Maui - Day 3

Today went all over the island. First, we were headed to the Iao Valley, but we decided not to go there, because it was covered in clouds. So we headed to the opposite side of Maui, and began driving up Haleakala. We went to the Alii Lavender Gardens, where they grow all kinds of lavender, and tons of other plants. The view from there was amazing, you could see pretty much the whole island west of Haleakala. We then drove even farther up the mountain, toward the Redwood Forest. We were so high, we began driving through the clouds. All the trees have this wierd redish orange fungis stuff on it, which was kinda soft. We got so far on the road, it became a durt road. There were ferral pigs running around, and signs warning you of wild cows. We couldn't go any farther so we turned around with a cliff on one side, and a steep hill on the other. Kudos to Brett! We then went to a small French resturaunt for lunch. Yummy! After that, we started driving in the hills, through the cypress trees, and the smell of eucolyptess trees filled the air. The same strange fungis was on those trees too. We drove over to the north shore, and watch the wind surfers surfing the huge waves. There were tons of surfers. We then drove the whole way back to the condo, and rested for a bit. This afternoon we took a walk on the beach near our condo. The beach was beautiful, and empty. The water was surprisingly warm. We walked about 3.5 miles, and then walked back. Then we had pizza for dinner.

Maui - Day 2

Today was amazing. I woke up at 5:00, and got to watch the sun rise over Haleakala, behind the palm trees. At 7:00 we went down to the Maalaea harbor for the boat that would take us to Molokini. We sailed on the Paragon II and started with whale watching. The whales were awesome, even though there weren't many of them out there. When we finally made it to Molokini, which is a extinct underwater volcanic crater, which is now covered with a coral reef. After we got our snorkeling gear, we climbed down into the water. The water was freezing cold, and I kept forgetting to breathe. Haha. The reef was beautiful, there were colorful fish everywhere, sea urchins, and tons of different corals. We saw an eel, which was really creepy, because it was almost like a snake, and it was wiggling through the coral. We also saw an octopus, which was kinda weird, it moved like a snake/spider and it was strangely fast. Angie was taking pics underwater with her camera, and the photos turned out great. When we got out of the water, we were numb. I literally could not feel my hands, and I kept slipping and falling on the boat. When we got back to the condo, we cleaned up, and headed to Lahaina for a late lunch. We went to Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. I've never seen so much shrimp in my life. Haha. It was good, and I was stuffed by the time we got done. We then drove up to the Lahainaluna High School, which has a great view of Lahaina, the coast, and Lanai in the distance. On our drive back, we saw about 7 rainbows beside the West Maui Mountains, it was beautiful. We then got back to the condo, and now we are watching American Idol.

Here are some pics of our day:
Sun starting to rise behind Haleakala

Sunrise

The Paragon II

The Paragon's sail

Angie and Me

The back side of Molokini

The Molokini Crater

A Hibiscus

Bubba Gump's Shimp Co.

Maui - Day 1

Today was interesting... Haha. Last night we stayed at Hyatt Place in Baltimore/Washington. We woke up at 4:00am, after about 2 hours of sleep. We got our stuff together, got changed, and went downstairs for the 5:00 shuttle to BWI. We had to go through security, blablabla, and then at 7:00 we took off. Did I forget to mention this is my first this was my first plane ride? All morning my stomach felt like it was tied in 50,000 different kinds of knots, and I was sooo nervous, but excited at the same time. When we finally took off after the creepy safety video, we were up in the air. Everything looks like little toys from up high, and it looks exactly like MapQuest in "aerial view." I was glued to my window for the first half hour, and then I plugged in my earphones, and started reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, which is really good.:-) After about 2 hours of nothing but an ocean of clouds below, because of the storm system that was moving through the Midwest, we reached the rocky mountains, which looked amazing. I took tons of pics of them, and the desert, which was just completely uninhabited for hundreds of miles. I should soon get the pics posted. We landed in San Fransisco at 9:30 PST, and 12:30 EST, which was a half a hour early. We took off from there at 1:50 PST, and headed across the Pacific Ocean. The ocean looked awesome from the plane, and the clouds looked like they were just floating across the water. We finally landed on Maui at 4:00pm Hawaiian time, which is 10:00pm EST. This was the first time the landing actually hurt my ears. It felt like pins were being shoved inside, and I felt like my ears were gonna blow up. The airport here was a lot different, like something that would be in a 3rd world country, it was very small, with no AC, and it was just a roof with 3 walls, the other being open air. Maui is beautiful, a mini-paradise. The air smells amazing, fresh, and sweet, like 20 times as sweet as honeysuckle in the evening, I love it! Our condo is on the southern side of the island, with a view of Maalaea Harbor, and Haleakala.
Aloha

Maui, Hawaii

Hey!!
Tomorrow morning, at 7:00 am, I will be on an airplane, flying to San Fransisco. We will be in the San Fransisco International Airport for 3 hours, where we'll eat lunch. From there, we will board another plane, which will take us to Maui. I will try to get a blog entry with what we did each day, and maybe throw in a couple pics, and thats only if I'm not completely bushed from the day's activities.

Maui

On March 24th, I will be on a plane to Maui, Hawaii. I will be traveling with my sister, Angie, and her husband, Brett. We will be staying from March 24th - April 1st! We will be back on April 2nd...

Here are some pics of where we are going:

The condo complex the we're staying in!

We will be able to go whale watching, because this is the time of year that they give birth in Hawaii.


A beautiful beach on Maui!


A beautiful sunset on Maui!


A map of the island...

February 19, 2009

I was babysitting Matthew and Ava on Thursday, so I took a bunch of pics!

Chuck E. Cheese's

December 2008

Here are some more of the pictures I took in December...

Ava Elisabeth Joy Herman

Here are a bunch of pics I took of Ava today!