___: Vacation

I just wanted to share some more photos from the rest of our Hawaii trip. We've thoroughly enjoyed this vacation. It has been a good mix of activities and relaxation, and we've enjoyed good conversation with some old friends and some new ones at the conference.

Early one morning while Michael was attending his conference classes, I explored Lahaina and happened upon this huge banyan tree. This single tree has about 18 trunks and covers a 1 acre park. And it was early enough that there were barely any other people around, so I got to enjoy it as the morning sun shone through the branches.

Finding sea urchin shells in the tide pools south of the beach near the condo.

We followed the instructions in Michael's guidebook and hiked all over on barely-visible trails and through thick waist-high grass before finally finding this two-tiered tide pool. It was very pretty, but the best thing about it was that we were the only people in sight for almost the whole time we were there.

And we got to go check out a cool blow hole a little ways north of where we stayed.

Then the next day we followed the guidebook again and took a hike over lava rock to a secluded beach down south. We did snorkeling there. It was fun, but the 5 mile hike over very loose rocks seemed to go on forever, and we both felt that that beach wasn't worth that hike, since there are so many other great beaches here that aren't as difficult to get to.

On our way back north we stopped at my parents' favorite beach from back when they lived on Maui when they first got married. It's called Makenna Beach, or Big Beach. It has been our favorite beach so far too. The sand was soft, the colors of the sand and the water were beautiful, the water was very clear, and the waves were big and pretty, but not too big to play in.