Hawaii Part 3

 I'm excited to post more this summer and to join some link-ups that are going on, so hopefully I can wrap up Hawaii in just one more post after this one. Enjoy part three!! 

Day 7

We woke up bright and early, excited about our activity for the morning...a helicopter ride! We really weren't planning on doing many more activities where we would get to see the island, so I was super pumped to really get to see things in a way I never had before. Ben's mom didn't want to go, so she stayed back with Henley.

We made the hour drive back to the airport with a quick detour on the side of the road to take some pictures of the view. I'm not going to lie...I was a bit nervous. After having a baby, I choose my activities a little differently now, or at least think about them a little more. When our pilot came over to talk to us, I felt a bit better. Unfortunately, this morning, there were a lot of clouds in the sky and it was raining in certain places on the island, so we couldn't go over the road to Hana or above the Crater. It actually turned out to be awesome, because we got to go over to two other islands instead.

We got to see Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. Of course each island was beautiful, but they all had their highlights. Molokai has the highest sea cliffs and a fringing reef that were both beyond beautiful. The majority of Molokai is untouched and only able to be seen via helicopter, so it was amazing to go through the valleys and see so many waterfalls. Our pilot was incredibly knowledgeable and I was very interested to hear everything he said. Molokai also has a famous peninsula, called Lepers Peninsula. It is where they used to send the lepers to live in seclusion. There are still six lepers living on it today.

We mostly just saw the edge of Lanai. It is known for its shipwrecks because of the current the other islands push towards it and the way the sand juts out. We flew above a WWII ship that was wrecked on the shore and there were a number of other local boats stranded on the beach. After seeing Lanai, we went back to Maui and flew over everything there. It's just so neat to see how Hawaii has pretty much everything...rainforests, waterfalls, dessert, etc. I highly recommend a helicopter ride if you can!

When we got back to the resort, we found that Henley had made some awesome friends! She played with two littler girls, 7 and 11 for the majority of the morning and they had a great time. They definitely wore her out, because when we sat down to lunch, Henley fell asleep eating her pickle and Ben had to take her upstairs for her nap!

The rest of the day was spent at the pool before we got showered and ready for dinner. We ate at Leilani's on the Beach and it did not disappoint. It's in Whaler's Village which is a neat place to walk around and shop. While we waited for our table, Henley walked around and listened to music and made friends with another baby her age. She did great at dinner and we all enjoyed our meals! The fish tacos were amazing! This was one of my favorite days in Hawaii!

Day 8

Day eight was a pretty relaxing, chill day. The guys had a round of golf scheduled, but it wasn't until later in the morning, so we all headed down to the pool until they had to leave. Once they left, Katie and I played at the pool with Henley all morning. We ate lunch at the pool and right as I was about to take Henley up for a nap, her friends from the day before showed up. I just didn't have it in me to take her away, so she pushed through and stayed up for about another two hours. She had a blast!

After I put Henley down for a nap, I headed back down to the pool, but it didn't last long. The majority of the morning we got sprinkled on while the sun was still out, but that afternoon it poured. I laid under a towel for about 5 minutes trying to keep the monitor safe before I decided it wasn't worth it and would rather enjoy our balcony in my comfy robe. It was a good decision. It rained all afternoon, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading on the balcony and getting in a quick workout before getting ready for dinner.

Ben left it up to me to choose dinner, so I looked up a few places on my phone and settled on one pretty quickly. Since we were eating seafood pretty much every other night, I thought a Mexican meal on the beach would be pretty fun. We went to Frida's and absolutely loved it! It is right on the beach. The guy who brought our car around at the hotel suggested that we get the ahi chorizo there it did not disappoint. We had a great time talking and enjoying each other's company in such a beautiful place!

Day 9

This was probably my second favorite day in Hawaii! We were up bright and early for breakfast and to get ready for the Hula Girl,  a huge catamaran that was taking us around the island. They picked us up on the beach where our friends were staying, so we headed over there around 9. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about Henley being on the boat all day, but she was such a trooper! 

We spent the day enjoying the sun and each other's company, scuba diving or snorkeling and eating wonderful food! We sat up front for a little bit, but Ben found a better spot up with the captain where there was more shade and we stayed there until they talked to us about scuba diving. Henley fell asleep during the presentation! 

We found a comfy spot for her with Ben's mom and Ben and I headed down to get ready for our dive. The dive was really neat! We saw a lot of large sea turtles and other things like sea urchins and of course, colorful fish! I'm not a huge fan of diving, but I usually go because Ben loves doing it together. This dive was different than the others I've been on because, well...sharks. No, we didn't see any, but I'm very aware that Hawaii has them and I didn't love being in the open water. The other dives I've done have been in Grand Cayman and it's crystal clear with zero sharks! 

After the dive, we just enjoyed our friends and family on our way back to the hotel. Coincidentally, the place they dropped us off was where Ben wanted to go cliff jumping. The original plan was for him and I to do it together, but once I saw the rocks you had to climb to get there I was out. I had no intention of cutting up my feet along the way! Ben did it though and had a blast! He even managed a pretty awesome front flip on his dismount! 

We stuck around the beach for a little while because the waves were pretty awesome. Ben and his sister decided to try to body surf in and got a little beat up. After once of the waves flipped Katie, we thought it was probably a good idea to wash off in the pool and get Miss Henley back to the hotel for another shot at a nap. 

We were all pretty beat from the sun and fun, but we managed to get ready for dinner and go to the Banyan Tree. It was at our hotel and right by the pool, so it was the perfect spot for a night that we all didn't want to go too far. The food was delicious! I literally ate and ran because Henley was pretty restless and tired. Once she was done, we headed up to the room, watched an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and hit the hay. We were beat from a fabulous day!