Where Are You Going in 2015?

Do you have plans to visit some of the Top 20 tourist destinations this year? We're on a traveling break until our little one get a bit bigger. Until then we'll be earning and saving our rewards points! Below is a list of the Top 20 Destination Cites for 2015:

1 - London

2 - Bangkok

3 - Paris

4 - Dubai

5 - Istanbul

6 - New York

7 - Singapore

8 - Kuala Lumpur

9 - Seoul

10 - Hong Kong

11 - Tokyo

12 - Barcelona

13 - Amsterdam

14 - Rome

15 - Milan

16 - Taipei

17 - Shanghai

18 - Vienna

19 - Prague

20 - Los Angeles

I have been to 9 out of the 20. 

How many have you been to?

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Souvenirs

Every now and then I join a travel blogging link-up and this month it is about souvenirs. I love souvenirs and I love buying things on my travels. I just like being able to say, "I got that in ... " 

When I was younger I use to collect key chains and tee shirts, my mom collects refrigerator magnets. But on my third trip to Europe is when I started my collections. From my travels I collect Christmas ornaments and art work. I love both of these because they aren't just little trinket that sits around. The artwork is hung and tells a story of where we have been and the ornaments decorate our tree and remind us of the adventures we have been on (and they only come out once a year; my husband hates clutter so this is a bonus). 

{Just some of my many ornaments}

{Just some of our art collection}

What are some things you collect from your travels?

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Hawaii 2015 Recap

All-in-all I am happy we went back to Hawaii before we had out little one. I wish we would have stayed on Maui the whole time and seen more of what that island has to offer. We wanted to go back to the Big Island to do more hiking but since I haven't had the most active pregnancy it wasn't an option. But I am glad we slept in and truly relaxed. 

My highlights are the whale watching, watching the sunrise on Haleakala, visiting Molokai and seeing the recent lava flow.

{Molokai}

{flowers of Hawaii}

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Volcanoes and Lava!

On our last full day in Hawaii we headed all the way to the other side of the island to go to Volcanoes National Park and to Pahoa to see the latest lava flow (from November and December 2014). Once we got the national park and took some pictures of the crater we found out that you could actually go and see the freshest lava accessible by road. So off we went!

After viewing the lava (which is only open from 10am to 4pm and guarded by the National Guard) we headed to Hilo to check out their famous Farmers Market. I wasnt too impressed with it, it was the same as most others you'll see on the islands. But I did love the Filthy Farmgirl soaps and we picked up a few onesies for baby girl. 

To get back to the hotel we took Saddle Road which passes by Mauna Kea. We experienced some pretty weird weather on our way back...some sort of weird fog phenomena.  

When we got back to the hotel we watched the sun set and watched the 20+ foot waves crash against the lava cliffs that line the hotel. (unfortunately my husbands camera took all of these pictures and that is the SD card that got corrupted)

{good night Hawaii}

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Waipio Valley

While we were on the Big Island we woke up every day and had breakfast out by the water to watch the whales. After we had our relaxing morning we made our way to Waipio Valley. 

Waipio Valley, known as the 'Valley of Kings', is inhabited by 50 generations of Hawaiians for over a thousand years, The valley is of premiere importance in old Hawaiian legends and lore, this mystical place was once the political and religious center of Hawaii, the birthplace, home or burial grounds of Hawaiian royalty for a millennium. In the back of the valley is the 1200-foot Hi‘ilawe Falls, Hawaii's highest single-fall waterfalls, Which you can see in a post from our first trip here. 

{Waipio Valley}

After we viewed the valley from the lookout (I wanted to hike down but we thought better to play it safe being 22 weeks pregnant and all) we headed to a little art gallery near by and had the lunch we brought with us. And then it was back to the hotel for some pool time before we hit the spa for a couples massage!

{Snow capped Mauna Kea}

{tropical flowers}

{hotel pool}

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Hapuna and Relaxation

The plan on the Big Island (aka Hawaii Island) was to have no plan. Instead of our wake up go, go, go routine we do on most every vacation we slept in every day and didn’t really have a plan.

On our first day back on the Big Island we made our way to Hapuna Beach State Park ($5 entrance fee per car). There is a place to rent beach equipment and gear on site for $10 per item for the whole day – Matt rented a boogie board. While he played in the water I relaxed on the beach. After about an hour and half of that we went on our way. We stopped at the Queens’ Marketplace for lunch and on our way back we stopped in Kona for some shave ice and to walk around the shops.

{Hapuna Beach State Park, we did not see these signs the last time we were here}

{Hapuna Beach}

{more shave ice!}

After that we went back to the hotel to relax and freshen up before dinner. We ate at Bianelli's Pizza and Pasta and it was delicious! 

