath the water and beer so when I moved the items the glass board fell off the counter and landed on my left foot where the large toe connects to the foot.  It was extremely painful and I was concerned it was broken.  I have heard though that if you break your toe there is nothing you can do about it, or at least that is what I told myself to get me through the week so I could ignore the pain in my foot.  Of course the next day I could barely walk on it and my foot was black and blue and completely swollen.  Of course I just ignored it and pushed through since nothing was going to ruin my vacation.  I am not sure if that was the brightest idea since it is still puffy a week later and still hurts pretty bad.  I can't bend it on my own, so that is kind of concerning.  I will give it a few more days of relaxing before I decide to suck it up and go to the doctor.  Unfortunately I can't say it was from something as cool as a surf boarding, paddle boarding or a diving accident, but instead it was from a glass cutting board.  Oh well!

After the toe incident we decided to do the beach board walk to see where that would take us and to watch the sun go down.  It was absolutely beautiful and probably the time where I fell in love with Hawaii.  I see why people keep going back now as it is breathtakingly beautiful.

On the beach walk we passed a golf course with beautiful views of the mountains.

Beautiful sunset!

Kaanapalli beach

Toes in the sand!

I am in love!

After our walk we were exhausted and decided just to eat at the resort sports bar.  After dinner and drinks we were spent and went to bed.  The three hour time difference also didn't help our exhaustion.

Aloha!

Andy and I spent the past week on our honeymoon in Maui and it was absolutely beautiful.  We had a great time and can't wait to go back.  We flew out on Friday the 21st on Hawaiian Airlines and arrived back in Phoenix last night at midnight to a very nice 65 degrees.  We stayed at the Westin Villas in Kaanapalli...probably not spelled exactly right, but that's ok.  I will blog about our trip all week long as there is a lot to share.  Until then here is a video on the sights of Maui that we did see.  Some of the images include the Kaanapalli beach outside of our resort, the hike in Hana (including the bamboo forest and the waterfall) and the beautiful black sand beach in Hana.  There are many sights that I did not capture on the Flip as I kept forgetting about it, but I did take plenty of pictures that I will share in my upcoming posts.  Stay tuned!  Mahalo!  :)

 

It's Alive!

I finally feel better on this beautiful Sunday.  For the past week Andy and I have both been sick.  Andy not as sick as myself.  I personally felt like I was on my death bed for most of this past week.  That might sound dramatic, but it's truly how I was feeling. 

It all started last Saturday when Andy began sneezing, coughing, hacking and looking awful.  He called it "allergies" because he is never sick.  Ok, fine, I agreed it's allergies because who am I to judge when I don't have allergies so I don't know what it feels like.  Anyway, I then wake up on Sunday and I slowly go down hill and by the end of the day I was starting to look like Andy and his "allergies."  Monday morning I awake feeling like a bus hit me and I only made it through half a day at work and then completely stayed home on Tuesday.  I made it to work the rest of the week, but barely as I looked and felt like death.  I was just trying to get through the week and onto the weekend so I could rest and hopefully get better.

So, what does a girl do when she stays home from work sick.  Besides sleep I got to watch the Maury Povich show.  I was a fan of this show back in high school and now I only get to relive those high school memories when I am home sick...which is never!  Well the show has changed a bit since those good ol' high school days.  Now it's all about finding baby daddies.  I watched more than a hand full of Maury and by Wednesday I kind of felt more stupid for watching those shows.  I know I could have changed the channel, but it's like a train wreck where you just can't stop looking.  I kept yelling "You are the father" and since Andy works from home he wasn't exactly amused by my behavior.  He was ready to ship me back to work.  He wasn't the only one because I was so bored.  There is only so much a person can sleep no matter how sick you are.

I finally feel better today and I managed to get out of the house for a brisk walk around the mountain as I couldn't run since my chest hurt.  Then I got out to run errands and I finally got us a Costco membership.  Yes, I know, we are a bit behind the times in the Costco craze, but we never really felt like we needed it for just the two of us.  We will see how much we use it this year and if we don't then we won't renew.

Everybody in our house is almost 100% healthy again.  I think we still need a few more days of rest.  Sorry no pics this post.  I don't think you would want to see any pics of us sick and dieing anyway.

Wisconsin Vs. Nebraska

This past weekend Andy and I went back to Wisconsin for our annual Badger trip.  This was a big game as it was the Wisconsin versus Nebraska game.  Tickets were very hard to get, but as Andy put it "I am lucky to be married to him so I can attend Badger games."  Ha ha! 

We arrived in Badger town late on Wednesday night and my parents picked us up at the airport and we stayed with them until Friday afternoon.  While hanging out in SP Andy and I spent time with my grandparents, my good friend Bobbi and of course I got paraded around my mother's work as she introduced me to all of her co-workers as her "baby."  That was lovely.  I started to notice that the "big game" is all everyone was talking about.  It's all the news reported on, the newspaper headlines and everyone at my mother's work. It was crazy.  I guess that is what small cities focus on and I totally forgot about that.  However, it was fun because it got us into the mood for the game on Saturday.

The game was on Saturday and we headed downtown with Laura and our good friends for early tailgating before the game at the Stadium bar with the sea of red.  We started about one in the afternoon and the game didn't start until 7pm so it made for a very long game.  One great thing about this weekend is my friend Kelli was able to make it down from Minneapolis for the big game and stay with us all weekend.

Sea of red at the Stadium Bar.  Also, notice the nice weather.

Happily married couple at the Stadium Bar.

Then we headed to the game where the Badgers defeated Nebraska 41 to 14...it was awesome!

I took video of the infamous "Jump Around" shenanigan's right before the fourth quarter for those of you that have never experienced it before.  Before the fourth quarter begins they play "Jump Around" and the whole stadium goes crazy just jumping up and down.  It's pretty neat to see 80,000 people jumping up and down to the House of Pain song. The video is not great, but still thought I would share it and it might give you an idea of it.

On Sunday I went to my parents house where some family members stopped in to visit me while I was in town.  I also had our wedding video with me for those that wanted to see it.  I played it for everyone and it still brought tears to my eyes...and to many others as well. 

The weather wasn't too cold while we were there and actually it was a nice fall weekend where the weather was cool, but not cold.  It was almost perfect and made me think of moving back...but then reality hit as I was walking around on State Street Saturday night and I could see my breath because the temperature dropped to 38 degrees.   Brrr!  Nope, don't want to move back.  It was a good weekend though and we had a great time in Madison with friends and family.  We are not sure when we will make it back again as we are staying in Arizona for the holidays.  Maybe we will do a long weekend next summer.  Until next time Madison!