The Trip of a Lifetime - Hawaii
In November of 2009, I took the trip of a lifetime, all thanks to Pure Romance. In my four and a half years as a consultant this was the first incentive trip I ever earned. I guess it was the chance to go to Maui, Hawaii that really got my attention and put a little fire under my tush work towards it. I also had the opportunity to bring a guest and the first person I thought of was my mom. How awesome to not only win an all-expense paid trip, but to also bring my mother along!
So after 9 ½ hours in a plane, we finally arrived in beautiful Maui. When we pulled up at the Westin Maui Resort, we were immediately ‘lei’d’ with a beautiful shell necklace. This was just the first of many lei’s in Hawaii! After we checked in and took our bags to our room, I ran to the door to check out the view – yep ocean view! But the difference between the ocean view room in Maui versus someplace else is that you have islands to look at as well. We then freshened up and headed out to Whalers Village, the outdoor mall right next door to our resort for dinner. To our surprise it got dark at 6pm. In a place as beautiful as Maui, you would think that we would get more daylight hours to enjoy, but not so. With the travel and the time change (home was four hours ahead), we were fast asleep by 8pm. Incredible; for such a night owl like me.
The next morning we woke up early, well for me anyway. It was only 7am. We got ready to spend the day by the pool, but on the way down we stopped by the concierge and planned our excursions for our week in Maui. Once we got to the pool it was like we were visiting family as we ran into consultant after consultant and even Patty, Chris, Jessica, Cheryl and Heather. It’s a great feeling to be so far from home but feel like you are with family.
After a day by the pool and in the sun, it was time to get ready for our welcome dinner with our sister Pure Romance consultants and their guests and of course Patty and Chris. We were welcomed pool side and guess what? We got lei’d again! Yes! But this time it was a beautiful fresh plumeria lei. We smelled beautiful all night. Who needs perfume when you have a lei around your neck? The evening began with a very special announcement by Patty that Heather Holthaus was biting the bullet. We all thought she was leaving us – but instead we were all ecstatic to hear that earlier in the day Heather’s long time boyfriend Mike proposed to her. How romantic and what a lucky girl!
We enjoyed a wonderful meal and the camaraderie of all the consultants and then shortly thereafter we called it an early night. I have to say that I didn’t believe it when I heard that people didn’t stay up too late in Hawaii. The fresh ocean air and time change really puts you out of sorts in a good way and has you going to bed early (9pm –ish) and waking early (7am –ish) everyday.
On Saturday we woke up extra early to be ready to meet our tour bus for The Road to Hana. Everyone that we spoke to before our trip that had experienced Maui said we HAD to do the Road to Hana, so we listened and weren’t disappointed. Quite a few consultants rented Jeeps and took the Road to Hana on their own, while we decided we’d rather be passengers as our vehicle drove along the curvy, steep, winding roads. For those of you who haven’t been to Maui, the Road to Hana is a circle of the entire island of Maui and it takes about 12 hours from start to finish with many stops along the way. Our tour started with a continental breakfast ocean side as we were able to have a photo opportunity. Along the way we experienced the beautiful mountains and waterfall after waterfall. We stopped at the black sand beaches and I made sure I dipped my feet in the sand and got a picture with my pink toes in the black sand – my favorite Pure Romance colors! After that we stopped for lunch in Hana where we saw the local bar that Willie Nelson stops in and plays at when he’s in town. After lunch we headed to the infamous 7 Sacred Pools, our driver showed us where Oprah owns acres and acres of ocean front land that she will not develop to keep sacred to the island. But don’t worry; she has a mansion on the other side of the island!
When we reached the 7 Sacred Pools the driver warned us that it would take 10 minutes to get to them and 20 minutes back. And he wasn’t kidding! The hike through the woods was definitely worth the amazing site. The 7 Sacred Pools are waterfalls that the lava rock created that go out to the ocean. We took pictures at all different levels and even snuck out to take pictures on the bridge. And we had to watch out because it was a one lane road on a very narrow bridge!
On our trip down the mountain we experienced dirt roads and rough terrain, but I have to tell you this was the best part of the trip. Granted the ride was bumpy and I’m sure the tour bus needed an alignment after we had the most beautiful views. It was waterfall after waterfall and jaw dropping memorable views of the crater and Haleakala (the world’s largest dormant volcano). I’ll be honest, I’ve never been one for the mountains, and I’m definitely a water/ocean girl. But the views from the bottom of Haleakala were breathtaking. I couldn’t wait for the tour bus to stop so that I could run outside and take lots and lots of pictures! We made one final stop before we headed back to the resort and it was at a winery. Yes, believe it or not Maui has a winery and they make pineapple wine! We went in for a tasting (where was the wine when we were on all those twists and turns?!?!) It was too sweet for my liking, but definitely worth a sip. The bus ride back was a quiet one as everyone was exhausted from everything that we had experienced during the day. Now I more than understood why everyone so highly recommended this experience. It is one that I will never forget.
