Hauʻoli Lā Hānau Scott!

Heather sends us at least one vacation deal to look at each month. In September 2020 she showed us a sale on airfare to Hawaii over Scott's birthday. We had such a fun time there in January 2020 that it didn't take us long to commit and we booked airfare to Maui. We soon realized we couldn't find any affordable lodging in Maui that also offered free cancellation. Generous cancellation policies are definitely a must in these crazy COVID times. Heather found a good deal on lodging in Kauai so we changed our airfare from Maui to Kauai. Yes! Everything was finalized! Well that was until it was declared that all visitors to Hawaii would be required to show a negative COVID test, from one of their approved testing sites, to get off the plane in Hawaii. That was discouraging so we then changed our plans and flights to spend the week in Cancun. Finally we knew where we would be spending Scott's birthday week! Or not. With just a little over a week before our vacation date, the CDC decided that starting on Jan 26th, all international travelers must show a negative COVID test to return to the United States. Seeing that we couldn't avoid a COVID test no matter where we traveled, we decided it would be safer and easier to deal with getting tested here in the USA before   our vacation, rather than worry about getting tested and a negative result while in Mexico. So yes - we rebooked our original flight to Maui!

We had to book a drive-thru COVID test at Walgreens in Beaverton, OR within 72 hours of our flight. We did our own swab test and it really wasn't that bad. The best part was that we got our results within an hour! Our entire group (Heather, Gavin and Jeff and Rae) was cleared and ready to go!  

Scott and I arrived in Maui first and got the rental car. Immediately Scott noticed a humming sound coming from the speaker down by the passenger seat door. Even though he is deaf in one ear - he can pick out any noise in a car and let it get on his nerves. So while we waited for the others to arrive, Scott pulled out spark plugs, one at a time, from the car until the humming sound stopped. The only problem was that with that missing spark plug - the car alarm would go off every time you unlocked the car!

Finally met up with the Utah group and somehow got all of us, our luggage and two sets fo golf clubs in the car and headed to our lodging. 

We stayed at the Honoa Kai Resort, which is the same place we stayed over Scott's bday the year before!

We had a beautiful view of the ocean from our room but didn't spend anytime at the beach there. First of all, the beachfront in front of the hotel is extremely shallow and second of all, they had a shark attack just before we arrived! So our sun time was spent poolside. 

We hit up Whaler's Village for dinner our first night there, but we all know the real reason we went there was to get our daily fix of Hula Pie. Leilani's did us right starting us off with Hula Pie!

Before leaving the hotel that first night, we couldn't pass on taking some pictures with the gorgeous sunset. Of course we got a little silly (and intimate) in one of the pictures. Which is all fun and games until your husband accidentally sends the picture to one of the Bishops in his stake! Good thing it was a Bishop with a sense of humor!

We went out to Kihei Cafe the next morning for breakfast. This cafe is famous for it's banana pancakes and a great spot to try the local favorite Kalua Pork Loco Moco. 

After breakfast we all drove a little bit so Scott and I could play golf at the Wailea Golf Club. Heather, Gavin, Jeff and Rae spent the day at McKenna Beach nearby.

The next day was Scott's birthday!!!! 

I brought a few birthday decorations with me and everyone else was good enough to stay up after we went to bed and decorate the condo to surprise Scott in the morning.

This was my favorite day of the week! Neither Heather and Gavin nor Jeff and Rae had ever done the Road to Hana. After some convincing, we talked everyone to going. Rae was really nervous about getting car sick but we put her in the front seat and Scott promised to be on his best driving behavior. It was such a fun day with so many beautiful sites and adventures!

The end point of the Road to Hana is Black Rock Beach -  and what a finale to the drive! The views are breath-taking with the greens and blues next to the black beach. There is also a look out near some blow holes that were very impressive. 

But the most memorable event from this day would have to be while we were actually dipping our toes in the water on the Black Beach. We threw all our bags and shoes down on the black rock beach like everyone else did. Gavin was concerned that our stuff might get wet but we figured if everyone was doing it we would be fine. And we were fine, until one major wave came out of nowhere! It came and in and crashed up all the way to end of the beach, carrying all our of bags and shoes back out with it! Everyone on the beach was running around in a panic trying to find their stuff. Gavin was actually video recording when it happened and you can hear him yelling "Our stuff! Our stuff! Grab our stuff!" Each time a wave would come back in, it would bring in another bag and a few shoes. So as a group, everyone collecting whatever the wave brought back in, then trying to find it's owner, we all eventually ended up with all our bags and shoes! Gavin's drone didn't survive the ordeal though. Good thing Costco has a generous return policy!

We had reservations to eat at Mama's Fish House that night for Scott's birthday. This is his favorite restaurant in all the world! We had planned on eating there on our way home from the Road to Hana since it was about midway between Black Rock Beach and our condo. The only problem was that now we were all soaking wet! Most of us brought extra clothes to change into for dinner but Heather did not so she had to enjoy her expensive fish dinner in wet jean shorts.

We just hung out around the condo the next day recovering from our big outing the day before. We took advantage of the sunset by taking a long walk on the beach and had some fun photo sessions. 

Scott and I wanted to play golf again so while we played at a course nearby the condo - the Seals all went to visit another blowhole nearby and go for a little hike. This course was not as nice as Wailea and twice as windy but we enjoyed ourselves and Scott enjoyed seeing the entire course because he would run by a few of these holes each day on his morning run. 

We had a wonderful week full of sun, friends, good food, hula pies, water, golf, late night movies, rainbows, sunsets and lots of laughter! Happy 53rd Birthday Scott!