Final Pictures

I still have some pictures to post from the volcano,troys surf lessons, Magic show, luau and the trip home I will get them up after I get caught up on my sleep and find the laptop.

Mahalo
Ross

Day 10: Our Jorney Home/Miranda's Birthday

Today we spent the day turning in our hotel keys, car keys and saying good-bye to the place we called home for the past 10 days as we headed to the airport for the long trip home. We also said good-bye to grandma Milnes & Sikes as they head home for Houston. Today was a Special Day for Miranda as she celebrated her 15th birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIRANDA.

We left Maui Kahului airport on United flight #1003 (Boeing 777)with a stop in Kona on the big Island of Hawaii, this was an interesting stop black lava was every where, the runway is on a bed of lava they cleared a path an laid a strip of asphalt. I told the kids about our last trip to Maui the airport was all open and you exited the plane from rolling stairs, I thought that all went away after 911, but after landing in Kona I noticed employees waiting on the ground with rolling stairs I was disappointed that we would not get to do this (we were not changing planes) and much to my surprise they made us all get off the plane because of personnel change that was the highlight of my day. We also used this opportunity to have some birthday ice cream with Miranda, Chocolate Macadamia nut. The airport there is very much open only pavilions with no walls and wrought iron fence. Baggage is placed in a garage type building no luggage belts. After about an hour on the ground we finally boarded our plane for our 9 hour trip back home.

I hope you enjoyed reading & viewing pictures about our trip to Hawaii as much as we enjoyed sharing them with you, we will see you when we get home.

Happy New Year

Aloha (Greetings! Hello or Goodbye)
&
mahalo (Thanks, gratitude; to thank)

Ross, Altha, Troy & Miranda

Day 9: Our Final Full Day on Maui/Luau

Today we did not have much planned the girls went out and did a little shopping while Troy took some surf board lessons. He finally made it up on his last 2 tries, we had use of the board all day but unfortunately we had a luau in the early afternoon and we had pack to leave the next day so he only got a couple of hours that included his lessons. We also stopped and tried some of Hawaii's local favorites at McDonald's, we tried the Mcteri burger which is a burger smothered in a teriyaki sauce, lettuce tomato and mayo. We all thought it was very good. We all decided not to try the Spam,egg and rice platter and the Portuguese sausage,egg and rice. But Miranda love the idea of rice with her eggs instead of potatoes.

As we wrapped up our last day in Maui we end it with a traditional Luau @ Old Lahaina luau which included an all you can eat buffet Pork,Steak,Chicken,Fish,Sweet Potatoes (purple), Poi, Rice, Vegetables, Taro Rolls, Fruit, Dessert and open bar. Traditional seating(on the ground) or table seating we opted for the table as the grandmas weren't sure if they could get up from the ground. The show is the most traditional of all the luau's, they don't include fire twirling and fire eating. Which all the others added to make there show exciting. The show was about the history of the Drums, Ancient Hula, Missionaries, Modern Hula and the showed end with a trip back to the Hawaiian roots Tahiti. They also had an Island drink that I really liked it is called a Green Passion: Vodka, Passion Orange, Sweet & Sour, Lime Juice and Blue Curacao.

Day 8: Sunrise @ Haleakala - Magic Show

This Morning @ 3:00 am we loading into the minivan to head to the top of the volcano Mt. Haleakala to watch the sun rise.  We had seen it 20 years ago it was an awesome view then.  The problem as we got half way up it started to rain and it did not stop so we drove to the top anyway and came down shortly after sun up, even tho all we could see were clouds and rain.

Because of the VERY windy & warm rainy day we spent most of the day just hanging out in the room an on the Lani.  Because the weather changed our plans we decided to see  a magic show that was at our hotel, it looked like it was going to be cheesy but we deiced to go anyway turned out that the humor was good everyone  at the table was laughing  most of the night and magic was average with a good mix of larger tricks, smaller tricks, card tricks, some Hawaiian dancing & music and balloon animals.  This show also included dinner which was about average for a dinner theater.

Day 7: Maui Christmas Dinner

Aloha
We would like to take this time to wish all of our family and friends a
Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
Mele Kalikimaka (pronounced may-lay ka-lee-key-ma-ka) me ka Hau’oli Makahiki Hou (pronounced how-oh-lay ma-ka-hee-key ho) or
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

This morning we were treated to Christmas songs outside of our Lani, they were performed by employees of the hotel(see video).

Today we had our Xmas dinner @ the Plantation House Restaurant, this restaurant is considered casual but elegant and is located on a golf course. We made these reservation on Aug 1 as we read that if you did not have a reservation at least a month out you would be having
Xmas dinner at McDonald's. We were the first to make reservations for Dec. 25 which gave us the best seat in the house. This restaurant had seating, which faces the west and over looks the Pacific Ocean and the island of Moloka'i which the sunsets behind it, unfortunately we had a cloudy evening which made a nice view of the sunset impossible. 

