Friday 4/19/13- Last Day :( part 1

We started out our last day on Maui with a trip to Kamaole Beach Park 1 (there are 3 total).  Digging our feet in the sand

Selfie!

View of Napili-Honokowai

Breakfast of champions.  Fresh fruit, poke, beer, mai tai.  Actually this was more of our second breakfast.  We had actually stopped on the way back from the beach at Cinnamon Roll Fair.  If you eat nothing else, it should be this with the cream cheese frosting and Macadamia nut topping.  Drooling again.

Possibly a whale sighting from our Lanai

 

We went up through Kahului and stopped at Hawaiian Fabric Mart.  I wanted some souvenir fabric and we wanted to get some for Tracey.  I could have spent my whole vacation in this store.  Along with amazing Hawaiian prints, they had some fabric that would have been amazing for belly dance costumes. 

 



Then we decided to go sight seeing on the other side of the island.  First stop was Surfing Goat Dairy.  We had a bit of a snack of their fresh cheese flight and some fresh lemonade.  So good. 

Then it was baby goat time.  This one seemed tired

They were also playing King of the Mountain on this chair.  I think this was the goat that won. 

Thursday 4/18/13- Wedding

Dana and Stanley got married at Po'olenalena beach.  Quite the scenic location.  At this point, Zach had the camera and we unfortunately ran out of batteries before we made it to the reception.  But he got some great ones.  He had fun playing with the panoramic setting while we were waiting for the bride to get ready. 

 We were pretty close to Molokini Island.   And you can see Kaho'Olawe in the background.  Molokini is a crescent shaped island that snorklers and divers love. 

 Groom and the officiant standing by.  Rumor was that somewhere behind that inlet behind us was a nude beach.  We didn't really have time to explore.

 Wedding party waiting patiently.

 Dana and her dad.  My trying to not look at anyone so I wouldn't start crying. I'm a crier normally.  Don't even get me started at a wedding.  I even totally have tan lines in this picture.

 Awww!

 Signing the paperwork to make it official. 

 Oh the tissue box.  We kidnapped a tissue box from the condo.  I seriously have like 5 pictures of it.  Which is what happens when Zach has the camera.  You get pictures of feet, tissue boxes, birds and clouds.  I would say that made up half the the wedding photos.

 Me fixing Dana's veil for the first time.  It was not the last and about 1 hour in I was ready to rip the damn thing out of her hair.  Always use more bobby pins than you think you need.

 The reception was held at Three's Restaurant.  Super great food.  I had more Poke.  Zach looks pretty in his new shirt and my flowers. (these pictures were stolen from Dana's sister because our camera battery pooped out)

 Hey everybody!

 Cake cutting

And then we went swimming again.

Thursday 4/18/13- Pre Wedding!

So we started out early because we were up at 6 again.  We tried to go out shopping, but everything was closed.  I have definitely come to understand the term "Hawaii Time."  Most shops open up around 9 or 10 or whenever the person opening get to work.  Not a bad way to live life.  But we were trying to shop for some Hawaiian shirts for Zach so we were out of luck. 

We needed to get some souvenir coffee (I've mentioned the coffee).  Dana told us we needed to go to Lava Java and try their frozen mochas.  So we did.  Expensive coffee by the bag, but grown locally and organically.  Super delicious.  And the frozen mochas.  They were like a chocolate shake, mixed with coffee, and turned into a slurpee consistency.  Super rich and sweet, but soooooo good.  I'm drooling a bit right now remembering it. 

So what else do we do when we are out shopping and nothing is open but the Foodland that is open 24 hours?  That's right, go to Foodland.  I figured since we were leaving the next day, we could stop and pick up souvenirs and any food we had tried that needed to go with us.  We got some candy and some other things.

Then it was time for brunch at the Kihei Café with part of the wedding party.  So much food.  I had the fried rice.  It had ham and bacon and eggs in it.  With homemade hot sauce.  So much food.  I'm drooling again. 

 We also had the company of a rooster while we ate.  He was very determined to get some food.  Even jumping on nearby, vacated tables. 

 Then Zach and I ran out to do some actual shopping.  We picked him out some shirts.  I have to say, my husband can pull of a Hawaiian shirt. 

He is also super helpful when it comes to the steaming of shirts. 

