week 8 biography: maui, my favorite place on earth

This past winter break my family and I went to Maui, Hawaii and it was my first time going. Side note, my mom wanted to take my sister and I when we were younger but my sister refused to go because she was afraid of getting killed by an erupting volcano. Yeah... she's stupid. Anyway, after visiting for the first time, Maui is literally my favorite place in the entire world. It was also the best vacation I've ever been on. Rather than writing a story, I want to show you all pictures just so you can experience the beauty and fun of my trip!

Aloha! This was the 1st day of our week-long trip. This photo was taken in front of the first hotel we stayed at and in my opinion, it was my favorite hotel out of all 3 that we stayed at. The moment we stepped out of our car, we were greeted with leis and given drinks. It was so amazing and I felt so welcomed. 

This is the lobby of the first hotel and the view from the lobby! The lobby actually overlooked the rest of the area because it was higher up/on a balcony and I was SHOOK.

Here is a picture of me on the sidewalk that leads to the lobby once you walk up the stairs.

This is the view of the resort from my hotel room. My room had a view of the ocean and it was absolutely marvelous and breath-taking. 

 My family and I decided to go walk around and check out the resort. The resort was actually so big that we didn't even get to see all of it. Also, we didn't get to stay at this hotel long because they were completely booked for NYE :/ I miss this resort so much, I had the best time of my life here.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures from the first hotel. This is a pool overlooking the ocean and I laid out by it for an entire day. I have never been more at peace in my life.

This picture is randomly thrown in but on the second day of our trip, we wanted to go see a volcano at the top of the mountain. The drive took an hour and a half to get to the top and when we got there, we realized that there was no volcano and also that it was -50 degrees. I am obviously exaggerating but seriously it was so cold and SUPER windy but my family didn't even think about that so we were NOT prepared.

This is the second hotel that my family stayed at. Even though the hotel was nice, this was the worst hotel we stayed at out of the three. The pool area was super small and really crowded so there were not enough spots. If you didn't claim a pool chair by 10 AM you would not be able to get one for the rest of the day. Literally insane. Also, there were SO. MANY. KIDS. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of children, especially when they're running and screaming everywhere, but that's just me. I still really enjoyed laying out in the sun though it was very relaxing. In fact, I did it for 3 days straight haha!

This is my mom and my sister swimming in the ocean. The water so SO blue and SO clear. I went snorkeling and there were so many fish!!! They also would swim right by you too it was super fun. I was probably in the ocean for a good 3 hours; I never wanted to leave. The hotel looked so pretty in the background and the sun felt so warm on my skin. This was definitely a great day. By the way, my stepmom refused to go into the ocean because she can't swim and was terrified lol.

Although Hawaii is drop dead gorgeous, their food is very mediocre. The food pictured was from one famous local shop that became our favorite place. I'm pretty sure this was the only food we really enjoyed our entire trip and that's because they served spam and rice LOL. This was our meal for breakfast and it was absolutely delicious!

These pictures are from our zip lining expedition and from our hike! Personally, I love zip-lining and I got to zip-line across an entire forest it was beautiful. We were so high up and I couldn't believe how many trees there were!! My stepmom hates heights so this part of our trip was a challenge for her but she ended up really enjoying it. Also, when we went hiking, I ended up jumping off one of the waterfalls and it was exhilarating. 

Funny story about our zip-lining trip. We were in a group with 2 other families and one of the families was from Oklahoma. Although none of the children went to OU, their family knew someone in my sorority and I thought that it was so crazy that I randomly met this family in Hawaii who happens to know someone that I do all the way in Oklahoma. Small world, right?

Our third hotel was ABSOLUTELY amazing too. Out of all the hotels, this one definitely had the most accommodations. There was a botanical garden full of animals, such as flamingos, penguins, swans and ducks; multiple gift shops and clothing stores, such as Macy's; 3 pools; an outdoor courtyard; and a bar located inside their man-made cave. I never got tired walking around this hotel because there was just SO much to see.

My stepmom Michealine is very adamant about experiencing/learning the culture of places we travel to so we went to a luau at the hotel! The food was eh but the entertainment was so great! The dancers were terrific and so talented! 

On the second to last day of our trip, we went whale watching. Personally, I thought we would get to see whales jumping out of the ocean but apparently it was too early in the season for that so :( Nevertheless, the ocean was so beautiful to look at. I kid you not it was straight COBALT blue. I was very sad this day knowing that we would have to leave soon.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my mini story of my trip to Hawaii. If you want to know more about my trip or if you just want to see more scenery, I vlogged my entire trip so you can watch that here – travel vlog!!