Tubing the Guadelupe

This post is a little out of order. I went on this trip the weekend before we went to Hawaii, but these pictures were taken on an underwater camera and I didn't get it developed until I was in Hawaii!

It was for the "midsingles" group. We had a fun group from our area - Kim, Nate, Scott, Stacie, Julie, and myself. We met up with others from San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas areas.

Julie just got dumped out of her tube by none other than Nate. We all got tipped over. I think I was tipped 3 times.

Here are smiley Scott and Stacie.

Nate got a football that we had a lot of fun with. Someone else ended up taking it home, though somehow.

Some people did some tricks off of branches and rope swings. It was entertaining.

This was my Chaco's first real adventure. They held up really well and gave me a very interesting tan line.

Here's Nate about to tip Kim. There's no escape.

It was quite pretty, especially right here where we got out. I'm really happy I didn't get burned. I saved it all for Hawaii! :)

More Maui

This is my last "official" Hawaii post. There will most likely be a few follow up pictures when I get Kim's photos and the underwater ones from when we went snorkeling at Black Rock.

One of our last days on Maui we went to Keihe to this really nice beach. It was called Charley something or other. I can't remember the last name, but it was a really nice beach. This is where I first burned my shoulders. I sealed the deal in Lahaina and am now majorly peeling!

The sugar cane fields were awesome. I had to stand next to one to show how tall they were.

This line of trees has always been a cool landmark to me. It's on the Hana Highway between Paia and Kahului. I love it!

Just another random yet scenic Maui shot! I loved how the tops of the mountains are always covered with clouds.

Ditto.

Our last day, Megan took us to Twin Falls. This is an area that is not as touristy. The mosquitoes were out of control, so we didn't stay at this smaller area very long.

I made Megan pose in front of this little water fall area.

She then lead us to the more popular area of Twin Falls. Megan's mom, brother Jeff, and Birlinda's crew came as well. I loved taking pictures of Soana. She would do the cutest faces!

Megan snapped this one of Kim and me in the water after having jumped off the little cliffs into the water. It was nice and cool on my sunburn.

It was such a pretty little place.

There was a cool rope swing right under this huge tree. You can see one of the kids on the right in the air just after he let go.

Megan's mom impressed us all by diving off the cliffs. It looks a lot higher when you're standing up there looking down.

I had fun playing with the sports setting on my camera while the kids jumped off! This is one of Birlinda's nephews on her side of the family.

Lyti is her second oldest.

Here's Soana (Wana) again. She's so stinkin' cute!

Here's Lyti right after she climbed out of the water.

Mei's Birlinda's oldest.

Wana . . . again! :) Her voice cracked me up too; it was kind of low and scratchy.

Isaac is the 3rd oldest.

Here's cute little Ellie again.

Just before we left for the airport, I got a picture of the people who were living in the house when we were there for most of the time (Megan's older sister and family were on Oahu most of the time we were there). Megan's parents and her brother Jeff are in the picture with her.

They felt bad that we didn't get their dog, Koa in the picture so Jeff grabbed him for a quick pose. This was such a fun trip! Thanks to the Akinaka family for being so great to us!

Lahaina

Another one of my favorite places on Maui is Lahaina. It used to be the capitol of Hawaii. It was a big whaling port and still has really cool wharfs and boat tours.

I snapped this picture of the sugar cane and the rainbow on the way there.

As a kid, going through this tunnel on the way there was always exciting. Megan helped me re-live my childhood by honking in the tunnel - both there and back!

One of the most famous things about Lahaina is this banyan tree. To me it is THE banyan tree.

It is huge and takes up a city block!

The trunk looking things in the foreground are actually roots that have come down from branches to support their weight. It is pretty awesome.

Just past Lahaina is a resort area called Ka'anapali. We went to a beach in that area for some snorkling.

For obvious reasons, it is called Black Rock.

Two of Megan's brother's families met us there. We got a kick out of watching the kids play. I could never get these two to look at the camera at the same time. I loved their curly hair!

Here's a cute picture of Ellie!