 Hair and makeup time for the ladies.  I think Zach had run away to go swimming.

 I tried to convince the hairdresser to leave Nicki's hair like this.  No such luck.

 They also didn't listen when I said to leave Dana's hair like this.  You can see Nicki's hair taking shape in the background.

 All finished!  Rocking the fake eyelashes. 

Wednesday 4/17/13- West side of the Island and "Rehersal" BBQ

 After Iao, we drove around the west volcano to Lahaina (there is still contention about how this is pronounced).  What follows lacks pictures because of driving and food and alcohol. 

 But both mountains did have wind farms on them.  This is the best we got while driving. 

 My memory card was then filled with about 20 blurry shots of ocean and the fronts and sides of cars until Zach snapped this picture. 

The reason we were driving to Lahaina was to find the Maui Brewing Company.  It was about an hour drive from Iao and well worth it.  We were going to hit up the actual brewery, but their tours were on the wrong days.  So we went to their Brew Pub instead.  Best idea ever.  Delicious food.  The beer battered onion rings were of course made with Maui Sweet Onions and the batter had their beer in it.  They also had homemade ketchup and mustard.  Apparently I only like mustard on Maui.  I ate it with gusto.  Zach was confused.  I then had Kalua pork with Coconut Porter BBQ sauce and I don't remember what Zach had because I shoved my face in my plate.  We also had two tasting boards of their beer.  So good.  Rarely have I had beer where I could actually taste the ingredients they started with.  Most of them were local.  But then Zach ordered a Coconut Porter float.  OMG!  The vanilla ice cream just made the coconut flavor pop.  Amazing.  I was very sad I was driving and couldn't have one of my own.  And then we had bread pudding.  I think the beer was in the sauce.  So much food.  So worth it. 

And then we headed back for the family cookout/ rehearsal dinner.  We had to stop by the liquor store first.  We picked up some Maui Dark Rum, Mauicello, and more Coconut Porter.  As dinner was getting ready, we watched the sun set.

We ended the day in the pool. 

Wednesday 4/17/13- Iao State Park video

I would like to start by apologizing for my pronunciation.  The word is all vowels.  Seriously

Wednesday 4/17/13- The Morning and Iao State Park

 This is going to be one hell of a picture spam post.  We went out to Iao state park in the morning.

 But we started with coffee on the Lanai.  Have I mentioned the coffee yet?  They grow coffee on Maui.  Good shit.  We brought back two bags.  It was not enough.  There are several things from this day that I will be finding ways to order.  The coffee is high on the list.  I don't remember if this was from first or second breakfast.  We had a bad habit of waking up at 6am.  We had a quick breakfast and went shopping at Foodland.  We really did go there a lot.  Then we came back and got in the pool.  It was nice getting up so early.  We accomplished a lot of stuff before lunch.

We arrived a Iao state park in the morning.  Also, have I mentioned the chickens yet?  yeah, they are running wild everywhere.  In particular was the group planted in the middle of the road in the parking lot.  The attendant informed me they would move.  I don't think the chickens realized that.  Also this erosion formation is a phallic symbol.  Yay!

 An amazing view with a Zach.  You can see the parking lot.

 Still an amazing view but with less Zach.

 The stairs we walked up.  I very much appreciate that I could just walk up them and Erin wasn't yelling at me to do calf raises up them. 

 Walking down.  This was the greenest area of the island we had been to so far.  We didn't make it to the side of the island Hana is on, which is supposed to be the more tropical side. 

 There is a garden that has only native species of plants in it.  Lots of taro. 

 And the first palm tree I had seen with coconuts actually on it.

 Down the road a bit were the Kepaniwai Park's Heritage Gardens.  Many of the cultures that made up Maui's immigration history had small parks.  This was Japan's.

 Complete with Koi pond and bamboo path.

 Portugal.

These were unicorn lion statues in the Korean garden.

Tuesday 4/16/13- The Luau VIDEO

This was the opening number.  Lots of fast moving and fabulous dancing. 

I want one of these dresses.  I bought some fabric and I really hope to try and make something similar.

Fire Dancing with one stick.

Fire dancing with two sticks!  I apologize for any colorful commentary at this point.  Lots of drinks in at this point.

Final number!  So sad to see them go.