Our Honeymoon in Hawaii

James and I were so gosh darn excited for our honeymoon and it couldn't have come at a better time! Life has been quite the roller coaster and I'll do another blog post to touch on that later but for now, let's talk MAUI!

The hubs and I had planned this trip a year in advanced and were more than ready to celebrate our marriage on the beautiful island of Maui. So many people had talked our ears off about how amazing Hawaii is and gave us a million and one "must see" places to add to our list, safe to say we barely scratched the surface! 

James and I went to Maui with the plan to relax as must as possible but by the second day James convinced me that we had to do all the things! And let's just say, I wasn't hard to convince. 

DAY ONE 

The day we arrived, we ate yummy food at Da Kitchen then took a trip to Costco to stock up on the essentials! Then we checked into our room at the Worldmark timeshare in Kihei which was conveniently located across from the most beautiful beach! Of course, that's where we watched our first Hawaii sunset of the trip!



If you go to Hawaii, you are basically destined to stop by the ABC Store about a dozen times. James and I went to multiple ABC Stores during our trip and went at least twice a day. We were hooked! Snacks, hats, shirts, toys, dessert... I mean the list goes on and on. From essentials to trinkets, it's a simple store thats too fun not to shop in! One of the many things we purchased from the ABC Store was highly recommended to us by my sister. POG juice is something she is craving from the islands every so often and boy do we hear about it. So it only made sense to see what the hype was about and man was delicious! I loved it, maybe not as much as my sister but I get the cravings! 

 

At the end of the night we had to get my favorite treat in the history of ever because Maui is the perfect place to get the most amazing shave ice. Y'all don't understand how in love with shave ice I am. My one requirement for our honeymoon was that daily shave ice was a thing and although we didn't have it everyday, we got our fair share of deliciousness. 

 

DAY TWO 

For our first whole day in Maui we started early and went to a presentation at the hotel. Now I know what you are thinking... a timeshare trying to get people to buy blah blah blah but this one was actually really cool and intriguing. Expedia gave a presentation about things to do on the island and the best beaches to hit up and so forth. I won't say this didn't pull us in though because James was SOLD on all the fun things. He wanted to do them all. So we decided to book three excursions. Let me tell you, worth every penny. We booked zip-lining, a helicopter tour, and a sunset dinner cruise. We couldn't have been more pumped. Later that day we had a tour of the Maui Brewing Company which was pretty cool. We learned a lot about the process of making beer and we ended the walk through with a beer tasting, YUM. 

The Maui Brewing Company had the most beautiful view from their restaurant! 

James barely wore a short while driving, he loved the island life.

My most handsome husband!

  

James captured this photo while I was taking
a picture on my phone, it's so cute.

DAY THREE

The third day of our trip was one I was so excited for! Day three was when we had our zip-lining excursion! Before we left for the day we had to stop at the beach because, hello the beach was our front yard! Down the street from the hotel was Maui Gelato and we just had to try it! 

Salted Caramel Gelato, Yes Please!

   
Zip-lining was an experience like no other. The views from up in the trees... unbelievable. I found myself totally hypnotized by the beauty of our surroundings. In addition to the views, it was so fun! James isn't too fond of heights but he faced his fears and had a blast, he went upside down multiple times too! 

NorthShore Zip-lining was so fun! They had the best crew!

Margarita pizza for me and a BBQ burger for
James, which he devoured in seconds.

On our way back from our adventures we had the most yummy dinner at Rock & Brews Paia. Not only was the pizza spot on, the mai tai's were YUM. (disclaimer, they are stroooong!) Let's just say, after dinner I was more than ready for a good nights rest. (Mai tai's + taylor = exhausted).

DAY FOUR  

Day four was full of walking around Lahaina, which is so gosh darn adorable! There are so many little shops to go to. Unfortunately most of my photos are of all the beverages we drank throughout the day, so enjoy the yummy drinks! We walked around a bunch and saw the famous Banyan Tree which by the way was insane! I was in awe of the beauty! Amazing!

Obviously this is only the very beginning of the
tree but man was it breathtaking.

Instagram husband at it again! 

Couldn't resist Dole Whip at the cutest little shop!

I 10/10 recommend stopping by Lulu's Lemonade, it;s
right across from the Banyan tree and was so refreshing! 

The Feast at Lele was the most incredible luau ever! I mean it's the first luau I have ever been to but it was amazing! James and I had our own table and it was in the back which I actually ended up loving because we were the closest to the ocean and had the best sunset seats in the house. The food was delicious and we tried so many new things! I actually have become obsessed with taro rolls in coconut milk, try it! You won't regret it. The performances were so good we couldn't not watch! And the end of the luau fire show was mind blowing! The service was also way amazing and he went totally above and beyond! The whole experience was 5 stars in my opinion!

Move over Pina Coladas, Lava Flows are my
new favorites!

At the Luau they greeted us with yummy drinks, don't
remember what they were but boy were they cute!

The cutest couple took this photo which we loved and are definitely
going to be framing it! 

