A long time coming

At the beginning of my last home assignment, my friend and I met in London and also went to Paris. Shortly after that trip we began planning our next trip, we like the anticipation, I guess. We decided that we would make our next trip to Hawaii during her spring break in 2009, she is a teacher. Then we decided to pull in another friend for the fun.

So, on April 2, Cindy, Linda and I met in Maui, after over three years of anticipation, planning, and saving. What a great idea it turned out to be! We didn't know at the time of beginning the preparations what we would all be going through and how much we would need such a week away from every day life. I am so grateful for these friends and the time God provided for us to be refreshed, to fellowship, and to have great fun in Hawaii!

Here is a little pictorial run down of our trip:


Sunset from the lanai the first night. We have LOTS of sunset pictures!



The first day was spent at the beach and in the water! Here is our friendly smiling fish.



Our new friend Dave telling us about the fruits and flowers of Maui. He also gave us samples of loquats, guava and passion fruit. Of course, we bought fruit from him, too! This was on the road up to the top of Mount Haleakala, Maui's volcano.



On top of Haleakala. It was windy and quite cold. We did not take the travel books and guides advice and go up for sunrise. We enjoyed it in the middle of the day!



Mount Haleakala



We went to an amazing show about the history of Maui called Ulalena. This is our new friend Tony playing his nose flutes in stereo. He gave us each a personal 2 minute concert. I know it sounds gross, but the music was excellent!



We saw whales every day! This was on our early morning whale watch.



We were told there was a blowhole somewhere along the coast so set out to find it. After a lot of driving and asking and amazing scenery, we finally found it!



We took everyone's advice and drove the road to Hana (except Tricia's!). It started out rainy and cold but it was beautiful. Along the way we saw many different kinds of plants, trees, and fruits, learned how to open a coconut, saw more whales, experienced the black sand beach, and ended up on the backside of Haleakala National Park where this waterfall was.



The three of us enjoying climbing on rocks, looking at the ocean, and experiencing Maui together.

I could go on and on but will stop there. We have hundreds of pictures of the ocean, rocks, sunsets, etc. I would say that overall it was an absolutely wonderful trip!