Hawaii

Our Hawaii trip was a lot of fun! Well for me it was all fun, but for Russ it was half business, half pleasure. A couple of weeks before Christmas Russ went out to Maui to build the house while I stayed home to work and go to all the Christmas parties. Needless to say I was really jealous that he was in the 80 degree weather and I was back in the cold, but he went out again in January and that time I was able to go with him. He flew out there a couple of days before I did, so it was a little nerve racking to fly by myself to somewhere I'd never been. I wasn't too nervous about the flight and finding my way from flight to flight on the layovers, but the biggest thing I was a little nervous about was I had to pick up the rental car in Maui then drive a half hour or so in the dark to the condo that we were staying at. Thank heaven for cell phones and google maps!!! The next morning we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to drive up the huge mountain Haleakala and watched the sunrise. It was my first view seeing Maui on top of that Mountain. What a site it was!!!! Luckily there was a building that we could go into because it was below freezing at that height and there was 40 mile an hour wind. Brrrrrr! I was in shorts and a sweater and a blanket of course, and was still freezing. I thought Maui was suppose to be a lot warmer than that-Hee hee. But once we headed down that hill, man it warmed up fast and was so beautiful.
While there we did a lot of snorkeling and saw many fish, a couple of sea turtles, and an eel. I really love snorkeling and I want to eventually get certified in scuba diving. Russ has the same desire, so that will be fun someday!!! Another thing we did was take a drive around the upper part of the island that not very many people travel on. Most of the road was a one way passage, so it was a little tricky to move around the on coming cars. We stopped by one site where the blow hole was. It was a little hike down, but worth it. People were actually impressed with us hiking in our flip flops down the rocks. The blow hole was just a hole in the middle of the rock and when the waves came it traveled through the tunnel and came up the hole making big slashes that shot out really high. It was so awesome-I put some pictures on the side! And of course, Igot a little too close and wet.
During the week I just did whatever the heck I wanted to, like snorkeling, a lot of shopping, and laying out. It was really relaxing for me, but a little boring too since I was by myself. But at night we had BBQ’s and hung out by the pool and just hung out. I really miss it now, especially after having all this snow dump on us! I definitely can’t wait for spring time and warmer weather.