Keeping Up With The Kennedys: Honeymooners

Ryan and I got home from Maui last Tuesday, June 1st and have since been working on getting settled and getting into a routine of sorts. We had an absolutely amazing wedding followed by an amazing honeymoon. We were both so sad to leave Maui (I seriously didn't speak the entire last day). We were so blessed to be allowed to have such a great trip.

The Rundown:

We stayed at The Westin Ocean Resort Villas. I highly recommend this hotel! It has all of the amenities of a hotel (pool, room service, spa, restaurants, etc.) but also has the benefits of a condo (full kitchen in the room).

We got in later afternoon the day after the wedding and enjoyed a dinner on the beach. We were ready to get a good night's sleep after the long flight that day. We spent most of the day Monday on the beach and exploring Lahaina.

Tuesday night we went to the Luau. Both Ryan and I have visited Maui previously and have never been to such a wonderful Luau. The meal was served family style rather than buffet like most Luau's. We would highly recommend going to the Westin Luau if you're ever visiting Maui. We sat with the most wonderful family. The food, entertainment, and company were all perfect! Ryan and I were especially good with integrating into the Hawaiian culture and made sure to tell everybody "aloha" (common Hawaiian greeting meaning: with love) and "mahalo" (Hawaiian for thank you). Ryan thought it was especially funny to say "mahalo" before we left ANYWHERE. We got a really big kick out of a guy stealing Ryan's humor at the Luau. The guy mixed aloha and mahola and said "maloha". So he decided it would be funnier to say maloha everytime instead.

Wednesday was one of our favorite days! We just relaxed during the morning and then went on a snorkel trip in the afternoon. We went with The Four Winds crew. I'm not sure if Ryan had more for snorkeling or laughing because I would either shriek or try to push the fish away if they came close. My grip on his arm tightened depending on how close the fish were.

Thursday was another great day for us! It was our first real pool and beach day. We spent the morning at the pool and then moved to the beach after lunch. Thursday night we went on our "fancy" date to Merriman's Kapalua. It was absolutely perfect!! The food, atmosphere, and "traditions" were awesome. I say traditions because our waiter told us it was a Hawaiian tradition to lick your finger and then wipe the chocolate that read "congratulations" in Hawaiian off of our plate. After practicing this tradition JJ informed us that we had just began a new tradition...what a jerk. Actually, JJ was one of the nicest people we met on the trip and went out of his way to make our "fancy" date special.

Friday was fun, however it led us to a big, resounding WE WILL NEVER GO TO HANA AGAIN! As I mentioned earlier, both of us have been to Maui before. We have also both been to Hana before. For those of you that don't know, the Road to Hana is a long, winding road up the side of a mountain that leads to The Seven Sacred Pools. We left around 10 in the morning and returned back at about 6:30 in the evening. The trip is great on the way there...not so great on the way home considering you have already seen everything already. We did find a lot of entertainment in the signs reading "Narrow Bridge", "Yield to Oncoming Traffic", "Drive Slowly", and our favorite "Winding Road".

Saturday was another wonderful day. We had a great breakfast and Betty's Beachside cafe and then headed to the beach to get some sun before our massages. Our biggest splurge of the trip was definitely the massages-but, hey, you only honeymoon once. The massages were great. After that we got ready and then headed to Lahaina to board the Ocean Discovery (owned by the Pacific Whale Company) for our sunset cruise. The meal on the cruise far exceeded our expectations, the staff was great, and of course the sunset was breathtaking.

Sunday the time to go home blues started setting in, but we still had a fun day. It was our last full day, so we decided to spend the majority of the day on the beach, but that morning after having breakfast in Lahaina we walked around for a bit and stopped by a really neat showcase of Maui artists. We had decided at the beginning of the trip that we wanted to find a really neat souvenir for our apartment, but had so far been unsuccessful. There was a man named Albert selling ceramic bowls and we found two handmade bowls that were painted beautifully and matched the color scheme of our apartment perfectly. We were so excited to find such a neat prize to bring home! We are still trying to find where we want to put them, but are very pleased! After going to the beach in the afternoon, we got ready and walked down the boardwalk to Duke's. This was one of our very favorite meals. We had seen a menu in the menu book at our hotel and had been wanting their kabobs since seeing them in the book. The meal did NOT disappoint! To make things even better we made friends with the manager after Ryan tried to tip him for taking our picture. He refused to take the money and surprised us at the end of the meal with a complimentary Hula Pie and told us that after living in the south he liked to take care of people from Texas.

Monday was a sad, sad day for the Kennedys. It was time to leave a dream honeymoon and head back to reality. We had such a large breakfast at Cheeseburger In Paradise that we decided we weren't going to be hungry any time soon so after walking around Lahaina for a bit we headed back to the Westin to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.