Even the plane ride over was enjoyable, to get to do whatever I wanted and just have a little me-time, was so relaxing. I even read two entire books on our trip, which is unheard of for me. Normally it takes me six months to read one book. We left on my 27th birthday (crazy - the day just kinda rushed by that I forget that I turned one year older!) and I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend it than unwinding in a hammock on the beach next to my love...
We found a church, right next to the resort, which was totally full, almost all the way to the back of the gym. I always love going to church in other states because I feel like the members are so strong. And it happened to be testimony meeting so it was a strength to me to hear about their trials and how they learn from the gospel.
The fruit in Hawaii is out-of-control delicious, so luckily we found this fruit market off the side of the highway and stocked up on passion-fruit and mangos for breakfast and snacks throughout our trip. On the other end of this stand we found this adorable farm-house styled restaurant called Leoda's Kitchen and Pie place. It is one of those places that I am going to crave for YEARS! It was so amazingly good. We had breakfast one morning that hit the spot but as we were leaving, there was a crazy-good looking banana cream pie that was just calling to us. We had to get it. And when in Hawaii, you can totally justify having an after-breakfast dessert right?! Paul is planning a trip back to Maui in December and I told him he had to bring me back an apple hand-held from Leoda's (which is a little apple pie that we tested on our flight home..mmmm).
We ate some awesome food and saw some amazing sunsets. Sometimes life gets so crazy that I don't have time to enjoy those simple things. But I made sure to soak up every bit of it.
And I got to do a shout-out to the whole reason we were able to take this amazing trip. Training at the brand new (like not even open yet) Andaz Wailea. I was in charge of video footage of the training. It was fun to see Paul give his training, it had been awhile since I had been to one with him. I am so proud of him and the work that he has put in to make Salts the company that it is today!
We drove past Hana to the Seven Sacred Pools. We started on a hike that went through the most amazing bamboo forest. It ended at an unbelievable waterfall that was so incredible. I could have spent days on this hike in the deep forest of bamboo and amazing trees and things that we saw. It was so reviving to really take in the beautiful Earth that God has created. And to do it all with Paul made it that much more special.
After the hike we took a swim in one of the Seven Sacred Pools. There are seven natural pools with waterfalls running into each one. It was so refreshing to swim in the natural fresh water coming from the beautiful mountains above. Despite the nauseating moments in the car to and from Hana because of the crazy roads, this was my favorite day of our vacation. I don't think I will experience anything quite like it again.
On our last day we rented some boogie boards and went up to Kapalua and found an amazing beach that we had almost all to ourselves. A couple nights before, we made the mistake of watching some of "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel. Of course most of the sharks, or incidences, or footage they showed was from where?! Hawaii! Totally freaked us both out to get in the ocean, but the water was clear enough that we didn't let it stop us from having a blast. Then we met with a spa director at Kapalua Spa for a few minutes and she was gracious enough to let us use the spa facilities to relax for the rest of our day until we had to catch our red-eye flight home. It was an unforgettable trip...
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