Molokai

With a three day holiday weekend approaching and both of us desperately needing to scratch our travel itch we booked a puddle jumper to one of Maui's neighboring islands, Molokai. Zach found a couple of lodging options on AirBnB and sent an email that said, "what do you think honey, this condo or this rustic and reasonably priced sailboat?" Sleep on a boat?! Yes,please!

That little board that Zach is walking on in the image below was our entrance and exit to the boat. No casualties, thankfully.

Flowers on the table care of Dusty who rented us the van. Nobody wants to live on a stinky sailboat.

We rented a van from a local guy, Dusty from Mo Bettah Car Rentals. We were talking story with him and I brought up Eddie Vedder (the frontman of Pearl Jam, duh) and how he owns a house on Molokai. Dusty nonchalantly says, "oh yea, Eddie, I've jammed with him before." Did he see my eyes bulging out of their sockets after he said that?! Probably not, he is just that chilllll. I think it takes a lot for anyone on Molokai to get riled up. It definitely is a relaxed, zen kind of island. Our first stop with the newly acquired rental was papohaku beach on the west side of the island. Pictured below are a few hitchers (legal in Hawaii, you rule followers) and their pups we picked up on the way. I've got a personal project I'm working on so check back to learn more about these humans :).

Now, that beach. I have to say it was one of the most picturesque beaches I've ever seen. Pure white sand for three miles, aqua blue water, and completely deserted! These photos were taken on the 4th of July - nobody on the beach!!! We ran into was a couple from Oahu and exchanged a brief "holy shit, there is nobody here, this is craziness" sentence. Then the guy ran back into the ocean to look for more shells in the surf. It was pretty fantastic.

There is an old, vacated Shereton on one side of the beach that hasn't been in business since 2004. While I was snapping some pics Zach got stung by a bee and I took that as our cue to get the heck out of there - the ghost hotel was giving the creepy vibe for sure!

The rest of our time was spent taking leisurely drives, short hikes, swimming, and taking in the relaxing energy. Molokai is definitely a nice respite from our tourist driven island. With the majority of the people living on Molokai hunting, fishing, and essentially just 'living off the land' the feeling there is like nothing else I've felt. We will be back to get away from it all again.

Morning light on the bow

Haleakalā

Haleakalā, meaning house of the sun is truly a magical place. This dormant volcano formed more than 75% of Maui and if you get a day with clear visibility during sunrise or sunset at the top it will take your breathe away. Below are images from our most recent excursion where we were gifted with a beautiful sunset.

The Hana Highway

Zach and I have taken quite a few scenic drives within the last couple of years, and I'm happy to report back to the blogosphere that the Hana highway is one of the most beautiful drives we've been on to date (subtle hint to friends and family to start saving your dollar bills for plane tickets :). The legendary road to Hana is a 63 mile loop consisting of one-lane bridges, hairpin turns and is filled with island eye-candy. I felt like we were driving through a movie set with lush rainforests, rushing waterfalls, and some pretty crazy trees and plants. "What the shit? Is this real?" ran through my head more than once that day.

The highway has pull offs every mile or two that offer hiking, swimming in pools and waterfalls and scenic overlooks. I gripped my camera in the passenger seat barking that we needed to stop at like, every single one of them but luckily my driver thinks ahead and new that we would never get to our campsite by dark if we stopped at every. single. pull-off. So we saved some stops for next time and even managed to sneak in a stop at Hana Farm's farm-to-table pizza stand to eat a delicious pie.

With full bellies we rushed to set up camp as the last light of the day crept behind the horizon. When the morning came we groggily made our way out of the tent to watch the sun rise over the Paciic. It was so quiet and kinda magical.

We hiked the Pipiwai trail in the afternoon and were welcomed into a charming bamboo forest and greeted by a 400 foot waterfall at the end.

The back half of the highway starts as rainforest, changes to high desert, and then goes back to rainforest again. I think a weather geek would be giddy on this whole stretch of the highway.

We had a blast and are excited to explore more areas next time!

** Photography peeps - all of these images were shot with the 50mm 1.4 lens and Canon 5d classic.