Next day was the long drive Kapalua to Lahaina. We weren’t planning on going there but a friend from Mexico that spent some months living here recommended it so we went for it. The plan was to make several stops so we first parked the car near the Hyatt Resort and ran along the Kaanapali beach trail for around 5 kilometers round. When we were walking back to the car we couldn’t resist the temptation to jump into a cave pool in one of the resorts, we figured no one was going to notice if we took a 5 minute dip and so we did. 

We then drove and peaked into the hidden Honolua Trail to find that as the many cars parked on the road suggested, it was packed so we decided not to stay there for long and drove to Kapalua Beach which is much wider and had cristal waters but it was midday and there has absolutely no shade for cover so we walked the trail along the cliffs with beautiful views to find a spot to jump in from and say hello to the turtles that were swimming around.

From there we went to Airport Beach and chilled at the beach park for a while. We read and rested from the walk and the sun and got hungry enough to drive to Lahaina to eat a big burger and stroll around the small, pretty town.

For the next four nights we stayed in one of the best places of the whole trip, a little cabin that shared the same terrain as the owner’s house but had it’s own parking spot, terrace and was fully equipped with a bathroom and kitchen. This place was past the small town of Paia with it’s Paia Fish Market that turned out to have delicious options on the menu and was a great option so we had lunch there once and then dinner on the next day. Ho’okipa Beach Park was also on the way to our place and it had a lookout over a cliff that was full of crosses put there to remember surfers that had died on that beach over the years. We stayed there and saw some surfers on what looked like very popular waves but it was also full of windsurfers. We later found out that this is a favorite spot for turtles to come out to the sand to take the sun and rest so it’s very likely to find some.

We checked and read around to find out what a moderate hike would be best to spend a morning and decided on Waihee Ridge Trail that is a big climb and a bit tough on the legs but also not so long and the views all along the way are breathtaking. 

Our AirBnB/ Cabin was so cool that we didn’t mind staying there and taking it easy every now and then, we had fresh fruit there and a balcony and we could read and chill and enjoy our company.

The next day we prepared for what we had marked as one of the most exciting days of our trip. The Road To Hana. It’s a mile long curvy-as-hell road that takes you to Hana, but what makes it so fun is that all along the way, there’s waterfalls, beaches and small towns that are worth visiting, so we asked around, read the guide, googled and made our own list of the mile markers where we should stop. It was like treasure hunting, every stop was hidden behind a curve or marked along the way in a not so obvious way, although the eventual bunch of cars parked along made you think there should be something worth seeing. 

Driving the road is an adventure itself, but driving it in an old Camry was even more adrenaline-filled. I was nervous but very attentive most of the time. If I hadn’t been driving I would have been brutally car-sick.

Our favorite stops were at Wai'anapanapa State Park that has a small and very beautiful Black Sand Beach, and the Ke’ane Peninsula that has a friendly seaside village with a 1860’s church and the claim of having the best Banana Bread in the region which we can’t confirm because we missed it for five minutes.

There was a second day destined for The Road To Hana and we planned to visit the closer attractions like the Bamboo Forest, but the rain was so bad, it made it hard to see while driving and impossible to walk when we got out of the car. So we decided to drive back to a mall and watch one of the worst movies Sam and I had ever watched together: The Miracle Season. The ironic thing was that the final and cheesiest scene and credits played over the song Sweet Caroline which is one of the songs we played on our wedding with friends and family all singing along; we should’ve seen that one coming. 

We flew back to Oahu for a second impression of the biggest city in the islands convinced to make the best of the couple of days we had left in Hawaii.

The Ala Moana Mall is huge and kind of unappealing, but across the street from it, lies the Ala Moana Beach Park, a very big stretch between Honolulu and Waikiki that is supposed to be were the locals go and has a different feel to it, compared to Waikiki.

We visited downtown Honolulu and we caught a break from the tourist life, there were hobos galore, dirty streets and locals doing their day to day routines. We visited some food markets and found some hard to resist bargains at Ross: Dress For Less.

Hawaii has a very strong recycling culture, there’s containers separating plastic all over the place and we can say that with the exception of some beach parks and downtown Honolulu, every place we visited was astonishingly clean and that is definitely something to praise.

Since we didn’t rent a car in Oahu because it is more accesible by public transport and parking seems to be expensive and troubling, half a day was invested going to Kailua by bus, a beach where Paradise Soccer store is, and where pick-up soccer matches are held some days. Sam tagged along because she loves me and is such a great wife but there wasn’t much in this for her. The store was open and so nice but we weren’t lucky enough to find people playing at the beach. The good thing is we ate at Kono’s and it turned out to be one of our favorite meals in the trip, and we walked a lot and got to experience a bit more of Oahu, other than just Waikiki and the Honolulu area. 

One of the most popular treks near the Waikiki area is the Manoa Falls Trail, it can be reached by a public bus that drives through a very nice neighborhood and was one of the busiest we hiked on this trip. The 2.5km (round trip) path was muddy, it’s supposed to be one of the earlier Hawaiian trails and it’s right in the middle of a tropical forest so there’s a strong lushy sense of being in the Hawaii you often see in movies and that felt nice.

Hawaii will undoubtedly always be remembered as one of the best trips of our lives not only because it’s paradise with its picture perfect sceneries and unspoiled nature, but because it was a celebration of our union and the strong love we were lucky enough to find in one another.