What's On A Travel Planner's Bucket List?
Most everyone that I know has a bucket list of some sort whether it's written down or not and a lot of the items on their list involve travel. For some, it means visiting the country's most famous national parks like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone or Yosemite. For others, its sight-seeing in bustling cities like New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles. And other people have dreams of exploring countries like France, Italy or Spain.
The Road to Hana, Maui
As someone who grew up traveling, I'm always planning my next trip, or two, or three, or four. My own bucket list is pretty long and is mostly made up of places that I want to travel. There are several places that I've already visited and now want to go back and take my daughters. But I have one bucket list item that trumps all others.
Since visiting the Hawaiian islands of Maui, Kaua'i and Lana'i in 2011, I've wanted to go back and spend an extended period of time there exploring all of the major islands.
This has been a dream and my #1 bucket list item (actually, it's tied with having my photo taken with John Stamos) pretty much since the day I recovered from the jet lag of coming home from Hawaii.
Hawaii was my 50th state to visit and the last big trip that I took with my husband before he was diagnosed with brain cancer, so it has a special place in my heart for those reasons alone. Despite those things, I fell in love with the islands when we were there. I've never experienced such beautiful colors on land, water, beaches or trees. The people, culture, rituals and sense of aloha were warm, friendly and welcoming. Not to mention the food, smells, music or history. Beauty is around every corner in Hawaii.
I've been working for quite a while to make this dream a reality and my daughters and I are making it happen in 2019 with an eight week trip. I've spent hours learning about each of the islands, listening to podcasts and following Hawaii-related Instagram accounts. I give my kids constant updates on what I learn and tell them about activities, sights and restaurants that I've added to our list of places to see and things to do. I get excited about sharing this dream with them and they've become almost as passionate about Hawaii as I am, researching and discovering on their own. I can't wait until they get to experience it for themselves.
If you haven't been to Hawaii, I encourage you to go. And if you have been, I'd love to hear about your favorite experiences. Here are some of mine:
- Strolling through the Friday art walk in Lahaina
- Helicopter ride along the Na'pali Coast
- The Zip n' Dip tour through Princeville Ranch
- Ke'e beach at the end of the road on the Kaua'i North Shore
- Staring in awe at rainbow eucalyptus trees
- Enjoying the food and view at Mama's Fish House
- Relaxing in Banyan Tree Park in Lahaina
- Watching the sunrise from Haleakala National Park and biking down from the volcano peak
- Watching the sunset from The Beach House Restaurant
- Experiencing dinner being cooked in a beachside Imu (Hawaiian underground oven) at the Old Lahaina Luau
- Drinking a Mai Tai at the Marriott Wailea Beach Resort infinity pool while wearing Maui Jim-loaned sunglasses...that I ended up buying btw (best sales tactic ever!)
- Enjoying the art at the Maui Crafts Guild before hitting the road to Hana
Although my daughters and I have travels planned for 2018, we're looking forward to #Hawaii2019.
P.S. Anybody got connections to John Stamos?