Day 6: Hana Bus Tour

ROAD TO HANA TOUR

@ 6:45 am we loaded in our 12 passenger tour bus with Valley Isle Excursions and headed down the road to Hana for a 12 hour trip the road includes 500 sharp turns & 50+ single lane bridges.  During this tour we saw several water falls, Black sand beaches, lava tubes, rain forest and desert all along the coast the views were breath taking.  Also along this tour we went past several houses of famous people George Harrison, Jim Neighbors, Willie Nelson and Oprah.

Day 5: Whale Watching Cruise

Today we boarded the boat DISCOVERY with the Pacific Whale Foundation in hopes of getting a closer look at some humpback whales.  Within 5 minutes of leaving the harbor we spot 2 humpbacks.   We then moved on and 20 minutes later we spotted 3 more and we remained in this area as these 3 were giving a wonderful show and great photo opportunity's.   We only had 1 whale give a breach that is when the whale come straight out of the water head first then falls over, we missed it as it happened on the other side of the boat.  We were also treated to a rare siting of a false Killer Whale (a dolphin) this dolphin is very aggressive (A Bully)  of the Dolphin Family.

Day 4: ATV's,Ziplines & Submarines

ATV TOUR

Troy & I started off the day with a 2 hour ATV ride with Haleakala ATV Tours it is half way up an inactive volcano Haleakala which means house of the sun, it also forms more then 75% of the island. Miranda was not able to ride the Atv's do to age restrictions of 16 & older. So Altha & Miranda headed to a nearby botanical garden to learn about some native plants while Troy & I road the Atv's. After our ATV ride we met up with the girls had a little lunch then headed over to the Zip line.

ZIP LINE TOUR

Our zipline tour was with Skyline Eco Adventures & it consisted of a series of 5 zip lines below are the names and description of the 5 lines:

1. Alala/The Hawaiian Crow is 125' Long & 25' high this is the warm up zip line
2. Akohekohe/The Crested Honeycreeper is 150' long & 75' high this one has a shear drop @ step off!
3. The Maui Parrotbill is 225' long & 75' high this zipline zips over the top of the next zip line.
4. Nene/The Hawaiian Goose is 330' long &45' high it zips down the center of a valley.
   a.)Swinging Bridge-this is a swinging bridge that take you across a gorge.
5. Io/The Hawaiian Hawk is 750' long & 125' high and can reach speeds over 35 mph
   

It wasn't as scary as we all thought the harness that they put you in gives you alot confidence, it was a great experience and we all look forward to doing it again.

SUBMARINE VOYAGE
While we were on the other side of the Island riding Atv's & Ziplines Grandma Milnes & Sikes board the Atlantis Submarine Tour close to our hotel(because they didn't wish to snorkel) for a under water adventure beneath the Pacific Ocean.

On our way back to the hotel Altha suggested that we stop @ a whale watching site that she had read about, turned out it was a good call we were treated with 2 wonderful views first we spot 2 whales even tho they weren't very active  it was still exciting to see even if it was only there top fin sticking out of the water,  then we were treated to a beautiful Maui sun set.

Day 3: Getting familiar/relaxing in Maui

Today we took it easy after our busy 1st day we just spent the day getting familiar with our Hotel & surroundings. Altha,Ross,Troy & Miranda went swimming in the afternoon while the Grandma's just relaxed around the pool. We had a garden view room but our room was on the 3rd floor (Moloka'i Wing Room #321)and it turned out that we had a partial view of the ocean and the beach No garden YEA! We did not spot any whales off of our Lani(patio) this day. In the early evening we went shopping for Hawaiian clothes for our Xmas Day dinner.

Day 2: A day on Oahu (Honolulu)

HONOLULU CITY TOUR & USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL
Today we started out early @ 6:30 am with a 5 hour tour of Honolulu on E NOA Tours which included:

1. USS Arizona Memorial.
2. Punchbowl National Cemetery/ casualties from the attack on Pearl Harbor are the first to be buried here.
3. Laloni Palace/ this is the only palace of royalty on US soil.
4. Hawaii State Capital & Supreme Court.
5. King Kamehameha statue
6. Civic Center
   

SEA LIFE PARK (DOLPHIN SWIM)
Next we headed out to Sea life park were we spent the afternoon playing with dolphins, Miranda was the only one that did not know about this as it was her Xmas gift we told her we were going swimming @ the beach when we got there she kept questioning why we had to pay to swim, you should have seen the look on her face when she found out what kind of swimming she was going to do. Altha,Julia & Yvonne had a close encounter with a Dolphin where they got a hand shake,kiss & fed the dolphin. Meanwhile Troy & Miranda were swimming with the Dolphins (Bugs & Maui) were they were lifted out of the water by 2 dolphins then pushed across the pool by the heels of there feet. I have been busy snapping pictures. We then hopped on a Hawaiian Airlines plane Flight #596 (Boeing 717) for a short flight to Maui.