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Maui to the Big Island

This day our last on Maui so we slept in and then started to pack. After we were all packed I took some pictures of the beautiful garden and we headed on our way. We walked around Kihei and I found the juice shop I wanted to try, Wow Wow Lemonade. It was amazing and I got my aloha mason jar! We headed back to the Ho’okipa Beach Park overlook to see some of the huge waves and the surfers doing their thing. It’s amazing to watch!

{airbnb's host garden, beautiful}

{Wow Wow Lemonade} 

{Ho'okipa Beach Park}

After that we made our way to the airport. What was fun about island hopping is that when you are taking off and landing you can see the whales from the plane! It’s pretty cool!

We landed and had a hellish ordeal getting our rental car (part of it was my fault) but waiting over an hour at Dollar Rentals for our car was absurd! And there were only 4-5 people in front of us!

{hotel room view}

We finally made it to our hotel to check in but we were too late to see the sunset. So we just grabbed some food from the bar and relaxed for the evening.

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Haleakala Summit & Whale Watching

We woke up very early this morning so we could catch the sunrise from the top of the world. Well, at least from 10,000 + feet elevation. We arrived at the park by 6am and parking was already filling up. So they had us park in the bus parking, bumper to bumper. Does anybody know what was running through my head at this time… How the hell are we going to get out of here?!?! I think the park needs to have an someone re-address their parking situation up there.

Sunrise was at 7am and we hiked up a little path to get a good view and waited…in 40 degree Fahrenheit weather…for an hour to watch that sun peak over the clouds. It was beautiful.

With the help of our parking neighbors we were able to wiggle our way out of the parking lot around 7:45/8am and head back down the twisty-turny switchback road. We made a pit stop for some shopping and a snack before we headed back to our rental to change for some beach time. We headed to Makena State Park (which is apparently one of the most injury-prone beaches in Hawaii) where Matt took in the waves and shore breaks at Big Beach and I just took in the sun.

We had a reservation with the Pacific Whale Foundation for some whale watching. We left from Maalaea Harbor and found a group of male whales trying to attract the attention of a female. It was pretty incredible to see these large creatures swimming around our boat, breaching, and playing. I have some video below for you but our SD card that had all of our pictures is corrupted (sad face). Please check out the professional pictures from our trip. All whale photos by Erin Lodi.

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Molokai, Hawaiian By Nature

We had decided that we wanted to take a day trip to Molokai (see my previous post here) to see the tallest sea cliffs in the world. Molokai is about as close to native Hawaiian living as you can get without getting the special invite to Ni’ihau (the island where only natives Hawaiians live and speak Hawaiian). We started our day with a 90 minute ferry ride that was full of whales breaching and playing in the Pacific.

We arrived in Kaunakakai and headed straight to the airport to pick up our rental car (this was included in the package we paid for: ferry + car rental). We drove up to Palaau State Park to view the Kalaupapa Overlook and see a glimpse of the 4,000 ft sea cliffs (I think next time we’ll try and see them by air).  In this same area you can view an accent Hawaiian relic…a phallic rock.

{Kalaupapa Overlook}

 

We then stopped off at the Molokai Plumeria Farms to get a quick sneak peak of their farms and what a tour consists of. For $25 a person you are “let loose” on their farm to collect fresh plumerias and once you have a bag full you meet under a shade tree to make your own Hawaiian lei! How fun! They let us wander their farm and pick some flowers before we headed back to Kaunakakai to have some lunch. 

{in the picture where he is holding the flowers the one on the left is good for lei making!}

If you didn't already know, Molokai doesn't have any fast food chains;  our options for lunch were a burger place and a pizza place. We choose Molokai Burger for lunch. The food was good but I thought the staff could have been a bit nicer, you could tell they didn't really like tourist.

After lunch we headed to One Ali’i Park and enjoyed some sunshine. After being there for about an hour we headed back into town and bought some coconut twists from Kenemitsu Bakery – they were delicious! With nothing really else to do we went back to One Ali’i Park to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and our treats.

{One Ali'i Park}

After the ferry ride back to Maui we had dinner in Lahaina at Kimo’s. I picked Kimo’s because they have my favorite dessert Hula Pie! Yum, yum! But before I could enjoy it my nausea got the best of me and we had them wrap it up to go and made it back to Kihei. (don’t worry, it didn't melt and I enjoyed it the next day!) ** Travel Tip: Lahaina isn't the best place to view the sunset since the island of Lanai is blocking the view.

{non-alcoholic drink, view of Lanai, Hula Pie!}

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