J&M got Maui'd!

There were a couple of excursions that I had booked ahead of time before leaving on our trip. Both of these excursions were booked for today. The first was a tour of the Big Island with the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tours . I have always wanted to see a real volcano, and I did not think that we would be able to visit it on foot, so viewing it from the air was the next best thing! I decided to book the Big Island Spectacular as it was the only trip we could take to visit the volcano without having to drive all the way to Hilo. I did not expect too much from the Kohala portion of the trip. On board a helicopter on our way to Kilauea. Viewing the lava flows from the air gives quite a perspective of how much area is affected by any eruptions from the active volcanos on the island. Land that use to have people and houses and resorts were completely wiped out, with some odd pockets of land being spared. The lava flow of an eruption many years ago. Maggie was immediately bothe

We had an early flight out of Maui so Maggie and I had to leave before the rest of our family got up for the day. Maggie's dad got up early to see us off, so he gave her a tour of the Aston Kaanapali Shores resort that we were staying at while I checked us out. It was amazing that we had stayed there for a week and never even saw the amenities! Maggie getting on our plane in Honolulu. Our flight was fairly uneventful, but the flight crew were very friendly. We had a stopover in Honolulu before landing in Kona, so we did not arrive until around one-thirty in the afternoon. Late for lunch, but too early to check in. It was unfortunate that it took so long to fly, but next time we'll see if we can find more direct flights. The ground crew wishing us well on our trip. We had a late lunch at Lava Java, and the food there was great! When we finally checked into our room at the Outrigger Royal Sea Cliff resort we discovered that our room was a little smelly, and that roo

This was the only day in our schedule where we effectively had a day off. The morning was reserved to meet up with Scott Drexler to go over the details of the wedding photos. Maggie and I also took the time before he arrived to snorkel at the beach near the house that Barb and Alan were staying at. The coral by that beach was a little worse for wear, but there was virtually nobody around so we were able to enjoy ourselves in the water. After getting the wedding photo stuff out of the way, Maggie and I went down to Lahaina with Candace to go whale watching. Candace had already booked a whale sight seeing tour and we tried go get on the same one. Unfortunately, hers was sold out so the two of us went on a separate tour. While waiting around, we checked out the giant Banyan tree in the middle of Lahaina. The giant banyan tree in Lahaina. We were able to see whales during the tour, but most were so far away, and were only visible for a fleeting moment that we could not get any goo

Our wedding adventures continued today with Barb and Alan's wedding. I did not have to wake up as early today, nor have to worry about my hair as all of the attention was on Barb and Alan. Apart from the windiness (it was also a little windy during our wedding), they had great weather, and lots of wedding cake for us to eat! The minister and the musician was the same as for our wedding (and photographer too), except that the minister actually changed his shirt for this one (in all of the other photos I have seen of the minister he wore the same shirt in every one). The Liu group at Barb and Alan's wedding. After the wedding, our group went out to a late lunch at some BBQ place to tide us over before the dinner reception. This was a mistake. I ate my fill and found out that I would still be full by the time dinner rolled around. The reception was held at The Feast at Lele , which was a dinner and show, featuring dancing styles from the different Polynesian islands. The

Well, this is the big day! There were lots of photos taken and plenty of things that happened but the day went by quickly so I'll just link the slideshow that Scott Drexler put together for us. After the wedding Maggie and I went to get our photos done while the rest of the party went to the lunch venue. Here's an aside: We had planned to have the lunch held at the Beach House restaurant. When we originally looked at the regular restaurant menu, we were both a little disappointed in the choices. Neither of us wanted their usual catered wedding meal, as it looked boring and expensive. I did, however, come across a special Kau Kau menu that they promoted in the summertime which was a combination of dishes that were unique to Hawaii. Maggie loved the idea: Why go to the middle of the ocean to have steak when you can have poke? So the plan was to have this Kau Kau menu at the Beach House restaurant. During our photo shoot, we got a call telling us that the Beach House restaur

Maggie and I spent part of the day going over the details and preparing for our wedding on the 27th. Since we arrived late on the 23rd, we were in no condition to do anything on the 24th and everything was closed on the 25th. First thing in the morning, we went to the marriage license office, along with Barb and Alan, to get all of the paperwork done. I had printed off the forms long before we left and even partially filled them out, except I had forgotten them when we left for Hawaii. Fortunately, the office provided all of the documentation that we needed. Unfortunately, we found out that the names on the license had to match the exact names of the birth certificates for all involved, including our parents! This was.. annoying. All of the documentation was at home which required us to call our parents to verify their names on the documents. So we were there a little longer than we had planned. As such, we did not arrive at the Ritz until much later than we had planned and only ha

Maggie and I went to bed early after our first full day on the island so that we could get up at two in the morning to get ready to watch the sunrise on Mount Haleakala. Hoi and Pauline also came along in a separate car. The drive up in the pitch darkness of the night was fun and exciting, with only the lights of the cars in front and behind us illuminating the narrow road up the mountain. We arrived at the main parking lot around four - just as they closed the top parking lot. I asked the parking attendant if we could go up. He told me that we could park in the hash marked area and then closed the road behind us. Lucky! When we got to the top parking lot and turned off the car lights, I realized how dark dark could be. The moon was not out, which only left the starlight and milky way illuminating the skies. I had never seen the skies this dark before with nary a cloud in the sky. It was a fantastic view. There was something else that we noticed quickly. We were told that it would

We had planned to drive on the road to Hana today with my dad. Since the drive itself would take the entire day, we had planned to get up early. I asked my dad to wake us up for 6:30. Since our flight came in so late the night before, we did not get to bed until the wee hours in the morning. So when we got the wake up call from my dad (who was in the lobby), neither me nor Maggie were up for waking up so early so we passed on the drive. We slept in for a few more hours and enjoyed a relaxing morning. First morning in Maui. With our original plan to drive the road to Hana shot, we fell back to plan B: Lunch at Mama's Seafood House with the rest of the Lius. Maggie and I at the parking lot next to Mama's Fish House. This too was planned for the group, but we had not originally been part of this plan as I had thought that we would be halfway to Hana by then. Group shot! Taken just before we ate at Mama's Fish House. The food there was really good though, and

We got up early to get ready for our afternoon flight. Because we were worried about the combined Christmas break rush and rush hour traffic, I figured that we should head for the airport around eight: more than five hours before our flight was to depart! Of course plans never seemed to get followed in our neck of the woods and we got out closer to nine. Our fears were unwarranted when we arrived at the airport. Apart from the fact that traffic was fairly light on the roads, the airport itself was pretty much empty when we got there. We got through security and customs so quickly that I thought that nobody was traveling that day. Finding our gate (C24) was easy too: It was right in front of the security gates. Me at gate C24. So we had over three hours to kill. Maggie with a few hours to kill. The extra sleep would have been nice, but it did not really matter: We were on vacation! Viewing the Rockies from the air. The flight out was fairly uneventful, and it was eve