I’ve heard my husband say the word, “surreal” at least a
dozen times in the last two weeks. From having his family come up to Washington
from the Midwest for our wedding, to spending a week in Hawaii for our
honeymoon, “surreal” really is the only word that comes close to describing our
latest and greatest adventure – marriage.
As predicted, the week leading up to the big day was hectic
and exhausting. Between the groomsmen not understanding how to walk down the
isle and every other family member offering an opinion, Friday’s rehearsal had
me slightly panicked. But I hung in there and followed my mom’s wise instruction
to relax and enjoy it and Saturday could not have been more perfect – it was a
everything I ever dreamed of and more. (Videography coming soon!)
Both worn out and eager, we boarded an early morning flight
to Maui just two days after the wedding. The highly anticipated trip was
about to be a dream-come-true as Josh and I have talked about a honeymoon in
Hawaii since I was an immature high-school girl with no guarantee of actually
marrying the guy. After eleven hours of travel, we got off the plane and were
greeted with a lei by a friendly, round, Hawaiian woman holding a sign that
read, “FRIESEN.”
She helped us with our bags and in no time we were on the
shuttle to Lahaina Shores Beach Resort. Here was our view as we entered the lobby:
Certainly, we were in paradise.
We checked into our room, dropped our luggage off and
headed to the nearest restaurant, Betty’s Beach Café, for dinner. The
combination of being completely worn-out and in awe of the fact that we were
now married and in Hawaii, we didn’t have much conversation over our first dinner,
but instead just soaked in the view and enjoyed the food.
The following morning Josh prepared breakfast consisting of
pork belly and scrambled eggs while I sat on the balcony journaling and listening to Jack Johnson. We went and grabbed iced coffee on our way to West
Maui Cycles where we picked up Pebbles and Bam Bam – our beach cruisers and
main source of transportation for the week.
Covering roughly seven miles, we road around town and
explored the boardwalk consisting of dozens of restaurants, surf shops, art
galleries, jewelry stores, and con artists attempting to sell, “tickets for
less.” We checked out a few
different beaches and got shave ice which for some reason, is much more
delicious than on the mainland.
We rode through the residential areas, which to our surprise
were actually pretty ghetto. Then we ate dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and watched the sunset from the boardwalk.
When we arrived back at the condo, we walked out of the
resort and onto the beach to swam in the bathwater temperature ocean.
On Wednesday we biked about three miles north to Kapalua
beach where we did some snorkeling. We took an underwater film camera but have
yet to get it developed (do they even do that anymore?) In the meantime I have this picture to show:
That evening we
attended the Old Lahaina Luau. The traditional Hawaiian food buffet and endless
drinks accompanied by incredible hula dancing, music, and a history lesson made
for a remarkable night.
On Thursday we woke up just after six in the morning to pick
up our rental car. For a twenty-four year old is nothing cooler than a
Nissan Sentra fully loaded with an underage fee.
But it had four wheeles, a seat and a full tank of gas so we
drove into Kahului and had breakfast and coffee at Maui Coffee Roasters. Now we were off to the incredibly scenic Road to Hana, which
is a sixty-mile drive that takes roughly ten hours as it consists only of hairpin turns
and narrow one-way sections. The landscape is filled with lush greenery,
waterfalls, and many roadside vendors selling fruit, BBQ, shave ice, and
jewelry. We stopped and got some coconut.
With the windows down and Jack Johnson playing (again), I
actually felt like I was living a dream. Arriving in Hana (which was a super
small and underwhelming town), we stopped and visited a black sand beach.
Then we hiked just a short ways into some caves and Josh got in - he's the little human speck at the bottom.
By now we were hungry so we stopped at the first place we
came across which was a shack on the side of the road with a sign that read,
“Thai food."
Filled with forty hungry tourists and only two Asian
women cooking, we waited a long hour for our food. It was by far the cheapest,
most aggravating, yet delicious food we had in Hawaii. In fact, it wouldn’t be
a stretch for me to say it was some of the best food I have ever eaten. I love it when you come across an unexpected delectable meal.
We then proceeded west a few more miles to Seven Sacred
Pools, known to most people as a popular location for swimming and cliff
jumping, known to me as a popular location for Lululemon photo shoots. We
walked around and swam for about an hour before heading back to Lahaina and
getting carsick on the way. We ended up spending over thirteen hours on the
road but it was totally worth it as this was our favorite day of the trip.
Friday was another laid-back day. We just hung out on the beach then we got drinks and appetizers at Kimo’s Restaurant.
Saturday morning we rode our bikes to Choice Health Bar for
breakfast.
I was thrilled to read “Paleo parfait” on the menu but
quickly became incredibly disappointed as it turned out to be the most
disgusting thing I have ever put in my mouth. Josh wasn’t impressed with his Açaí bowl
either, so we threw them away and rode to a new beach we were excited about
checking out. It was packed with tourists so instead of lying on the beach, we
decided it was a good time to SUP (stand up paddle-board), which I’ve wanted to
do for years. We walked up to the beach activity booth only to find out they
weren’t renting equipment as the tide was “too dangerous today.” We ended up just taking a nap instead.
We woke up on Sunday, which was our last full day, and found an awesome café for breakfast and coffee – go figure we find the coolest place just before we had to leave.
We hung out there for a few hours then did some souvenir shopping and returned our
bikes. A lot of people warned us that Hawaii is a hard place to leave. I
anticipated it to be sad as I remember we were near tears the first time we left
Cali together. But although we really enjoyed ourselves, there was so much to
look forward to coming back home that we were both ready for it; we were finally
moving in together and after a year apart, we were just ready to start life
with one another. Until next time, Aloha!
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