Days 8 and 9 :(

Day 8, Monday morning, began with the earliest wake up call ever...2:20 a.m. We sluggishly met our shuttle bus in the lobby that was to take us to the Maui Mountain Cruisers sunrise bike tour headquarters. Upon arrival, we met up with other groups of sleepy people and headed up the Haleakala mountain to watch the sunrise before our downhill adventure.

It was about 30 some-odd degrees up at the top of the mountain, and we literally froze for the entire hour we waited for sweet rays of sun to hit us. In fact, Marlana couldn't feel her feet when we started to walk back down to the van. We stood there with what seemed like hundreds of other people, all waiting against the railing to see this daily event.

But once the light started to fill the horizon, it was clear why the torment was so worthwhile. I felt like an astronaut might feel, when they see the sun "come up" from space. It was glorious.

The moment the sun actually broke over the horizon, we felt like applauding. And a gentleman somewhere behind us in the crowd began to sing an ancient Hawaiian song to bring in the new day.

With light finally on our surroundings, we could see the crater peaks off in the distance. We were told (by a nice guy named Bob from Boston) that they were over 7 miles away. We could also see the peak of a mountain on the big island that was over 90 miles away.

At about 7 am it was time to hit the road and do this bike ride thing.

We put on our wind suits and helmets, and got our bikes. We were given very strict orders as to how we were to ride...single file, shortest to tallest, with 20 ft. of space in between.

The ride was faster than I thought it would be. We were cruising at about 25 miles an hour or so, taking hairpin turns, and avoiding going over the center line (which would have been a competition between us and cars...we would have lost). It was fun! We stopped along the way to take some photos of scenic lookouts.

At one stop, we had some breakfast at a local open air market. Some people were gathered around a tree, and when we went to go check out what all the commotion was about we saw that they had found a little green chameleon. Marlana let it walk onto her hand and I snapped some photos. It had these 3 horns on it that made it look scarier than it really was.

We also stopped by a pineapple field where one of our guides, Jeff, had pointed out how the pineapples grew. Everyone here in Hawaii seems to have a good knowledge of their natural surroundings. By the time we made it to the "bottom" over 2 hours had elapsed since we started the ride. Our other very nice guide, Laurie, drove us back to the hotel.

The day was still young, and despite the fact that we had been up for nearly 10 hours by noon we decided to set out to find a Hawaiian waterfall. On the northwest side of the island, the opportunities to see one were rare. According to our bike tour guide, there was one "near" us so we went to find it. After getting pretty turned around, we ended up in valley called "Iao". There was a state park there, and we hiked up a short trail to see the "Iao needle"...a peak that when compared to the others around it, I guess looks like a needle.

It was a gorgeous view, but there was no great waterfall there. So we moved on.

Using the "blue book" (aka Maui Revealed) as our guide, we read of a cool falls area called the Makamaka'ole Falls. The thing was, it was a pretty long hike up to see it. Despite that fact, we headed up the half mile trail (up being the operative word). It went and it went and it went. And we sweat. But this was going to be good. A real live jaw dropping waterfall.

And when we reached the top...there were no falls. In fact, we thought they had dried up. But before we hung our heads and went back down...I spotted something off in the distance. Falling water! And even though our search had been a success, it still felt a little empty. After all, we had to really squint to see it. In case you can't make it out either, I circled it. ;)

You could tell how thrilled Marlana was that I dragged her up there to see it. ;)

We made it back to the hotel before dark and hit the pool again. Marlana's expression changed slightly. The long day still hadn't gotten the best of us. Yet.

We even watched the sun set again by the pool. Then we ate and crashed big time.

Our last day, Tuesday, we were trying to delay the inevitable, so we hit the pool one last time. This was a good view to leave Maui with.

The packing was slow, but we made to the airport on time and relinquished our convertible.

Marlana noticed the funny Men and Women's restroom signs, so we got a shot.

