Hawaii

I hadn't posted about our girls trip to Hawaii that we took in October, so I figured better late than never, right?!  It's a long post with lots of photos, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee and get comfy.  

I didn't bring my camera with me on this trip so all of these shots were taken with our phones, so they aren't the best quality. 

We had a long year in 2014 and us girls decided we needed to get away and shake some of the stress of the year off.  We ended up going to Maui, which is such an incredibly relaxing and beautiful place.  I've went there twice now, once with Dan and once with my Mom and sisters.  Both times we have stayed at the Westin Resort and Spa in Kaanapoli.  It is an awesome resort and located in a perfect spot, right next to the Whalers Village.  There are a handful of really great restaurants and lots of shopping right in the area so you don't even have to leave if you don't want to.  

We stopped in the lobby and took a "We've arrived" photo.  My eyes are half closed... I must have been relaxed.  Actually, I know I was!  ;)

The lobby is open on one whole side, so you are constantly looking out and about.  They have a little Starbucks coffee stand right down this hallway right before you get to the pool.  It is so nice to just grab a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, and hit the beach.

It is one of my favorite things to do, because most people are still asleep, or moving slow, so usually you pretty much have the beach to yourself for a bit.

So worth it to get up early to have this to myself.

They do have this really beautiful restaurant where you can either choose the buffet or just order off of their menu.  They have a spectacular view as well.  Complete Paradise! 

 This is one of the restaurants that is right down in the area near us and is one of my favorites.  It's not the food that makes it, but the atmosphere.  It's called Hula Grill.  Every time I've went they always have live music, it's right off the beach and all the tables and chairs are set in sand. Bliss!

Right across this restaurant is another one that is probably my favorite, it's called Leilani's.  They have the best fish tacos, and margarita's.  So good!

Group Pic

We did venture up to Lahaina a couple of times.  It's a very touristy beach town, with lots of little gift shops, and restaurants running up and down the street. We had dinner one night and picked up a few things to take back for the kids.

Most of the time though, we just laid out either by the pool, where we were served yummy drinks and snacks or we rented chairs and umbrella's and laid out on the beach.  We were lazy, and loving it!

Views from our balcony.

These boats would come up and dock periodically, for people who had signed up for snorkeling, sailing, whatever.   Like I said, once you arrive here, you don't even need to leave.  There is so much to do.

Such a fun place to visit and I can't wait to take my kids with us someday!

What is your favorite beach destination?  I would love to take a trip to the Caribbean, (Dan and I are actually talking about making this happen sooner than later), and if I went back to Hawaii, maybe check out Kauai next time.  I love to see new places, so give me some ideas if you've got them.  :)

You can also check out my post about when us girls went down to New Orleans for a quick girls trip.  We toured a couple of plantations and took in the sites.

Or you can check out when we did a Montana road trip last Summer.  We looked for sapphires, and visited old ghost towns.  Road trip Part 1,  Road trip Part 2,  Road trip Part 3.

New Orleans

Lindy, my Mom and I went down to New Orleans for a few days.  It was a lot of fun!  :)

The one day Lindy and I took a tour out to 2 different plantations which was fun.  One was an American and the other was Creole.  So much history... which I love! 

Here is the sunset from our hotel room.

This is the Oak Alley Plantation  

It was my favorite.  It was just like out of the books I read.  The only thing I was surprised by was that there weren't as many bedrooms as I'd always imagined.  I think it only had 3 or 4 bedrooms.  It was beautiful though as well as all of the grounds.

 

This was one of the slave quarters.  So sad, but again it was neat to see the history.  It was amazing how small these were.  The whole time, we kept saying how we couldn't imagine fitting our families in one of these.

Lindy

and this is the Laura plantation, which was a creole plantation.  

It was also really neat, because they have a different kind of history.  They used the plantation homes differently than the American ones did.  In this tour, we learned that the family that had once lived here, supposedly had sent their teenage daughter overseas to try and have her acne cured, unfortunately whatever they did to her, ended up killing her.   I can't imagine, all because of acne.  :(

One night we stopped at this restaurant and of course we had to try a "Hurricane."  We only tried the category 1, but I don't know what all the fuss is about... I think it tasted like kool-aid chlorine.  Yuck!!!

Mom, me and Lindy

We were only brave enough to venture out onto Bourbon Street during the day and even at that I think we were on it for a block or two and headed else where.  

This was the view from a Mexican restaurant that we ate at.  They had a balcony for us to sit on which was fun because we got to sit up above everyone and people watch.  :)

As much fun as it was to get out of town and to experience a place that I'd never been to before, I was thankful to come home. 

~Jenny