Maui.

In November, finally, after many years of reasoning away the expense of a vacation, Colin and I decided to go to Maui for a week. It was a second honeymoon and also a celebration of my remission. It was perfect. You see, we went to Honolulu for our honeymoon some 15 years ago, but didn't experience much of the island. This time, we went to Hawaii to see as much as we could. I took a ton of pictures, so bear with me.

Here I apparently was bored on our 5 hour flight across the Pacific. We had a terrible time getting on a plane to Maui, as United kept having plane issues. After waiting a full day in the San Fransisco airport, we were on our way.

Ok, the water in Maui is breathtaking. I'm not sure what makes it such a different color than our water here, but I could just stare at it for hours. Colin actually went snorkeling in the location above - he had to swim around and out to it.

See the black sand? Isn't it pretty? This was one of those beaches on the Road to Hana.

We visited many different beaches.

Below was the view from our lanai (or porch). No kidding. We got a smoking deal on this condo and it was steps to the beach. We will be staying there again, that's for sure.

I couldn't get enough pictures of the water.

This one (below) was taken from the Ritz Carlton resort, which let anyone tromp around it's perfectly manicured grounds - I thought that was very nice of them. A very aloha spirit, that's for sure.

The rainbows here are amazing - it made me think of the Noah story in the Bible every time.

Sunsets were such a serene moment. I always had to stop and enjoy them - this also was a view from our lanai.

We hiked through a bamboo forest on the Road to Hana. I love hiking, so this was one of the more memorable days for me.

This waterfall was around 250 feet and so beautiful.

Driving back from the Road to Hana was desolate, but had a beautiful, desert feel.

Some portions of the Road to Hana felt like we were in the Garden of Eden.

Our guidebook told us to visit this tree house - to buy the world's best banana bread. No joke. Colin agreed - it was the world's best.

I did a lot of reading, and loved every second.

Hawaii has really interesting trees.

Maui also has a wild goat problem. Random, but true. See that black thing in the middle of the picture? That's one of the many goats we saw.

I saw a lot of this - Colin going out to go snorkeling. I had gear but didn't really do it - I don't love masks of any kind, so I stayed on the beach and read.

We saw Charles Lindbergh's grave in a tiny little cemetery.

Maui has a lot of these lava fields, which are very precarious to walk on.

Oh, the palm trees. I loved seeing them.

The last night we were there, we watched the cliff divers. People would sit on the beach an wait for sunset to watch this. It was a very relaxing way to end the trip.

I'm trying to negotiate another trip to Maui this November - just looking at these pictures makes me want to hop on a plane to that little corner of paradise.