After nearly missing our flight to Houston (not our fault...they oversold the flight), we arrived home and Earl and Bobbie picked us up (by the way...extra thanks also to Linda and Steve for bringing us to the airport when we left!!!) and brought us back to our home. Since I hadn't properly carried Marlana over the threshold, I did so as my mom got a picture. And then we were home!

Despite the fact that we were both really sick in long stretches on this trip, we didn't miss a single planned activity. My wife is truly amazing, and I'm so lucky to have her as my wife! We had such a blast and vowed to go back to Hawaii at some point in the near future. Thank you all for your well wishes and for following along with us on our trip!

-Ben and Marlana (The Doyle's!)

Days 6 and 7

Valentine's Day (Saturday...married for one week!) started off the way we had hoped it would. It was to be our only day without some planned activity on Maui, and we took full advantage by waking up late and securing a spot by the serenity adult pool. As the whitest skinned people out there, we needed some sun!

We relaxed and enjoyed some "Hula Girl" drinks (a frozen concoction of orange, mango, pineapple, rum, and who knows what else). We had early dinner reservations at 5:00 to watch the sunset, so we had to call it a day at the pool around 3:30. Remarkably, we did not burn (thank you sunscreen!).

The place we went to was called Sarentos on the beach. We ordered a bottle of Italian champagne and enjoyed a really nice dinner and dessert, while watching the sun set from our table.

Very romantic. It's going to be hard to top that one next year. By the way, the couple in the shot below is quite possibly a future look at Marlana and I at advanced age. ;)

We woke up Sunday morning to our 6:30 am wake up call and began to get ready for our snorkeling trip. We had no idea what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised to meet our friendly crew aboard a sailing catamaran named Trilogy V. Trilogy was the name of the company, and our captain and his two crew were very nice guys who immediately offered us coffee and hot chocolate when we boarded the boat.

There were also about 20 people on the trip with us. After a few ground rules were explained, we were off and sailing southwest toward the tiny island of Molokini.

On the way there, we must have seen at least 20 different humpback whales surfacing to catch some air, or calves playing, or males fighting. It was amazing to see them from such a close distance. The blurry shot below is evidence of how fast they would surface.

The crew gave us cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit for breakfast. They fitted us for fins and masks on the way. Once we reached Molokini, we saw that it was a u-shaped island crater that was about half a mile in length. The water there was amazingly clear, as the island has no water runoff, but still has a nice sloping coastline basin. As a result, we could clearly see the 50 foot bottom from the boat.

We put on our fins, masks and wet suit jackets (it was cold!) and jumped right in. We had purchased an underwater film camera, and I immediately started snapping some shots. There were fish everywhere swimming only inches from us, and the coral reef below us was enthralling. I started to feel a little queasy because the wind was making the waves kick up pretty high, so I headed back to the boat and Marlana stayed in the water.

After spending about 45 minutes at that spot, everyone gathered back on the boat and we began to make our way towards "Turtle Town" off the coast of Maui. This destination is aptly named because of the giant sea turtles that live in the area. I was a little doubtful about actually seeing some turtles, but I was about to be surprised. On the way there we saw some more whales and it turned out that one of the crew members, Dan, was a whale naturalist who knew almost too much information about the large creatures. He was very knowledgeable and he told us everything I could think to ask about their size, migration, blow holes, reproductive cycle, eating patterns, etc.

We geared up once more and jumped into the ocean to find an even more interesting sea floor that consisted of caves, reefs, coves, and more. We swam for a while and Marlana and I approached what she thought was another snorkler, and nearly ran into a huge turtle! He was massive, and just kind of floated around on the surface. He must have gotten a little spooked by Marlana and I, because he soon dove down and made his way to the cave below.

We saw a couple more turtles, and couldn't have been more pleased by the outing. We then had a really nice "life changing" (as the captain called it) lunch and started to head back to the bay. We saw more whales, had some ice cream, soaked up some more sun, and bought a t-shirt down below to memorialize the event. We just had to take a picture with the Captain. This was a really great activity!

