Ari's Hawaiian Vacation

Hey guys!

Long time, no talk, huh? I have (yet againnn) an excuse: I was on vacation in Maui, Hawaii for ten days! I came back to Vegas in the early morning hours on the 6th, which was two days ago. x___x I'll get back to the exhausting details of my flight later.

Honestly, though, it was the best ten days of my life. It was my first time in Hawaii and I'm pretty sure it will not be my last. The weather was beautiful, the water was beautiful, Maui itself was beautiful, and basically, bury me there, lmao. 20/10, would highly recommend.

I went to beaches -- that weren't below freezing like the ones in my native California! -- five or six times during the whole trip; we (meaning my mom's best friend, who's basically an aunt to me; her daughter, who's my best friend; and me) brought coolers with food and water, beach chairs, and books, our phones, and magazines.

We sat on the sand for a while before D (my best friend) and I walked from one end of the beach to the other, talking and dodging the water and also eventually hopping in because we were soaked anyways. We laughed and screamed and looked for seashells and ate far too much watermelon and pineapple. The waters were warm and there was a bit of a breeze and it was just A+.

One beach we went on had something I can only describe as a sort of wall, made out of rock or coral. When the tide was low, you can stand up on the rocks and walk along it as the waves break on it. Below the rock was what is considered there as a "baby beach", meaning that the water is really low and only really comes up to your ankles. D and I planted ourselves in the water -- shorts and all -- and dug into the sand. D found a worm, lol.

The rest of the days, we did a whole bunch of stuff. We drove up to Haleakalā, which is a dormant volcano (I think) and a giant tourist destination and watched the sunset -- while there were 80 mph winds and it was 47°F! My aunt captured some pretty bomb pictures. (:

We also drove up to Hana, which you get to by taking Hana Highway; it's a long 52 mile long road along the shore. It was a long ass drive and each time we stopped to take pictures and look at waterfalls, D and I had to switch because our asses were falling asleep, lmao.

When we finallyyyyy made it to Hana, we got to go on a lava tube tour, which was the creepiest and weirdest experience of my life. This dormant lava tube was wet and creepy and D and I were soaked by the time we walked out because of the condensation and high humidity in the tube. Additionally, we kinda ran through the tour because that place was apparently crawling with nasty blind chernobyl abominations. No, thanks.

We also found the most gorgeous black sand beach at Hana. I took plenty of pictures and none of them do this beach any justice but just...it's lovely:

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Don't even get me started on the food -- it was so fresh and delicious! If any of you are ever in Maui, make sure to check out Mama's Fish House in Paia and Morimoto in Wailea. c: Another fun thing we did was tour the lavender farm and the goat farm, where we got to taste fresh goat cheese. Yummmm.

We also did shopping -- I did a nice share of it. I mostly bought stuff for family and friends, and a few things for me, too. I basically tore up Lahaina (an awesome old whaling village) when it came to buying stuff. I wish we could've gone to Wailea to see the shopping, but I probs wouldn't have been able to afford it, anyways, lol. HOWEVER. My happiest moment was being able to cart three (yes, THREE!) Maui Gold pineapples in my carry-on with me!

I brought back an incredible amount of food. Three pineapples, some Chocorooms that I bought at Costco, a massive amount of speciality macadamia nuts, and plenty of Hawaiian Host chocolates. I'm probably forgetting more, but legit, I brought back enough food to feed an army. c:

My flight back to Vegas -- which consisted of a connecting flight to San Fran -- was beyond exhausting. It was a red eye flight; I left Maui at 10:30 pm and landed in SF at 6:15 am. By the time I landed, it was 6:45 am and I barely got an hour of sleep. My eyes were burning and bloodshot and I probably looked like a drug addict to the girl who took my coffee order at Peet's Coffee in the terminal. I called my parents as I walked around the terminal and of course, found a bookstore. I bought three books on sale and walked out of there feeling accomplished, lol.

I was beyond relieved to finally get on my plane back to Vegas about an hour later, and thus, my awesome vacation was officially over. However, I was very happy to see my family and my dogs because, even though I had a bunch of fun, I missed them very much. :c

Additionally, I did manage to get some writing done; not too much, but a little bit, hehe. I'm sure I'll be back on a strict writing schedule soon. (:

Anyways, apologies that this post is so long. I'm sure I left a bunch of stuff out, but I think I got most of it down, hehe. Hope you all have been well. ♡
August 9th, 2016 at 06:56am