Lanai

As some of you know, I (Tami) won a radio contest a few months ago with the prize being 80,000 frequent flyer miles on Hawaiian Airlines. What that translates to is about 5 inter-island round trip flights. In early June, we found out that we both would be getting King Kamehameha Day (a Thursday this year) off at work. So, I figured if I was getting Thursday off, I deserved to have Friday as well. (Mike's day off is Friday.) And what better way to spend a long weekend than on a "stay-cation" to the island of Lanai. Our friends, Mike and Sarah Benson, have raved about this island, so we figured we'd give it a try. There is something called a "Kama'aina rate" (for the locals) here on many things, including hotels. With free flights and discounted hotel and amenities, we were ready to head to the Four Seasons Lodge at Ko'ele. The Lodge is an amazing English-inspired country manor set up in the mountains of Lanai. The Four Seasons also has an amazing resort on the ocean at Manele Bay. This resort is more Asian inspired and offers all of the luxuries of being at the beach. There are shuttles that run every hour between the two resorts, so you can enjoy all of the activities and amenities at each. It was WONDERFUL! It was one of those places where you could keep yourself constantly busy or do nothing at all and still be perfectly content. We did a little of both. Enjoy the view from our latest adventure to Lanai.

We took a smaller prop plane from Lanai back to Oahu, but we started off the trip with a little more fun. We flew to Maui and took a 45 minute ferry ride from Lahaina to Lanai.

Leaving Lahaina behind.

Mike on the ferry.

Our first Lanai sighting. Land-ho!

After our day of traveling, we finally arrived at The Lodge at Koele.

Looking back down the road from the front lanai of The Lodge.

While having dinner I couldn't help but look around in awe at our beautiful surroundings. It was surreal to be in a hotel like this in Hawaii. It felt like we should go skiing the next day.

The Great Room at The Lodge. There were fireplaces in use on either side of the room.

The Lodge's library.

We spent several afternoon/evenings in The Lodge's game room. We played pool, backgammon, and shuffle board.

Tami enjoying some coffee and dessert after a long day of traveling.

Mike was dying to try out these resting areas next to the fireplaces in the great room.

On one afternoon, we explored the grounds at The Lodge.

Tami admiring the gi-normous Koi pond. Can you see them in the water?

Mike on his way to the orchid house.

The orchid house had some livestock grazing out front.

We thought these were hysterical.

One of the many beauties!

Something else we discovered while roaming the grounds.

Looking back toward The Lodge.

To Mike's delite, there was a mini-golf course on the grounds next to the main course. He dominated... of course.

I spent most of my golf-time checking out things like our new friend "Drurtle". He's part dragon, part turtle. Mike humored me by taking a picture with him. My two favorite guys on the golf course.

We spent most of our days down at the resort at Manele Bay.

Mike posing at the front entrance of Manele Bay.

When we walked into the front entrance, we were greeted by this glorious view.
The more Asian inspired great room at the Manele Bay resort.

The view from our umbrella - looking back up at the hotel.

On the first day, there were very few people at either resort. By the middle of the second day, a group came in for some sort of conference. All of these chairs were filled... and then some. Despite more people to look at, we always had a place at the pool and at the beach. We were pampered with iced water/juice, cold towels, and treats like these cucumbers for our eyes.

We hiked along the cliffs at Manele Bay. Our destination was the top of the cliff on the left.

The view from the top.

Looking back at the resort at Manele Bay.

On our second night, we headed back to Manele Bay for a nice dinner. We clean up well!

The evening view at Manele Bay.

On our last night, we went back to Manele Bay for our farewell dinner. We arrived a little early, so we found things to keep ourselves occupied.

Just helping out.

Learning to fit in.

Tami's new boyfriend.

Overall, we had a fantastic trip and hope to make it back to Lanai soon. As for now...

Goodnight!

More catching up to do...

I'm posting a few more pictures from this past spring in Hawaii as we catch up on the season finale of "Lost" online. Yes, we are "Lost" junkies. One of our favorite things to do is to figure out where each scene is filmed around the island. We've actually driven up on scenes (or the results of certain scenes). Mike has even seen some of the stars around the island. Very exciting. Hope you enjoy looking at us! :)

Maui:

When we went to Maui, we went to Kepaniwai Park Heritage Gardens with some of the college kids that were still in town after the Happening weekend. Kepaniwai is a park and museum that showcases ethnic houses and gardens from the various cultures represented in history on Maui. We saw traditional houses from the Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, Caucasian/American and Filipino cultures.

Mike in front of the caucasion (haole) house (hale).

Mike in front of the Hawaiian house.

Tami at the Filipino house.

We made the Filipino kids get in front of the Filipino house. (notice the white Will-ipino?)

Chinese house.

Japanese house.

From the beaches on the South Shores of Maui, you can see the edge of an underwater crater (Molokini Crater). Good place for snorkeling.

You can also see the island of Kaho'olawe. Mike decided to take a quick swim over. :)

Seriously.... this is definitely "God's country."

On one of our busiest adventure days, we went on a whale watching tour and then headed to the sumit of Haleakala to watch the sun set and star gaze. I've never seen so many stars in my life! Even more than at Camp Capers, believe it or not.

We went with the Pacific Whale Foundation. Can you tell that this was the highlight of Tami's trip?

This dude was nice enough to stick his arm in our picture to give you a good idea of how close the whales got that day.

Double breech about 1 second too late.

After the whales, we stopped for lunch at the Kula Lodge not quite halfway up Haleakala.

Our view at lunch. Darken your screen and you'll see the coastline on both sides of the picture.

On the drive up Haleakala, we actually drove through the clouds. We're under the clouds.

We're in the clouds!

And, we're out of the clouds again....above the clouds!

After hiking down into Haleakala's main crater for about 20 minutes, a nice couple offered to take our picture. Can you see the shadow of the summit? We went a bit further, but had to turn back before it got too dark (and cold).

Back on Oahu:

Easter at St. Peter's with Bill, Abigail, Carrie, and Maggie Allport. These are the people responsible for our amazing life here in Hawaii. They are part of our family here. Our god-daughters (Maggie is officially and we claim Abigail) are 2 1/2 and 5 years old respectively.

Mike and Tami in front of this year's Easter cross.

Sometime later this Spring, we hiked a new trail to a waterfall. People were jumping off a cliff much higher than the top edge of this picture. We watched.

After our hike, we went to Lanikai beach to cool off. Mike is sitting with our best friends, John and Anthea Wang ("Wong"). They are also part of our family here.

Lanikai has been voted one of the best beaches in the world. We drove there!

Hope you enjoyed catching up with us. Our next post will be from new adventures.

Bye bye!