Mark & Lyndon's 2001 Hawaii Trip

Maui, Lanai,Big Island, Kaiui & Oahu

We started our 2001 Hawaii trip on the beautiful Island of Maui. We spent the first week of our 17 day adventure in paradise with Lyndon's sister Lyn, her husband Bill, Lyndon's neice Melissa and her friend Christine. Our condo on Maui was about 300' from the beach, very large and very comfortable.

The beach was a short walk away and, when you're in Hawaii, even a mundane walk to the beach is 1000 times more enjoyable than a walk anywhere on the mainland! Kaanapali Beach, in our opinion, is the absolute best beach on Maui. Great sand, excellent snorkling nearby and I love the waves!

The next day we started our adventure on a trip to Lanai with the Trilogy company. The particular catamaran we were on had a nice "sundeck" that you could sprawl out on and soak in a few rays.

The next day we spent some of the day in Lahaina which is a old whaling port. Lyndon and I had our picture sketched by a popular local artist and for the asking he made me 20 lbs lighter :) When it came time to eat we chowed down at "Cheeseburger in Paradise", which has some pretty unusual varieties of the regular cheeseburger "aloha" style. There are many attractions in Lahaina but Lyndon and I stumbled across the Hangwanji Buddhist Mission in Lahaina and had to have a picture of the Buddha!

During the trip we ventured up to Haleakala, Maui's dormant volcano. The view is breath-taking and it can get pretty cold at 10,000 feet! The only known place in the world where the silver sword plant grows is on Haleakala. While on the east side of Maui we stopped in at a beautiful old church on a point. On the way back we stopped by Iao needle. Here's a picture of Melissa, Lyn & Bill taking a breather after a long day.

We ended our wonderful stay on the island of Maui by taking in a beautiful sunset which made for a great picture of Lyn and Bill in paradise.

Our next island to visit was Kaiui which is referred to as the "garden" island because of the lush vegetation. Kauai's beautiful valley's, Waimea Canyon and Poipu Beach a among a few of the many attractions of this tropical paradise. This is the place to come and really unwind! We highly recommend the hour drive up to Hanalei on the north west side of the island. Hanalei is a quaint little town with a nicel selection of eating places and shops. On this trip we stopped by a local brewpub to sample a few local brews and check out the nice view from the deck. We also checked out a nearby blowhole which are always neat to watch. Here's a pic of the gang at the blowhole. This trip was over my birthday so we celebrated by going out to Roy's for dinner. Here's a picture of Lyn and daughter Melissa all dolled up for a nice dinner. Melissa and Christine in a pose.

As we said our goodbyes to Lyn, Bill, Melissa and Christine, Lyndon and I headed to the Big Island for a little downtime from the sun. The number one thing here, of course, is the volcano and you'll see many more pictures in other trips. Lyndon and I hiked about 4 miles across lava beds to try to get "close" to the action. Who would have known in future trips we could park our car and basically walk right up to a lava flow! We also toured the Thurston Lava Tube which is a fascinating sight by itself. The Big Island should not be under-estimated, you have lots to do, waterfalls, beautiful valleys, beaches (although not as many, rain forests, mountains, etc! Our accomodations in Volcano Village was a nice A-Frame house, part of the Oma's Hapu'u Hideaway Bed & Breakfast. The bedroom was on the top floor, we had a kitchen and there were two other bedrooms downstairs as well!

Our last island to visit was Oahu. Oahu is a great island for those folks that need a "city" fix while in paradise. We like Oahu a lot but we prefer the "calmer" islands like Maui and Kaiui first. Here is a shot of Lyndon atop of Diamond Head with a view of Honolulu behind him. We did a fair amount of hiking this trip and here is a shot of Lyndon on one of our hikes on the north side of Oahu. We also tried a glider ride on the north shore of the island but we're both prone to motion sickness so I'm guessing that will be our last glider ride :( You can't tell it here but we were both pretty sick. If you're not prone to motion sickness, I highly recommend this activity. There are spectacular views to be had and you can tell the pilot where you want to go! Among the many attractions on Oahu, one of new newer ones at the time, was the Battleship Missouri, well worth the visit. It is so interesting to walk through the bowels of that ship and see how people lived and worked for months on end.

Our last day here was topped off by eating at "Ono's" which is a local authentic Hawaiian food restaurant. Let's just say that the food there isn't fat free, but it is good! Our last evening wrapped up by watching a local community club put on a hula dance on Waikiki beach right in front of our hotel. Our room is actually the second floor, with a balcony, on the left side of the last picture.

If you have any comments or would like to ask us any questions about this or other trips, please feel free to drop us a line. We love to tell people about Hawaii!