Final Days in Maui

After the road to Hana, we needed some time to recoup - so we hung out by the pool, relaxed in the hot tube (heaven!!!) and read books all while enjoying the awesome lush tropical landscape at our rental house. On Thursday afternoon we headed into a beach - unfortunately I can't remember the name and I don't have my book with me to look it up. I'll eventually get the name. It was a reddish sand beach and there weren't a ton of people there either which was nice. Ryan and I swam in the ocean for a while and then relaxed on the beach. I read my book and Ryan just laid there trying to roast himself rid of his Minnesota white skin - ha!

My parents checking out the wave active.

My mom has been having a little respiratory infection and happened to have a pretty bad coughing fit while we were at the beach which scared both her and my dad. Have no worried - Dr. Thorson and Dr. Tiegs to the rescue!! It's crummy to be sick on vacation. Anyways, we were able to stop by pharmacy at Kmart and then we were on our way home.

Once we dropped everyone off, Ryan and I went back to the Ho'okipa park to watch the surfers. There were tons of surfers catching waves that night and some of them were really good (unlike me during my first time surfing - ha!) Here come 30+ pictures from the park. Brace yourself!

I liked this sign on the way to the park. It says "Falling (in love) Rocks"

Lots of surfers waiting for waves.

Big waves.

It looks like this surfer is about to bite the dust but he actually continued to ride the wave out.

Lots of surfers!

It's a blowhole!

Show off!

Can you see the surfer that caught some good air behind the wave?!

This paddle-border was going to town.

Lots and lots of surfers at this park!

Surfer down!

Friday was our last full day on the island and it rained for a vast majority of the day. It was a little humid and windy in the morning and I took my book down by the pool to read and relax. Then all of a sudden is got cold and I knew rain wasn't far behind! Sure thing. Just a few minutes after I got back into the house it started to air. It was an awesome rain. You can hear it rain on the roof of our house and you could look out over the valley and see the rain - it was really pretty. Unfortunately, I forgot to unload the pictures from the camera onto my computer and I'm now up in Duluth for my neurology rotation while my camera is back home in Owatonna. When I go home this week, I'll have to load them on my computer and upload them here. But in the mean time, believe me, it was really pretty. Other than running in to town to grab a few quick things, we relaxed around the house and on the lanai, packed up my stuff and took a nap (or two). Ryan even took a nap - proof is still on my camera. Steve and Renee (Ryan's parents) went to Lahaina to do some shopping for the day. When they got home, they gifted me with a nice pair of coconuts in the bra form. They are encouraging me to where them underneath my graduation gown....I'll have to think about that - ha! (Ryan also has a, we'll just say "special" shirt that he would like me to wear under my gown as well.) We had some fantastic pork chops on the grill that night and I think they were the most moist pork chops I had ever eaten. They were individually wrapped in tin foil with different veggies. They were so good! I'll be making pork chops on the grill this way again for sure!

Saturday morning, mine and Ryan's flight to Honolulu left early in the morning. We got up early and left the house by 6am. We even had time to eat breakfast in the morning thanks to my dad making making scrambled eggs and pineapple bacon sausage - YUM! Steve and Renee also had an early morning flight to Honolulu (not the same flight as Ry and I) so they took us to the airport. My parent's flight back to Kona didn't leave til later that afternoon so they got to hang out at the house for a little longer.

Once Ryan and I got to Honolulu, we had to wait for a couple hours before checking into our flight to Chicago. (Our flight pattern for the day was supposed to be Maui to Honolulu to Kona to Honolulu to Chicago to Minneapolis. I tired contacting to airlines to get the Honolulu to Kona to Honolulu flights off our schedule, but everytime I talked to the airline - which was multiple times! - they told me we would have to pay to change our itinerary and if we didn't show up for a flight, it would change the rest of our flights for the day.) Since we were dealing with multiple airlines, we just had our bags short checked to Honolulu, we picked them up in baggage claim and then checked them into American Airlines for the flight to Chicago/MSP. Well it worked without a problem! We just had to wait a little bit for workers to show up at the American Airlines counter. We had to pay to check our bags to Honolulu but when we went to check them to Chicago/MSP for some reason, both Ryan and I got to check two bags for free. Sweet! So we checked everything. Carrying on bags can be a hassle sometimes. After we checked into our flight back to the mainland, we met up with Ryan's cousin Marina and her husband Tyler. They picked us up and we had lunch. It was so nice to see them. They recently moved to Oahu as this is where Tyler is stationed in the military. Marina and Tyler just found out they are expecting their first child so it was fun to talk OB with Marina! I have a picture, but Ryan has it on his phone :( I'll post it later.

The flight to Chicago was terrible! At first I wasn't tired so I just read my book, but I couldn't get comfortable. Then when I was tired, it was even worse trying to get comfortable. I think I maybe slept for 2 hours, maybe, max. That is a long flight from Honolulu to Chicago. If I was smart, I would have booked I ticket that connected in LA or somewhere West, instead of East, of my final destination. Lesson learned. Once on the flight from Chicago to MSP, I was out. The last thing I remember is the flight attendant inserting the one end of the buckle into the other. I slept the entire flight. I was sleeping by the time we took off and I woke up seconds before we touched down to the kid in front of us screaming "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...."

Once we got off the plane and walked to baggage claim, our luggage was there waiting for us so there was no delay. Once we loaded up the car, I was sleeping within probably three minutes on getting on the interstate and I didn't wake up until we were taking the 26th St Exit into Owatonna! (Mind you, it is now Sunday....yes it is a very long flight.) Once we actually got to our house, we carried our suitcases inside and went directly to bed and slept for another 4-5 hours straight.

They say the best part of going on vacation is coming home!   :)

~Ashley