Sunday was another pool day. What a life. Get up, throw on a suit, lay by the pool all day, enjoy fruity drinks and then shower and dress for a nice dinner. Sunday night we experienced Lahaina and Front Street. Now the best way to describe Front Street is if you’ve been to any vacation town there is usually a street lined with souvenir shop after souvenir shop. Well that’s exactly was Front Street was, but with 10 times the amount of souvenir shops and the street never seemed to end , plus you had the bonus of being right on the water. We started Front Street by dining at Hard Rock Café – Maui for dinner. It’s a family tradition to stop at each Hard Rock we come across, but this time we were able to dine outside with an ocean view. (Is that about the 10th time I’ve said that? Yes, we were on an island so there is nothing but ocean views, but we made sure to stop and appreciate every view we saw). Once we finished dinner, we explored all the shops of Front Street and finally ended up at the world’s largest Banyan tree. A banyan tree is one where the branches grow downwards creating tree after tree after tree. The tree in Lahaina was planted in 1873 and covers a city block. It’s amazing! After buying some comfortable flip flops (note to self for next time cute high heel sandals are not ideal for Front Street) we headed back to the resort for yet another early night.
Monday came and it was truly another day in paradise. Do you have any idea why Maui is so beautiful? It’s because it’s always sunny and hardly gets any rain. Well at least the side of the island that we were on. They only get about 12 inches of rain a year. And the other interesting thing is that when you are sitting in the sun in the middle of the day you will be sweating when it’s 85 degrees and need a dip in the pool to cool off. But if you are sitting in the shade it is absolutely comfortable and you don’t even work up a sweat. I have never been in this kind of climate, but have to say it was a definite plus. I think I’ll retire there! So another day in paradise was yet another pool day. You’re probably wondering why I’m not mentioning my exploring the ocean. Well I’ll be honest, I’m a complete water girl as I mentioned earlier and if there’s an ocean – I’m typically in it. But the waves were so rough and everyone that I talked to Pure Romance consultants and complete strangers alike were ending up all scraped up and bruised after being in the ocean. So yes, this one and only time the girly girl that I am stayed out of the ocean.
But the pool was good enough for me. Just imagine lying around the pool mingling with other top consultants in the company. Chris and Patty would come around from time to time too! Again, what a life! A trip to Hawaii has always been on my bucket list, but I always just figured it would be further down the road. Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be going to Hawaii all expense paid! This is just another perfect example that if you want something bad enough and you have the opportunity to get it – anything is possible!
So that evening we headed back to Front Street for dinner and enjoyed Cheeseburger in Paradise. How fitting considering we truly were in paradise.
Tuesday we woke up early to go dolphin watching on the ocean. We boarded a boat for a 3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour. And after about 45 minutes we saw a pod of spotted dolphins. They swam alongside our boat for quite some time. And then we saw it the blow of a whale! YES! People were screaming in excitement as whale season is December through May and we were a month early! So we hit the jackpot with this one! Then we saw the swoosh of the large tail as it came above the water. We caught the glimpse of one more tail until they disappeared into the ocean. We spent the rest of our tour looking for those whales again but they stayed in hiding. When our 3-hour tour was almost complete and we were heading back to shore all of sudden we came across a pod of over 100 dolphins. It was amazing! This pod of dolphins were called spinner dolphins because they jump out of the water and spin in the air. It was a beautiful sight to see the dolphins performing for us and a species of dolphin that most of us have never seen as the spinner dolphins cannot be kept in captivity as they get depressed. The boat ride was a great experience and made up for us missing the Pearl Harbor Tour on Monday because they didn’t have enough people on our tour. After that we hit BJ’s Famous Chicago Style Pizza for a great lunch. Nope, not our very own BJ Jones, but don’t you thinks she deserves naming rights? After lunch we headed back to the resort to get ready for a traditional luau.
The coach bus picked up our group and drove us to the Old Lahaina Luau. When we arrived we were welcomed by shirtless Hawaiian men in sarongs and got lei’d yet again with beautiful flowers. Did I mention how much I love Hawaii yet? As we walked into the Luau we grabbed a Mai Tai and a seat and then walked around the grounds viewing different homemade crafts, getting our picture taken, participated in hula dance lessons and then watched the pig get removed from the ground where it was cooking for our traditional luau dinner. When we got back to our seats we enjoyed a wonderful meal and watched an amazing show.
This was the perfect end to the dream vacation. Our stay in Maui was beautiful, breathtaking and truly the trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to go back!!!