Java

This is a coffee plant.

These are coffee berries, known as a coffee cherry.

MONSTER!

Huge cinnamon bun- enough for Robb and me!

This was the view from the cafe, too bad for the power lines.

More hotel

Turtle in the lobby. Sorry these aren't great, these are all from my phone.

The hotel beach, early sunset.

More hotel

On side of the bathroom. It had a double sink, with sep. Toilet and shower

This pond is filled with yellow tangs, turtles, and pacific chubs. (lots I don't know the names of)

The room

We had two queen beds, a wet bar, large bathroom, and balcony

This was the "cheap" view when using DCL points. We could see the ocean in the distance.

Noah says hang loose

They gave us leis

Music in the lobby, later they were joined by a dancer.

Mauna Lani Bay hotel

The hotel is very beautiful and is in the Pacific-Asian style. Reminds me a lot of the hotels in Indonesia. We are staying here through our Disney Vacation Club. The entry walkway has water on both sides and is filled with koi fish. Think these fish are used to having people feed them?

Beautiful!

Mini pineapples, white pineapples, kifer limes, and other foreign delights!

Apple bananas, mountain apples, dragon fruit, strawberry papaya!

A dream come true!

So, these odd looking brown items are fruit called salak fruit! I had a different variety of these in Bali and fell in love with them. I have been unable to locate these any where in the states. I had heard that they could be grown in Hawaii, but had been unable to find a grower online and hadn't seen them in any store.

Well, I kept on hearing that there was a great fruit stand on the big island with lots of tropical fruit. I urged Robb to take me there, right when we got off of the flight. I was looking for passion fruit and was totally shocked and delighted to see salak fruit! I purchased four, two of which are already gone! They have a skin that feels like snake skin and it peels off in sections and almost feels like leather. Under it all are what appears to be large garlic cloves. You bite these and they taste like a starchy apple. In the largest bulb- there is a large brown seed. I'll take photos of the next one I eat. So, I'm happy- having a great time, remembering another trip!

Some where over the...

This was the last thing we saw before we went into the airport. It wasn't as dark as it looks, it didn't photograph well. We saw many partial bows over our stay in Maui, this was the only full one.

Foiled Again!

We were able to get out to Molokini this time, but we weren't able to me the second stop on Lanai due to rough seas! More people doing protein spills! Lucky for us, due to meds, all were fine. We were able to see some new fish that we hadn't seen before and I will post when I get access to wi-fi at the new hotel. What really bummed me out was that we couldn't go to the area with the dolphins. We are beginning to feel a little cursed- a hurricane, tsunami advisory, missing dive sites, AND an earthquake on the big earthquake two days before we are due to go there! Somebody find me a virgin to toss!

Technical difficulties!

After spending hours on the phone with the fine people at tmobile and blackberry, remote posting should start again! I felt bad having no photos to post from yesterday, so this is computer hula girl. A very nice girl picked and gave me this flower, because it "matched" my coloring. Mahalo!

How can you be afraid of a name like Flossie??

Despite a few phone calls and emails from our friends and family at home, we are hearing very little about Flossie. The most impact it has had on us was when we tried to go to Molikini to snorkel today. Due to the "high" waves- which were two to three feet, they wouldn't let us out of the boat because of the large amount of new snorkelers. It was pretty odd knowing that we had the most experience out of everyone on the boat. Robb and I were also two of the few people who didn't throw up. God bless Bonine! (Motion sickness med) Noah was one of the many who decided to feed the fish....poor Noah.

Anyways, they took us to two different sites and we got to see lots of turtles and I got to see a really, really small octopus. Robb stayed in the boat with Noah post protein spill- as I got to be with him during the incident and clean it up. So only I got to see the little buddy, but I did get a great photo for Robb and Noah.

After the dive, we went to a great place for fish tacos, called Jawz Fish Tacos. They had all sorts of salsa and they were pretty good! After all of the swimming and eating, we really needed a nap. We drove to the local beaches by Wailea and took a nap in the car and then we went out for ice cream. I had pineapple and vanilla soft serve, just like I had in Walt Disney World the other month. Yes, it was made by Dole- just like the stuff at the World.

