Windy Roads and Love for Water Sports

Oops, missed another day of blogging and of course now I have 3 million pictures, may take more than one post.

One of the cool things our hotel does (and believe me, there aren't a million, but I did like this idea) is that they encourage people to decline their housekeeping services for a day to "save on natural resources" (aka they don't have to pay the cleaners). A lot of hotels encourage this, but our hotel will actually give you something in return- $25 off your meal at any of their resort restaurants. Now, obviously resort meals are ridiculously overpriced but they are also good so $25 isn't so bad. Eric and I took advantage of this our first full day here and ate at the steak and seafood place downstairs. We started with some delicious rolls...

It was served with this mango butter that was amazing, even if I really can't do butter so I had to only put a tiny amount on :)

For my meal I ordered Mahi Mahi with a mango papaya salsa on top.

The next day (Sunday) we got up ridiculously early yet again (clearly relaxing while on vacation is not our strong suit) to do the Road to Hana. To be honest I have debated a lot about whether or not I wanted to do the Road to Hana. There seems to be a lot of hype but most people I talked to said it was good, but also a very windy long road that would probably make me carsick. To try to prevent getting sick I decided to drive.

There were a lot of one plane bridges (btw Hawaii loves one lane bridges, there is absolutely NO reason for them except they clearly just love them)

and crazy blind turns...

Don't worry I did not take these pictures while driving, Eric drove on the way home and I snapped them :)

We stopped a lot along the way to see beautiful gardens and views (at the Garden of Eden it was called haha)...

and waterfalls...

When we had almost reached Hana, we stopped at Wai'anapanapa, which was the best place to stop by far. We first visited the beautiful black sand beach. I've now seen a few black sand beaches between Santorini and the Big Island, but I can say this was the most gorgeous I've seen so far.

Eric went snorkeling...

I read on the beach in my anti-skin cancer hat...

When it started to get crazy crowded with tour buses, we headed over the caves that you can swim in. While I should say, Eric can swim in because I have my giant battle scar from climbing in flip flops so I can't swim in freshwater in Hawaii. Apparently there is a bacteria in the water called Leptospirosis that enters the body through open cuts. It's not all that unlikely to get it and let's be serious- it's me, either I would get it or I would think I have it, so better to just let Eric go in.

Eric loved it and said the water was freezing, which of course only made him love it more.

We stopped for lunch in Hana and then headed back on the Hana Highway. Some people take the full circle beyond Hana and go on the south side of the island, but our buddy at Barnes and Noble the other day told us that he and his wife had just done that and there was some damage to his car and weeping involved. We were sort of having fun driving and hanging out so we didn't want to ruin it with any car damage or weeping.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand and I got real coconut ice cream (made of coconut milk) and ate it out of a coconut shell with a small piece broken off for my spoon.

Then we just enjoyed the views on the way home (well actually I enjoyed the views, now Eric was driving so he had to focus on the road, there are no breaks for the driver).

We finished the day with some Italian food...

Overall I am glad we did the Road to Hana. We had fun doing it and I think both of us wanted to be able to say we had. However, I would not do it again (though when else am I going to be back in Maui? haha) and I wouldn't tell someone else coming here that they absolutely have to do it. It's beautiful, but it's a long road and there are only so many waterfalls you need to see :)

On the cash register at our dinner place was this sign...

That about sums it up :)

Today Eric and I woke up bright and early again (not as early as yesterday but still!) for surfing lessons! Our friends Matt and Christina bought us surfing lessons for our wedding:

Can you tell Christina is a teacher? Even though she teaches older kids who are learning English I think there is just a thing where teachers love scrap booking supplies.

For some odd reason (and by some odd reason I mean our hotel is a pain in my butt) we had a lot of trouble redeeming these lessons but we showed up today and they let us into a group lesson. We were supposed to have semi-private but the beach we were surfing on was SO crowded with people learning to surf it probably didn't matter that much haha.

I am not going to lie to you, I was a little nervous about surfing. I studied abroad in Australia without making a single attempt and I probably would've avoided it on this trip except Eric wanted to go. However, I'm so glad he made me go because it was SO fun. We started with a little land lesson. You can tell I'm paying so much attention (I'm third from the right staring at my nails haha)

Eric aka "Mr. Water Sports Are Not My Thing" got RIGHT up...

I, on the other hand...

fell...

and bumped into people...

In my defense, people sucked at staying out of the way and I haven't really mastered steering yet.

But after a few attempts, I was surfing...

Eric was even able to steer around people, look at this skill...

Since it was our first lesson, the instructor just pushed us into the waves so we didn't have to exactly "catch" them. However, Eric figured out how to catch them on his own and had one particularly epic run (which may be the one pictured above, I'm not sure) where he caught the wave himself, got up and went until he couldn't go anymore :) Obviously, surfing is, in fact, his thing.

I seriously love water sports. Who needs soccer when you can glide across the water on a wakeboard, paddleboard, surfboard or even in a kayak? Not this girl :)

This afternoon we are relaxing a bit. My throat hurts and both of us are exhausted so we need a bit of relaxation. Tonight we are going to a Luau that Katie and Adam got us for our engagement present (it's supposed to be the best one in Maui!) and tomorrow we are going scuba diving. Other than that we are trying to not plan anything else (we are also leaving Wednesday haha) so we can relax a bit more before we go home and get back to the grind. I can tell it's almost August because I had my first school related nightmare last night- I dreamed that my principal turned my classroom (that I LOVE) into offices (she would never really do this lol) and gave me a TERRIBLE classroom instead. I blame this dream on the fact that I started reading It's Not All Flowers and Sausages last night. I love her blog and I was excited to start the book, but I think I'll wait til I'm a bit closer to the August Breakdown before I start prompting kindergarten nightmares.

Today tell me...

1. Do you believe in "having" a good day or "making it" a good day?

2. What's your favorite water sport?

3. Do you need a vacation after a vacation every time? cuz I do... we might be doing this vacation thing all wrong :)

So