The Cook Family

Trevor and I just returned from an incredible 10th Anniversary celebration in Maui, Hawaii. We are on the five year plan. We spent our honeymoon and our 5th Anniversary there. Since this was our third trip, we had a pretty good feel for the island. We spent five days in Kaanapali, which is on the western, touristy side of the island. We stayed at the same condo that we stayed in our other two times. It has a white sandy beach nearby and is close to Lahaina, a main town with lots of shops and restaurants. We spent our mornings hiking or taking a tour. Our afternoons were spent at the beach. Our evenings were spent doing any combination of eating, shopping, watching movies, and reading. We ate gelato several times. Trevor was super excited that they had some lactose-free options for him. One funny thing we don't want to forget is the store worker who walked past Trevor and passed gas LOUDLY. I gave Trevor a glaring look thinking it was him (and for good reason), only to see him shaking his head. We got some good laughs out of that one...

We signed up for two snorkeling tours. The first was a rafting trip in a 22-person boat that circled the nearby private island of Lanai. We passed two different shipwrecks. We also were able to swim ashore to one of their beaches and walk around for a bit. We were the only ones on the beach, which was pretty cool. The boat stopped at three different snorkel locations around Lanai's coastline, which is absolutely beautiful. We also saw lots of whales since it was humpback whale season. The whales were fun to watch and we got pretty close to them. Although, it was during one of these times when our boat was stopped that my motion sickness got the best of me, enough about that. The second tour was a kayaking trip. We LOVED this trip. Trevor and I had our own kayak. We were with a few other couples on this tour. We are proud to tell you that we were the only couple NOT to tip over our kayak. Trevor would like to tell you that we were also the slowest couple, which he blamed on my poor technique. Men. Anyway, the snorkeling on this tour was AMAZING. We swam with sea turtles, lots of them. They were HUGE and very docile. We also saw several eels, some beautiful fish, a sea cucumber, and a giant lobster.

The other five days we spent in the remote town of Hana. We stopped at an ice cream shack on our way to Hana, where all of their ice cream was made out of coconut milk. This again, put Trevor into lactose-free heaven. Unfortunately, I made a poor choice and went with the pineapple panang ice cream. I thought it was awesome for the first bite and apparently that was all it was good for, because after that it was NASTY. At least I didn't get the chocolate chili ice cream. Trevor went with the more tame pineapple banana ice cream and loved it. Did I mention there were two hippy guys smoking who knows what, running this place? Live and learn.

Most people just do a day trip to Hana because besides nature there isn't much there in terms of hotels and restaurants. Last time we were in Maui we discovered an amazing guest house, which we enjoyed so much that we stayed in it again this time. It is absolutely beautiful. It is at the base of the mountains and has an ocean view. It is so quiet and peaceful there. The road to Hana is very windy. It has the ocean on one side with steep cliffs and the rainforest on the other side. It takes about three hours to drive to Hana. Since it takes awhile for people to arrive in Hana, we spent most of our mornings at the hot spots.

Hana is paradise on earth. I honestly can't imagine a prettier place. We hiked along the coastline with waves crashing loudly nearby. We hiked to several different waterfalls. We hiked through the rainforest and even through a bamboo forest. We even did some cliff jumping. We spent most of our afternoons at the beach and our evenings were spent relaxing at our house. We tried to go out to dinner one night only to discover that the restaurant closed at 4:00 PM. We asked about their hours the next day and were told "no set hours". That is a good example of life in Hana. It is definitely NOT a touristy place. It is so peaceful!

Grandma Becki watched the kids for us while we were away. She made sure to make the time special for all of them. She took them to several movies, to McDonald's Playland, to a local bouncy house, out to eat, shopping, and to our church's Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a great time with their Grandma. We are SO thankful for the time she dedicated to the kids. It made being away from them easier knowing they were having their own fun times with their grandma. We also were able to skype them nearly everyday. Skype is an AWESOME tool! It is hard to believe that our much anticipated trip has come and gone. We are left with memories, videos, and lots of pictures...