This picture cracks me up. Kim is standing right in the middle and if you look closely, you can see those two little girls grabbing her ankles. It was hilarious.

This is Birlinda - Megan's sister-in-law. She was tons of fun. She's holding her youngest, Tui on the left side. That is her friend's son (I think his name is Danger!) in the orange shirt.

After snorkeling and playing with the kids for awhile, we did some shopping at Whaler's Village. I love the whale skeleton they have there.

Another Lahaina favorite is Hilo Hattie's. What a great store. They give you a free shell necklace every time you go too! I like this shot because it has the "L" up on the mountain as well!

Front street is a prime shopping area. By this time, we were pretty shopped out, so we stopped for something cool!

The shave ice is GIANT! It sure was delicious.

They know how to do it right. Mine had a scoop of coconut ice cream in the bottom and then on the shave ice I had mango, guava, orange, and passion fruit flavors. It was so good. I am standing in front of this really cool stand that sold these awesome wooden puzzle boxes.

Before we left, I had to get a shot of the beach area right off of front street. I love that place!
On a side note, we had underwater cameras when we went snorkeling at Black Rock. We saw some awesome fish and a couple of HUGE sea turtles. Those pictures aren't back yet, so look for a follow up post in the next few days.

Haleakala Day

Sorry my posting has been a little delayed since I've been home, but I'll try to get them all up now! This post all happened in one day, the major event being Haleakala Crater on Maui.

Kim, Megan, and I all got up and were out the door at 4:30 am so we could watch the sunrise. We got up to the summit at about 5:40 and the sun came up at 5:50, so we just made it. I love this shot with all the people in shadow.

There were a TON of people up there. Several lots were full!

I about burned my eyes out to take this, but here's the sun rising above the clouds. Haleakala is so awesome to watch the sun rise from because you are so high above the clouds.

It is so cold up there that you don't see many plants. These plants are some of the few that grow up there. It's called a silver sword.

I love this shot of the crater right after sunrise. There were tons of colors.

Here we are freezing to death. Thank goodness Megan's brother had some extra warm clothes because I had forgotten to bring a jacket!

I was in the backseat going down, but couldn't resist taking this picture of us descending the mountain. I loved watching us get closer and closer to the tops of the clouds.

Here we are just a little below cloud level now.

Kim's stomach did not take kindly to the windy switchback roads going up and down Haleakala.

We did make a stop before we got all the way down. Megan's brother Nalu and his family bought property up there and are currently building. The road is CRAZY and is not yet paved. You have to have 4-wheel drive to get up there. We tried this 4 wheeler - all three of us on it. It got a little too scary, so Megan went up and sent her sister-in-law down to get us!

This is the view from their property. It was quite pretty.

These are two of Meg's nieces - Lanea and Kalena. They were so cute and we dancing for us.

Here's Meg with Nalu and Malia's family - minus Nalu.

Kim used the neighbor's outdoor bathroom before we left and was shocked to see this large goat head in the shower.

This is actually what you see when you first round the corner after walking in the door. It's quite a shocker even though you know it's there!

They also had a real boar. It don't know why . . .

They had a total of 14 dogs!

After coming back down the volcano, we stopped in Makawao to get some breakfast at the bakery. It was delicious. I walked down Baldwin Ave. for a picture of my favorite little plate lunch place, Kitadas, only to find that it was no longer there! I guess it's been closed for about 9 months. Super sad!

We drove down Baldwin Ave just a little ways so I could get a picture of the last place we lived on Maui. I missed it the first time we drove past, because of this new house. That's all you see in the driveway and it wasn't there when I lived there. I guess it's the owner's house. They were kind enough to let me walk around and take some pictures.

They didn't change where my parents lived that much. The little house where Susannah and I had our little room is way different now.

They've added a really nice pool that I wish was there when we lived there!

The big house stayed just the same on the outside. This is where about 30 boys lived while working at the pineapple cannery for Maui Pineapple Co.

I had to get a view from the outside edge of the yard. Susannah and I used to love to play out here.

This is from the other direction.

The rest of the day we did some shopping in Paia!