I wanna go back to my little grass shack....

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Maui with a childhood friend.  We have known each other for over 30 years...WOW!  She won the trip through the company that she works for and was not able to take her husband, so she choose ME to go with her.  It was such a treat.  I have such a tie to Hawaii because I spent many Christmas Holidays there with my family growing up.  This trip brought back many memories of the Neuffer Family excursions to Hawaii.  I boarded a plane and met Nancy in Phoenix to fly together to Maui.  I totally forgot how long the flight is, especially if you are sitting on the terrible scrunched up airplane seats.  Not only to mention the charge you for EVERYTHING!!!  Even your food on the flight, what a load of crap!  So anyway we arrived late afternoon and took a very informative shuttle(J/K the guy driving talked NONSTOP in his little microphone) to our Resort which was 45 minutes from the airport.

This is a picture from our oceanside balcony at the Westin.  It is soooo beautiful.  We had dinner that night at a beachside restaraunt and listened to the Ka anapali waves crashing against the beach...HEAVENLY.

Friday I spendt most of the day just lying in the sun and enjoying the awesome views of the resort and ocean.  The weather was perfect the whole time I was there.  That evening Nancy and I attended an event for her company that was fully catered.  It was poolside and they gave a Lei's that smelled delicious.  Hawaii just smells good all over.

The next morning we rose bright and early and drove to Kehei to go snorkling.  This really was the highlight of the whole trip for me.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We boarded a boat with our snorkling gear in tow and headed out to Molokini crater.  The water was so clear, and Nancy took a bunch of pictures under water.  We saw all sorts of fish and I even swam with a very large Green Sea Turtle.

These pictures are from right before we got in the water.  This was the cloudiest day of all so it was a little chilly on the boat.  Although we did have  2 fabulous captains one I can't remember his name but he had a big bushy beard and the othe one named "HOT SCOTT".

Later in the day we had lunch at Cafe o Lei--yummy yummy.  I had fish and chips.  The fish was Mahi Mahi and it was so scumptous it melted in your mouth like butter.  We headed over to the other side of the Island for Ono Gelato and then took a little trip on the Road to Hana.  Anyone who has done this drive KNOWS that if you get car sick...bad idea without a little motion sickness medicine. I did take some before our snorkling trip that morning so I was ok for the first part of our winding drive.

We stopped at a fruitstand for some coconut candy and found the LARGEST avacados I have ever seen.  The guy to my right claimed that he is a celebrity chef from Portland Oregon.  He gave us these yummy bananas that had more of a citrus flavor that were so sublime.  The weren't super sweet, which anyone who knows me knows I can't stand over ripe bananas.  The chef was a crack up because he was very particular about how his picture was taken.  I will share more about that later.

Our first stop we saw the most lovely rainbow trees.  Come to find out the are called Rainbow Eucalyptus.  The second I stepped out of our car I smelled the most toxic smell I have experienced.  It was sweet and spicy and I wanted to know exactly what it was.  It was intoxicating.  We learned later that it

 was wild ginger.

We drove for a while and never made it all the way to Hana.  All I really wanted to see was a waterfall.  We found this one completely hidden back in the forest and Nancy went for a little dip in the chilly water.  I was too chicken.