Saturday, Sunday and Monday

Saturday {2-26-11}
Move out day from the med student house. Got up early and started cleaning, packing and cleaning some more. Here are some pictures of the house my classmates and I stayed in.

The kitchen. We had way more than enough stuff in this kitchen including about 50+ plates, 75 glasses, and hundreds of spoons and forks. I'm thinking that the owners of this home tend to not throw anything away...it probably keeps accumulating here - ha!

The "master bedroom" that Kelsey and I shared. We had a fantastic view of the ocean!

Our living room. {Hi Ryan!}

Part of the lanai which wrapped all the way around the house.

A view down the driveway to the ocean.

View of the house from the road.

Once the house was pretty much cleaned, Ryan and I headed into our rental house in Kona and hung out with our parents for the rest of the day. {I took a snooze when I got there....it was a good thing - ask Ryan}. Later in the evening, Wade and Sean came over for dinner prior to Wade checking his flight off the island. We made steak and veggie kabobs on the grill. It was delicious.

Sunday {2-27-11}
We loaded up the SUV and headed out the explore the south part of the island. I had my trusty Big Island Revealed book to guide us. My intention for the day was going to a green sand beach. The first green sand beach on the map was six miles down an unpaved 6 mile long road which according to Big Island Revealed needed a 4WD vehicle to access. No problem - we have 4WD! After missing the turn the first time, we turned around and started venturing down a road which I wasn't completely sure was the Road to the Sea but I figured we'd give it a try. Well, the road kept going and I was pretty sure it was the right road as I could see it leading to, well, the sea! We averaged about 5 mph. It was a bumpy ride to say the least. We got half way there before we stopped the vehicle and got out to inspect the road ahead of us. Unfortunately our 4WD vehicle didn't have enough clearance to make it over some of the spots in the road and we had to turn around :( Bummer!

Dad and I headed to check it out while Mom documents the adventure!

I was so bummed. I could follow this all the way down the the green sand beach but we just weren't able to make it {at least not without damaging our rental}.

 So we turned around. At one point we all had to bail out of the car as we got stuck on a rock and happened to burn a little rubber attempting to get over it. Once we were all back in the car we headed back up the bumpy little unpaved road. Meanwhile, we met Jeep Wranglers headed down to the ocean with their surf boards :( How much to hitch a ride? When we were almost back out onto the main road, we saw these two animals up ahead. They were big, like pigs but with huge tails. We figured they must be dogs. The disappeared into the woods. That is until we were driving past them when one of these ferocious puppies came running after us, barking like mad. I bolted to the window switch as there was no way I wanted him jumping into the window. It would have resulted in multiple stitches. I can't even image what this dog would have done had someone been walking by - yikes!

On the {regular} road again. We were on our way to South Point - the southernmost point in the United States {not Key West as many people assume}.

There was interesting landscape at South Point...

...and huge waves

This is the southernmost point in the United States.

Looking at something cool {I think it was little crabs running around}.

There is a little trail just to the north of this beach which leads to another green sand beach but we weren't able to hike there as everyone was with. Oh well, I'll put a green sand beach on my bucket list.

Look out Ryan!

After leaving South Point we stopped for lunch at the Southernmost bar in the United States in Na'alehu.

The service was slow, but the food was good. After eating we continued on to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. Once there I saw this sign...

and then I got to see this...

Hello Mr. Sea Turtle. I'm happy to see you sunning yourself.

My dad and me checking out the sea turtles in the water.

This one hung on to the food it was eating while the waves came through.

It was nice to watch this sea turtle until this tour bus full of Japanese people came and literally swarmed us :( They, all of a sudden, were everywhere with there cameras going nuts. Time for us to head out because they were taking over the beach.  On our walk back to the car, there was karaoke going on in this little pavilion. O.M.G. there was someone singing who 1) didn't know the words to the song 2) sounded like they could have been consuming a fair number of adult beverages as the pitch was so incredibly off and/or 3) did not speak English as their primary language. lol - it was worth a good laugh :)

Monday {2-28-11}
Goodbye Big Island. Hello Maui!

We got up somewhat early, cleaned and packed up our stuff prior to heading to the airport for our flights to Maui. We were all on three separate flights which left at varying times. As Ryan and I were getting dropped off at the terminal by the rental car company, I got a call from our airline notifying us that our flight was going to be delayed 1-2 hours :( So after hanging out with our parents for a bit, we decided to check in and wait in the airport terminal since we were already there. There was a super long line for Ryan and I. We were behind this guy from Alaska who had a terrible sunburn on his upper body. He was a little odd as well. Anyways, one of the flights to Maui on our airline had been canceled that morning so getting to the ticket counter took f.o.r.e.v.e.r! Once we were next in line, one of the employees asked if we were on the 1245p canceled flight. Nope, we were on the 115p flight. She gave us a look, asked our last name and then told us she'd be back. Ryan and I figured something bad was going to happen, like the flight was canceled or something and we were going to be stuck on the big island {not that that in itself is entirely bad by any means}. She came back and told us we needed to go to the commuter terminal which was about a half mile away. Once we got to the commuter terminal we saw our plane...

Woo hoo - gotta love little puddle jumpers!

While waiting at the "ticket counter" we were joined by some military servicemen...

They meant business I guess - ha!

There was absolutely no security at this terminal. Once the flight was ready to leave, they called us by name to get onto the plane. The plane was a little 9-seater. Once we were all on, the pilot jumps in, turns around in his seat and said "I just need to go over some safety information with you guys. The exit is where you came on the plane." He then turned around and we were on our way. lol

The view from my window.

I was pretty darn close to the wheel.

Once we landed, we got our luggage....

...went to Alamo to pick up our rental van, met up with my parents, stopped at K-Mart to pick up a few groceries and then headed to our rental house where we had to enter a code to open the gate to our private estate. Talk about feeling like a VIP.

The view to the ocean from our lanai.

The private pool and hot tub!

More on the rental house here in Maui and what we've been up to since we got here tomorrow. I'm hitting the hay.

~Ashley