Saturday, Nov 25th
The Grand Wailea Resort
Sunday, Nov 26th
Our first day in Maui, we decided not to sleep in, but to get up at 2:30 am and drive to the top of Haleakala to see the sunrise! Yes, we were nuts! Who gets up that early on vacation?? We were on the road by 3:15 am, drove the 2 1/2 hours up the crater in the dark and made it to the top with plenty of time to spare. It was freezing at the top of the crater - only 35 degrees!! We were dressed far more appropriately than the other visitors (some were wearing sandals!) but we still froze. Finally the sun came up...
The sun slowly rising
The sun coming over the crater
Jess and Shane at the top of Haleakala
Here we are freezing in Hawaii!
Once the sun was up, we saw some awesome sights of the Haleakala Crater...
On the way back from the crater, we stopped for breakfast. Outside the restaurant they had a pretty garden...
We were back to our hotel by 11:00am. It felt like it should have been 5:00 pm after all we had already seen that day! We were pretty tuckered out so we took a nap and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the pool. That evening we decided to walk down the beach path to dinner at Spago (which by the way was delicious!) On the walk to the restaurant, we watched the sunset...
Monday, November 27th
On Monday, we spent the morning checking out our hotel and walking along the beach-side path.
The view from our balcony 
Our hotel
At the beach
Shane next to a crazy tree
Flowers along the beach path
A palm tree
That afternoon, we headed off on a road trip to the 'Iao Valley and 'Iao Needle (a sacred burying place for chiefs and the location of Maui's last giant battle.)
The 'Iao Needle
The 'Iao Valley Stream
Afterward, we headed toward Lahaina, a small town located in the western part of the island. Located in Lahaina is a Banyan Tree that encompasses an entire park!
This really is just one tree!
Jess in the Banyan Tree
That evening, we had a wonderful dinner at I'O in Lahaina. We had a front row seat to watch the sunset.
Tuesday, November 28th
On Tuesday, we decided to drive the road to Hana. It is a windy 2-lane road with cliffs on one side and a drop off to the ocean on the other. There are tons of one-lane bridges and over 600 turns. Let's just say there were several hours of white knuckle driving!
There were many beautiful sights to see on the road to Hana - tons of waterfalls, trees, flowers, and great views of the ocean...
On the way back from Hana, we decided to check out one last waterfall. This one wasn't quite as easy to get to. We had to walk a few hundred yards on large, wet boulders which were very slippery. The waterfalls were pretty dry while we were there, but they were still beautiful.
Shane on the boulders
Jess and Shane at the falls 
Wednesday, November 29th
Wednesday was a travel day for us. We spent the morning relaxing by the pool, then we packed up our bags and headed off to Kauai. In Kauai, we picked up our new rental car (a mustang convertible) and took off for our hotel. We spent the remainder of the day relaxing at our hotel.
Thursday, November 30th
On Thursday, we set out to see the sights of Kauai. Our first stop was Opaeka'a Falls. The falls seemed nice from the lookout, but we thought that wasn't close enough, so we followed the directions in our guide book (and a high recommendation from our friend Nick) to climb down a trail (if you can call it that) to the bottom of the falls. So we started off on our trek. The first part of the trail was no problem...until we reached the stream. We had a few discussions on whether we should proceed - were wet muddy tennis shoes worth it?? But we finally decided to continue on.
Shane crossing the stream
After crossing the stream, we made our way through a forest to a clearing. After crossing the clearing, we hit the trees again and made our way down a very steep trail (thank goodness for the ropes that some locals put up to help us down the incline.)
Shane climbing down the incline
On our way to the Falls
Finally we made it to the bottom of the falls. It was breathtaking! We were the only ones down there and had the whole place to ourselves.
Opaeka'a Falls
After the falls we continued on our road trip. The next stop was Ha'ena Beach. Unfortunately, the waves were huge on the north side of Kauai so we didn't do any swimming.
Then it was on to Ke'e Beach (that's as far as the road goes on the North side of Kauai.) 
You can see the beginning of the Na Pali coast from Ke'e Beach...
A tree on the beach - all its dirt washed away
...crossed over a lava shelf and some large lava rocks...
...and arrived at Queen's Bath. We weren't able to swim in it due to the high surf, but it was still cool to see.
Friday, December 1st
On Friday, we decided to check out the Na Pali coast in the northwest part of Kauai. It is only accessible by boat or foot (an 11 mile 2+ day hike), so we, of course, choose the boat ride. We saw a ton of dolphins and even a few whales on the way...
The Na Pali Coast was breathtaking...
Shane even did some snorkeling on the trip and saw a ton of fish...
After we got off the boat, we headed on to the Waimea Canyon...
On the way down the canyon, Shane was the winner of the Miss Kauai contest...
Our next and final stop of the trip was to the Spouting Horn (a small lava shelf where water from waves is thrust through an opening causing water and air to squirt out a blowhole)...
That night we watched the sun set at Spouting Horn national park. It was our last Hawaiian sunset...
Saturday, December 2nd
Saturday was our last day in Hawaii. We spent the morning relaxing at the hotel and headed to the airport that afternoon for our trip home. We arrived in Minneapolis the next morning at 6:00 am. It was freezing!! Lucky for us, Shane's grandpa picked us up at the airport so we were able to hop into a warm car (thanks for the ride Grandpa Dineen!)
Well, that about sums up our trip. We had a wonderful time and look forward to returning!!
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