Time for some bike and non-bike related material.
As you guys saw in an earlier post…I got married to the woman of my dreams on the 20th of September and the day afterward we headed to Maui for seven full days of honeymoon bliss. Maui is incredible. I could not have asked for a better wedding, honeymoon or new bride…everything was perfect.
So now on to the honeymoon pictures…
So what do you do when you are wearing new rings?
You head to Maui to celebrate!
Haleakala Downhill
We started off the week doing a sunrise bike ride. They make you wear full face helmets on these beat up Fisher hardtails that look like they have been repainted several times. This ended up being our “honeymoon story.” We had a great breakfast at a really cool inn halfway down which made it worth it. But…the clouds came in so we couldn’t see the sunrise over Haleakala and it was COLD most of the way down the 26 mile paved downhill. 2/3’s of the way through…it rained all over us. It was really funny after we were done with it, but for avid cyclists…this ride is rather boring. We were done pretty quickly. I can see doing it for the non-biker who wants an adventure, but for most people reading this post…it probably isn’t for you. We made the best of it and laughed about the rain.
Sunset Dinner Cruise
The next night, we set off on a sunset dinner cruise that was incredible. We got seated with a couple from Arizona that was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. I worry about these kinds of events sometimes because you never know who you are going to be sitting with…we couldn’t have asked for a better couple. We had a blast and it made for a great dinner. Did I mention it also had some great views?
Helicopter Ride
We took a helicopter ride tour through West Maui and Molokai. This goes down as one of the coolest things I have ever done. I could have stayed up there all day long. The views were incredible and the ride was even better. I took more pictures during this than I have for any event…ever. There is nothing like seeing Hawaii from the air.
Royal Lahaina Luau
You can’t go to Hawaii without going to a Luau right? We had heard that the Luau at the resort we were staying at was one of the best on the island, so we checked it out on Friday night. The food was ok, but the entertainment was great. My favorite is when they start playing with the fire. It made for a great show.
Molokini Snorkeling
On Saturday, we took a trip on a snorkeling excursion to Molokini crater and Turtle Island. A friend of mine loaned me is 3mp GoPro camera for the trip because my new shipment hasn’t come in yet, but I should have played with it before the trip. Apparently, I had it pointed straight up in the air for most of the video and stills underwater, but I did get some footage of a Green Sea Turtle 6 inches from my face that I will try to get posted up sometime tomorrow. Swimming with the turtles…who are not scared of people at all…was the best part of this trip. I used to scuba pretty heavily in the Florida Keys, but this was my first turtle experience. Very cool. And there were some great views off the boat here too!
The Royal Lahaina
We stayed at the Royal Lahaina resort and it was incredible. This was the view from our room on the 11th of 12 floors.
I love waking up to that every morning. It made it really hard to come home.
We had some incredible food throughout the week. I think we spent more on food than anything else. The last day (yesterday) we decided to finish off the week by eating at the original Cheeseburger In Paradise. Our first date was at the one in Dunwoody, GA, so it seemed very fitting to round off our honeymoon with this spot.
After lunch, we took her lay to the ocean to return it to nature and say a prayer. That is what you are supposed to do with them from what we were told, so it sounded like a great idea. We headed to the end of the boardwalk and did as we were told. It was really peaceful actually…
Thank you to everyone for the congratulations and well wishes. We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding or honeymoon. Everything was perfect.