Sunday, August 30, 2009





Ahhhh what a wedding. It couldn't have been any more perfect=) I kept a little bit of a diary while on our honeymoon... some of it was written as we were driving or waiting and some of it was written after the fact. Grammar schmammar!

8/23

We left San Diego early Sunday morning. We took a little puddle jumper from the commuter terminal up to Los Angeles and were let on the tarmac to board the plane first after we got our token honeymoon shots. (Pictures to come later of this day...)

Boarded the big plane to Maui and we were definitely ready for more fun to happen. The flight attendants showered us with lots of free wine on the plane and we received many looks and congrats from strangers because of our "newlywed" shirts! We had the best seats on the plane!! First on, first off and the most legroom ever!!

We arrived in Maui at 5pm or so local time. Upgraded our rental car to a Cadillac DTS... big baller status. I really want one now. It felt like we were riding around in a tank. Amongst a sea of Mustangs and PT Cruisers, we certainly stood out (In a good way!) Drove about an hour to the hotel and checked in at the Hyatt Regency Ka'anapali. We were greeted with lots of goodies that newlyweds get like bottles of champagne. Went grocery shopping for Cheetos, peanut butter and bottled water. Took a hot hot bath and sleepy time;) By the way, our room is awesome!! There are two balconies, a large sitting area, huge king sized bed and nicely appointed bathroom! The lotion and shampoo are delicious:) coco mango!! We will definitely be bringing massive amounts of it home.

8/24

Woke up at 6am local time. Had breakfast(a LOT of breakfast) and walked around the property. The Hyatt Regency has a ton of wildlife which resides on the hotel property and there are plenty of walkways to get lost on while finding our way back to room 750.

Stopped to take a picture of the penguins... And my camera broke! Drove up the coast, but alas, it didn't matter that we were seeing the beautiful Kaanapali/Kapalua coast if we couldn't take any pictures to remember it by. Off to Office Max to buy OUR first camera:) It was a pretty memorable experience for us newlyweds... Before it would be an impulsive buy on my part with little to no thought as to what features were included, but this purchase was fully justified:) Anyways, we got a really nice waterproof digital camera and snapped some great photos of the native fishes=)


Sat by the pool for a while to read up on our new gadget until 1130 to leave for our 1hr long Hawaiian Bliss couples massage! I love getting massages and will make any excuse just to have one!!

These people are definitely on island time... Get to the spa at 12 on the nose and it is now 12:23 and we're still waiting. Finally went in for our massages at about 12:45...

Couples massage was great! Island time got us a discounted rate, but still not as good as the kamaina "locals" discount. We will be back before our trip is over. It included Swedish, deep tissue and traditional Lomi Lomi methods of massage and put me to sleep!! I never fall asleep during massage, but this one was thoroughly relaxing.

Back to the hotel for more Cheetos and a peanut butter sandwich. Eddie got ready and headed down to the pool. I got ready for the pool as well and fell fast asleep:) I haven't napped since well before the wedding madness. Typically, I used to nap every day, but when your mind is racing and thinking about details it is very hard to rest! I guess I needed it...


Honeymooners culinary class at 5pm. Crab wontons and free champagne. We are the only ones with any sort of "team" shirt. We would be!! I could overhear everyone talking about the stress and details of their weddings. Why share what everyone else went through?! I've never heard of a non-stressful wedding. More champagne please!! Might I add that they were serving real expensive champagne to us... Nothing but the best!!

Back to the room for a short nap. Decided on sushi for din din. Headed out to Sansei in Kapalua! Oh and by the way, my old Sony camera works again... Not all the way and I can tell its on its last legs=(

Drove to Sansei to discover an hour wait... Which in island time means an hour and a half. Put our name in and drove down the road... Very creepy, very dark. Got back to Sansei and hung out at the bar with my friend, nigori sake. We are even better friends at this restaurant for some reason. Very sweet:) sho chiku bai nigori. Mmmm we are good friends:)

This trip is definitely spoiling us. We're eating the freshest fish and drinking the best sake around and it will be hard to find something comparable here on the mainland.

8/25

Breakfast was fast, but the service is always friendly! Liz knows how to take care of us in the morning... two coffees and two waters!! We had to be out the door by 645am so we could get to Maalaea Harbor for our snorkeling excursion to Molokini. Glad I had to get a new camera... This ones waterproof!

Snorkeling was amazing!! We saw lots of fish and even turtles! They served breakfast, lunch and dessert on the catamaran. We were docked next to the catamaran that Jon and Kate took.

Saw some people from our flight from LAX. Rochelle and JC. JC was a fellow Saint. and he and Eddie shared stories about their high school teachers. The ride back home was a 45 minute Splash Mountain/Six Flags type adventure to the harbor! Wahoo!! Very bumpy, very wet. It was only 4 foot seas... We could not hang on the Northwestern in Opilio season for the record.

Went down to The Shops at Wailea and bought some souvenirs. Back to the hotel at about 430pm. We have an earrrrrly (200am) wakeup call tomorrow for our Haleakala sunrise tour and bike trek down the mountain.

Before I forget... Dinner was at Cheeseburger in Paradise, Lahaina... The original one. Super good, great atmosphere with a singer and all. Beer is Eddies friend.

8/26

We are up at 1:55am to catch the bus to see the sunrise at Haleakala. We still look like newlyweds according to the tour bus driver... We stick out like a sore thumb. It is currently 330am as we are waiting for 2 more passengers.

Uhh... We thought we were going to ride bikes down. Yeah no. It was 55 degrees at sunrise, but wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy colder before that. We bought some sweatshirts at Hurley in Lahaina last night and were real glad we did!! Trivia time on the way home with our guide, Bob from Boston, was pretty fun.

