Kellogg's Korner

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.

-Kevin in the Olivine Pools-see the ocean crashing behind him? Tthis picture doesn't do it justice

-One of the cool cliff views we got as we took the "back" way to the blow hole

-Coastline selfie

-If you look in the right corner you can see a little surfer catching the wave

-Beautiful Sunset on Day 3

Day 2

Day 2 started with Kevin having to leave early to head to his conference. I was left blissfully alone! I slept as long as I wanted, and then I headed out to wander the beach and soak up some sun and relaxation. When Kevin was finished and I had my fill of the sun, we decided to go explore the Iao valley and Iao needle. It was incredibly green and beautiful, we had a great time walking around the pathways and watching the locals jump in the river. After some more exploration and wandering, it was time to get in location for the sunset. We had heard of this tiny little beach called Secret Beach so we decided to go watch the sunset here, if we could find it. Found...no problem. It was a quaint, quiet, small beach perfect for the sunset. I loved it. We had fun taking pictures and watching the waves crash on the rocks.

-Iao Valley

-Iao Needle

-Just had to include a picture of our trusty rental car

-Secret Beach

-Our view from Secret Beach

-Secret Beach Sunset

Escape to Maui

84 degrees and sunny, that is all we see in the forecast. There was an Orthopedic CME conference that Kevin decided to take advantage of. I am always game for a trip to Hawaii, especially if someone else pays for a portion of it. We arranged for Grandma Kellogg to come wrangle the little Kellogg's and we were headed to Maui for 8 days of warmth. We drove from Spokane to Seattle at the crack of before dawn and caught our flight which landed us in Maui late afternoon. We got the rental car and went to Kihei to drop off our stuff and go explore and wander the beach. There is something about the sunset in Hawaii. We tried to find a different location/beach to watch the sunset every night.

Day 1-

Kevin had his heart set on mountain biking in Maui so we rented some mountain bikes from Maui Cyclery in Pahi and then we went up to the Makawao Forest Reserve. The biking was only so so, but it is always cool to say you mountain biked in Maui. It was fun to bike through the tree canopy and the jungle atmosphere, and there was some cool scenery. After our biking adventure, we explored the coast line and the location of the famous Jaws surf. After we had our fill of wave watching, we headed up to Haleakala to take in the sunset above the clouds. There is something really amazing to drive up above the clouds and look down into them. The cloud formation and color is beautiful. It was brrrr cold at 10,000 feet as we waited for the sun to set, but it was well worth it.