DAY FIVE

Okay, so day five was probably our favorite day of the trip because it was the helicopter tour day and what you need to know about this excursion is that it was 110% worth every penny! We had the best time! You can't get a better view of the island! We booked our tour through Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. James surprised me with the longest tour which was over an hour long and was the only tour that had a landing and champagne toast. The best ever! We landed on the side of a beautiful green mountain and had champagne and got to take in the beautiful view.

They provided some delicious bubbly from a winery
on the island.

The most insane landing spot!

   

Told you the views were amazing!

After our amazing and packed afternoon, we went to Nalu's for an early dinner and enjoyed the island breeze and the incredibly talented live entertainment. Then we hit up the shave ice shop, Peace Love Shave Ice (not pictured), but adorable and the ladies who run it are so friendly and make the experience so much more fun! Once we finished up our shave ice, we headed to the beach for sunset where James decided to take a quick dip! It was a little chilly that night so he may or may not have regretted him swim just a little.   

Apple Brie Burger and their potato chips. Amazing.

DAY SIX

On day six we started early for the Road to Hana. We knew for a fact that we were not going to do the whole road to hana trek only because we just knew we'd be exhausted! I let James mark the must see spots because he's been before and I was a first timer so I didn't know much of what he had planned for us but I was ready for an adventure! 

James said we HAD to get the banana bread at the
Halfway to Hana store, so good!

DAY SEVEN

On the seventh day of our trip we took a chill day! It was so nice to not do much of anything and just spend the first of the day at the beach! The water was so clear and perfect! We were in the water for so long! I reapplied sunscreen so many times and still managed to get burnt! I pride myself on never allowing myself to get burnt and then bam... darn. For breakfast we had shared a super yummy waffle from Maui Gelato because James saw their millions of toppings and we just had to try it!

We went to cafe @ la plage multiple times during
our trip for iced lattes, so good!

In the evening we had our dinner cruise planned and we were so looking forward to it! For our three year anniversary James took me on a dinner cruise in San Francisco and it was the most romantic and beautiful dinner of our lives. Safe to say we had our expectations set pretty high since it was Maui and not too cheap... When we stepped on the boat it wasn't the most fancy and done up but we found a table and got settled in. It was a little odd because a lot of people were sitting with strangers because there were so many people on board. I don't mind sitting with people I don't know but my anxiety was a little high not knowing if people were going to sit with us. To our surprise, no one did. Which ended up not being a big deal because once we finished eating, we made our way outside and sat at the top and watched the sunset while the band on board played. The views were incredible and made up for the awkward seating arrangements. We had a lot of fun chatting and watching the waves. It ended up being pretty fun and romantic! 

 Day Eight 

This was another much needed chill day and we started off getting yummy cinnamon rolls from Cinnamon Roll Place which was HIGHLY recommended to us and as cinnamon roll lovers, we were excited to try them out! They have multiple different flavor combos you can try but we opted for the original cinnamon rolls. They were delicious and the cream cheese frosting was the perfect topping! While James devoured his, I barely got through half! It was super decadent and rich so milk was definitely needed! The shop is small and a little hidden but worth the find. The best part about it was that is was walking distance from our hotel and near a cute little swim and surf shop. We went back to the hotel for a bit and then headed to the pool! It was so nice to relax and swim in the pool for a bit. There was an awesome waterfall connected to the pool and it was the perfect backdrop for a relaxing afternoon. After a while in the sun we decided to head back to the room and rest because we were exhausted from a week of fun. James picked up dinner from Coconut's Fish Cafe which was located next to where we had breakfast and we ate the most delicious fish tacos on the balcony while sipping on beer (for james) and sparkling wine (for me). Then we headed to the beach to watch the sunset and the best part of the day was jumping into the ocean in my dress and watching the sunset from inside the water. It was random and spontaneous and truly way too much fun. On our way back from the beach we stopped by the ABC store for some dessert and then went back out onto the balcony to listen to the live music next door to our hotel. We danced and drank wine and had the best night! It was such a perfect way to end our last full day in Maui.

Day Nine

This was a bittersweet day because we truly loved our time on the island. I won't lie though, I couldn't wait to get back to the mainland because while we were gone my new baby nephew was born and seeing all the pictures and videos was making my auntie heart so sad! We had pretty much the whole day since our flight wasn't until super late so we decided to hit up Lahaina again! We ate at another highly recommended spot, Duke's for a late lunch/early dinner. It was delicious and we had an incredible view! I had my final lava flow of the trip (insert sad face) and they even gave me another to go, this time a virgin one. We did some more exploring and walked through a bunch of the hotels on the strip and hit up the Starbucks at the Marriott because my sister talked about it constantly after her honeymoon and various trips. After we drove around exploring viewpoints and what not we made our way back towards the airport. We decided to get there extra early so we could relax and rest before our long overnight flight. 

We had an incredible trip and we are so thankful to everyone who gave us money in our HoneyFund. It's because of our HoneyFund that we were able to do all the excursions and added fun things! We are SO grateful! If you gave, you allowed us to have a honeymoon to remember! Our fun times are thanks to you! Also, huge shoutout to James' parents (my in-laws) for the flights and timeshare stay! We can't wait to travel more in the future! We have a long list of places we want to see so if there are any that you recommend please let me know! Our Bucket List is still growing but I am so happy I can cross a few things off that list thanks to our honeymoon!  

xo,

Taylor Collins