It’s the first T-SQL Tuesday of 2021, and James Mcgillivray (b|t) is our host for January’s edition of this monthly blog party.  This month’s topic is around how we escape with vacation/holiday plans.  They gave us a few options on what to blog about and I’m going to take you on a virtual trip to Hawaii.

What is the best vacation/holiday you’ve ever had?

The best holiday I’ve ever had would have to be my honeymoon to Hawaii in 2018.  We spent 10 days exploring two islands and it was fantastic.  This is a great prompt as it has encouraged me to look back at my photos from that time and record some memories.  I have a pretty horrible memory, but that trip I will never forget. I hope that as you follow along with this post it will take you on a virtual holiday, welcome to ‘Team Jelcie’s Hawaii Honeymoon’.

First stop Maui

We got married on Saturday 27th of October 2018 in Ohio, not far from where we were living.  We were lucky to be surrounded by friends and family from both sides of the Atlantic, and apart from the constant rain all day, we had an amazing time.

The following Monday we boarded a plane for Maui, Hawaii. It’s actually a longer flight time from Ohio to Maui than it is from Ohio to England.  Until we started planning this trip I had no idea how far off the coast of the continental USA it actually is.

One of the benefits of this long flight time, jet lag had us waking up really early the first few days. We brewed some coffee in the room and took it down to the beach.  We were treated to the most amazing sunrises. The longer we stood there the more impressive the colours.

We’d planned our honeymoon using a travel agent,  so we pre-booked several excursions for our time away. The first being a sunset sail, which didn’t disappoint, since the sunsets were almost as beautiful as the sunrises.

The second excursion was one of the top memories of the trip, a snorkelling excursion to Molokini, a ‘crescent-shaped, partially submerged volcanic crater’. I have never seen such clear water- you could see the bottom of the ocean and it was 40m deep in parts.  Also so many fish, every shape and size and colour. It was fantastic. 

We also hiked, dropped into a Crossfit gym, relaxed and ate plenty of delicious food, before it was time to board a flight to the next stop of our trip.

Second island – Kauai

A short flight and we were on our second island.  At the airport I surprised Kelc by renting a Jeep for us to drive, her dream car, and it made our options of exploring Kauai a lot easier. 

The first picture I have, apart from the Jeep, was this Poke bowl.  We found this stand inside a grocery store, and it was probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten – this was not the only time we ate this within our few days here.

This island felt totally different from Maui. Maui wasn’t that commercialised, but Kauai was even less so. We definitely felt like we were enjoying island life in all its glory.

We love to hike and we were not disappointed. One of the days we took the Jeep up to Waimea Canyon and hiked several miles into these hidden waterfalls.  There was a lot of elevation gain and at some points there were helicopters flying in the canyon beneath us.

We were also lucky to see some Hawaiian Monk Seals. I love seals, so it was amazing to see them rock up on to the beach to rest in the sun for the day.  They are protected so when they do beach themselves volunteers run out and cordon them off so they are protected for the day.  When the sun sets they roll and wiggle down the beach and back into the ocean, prompting the volunteers to collect their signs and wait to see where they appear the next day. 

Our third excursion was an ATV trip through a historic sugar plantation. This was great- we got filthy and had a lot of fun touring around beautiful scenery that’s featured in many movies, including Jurassic Park, although we saw no dinosaurs.

Summary

Overall we both thoroughly enjoyed this holiday, a great mix of relaxation and adventure.  I think we would both say that Maui was our favourite of the two islands, but Kauai offered a great second perspective of what Hawaii is all about.

I really enjoyed looking back over my Hawaii trip, and I hope you enjoyed this virtual holiday in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.

What’s next?

If I was to write about my next dream holiday, it would be the Maldives. Back in June, when we had almost nothing to look forward to, we booked a 10 day holiday in the Maldives for January 16th, 2021. It felt like ages away, and surely things would be better by then. Well, if you’re reading this when it was posted, that’s next week, and it’s already been postponed.

We’re now a couple of weeks into our third lockdown in the UK and we’re hoping we’ll get to take the trip in April now, fingers crossed.