Internet access here is an arm and a leg, but I wanted to update my blog, so I’m writing everything up off-line and quickly uploading everything and posting. Tomorrow is our second day in Maui, and I feel like I’ve been on vacation for months, which is a great feeling. I can’t believe we still have 5 more days to go! Anyway, I wanted to keep a quick journal of what we’ve been doing and where we’ve been going. I’m already at 1300+ pictures, which is totally insane. I’ll share several pictures in this post, but you could see the better, larger format pictures once I upload all my favorite ones (which at present count is at 252. Ugh!)

Day 1: Hilo

Went to the Volcano National Park. We did the Crater Rim Drive, an 11 mile road around the KÄ«lauea Caldera, with several stops. There was the Steam Vents, where you could see the steam coming out of the volcano. Also Halema’uma’u Overlook, overlooking the home of Pele, a Hawaiian goddess. We also did a walk through the Thurston Lava tube, which was pretty cool, though dark, wet and creepy. Later that day, we went to Rainbow Falls, and checked out a huge Banyan tree. On the cruise ship we discovered a kid area, where Ben threw stuff around for 45 minutes and loved it. We had to carry him, kicking and screaming, out so we could eat dinner.
Tomorrow, we’ll take him there a little earlier so he could get all worked up
and tired so he’ll sleep through the night.

Thurston Lava TubeRainbow Falls

Went to Wailea Beach. We were going to go to another beach, but heard that a sighting of a hammerhead shark there had closed the beach. Ben had a GREAT time on the beach - playing in the sand and swimming (with our help, of course) in the ocean. Later, we ate at Tony Roma’s in Lahaina (we were going to go to the other one in Kihei, since we went there on our honeymoon, but we found out it closed 2 years ago). Later that night, Justin, Dave and I took part in the cruise’s “Wii Home Run Derby”. Turns out we were the only ones who showed up so we got to play against each other. 3 times. With a group of Japanese tourists behind us cheering us on. Good times!

Ben handing me sand

Alooooooooooha!

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