Lahaina

We finally got out to see more of Hawaii yesterday. We went to Lahaina and it was beautiful and SO HOT! We totally got more tan! It was a beautiful town with a lot of interesting historical sites. Unfortunately we were unable to tour any museums or houses as it was Sunday and most of them were closed. We are planning on going back to check them out though! Lahaina used to be a huge whaler town so there are forts and prisons for sailors and missionary homes and sailors homes. It's really interesting! We also saw a HUGE Banyan tree. I'm not sure if its the biggest one but it was huge. The town is basically centered around it. It has 16 trunks! We tried to take a picture but there is no way to capture the whole tree. The water was beautiful and there were so many people swimming, surfing and paddling boarding, even kayaking! It was so different from the side of the island where we are staying. We have read that Hawaii is home to 11 of the world's 13 climates! Isn't that incredible?

Anyways we took the bus to and from Lahaina. A woman actually offered to give us a ride to the main bus station and we let her. Hitch hiking is pretty safe and normal here. She turned out to be an Native American who had lived in Lisbon Falls right where I used to live! And she used to live in Gainesville which is where we want to go to school. Small world right?

The bus was $1 each time you got on the bus which is so awesome! We are going to try and buy bikes instead of renting a car cus the bus holds bikes and the bus route goes most places around the island so that will save us a lot of money while giving us a good workout at the same time!!

We mostly just walked around and took in the sites of Lahaina. It was so quaint and beautiful. We had fantastic Vegi burgers for lunch at a place called The Cool Cat. We got to sit on a balcony and look over the whole town. Lahaina is known more for its mall and shopping centers than for beaches. There was a small beach but mainly it is pretty rocky along the coast. So...we STILL haven't been to the beach or in the water but....we are still getting situated and will definitely get to the beach sometime in the VERY near future.

We were exhausted by the end of yesterday but not tired enough to watch a movie! :) We watched The Switch with Jennifer Aniston and some other famous guy...it was super cute! We are no longer watching  Desperate Housewives because we got to Season 5 and now it SUCKS! I am sooooo disappointed! :( Oh yeah and the rain finally stopped here so now we have SUN!!!!!!

We have mainly been working outside and in the cottages. There is a lot of work to do! We are getting rid of trash, weed whacking and doing a whole bunch of other dirty work! I learned how to take care of and clean the pool and hot tubs and Nic is learning weed whacking and mowing! We really only have to do 4 hours of work a day which is really nice! We can do extra if we want so that the next week we don't have to do as much or we can do extra to save up hours! Also Sharyn (the woman we work for) has said we can borrow her car if we work 3.5 hours extra! What a deal! She's really great! We both love her.

I'm trying to think of everything that I haven't said yet but....I think I have covered quite a bit. We did see a huge gross centipede! YUCK! I'm so scared of getting bit by one. Its supposed to hurt like hell and swell up like crazy! I'll try and get some more pics on here as soon as I take more.

Much love to our families! We miss ya'll like super duper CRAZY!!!

<3<3<3

Rain :/

It's been raining for about 2 days now. I don't really like rain. Especially the rain here! Its intense and with the wind it usually rains sideways....which is kind of a bummer. I couldn't sleep at all last night with the wind and rain. I hope this weather doesn't last much longer!
We got to move to the room upstairs yesterday. Its much nicer and bigger but the mattress sucks and I swear I could feel and count every spring in the mattress!! We have sleeping pads for camping so we are going to try putting them under the sheets and seeing if that helps at all. But on the positive side it is a nicer room and the view is incredible!
We have gotten sooo stuck in Desperate Housewives again. Sometimes the episodes are so good and soooo addicting! I love that show! We are on season 4 but quickly moving on to season 5 now! We are still keeping up with The Office and sometimes I watch House.

I guess I better go do some work...

Maui~

We have finally made it here to Hawaii! It was a long trip over and we are still trying to get over jet lag and the time difference. There is a six hour time difference from Maine! The farm and B&B here is great. Everything is absolutely beautiful. Our living situation however is meh. :/ But this is kind of a hit or miss situation. You can't really know what you are totally getting into! So we are thinking of this as an adventure! We came here to explore and see Hawaii not hang out in a house so.....Sharyn and Jeff (the people we are working for) are fantastic! They are very sweet and welcoming and helpful. We only have to work 20 hours a week, so about 4-5 hours of work a day. Then we get two days off to travel around and explore.

The bus system here isn't as extensive as we would have liked so it looks like we are going to have to try and find a rental car! We want to do some hiking and maybe even try some paddle boarding. (if i dare to get in the water!) We are on the northeastern side of the island so its very windy and we often will get rain at night and then randomly for about 5 minutes throughout the day. Its weird but always refreshing as its so hot!!! Its usually around 80 degrees!! Its so nice! We have a garden that we have been working in, it needs a lot of work! We get to harvest whatever we want from it. There are also fruit trees throughout the property like bananas, lemons, papayas, passion fruit and coconut. We can't wait to get out and pick and eat some yummy fresh fruit. We will be mowing lawns, weed whacking, taking care of the chickens and doing turn overs at the B&B. Its not to demanding but it can be hard work at times, especially when its so hot out (its also super humid)!

We have been studying our Hawaii book to look for hikes and different things to do around the island. Its beautiful here but we are thinking we may not spend 3 months here. It would be nice to do so but since we are taking off a whole year to travel we kind of want to spend our time seeing as much as possible. We have a lot of ideas flying through our heads! The most recent plan would be to spend about a month and a half here then get a car in Cali and take a road trip across the states! Or maybe fly to Florida, buy a car, drive up the east coast and then go to Ireland and Spain for a couple weeks. But who knows! We have a world of opportunities and we are just going to take them as they come!!

