Kellogg's Korner: February 2014

Day 7 - Our final day

This post is picture overload so beware. We had a spectacular day today. It started before the sun came up for us. Today happened to be a record cold setting temperature before the sun came up, I think it was 52 degrees or something, so it was a bit brisk as we made our way to the boat launch. We boarded the redline raft and we were lucky to have only 2 other couples on the tour with us. We went out to Molokini to snorkel and we snorkeled the front and back side, then we went to 2 other locations to snorkel. We did whale watching along the way and saw some really neat dolphins/false killer whales. No one knew what they were, so that was a cool rare site. We had a wonderful morning on the ocean and saw some beautiful fish and whales.

We headed to the beach after our morning on the water and enjoyed one last relaxing afternoon soaking in some rays. We decided to watch our last sunset at Big Beach, and beauty was our reward. So sad to see the sunset on our vacation, but I am feeling so relaxed and refreshed and grateful after some time away from the cold and crazy life in Spokane. Back to real life and ready for some more months of winter.

-Sunrise Day 7, from the boat on our way to Molokini

-The mysterious dolphins/false killer whales we encountered

-The Momma and Baby whale we got to see

-Happy and blessed to be together on this awesome vacation

-I think these bright yellow fish were my favorite

-We were able to see 4 or 5 turtles and swim right next to them. They were a lot bigger then I expected

-Snorkeling!!!

-I love that we were able to see this side of the lava fields. We had driven out to see these from the other side, but the ocean side was incredible.

-Kevin's selfie snorkeling picture

-This is me and I am glad the bubbles are in this picture because they looked so pretty rising to the surface, of course the picture doesn't do it justice, but it helps me remember.

-We got someone to take our picture looking out over Big Beach-thank you random person.

-What a beautiful, beautiful view

-Kevin walking the beach

-Sunset Day 7-our last sunset of the vacation

-Going, going gone...

This is what we had waiting for us at home! We are so blessed.

Day 6

Today was blissfully relaxing, low key, warm, quiet and we had absolutely no where to be. We spent the afternoon body surfing and lounging in the sand and sun. We spent hours getting pounded by the surf and getting ground into the sand, really. I came up a few times with some missing skin that was so kindly exfoliated by the sand, and yet we kept going back for more.

-This view just spells relaxation

-This is Kevin headed back into the ocean for another tangle with a wave

-Kevin is the one swimming with the wave

-This is the twilight view right outside out hotel

-Sunset from "our" beach Day 6

Day 5

I had to go running in the rain this morning. I figured there are worse things I could have been doing, and I didn't mind it one bit. When Kevin arrived we headed north so we could "participate" in history. The surf was being recorded at the highest it has been in a decade. The waves were 50 to 60 feet at Jaws. Professional surfers were coming from all over the world to surf these waves, and all of Maui was headed out to watch and we were joining them. It was pretty crazy how many people were there, we parked out car way out on the road and walked a good mile in. The cars that did venture down had to deal with tons of walkers and narrow roads and places were so tight that cars couldn't pass each other, and then there were crazy jam ups. Once we got there, we had to elbow for position and I was wishing I was a lot taller so I could see over some trees and people's heads. Jaws did not disappoint though. The waves were INCREDIBLE! We saw a few surfers, but our favorite part was this helicopter that came in and did some crazy stunts. The size and power of the waves were just amazing.

After we had our fill of Jaws, we headed back to Secret beach to catch our sunset. We got there just in time to crash a wedding. Ironically this is one of 3 weddings we witnessed this trip. We just tiptoed past the ceremony and settled in the sand to soak in the view.

-Our view as we were walking into see Jaws

-Some cool surfer on a Jaws wave. The helicopter is filming.

These waves reminded me of Niagara falls

-Another surfer

-This helicopter pilot was crazy in my book. He was tempting fate it seemed.

-I just couldn't resist this picture of the surf

-Our wedding crashing picture

-Looking back on to Secret beach-the beach is just to the left

-Sunset on Day 5

Day 4

The crazy wind joined us today. The surf was at record setting heights and this made for some beautiful ocean views with lots of variety. I spent the morning on the beach and actually spent a lot of time in the water. The body surfing was really fun right outside our hotel and I had a blast, met a few friends and actually got pretty decent at it.

We spent the afternoon zip-lining. On the way to the zip-line we stopped for a few minutes to watch the kite surfing. There is something about kite surfing that always fascinates me.

After our fun zipping, we were trying to get to big beach to watch the sunset, but we missed it by seconds. oh well, still some amazing beauty.

-2 windsurfers in the crazy windy conditions

-Kevin headed out on our 1st of 7 zips.

-Looking out towards the ocean on one of the longer zips. We were standing on a platform in the trees and then headed up even higher via rope ladder.

-Our 1st view of Big Beach

-Our Sunset Pictures

Day 3

Another quite, all alone, blissfully peaceful morning for me. I went running on the beach every morning, which makes it hard to head indoors to the gym back in Spokane. When Kevin showed up today, we got in our trusty rental car and headed to the west side of the island. The drive along the coastline here is probably my favorite drive here in Maui. So much breath taking beauty. As we were driving along the coast we were fortunate to see a really cool whale breach, probably one of the best I have seen. I love it! Kevin's favorite part of this drive is the actual driving. The road past most of civilization is windey, narrow and hilly. He likes to pretend our rental car is a Porsche.

Today we went straight to the Olivine pools. These are some obscure pools, not well known, up past the Nakalele blow hole. These are fun because you can swim in them even when the ocean is raging around you. The hike in is really beautiful and again the coastline views are some of the best. After the Olivine pools we back tracked to the Nakalele blow hole. We took the long way in today and came thorough some really cool alien like scenery. The rocks are riddled by salt and the elements and look really neat. It was fun to come up to the blow hole from a different side. This blow hole claimed my camera last time I was here, none of that this trip.

After the blow hole we needed to find a good location for our sunset-we ended up stopping just outside of Napili to enjoy the surfers with the sunset in the background. I counted 50 surfers out enjoying some good waves. We even witnessed a little excitement as a surfer mowed over another surfer and sliced his leg open. We saw it all from a far, so nothing real gory. Just heard the rumor and saw the ambulance come in. We then went down to Lahaina to do a little shopping and fill our bellies. Another good day in Maui!

-My blissful morning view

-Some west side coastline beauty

-More coastline

-I stood here a good 15 minutes watching these waves crash in. The ocean is so amazingly powerful.

-Lovin the coastline behind us and how we got that amazing wave crash! Thank you Go Pro remote.

-Some pools not far from the Olivine pools. I thought these were actually prettier, but much smaller and not accessible

-A sample of the neat rock formations that we were walking through

-The Nakalele blow hole

-More Nakalele blow hole

-Blow hole with a bit of a rainbow above it, With the sun low in the sky it was really pretty to watch the residual spray from the blowhole dissipate through the air.