OAHU + MAUI
Our trip to Hawaii and running in the Honolulu Marathon.
Aloha!
As you all may have seen the 29137842 photos that I uploaded while on vacation, I am just getting back from my first trip to Hawaii! My goodness I can’t say enough about the island. From the friendly people, to the amazing local, organic food, to the endless opportunities of adventure, I fell in love with this place.
Mike + I went to Oahu because his sister was running in the Honolulu marathon and asked if we wanted to do it, too. While mike has run a few, I had never done one before. Although I was hesitant, I’m so glad that I got to experience it. The way they describe a marathon is like a fast pace sight-seeing. A couple days before the marathon we rented bikes and road around most of the course to check it out. During the course you run up a road along Diamond Head crater, but luckily you don’t have to run up it like the iron man!
It’s hard to talk about every single thing that we did on the trip, because there was just so much to do! We did Diamond Head sunrise hike, we went to the top of the volcano in Maui for sunrise, we did a sunset dinner cruise, sunsets along the beach, kayaking in the bay, and so much more. We went out for most of our meals, and we definitely found some of our favorite spots. There is one place that we went to one night where you grill your own steaks, and then there is a pasta/salad buffet to add. Of course we had to try the brownie sundae with macadamia nut ice cream, too. So, needless to say we went twice because we loved it so much haha another spot we loved was cheeseburger in paradise, which we went to right after we ran the marathon. We both had pineapple burgers and shared the massive (like it was bigger than my head guys) Kona coffee, fudge, Oreo cake.
The day after the marathon, we left and went to Maui. Of course we did the road to Hana, which was really cool! We stopped along the road and got a coconut that they cracked open right in front of us. We ended the road trip with a hike through the bamboo forest, which ended up being my favorite part of Maui. After that we went into the lava caves, too!
After we went to Maui for a few days, we headed back to Oahu for two more days. Here we went over to the other side of the island by the north shore. By far my favorite thing that we did was snorkel with the sea turtles and fish in Hanauma bay. The water was so clear I couldn’t believe how well you could see under water! You definitely don’t get that in New England haha
All in all it was one of the most incredible trips filled with adventure and amazing memories. We can’t wait to head back and do the big island and Kauai next!
Cheers!
-H