<3

California

It is so beautiful here! I love California! My plane here lost one of my bags which turned out to be okay since I could hardly carry another bag anyways!! They did deliver it to my hotel later. And Nic missed his connecting flight because his first flight was delayed so I had to find my way to the hotel alone! I cried when I found out....I didn't want to get here and be alone! LA is HUGE! But everything worked out alright in the end. We went to Manhattan Beach our first day here. It was hot and beautiful. We did some window shopping, walked along the beach, went to a cool little aquarium and just relaxed. We got a delicious and beautiful cupcake and an amazing bagel too!! Oh and they have Jamba Juice here so we have been getting delicious smoothies!!!

Yesterday we went to Universal Studios which was amazing! I got sick on the ride there because the bus driver drove like a maniac! Although it seems like everyone here drives crazy anyways! It was 86 degrees yesterday so we were SO HOT when we were at the park! It was so cool! We went on a tour of the studios and saw where they were making movies. We saw old movie sets and Wisteria Lane where Desperate Housewives is filmed!!!!!!! That is hands down my favorite show ever! :P We went on this "ride" thing where there was a 360 degree screen in 3D of King Kong. It was intensely awesome! We saw where they filmed the War of the Worlds airplane crash scene. It was kinda creepy!

We did a lot of souvenir shopping, although we didn't buy much because everything costs so much! I got Dip n Dots for the first time and it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. We also went on The Mummy ride which made me so sick! It was a sweet roller coaster ride though! My brothers Micah and Josiah and maybe even Dad would have loved it! We went to a special effects show and then our favorite, the water show! It was this live show with incredible stunt actors who jumped off tall buildings into the water, shot guns, things exploded (for reals), they drove boats and jet skis and even flew in a plane!! There was one jet ski thing that went underwater! It was so freaking cool! Absolutely brilliantly fantastic! Needless to say by the end of that day we were EXHAUSTED! I got even more sick on the bus ride back. I swear no one knows how to drive!

We walked around outside the hotel for a bit so I could get some fresh air. We were also trying to find a place to get food but there are really only restaurants in the hotels and they are way too expensive. We found a Subway though and got some sandwiches and cookies and went back to the hotel. We watched Bruce Almighty (so funny!!) and ate our food and then passed out!

Today we are going back to Manhattan beach and just relax! We take a trolley there. It's only $5 round trip! Then we are going to a huge shopping center to look around!! Tomorrow it's on to Hawaii!!

On To The Next Destination

After a fantastic visit with Nana I am now leaving for California! Nana and I got manicures, pedicures, a massage, got our hair done, did a cooking demo, went out to eat and just hung out and relaxed! I had so much fun! It snowed here yesterday and this morning! Even though I'm from Maine, and its practically ALWAYS cold there, its weird to see snow on the ground in October! It's beautiful here though! I watched a movie called Nell last night with Liam Neeson and Jodie Foster. It was very different. But it was a good movie! They are both great actors.
My flight leaves this afternoon at 3:30. I'll be meeting Nic in California at 6:30!! I can't wait!!!!! We are going to see LA and also go to Universal Studios which should be fun! We will be in California for four days! Nana and I are going out to breakfast now and then I need to fix my hair, maybe work out a bit and then pack up and go!

Heading out!!!

Relaxing!!

I had such a long tiring day today! After waking up at 9am I had breakfast and then almost immediately had to leave to go run errands, get my hair done and get a massage! What a rough life!! joking!! My hair is TOTALLY different! I'm still getting used to it! Also I dyed and waxed my eyebrows (you can actually see them no) and dyed and cut my hair!
The massage was freaking amazing! I've never done anything like it. It's the most relaxing amazing thing! I feel so fantastic! I'd like to do it at least once a week!!! My Nana is sooo spoiling me! I love her to death and hate that she lives so far away!! I wish I could spend more time with her! She's an amazing woman and I love her so much!
I worked on more college applications today. It's actually exciting now that I'm getting somewhere! I can't wait to see where I get accepted to. My top choice right now is the University of Florida in Gainesville. I'm applying for Spanish or Interior Design majors. Interior design is definitely my top choice. Then I'd like to go on and study law but we shall see how everything goes!
My time here in Utah is going by so fast! I wish it would slow down a bit. I hardly ever get to see my Nana but I guess whenever one is having fun the time just HAS to fly by. SO UNFAIR! Anyways I'm planning on coming back and visiting again with my Love (Nic) in February so hopefully that works out! I miss you Nic!! And I totally miss my family too! :/

Hawaii in 9 days!!!

Utah!!

I officially touched down in Utah yesterday morning at 10:12am. After getting up at 3:21 in the morning in Maine with 32 degree weather and then traveling for about 7 and a half hours I was EXHAUSTED to say the least! But I am so happy to be here visiting with my Nana! I do not see enough of her! I spent yesterday visiting with Nana and Papa over lunch and then running errands, walking and relaxing with Nana. By bedtime I was immediately able to PASS OUT! :)
In store for today: High tea! More errands and more relaxing!! This is the life! After working so much this summer I am so grateful for this lovely relaxing week ahead of me!
Last week I applied to two colleges in Florida and have two more to apply to this week. Then I will be done with college applications! WOOOOHOOO! Next Tuesday I will be meeting the love of my life in California for three days. I'll visit my friend Rachel and then on to Hawaii for three (or more!) months of bliss!! (hopefully)
I need to get ready for my tea now! I'll update with more details later! <3<3