We hit a local spot for dinner at a place called "Pita Paradise" and had some great humus, pitas, and baklava ice cream for dessert. The end to a great day.

-Ben and Marlana

Days 4 and 5

Thursday morning came quickly and it was time to depart Lanai. I was still having some serious stomach issues, so I put in a call to my wonderful "doc" sister who called in a prescription to a local pharmacy on Maui (where we were soon headed). It's really nice having a doctor in the family! And she only charged me $300 for the phone consultation...just kidding. We packed up our things, checked out of the hotel, and took the final shuttle down to the Manele Bay docks where we waited for our ferry. The boat soon arrived and we had fun watching the whales blow water and flip their fins off in the distance during the short 45 minute trip. The water was very choppy and I often wondered if my stomach was going to stay in check...but it was fine.

When we arrived in Lahaina on Maui, we immediately were struck by the hustle bustle of crowded everyday life that we had been so sheltered from on Lanai. Tourists, vendors, taxis, etc...all lined the streets. We found a taxi line and jumped into one as soon as we could.

After getting our very nice convertible sebring, we were on our way to grab some lunch, pick up the prescription and head over to Wailea (about an hour away) to check in to the Marriott and get ready for our evening Luau.

When we arrived at the large Luau, Marlana started to feel a little queezy. This was not good. I was just starting to feel better, and now she was starting to feel worse. We were ushered to our preferred seats at a table right at the front. Marlana immediately felt nauseous and had to run to the bathroom where she lost her lunch. We tried to last as long as possible (even trying the food), but it was clear that she had gotten the same bug from me. We did manage to catch a few dances and things, but we left before dark. Poor Marlana did not fare well for the rest of the evening. We both fell asleep by about 8 o'clock. What party animals! ;)

The next day, Friday, we both woke up feeling ok. I was good, and Marlana was feeling much better. I had given her some of the same medicine Rachel prescribed and it seemed to help a bit. We had horseback riding on the activities guide for the day, and we really didn't want to cancel. So we set out on a long drive to the Pony Express in Kula to do the Haleakala Ranch Ride. We weren't sure what we were in for or how this was going to be on the stomachs, but we had the best time! Our guide was a very friendly girl named Char and we were her only customers for the ride...so it was basically a private tour.

Marlana was given a horse named "Cowboy" to ride, and I was given "Applejack". They were both males, and very docile.

They had such funny personalities. Cowboy didn't like horses following too close to his behind, and Applejack didn't like to step on rocks.

We were guided through a cow grazing lands that are owned by the Baldwin family (not the Hollywood ones) who own tens of thousands of acres up on the mountainside (since the 1800's). The trail led us up peaks and valleys with amazing views of the coastlines and mountains.

We saw cattle, pigs, pheasants, and other wildlife along the way as well. Marlana would giggle when Cowboy would gallop up the slopes because "he just wanted to get up as fast as possible", Char said. We were sad to have to dismount at the end of the ride, and apparently Marlana was extra sad because she sort of slid off the horse in a hilarious way (wish I had caught that on camera) instead of using the stirrups. This was definitely one of our favorite activities of the trip so far.

On the journey, our guide had recommended a small goat cheese farm we could stop at on the way down the mountain called "Surfing Goat Dairy". We were still feeling tip-top so we decided to give it a try. When we arrived at the Dairy, we were given a quick cheese sampling of the various kinds of cheese they made there.

So we decided to get a "cheese flight" which consisted of 6 different types of cheese. They were all very delicious, but the best was the "Rolling Green" which we bought more of to take with us back to the hotel.

Marlana really wanted to visit the providers of this tasty cheese, so we then headed over to the barnyard to visit the small goats.

On the way home, we passed by the Sugar Factory where they still process the massive fields of sugar cane.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed before venturing out to dinner, and oncc again caught a beautiful sunset by the ocean. Tomorrow we have no plans, which promises to be very relaxing!

-Ben and Marlana