Got home, went to breakfast and engorged myself in coffee, froot loops(again), bacon, waffles, an apple blintz and rice. I love that they have rice every morning for breakfast. Its perfect. Eddie and I promptly went back to the room and slept for 3 hours, got ready and sat poolside for a bit.

Sitting at the pool at the Hyatt Regency Maui is the best. We're drinking the local brew, Maui Blonde Ale and eating Otter Pops. Otter Pops. Yessssss! Doing a lot of talking about what family vacations will be like with the Hackbarths... And there will be many. The greatest part, we're buzzed off a beer and a half. Good times.

Where's my otter pop man?!

8/26

We drove the Road to Hana today. We swam in some awesome natural pools and frolicked in beautiful waterfalls. The first one was the best because we had to climb a fence that was blocked off and looked like something out of Indiana Jones. We were the only ones at that pool and it was raining. When you see the pictures, you'll see how happy I was!! The second one was great because there were many more people there and we were professional waterfall/pool swimmers by then. Delightfully crisp and completely thrilling to be entwined with nature as we were today!!

There was construction on the Road to Hana resulting in a 25 minute wait. Turned out to be a 5 min wait... Reverse island time? Weird how that works.

The guided CD tour we got at the hotel is awesome! Its taking us down some streets that big tour busses would otherwise not travel down. Even narrower and less traveled, the road to Nahiku is straight out of a horror movie. We got to the dead end, started to turn around and then a man told us to continue down the road to the end.

Good thing he did! We were greeted with the crashing waves of the ocean, an old man and his fishing pole. Eddie has been trying to break open a coconut for the past 20 minutes. He's gotten the tough outer part off and is now trying to break it open on a rock. He's been waiting the whole trip to do this...

The coconut Eddie worked on was delicious. We drank the nutritious water from the inside and Eddie noshed on the fresh coconut meat. Good times.

We went to Wainapanapa Park and enjoyed the lava caves and black sand beach. If you're lucky, we'll show you the sand and pebbles we snagged!! The butter fruits were definitely ripened and the ones that fell on the ground were definitely pungent smelling!! Ew. There was a frigid pool inside one of the lava caves that we jumped in... I jumped in the shallower end and my toes and feet did not appreciate that one bit! Yowww!!

I can't express how necessary the waterproof camera has been on this trip. We are so blessed to be experiencing all of this!!

Met a couple celebrating their 40th anniversary and they shared some of our joy:) Got to Hana, went to Hasegawas General Store. Went on to Oheo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) and frankly, it wasn't that impressive. The first pool we went to was way better. The camera battery died right after we took one picture under the falls... Boo. Eddie managed to lose a flip flop in one of the waterfalls. Poor guy had to walk all the way back to the car with one shoe!! Annnd he let go of his old ring that he used to wear while he was practicing wearing a ring on his ring finger.

Now were on our way back to civilization. Maneuvering this road in a Caddy is interesting especially when Eddie says he feels like he's driving a Nascar. Sorry to break it to you, this is not a road course. Mom, you'd be saying "oh! a bridge!!" Every quarter of a mile or so because there are about 60 one lane bridges. And dad, you'd be in hog heaven navigating the 600 or so hairpin turns along the Road toHana.

Hopefully Mamas Fish House will welcome two wet, tired, hungry honeymooners. I'm so hungry!!

BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE!!! I had ono and Eddie had lobster stuffed mahi mahi encrusted with macadamia nuts. It was caught today by local fishermen who were given credit on the menu. Shared a bottle of wine from South Africa and had local grown coffee from the slopes of Haleakala for dessert. Seriously the best meal I've ever had.

We're entirely exhausted, super full, totally enthralled and in love with each other. Today was one for the books:)

And for the record, we are the only Cadillac DTS on the island. No one else's husbands love them enough to upgrade like mine:) I love this car.

8/28

Breakfast was off the hook today!! We redeemed our free bottle of champagne voucher and drank the whole thing. Good times. Made our way down to the pool and hung out for a few hours. Went on the water slide... Scary!!

Went to lunch at a local conveyor belt type sushi place which was pretty darn good. Genkei sushi was the name. We walked around the Lahaina Cannery mall and finally found our Just Maui'd shirts. Can't wait to wear them on the plane home:)

Came back home, showered and changed for our luau, Drums of the Pacific. Its an all you can eat, open bar. If that doesn't spell party, I don't know what does!! They served the traditional kalua pork as well as grilled chicken, steaks and mahi mahi.

The luau was awesome... The open bar wasn't bad either!

8/29

Slept in for once!! 7am is considered sleeping in while in Hawaii! Had our last breakfast at Swan Court. It was awesome as always!! Made our way to the pool and the drink special was the Kaanapali Sunburn :) coconut rum, banana liqueur, grapefruit, pineapple and cranberry. YUM!!

Checked out of the hotel and wandered in to the Kaanapali Golf Course pro shop and picked up a couple of shirts and souvenirs. Didn't golf there this trip, but it looked like I did:)

We're very sad to be leaving Maui. Made some great memories:)

Note to self and others: there is a Costco on Maui near the airport and it has all kinds of stuff that weary travelers would need that is much cheaper to buy here than at the hotel... Like booze and leis. Go there first. Starbucks on Maui has coconut syrup all year long... I was in heaven. We knew where all of the Starbucks were within a day or so. I'm a sick sick person with a gnarly caffeine addiction. HAHA!!

Now for the red eye flight from Maui to San Francisco to San Diego. Fun!

No comments:

Post a Comment