After coming back to the condo, the boys went into the unit and I went out onto the reef. I was really excited to see two huge turtles! I attempted to get photos, but due to the tide coming in and the poor visibility due to the hurricane, none of them turned out very well. With that being said, it was really exciting to be within six inches of the ones here. I wasn't trying to be that close to them, there was one time that I turned slightly from trying to take a photo of a box fish and the turtle was RIGHT next to me. I actually had to grab the rocks and pull myself back to prevent myself from bumping into him due to the waves. I finally swam away from the turtles to see what else was out there and was following some unicorn fish, when I saw a small school of barracudas....after that, I decided it was time to get out. I can hardly wait to see what adventure awaits us tomorrow.

STARTED!!!

Okay, I Celeste started pole dancing classes last week just before I got on the flight to Maui. The darn class completely kicked my ass! Yep, I was hurting for three days after- even the muscle in my hands hurt from grabbing the pole for dear life. However, I can do three moves on the pole and that was pretty cool. I will continue them when I get home, but man- am I out of shape!

See more progress on: take pole dancing lessons

The road to Hana

I tried to take this photo to show how narrow some of the roads were, which this doesn't show very well. Had I not been white knuckling it past Hana and the Seven Pools area, I would have taken photos of those roads, which made the rest look like four lane highways! However, that area was even more beautiful than the others. We were going to try and drive over the gravel portion of the road to complete the loop, but there were men there not allowing anyone to go forward due to rock slides. After all, to hell with the rental car, how are they supposed to know if we drove it past Hana as long as the car comes back in one piece? Too bad we didn't get to see if a Toyota Corolla could make it...

Some where in there is me and Noah.

Absolutely worth the drive

More black sand!

Noah playing in the surf

Blow hole!

This was the awesome blow hole at the black sand beaches, pretty cool!

Millions of perfect round black stones, very cool!

More Hana waterfalls!

Due to the rain, the waterfalls were awesome.

This was the 12th waterfall we saw

A little snack

Passion fruit, yummy!

Passion fruit shave ice- I love that stuff, one of my favorite things in Hawaii.

On the highway to Hana

We climbed over a pile of logs and a fence to see this waterfall

Robb & Noah in the forest by the waterfall

Morning!

This is what we see from the breakfast table in our condo.

Little birds come and see us.

Red sandy toes

Aloha!

We've gone snorkeling and to the pool! The boys made and brought me breakfast in bed! This IS paradise!

Noah is mumbling tropical paradise...

He is very full and happy!

What is left of my mixed plate

Hmmm, this looks familiar!

If you were to go back to the start of the blog, you might think this was my flight to Barcelona. However, this is my flight to Maui!

43 Things Update

Totally freakin awesome!

See more progress on: scuba dive

It's a fake!

The real leaning tower of Pisa- with me holding it. Seeing the tower was amazing!! Something I will always remember.

This is the Leaning Tower of Niles....not the real deal. So, I am working night at the hospital currently and I have been staying in the city on occasion. Staying close allows me to sleep the extra three hours that are lost in transit. I was on my way to at some really horrid motel when I saw the leaning tower of Pisa in the town of Niles, Illinois. http://www.vniles.com/ At first I thought I was just excessively tired and was seeing things. So after some much needed sleep, I went back to see the leaning tower of Niles. From the road it looks good, but when you get up close you can really tell how it differs from the one in Pisa. This one is made from concrete vs Cararra marble. I got out of the car to see if I could climb up it. I would have really enjoyed being able to say that I climbed the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and Illinois. However, the tower in Niles is a water tower and not open to the public. Bummer.

SCRATCHED!

What do you mean we don't want to be in 6 foot waves for 10 hours? But the fish would get well fed! For all the non-divers, throwing up in the water.

The sea worthy craft of Capt Dale! The Capt can also be found on his website, which I will add when I get home.

Nice platform for diving and ladder for climbing with fins. We are going to reschedule the trip for later in the season and we are going to Pearl Lake to dive instead- we have 8 tanks and a baby sitter, hell yes we are diving today!

Good morning! NOT!!!

My pig tails in my hair pretty much represent how old I feel right now, which is three! It is early, I'm tired and grumpy!

This is the bad man who made me get out of bed, but he did let me have an extra 10 minutes since my dive gear was already loaded into the car. Thanks sweetie!

Only so much rope climbing can be done.

You know he has had fun when he falls asleep on the lawn during the presentation on reptiles, which were being passed through the audience.

Cute but smelly!

Noah is covered with mud and we both smell like sweat and bug spray! Believe it or not, I'm totally in my element. Thank heavens I don't have a girl, I wouldn't know what to do!