Hey, y’all, and Happy Tuesday!! It’s time for another Show & Tell Tuesday with Andrea!
This week’s topic is… Travelogues! We are discussing our best (or worst) trips/ vacations!
Growing up, our main vacation was traveling about 13-14 hours from Texas to Nebraska to visit my dad’s family every year. Every few years in doing this, we would continue up a few more hours to South Dakota and hit Mount Rushmore, Custer National Park, Keystone, and that general area. Fun Fact: I’ve visited Mount Rushmore 7 times. It’s pretty legit.
As an adult who was in college and then graduate school for nine years, I didn’t travel a whole lot through that time. We made summer trips to Ruidoso…
And to Rockport/ Port Aransas (aka the beach of Texas 😉 )…
But hands down, the best vacation ever was our honeymoon!
We spent seven days in Hawaii! One day (two nights) in Honolulu, and five days on Maui, and it was wonderful!
We arrived in Honolulu late the first night (we were supposed to be there sooner but had issues with our flights; if you are interested in the full story, click here). We got up early the next morning and had breakfast (they give you pineapple at McDonald’s; it was fantastic!), and then took a trolley tour around the city.
The trolley tour had several different tour lines, but we chose the one that travelled through many of the historic town areas, such as the King Kamehameha statue. When we go back in the future, I’d like to take one out to Diamondhead and other areas on Oahu outside of the actual city of Honolulu.
That afternoon, we went out to Pearl Harbor. Tickets to the USS Arizona memorial and the show beforehand are free, but it helps to reserve them in advance because they can only take a certain number of people every day and the tours fill up quickly.
This was really a moving experience, and one I recommend everyone do if they have the chance. I think at the end of the trip, we both felt like this was our favorite part.
After our day in Honolulu, we hopped on Hawaiian Air and headed an hour away to Maui!
My mother-in-law has a sweet friend that goes to Hawaii fairly frequently and recommended a condo for us in Kihei on Maui. We had a rental SUV, so we were able to come and go as we wanted and explore all over the island.
We drove about 20 minutes away to the town of Lahaina a few times for good food, shopping, and our luau at the Old Lahaina Luau.
We drove The Road to Hana and I have never been absolutely so car sick in my life, but we got some good pictures at an arboretum and the Black Sand Beach. (Spoiler Alert: there’s nothing in actual Hana. Unless we missed it. But we couldn’t find anything.)
We went out to a pineapple farm for the most delicious pineapple ever (and come home with a box of 12), and tried to go snorkeling, but it rained (as it does in the rain forest 😉 ).
We loved Maui!
Next time, we’d like to make it for sunrise on Mount Haleakala, but it was cloudy most mornings we were there. We also ate the best pizza ever at a local place on the main street of Kihei, but I don’t remember the name. Other notable food: Kihei Cafe had the best breakfast, and we loved Bubba Gump’s in Lahaina. And our luau food was amazing!
Hawaii was a great vacation right before we jumped into the craziness of graduations, moving, and starting residency/my job. This year, we are looking for something more along the lines of a woodsy cabin, preferably in the mountains, preferably near a lake, and preferably where the dogs are welcome. 🙂 We’ve been looking in New Mexico and other areas and are excited to relax somewhere cool and secluded this year! (Hit me with suggestions if you have any!)
Thanks for stopping by for Show and Tell Tuesday!