Day 5: Road to Hana + I’m Engaged!

So I think the title of this post gives away my big announcement…

I’M ENGAGED!!

… and it all happened while I was in Hawaii on The Road to Hana.

Let me share my day with you.

Oh yea, and if you don’t know what the “Road to Hana” is, it isn’t about Hana, it’s about the journey to get there. This road was rated the #1 tourist attraction for Maui on the Trip Advisor. After going on this journey, I must say, it is well worth it and you will see why! The entire trip took us nearly a full day… so get ready for a long blog post!

On our way to Hana, we saw a big fire.. I tried to look up what the fire was, but couldn’t really find anything. So we are assuming that the fire was intentional.

As we set off on our journey to Hana, we ate Hot Cheetos, drank Jamba Juice, and listened to some good old Tupac.

Much of the road to Hana was very windy and you can’t drive very fast either because the road would randomly turn into a single lane (where you must share the lane with on-coming traffic), lots of tourists, and it was raining!!

First stop, enter the Bamboo Forest.

Might I add, it’s still raining and we are trying to hike through the bamboo forest. We were told by a local not to pass the stream when it’s raining.

When we got to the stream, we listened. But not because we wanted to, just because it was getting too messy and wet hiking in the rain, lol.

Thank goodness we found this random bamboo stick and used it as a walking stick or else I would have slipped on all of the muddy areas and slimy rocks!

Haha, don’t I look kinda crazy in the photo below? Imagine me in an entirely different outfit, kinda like Tarzan style.

During the time that we posed for this photo, I got 3 bug bites. Wow, those suckers are fast. Haha, get it? Suckers? Ok, sorry I know.. fail joke.

Look! I never knew bamboos could get so tall!!

Look at these pretty plants growing on the tree branches. This photo sorta reminds me of LOTR. Do you think I’m crazy? Anyways, the Road to Hana features really crazy greenery everywhere.

Besides lots of green, theres also lots of waterfalls that you pass by. I think we passed by so many that we kinda started ignoring them unless they were awesome.

Below is Pua’a Ka’a State Wayside Park. On a normal sunny day, some people actually choose to swim in the water, but since it was raining, no one dared even wandering around much. But of course I wanted a photo!

Do I look like im peeing?? My leg is actually resting on a rock.

We also pulled over for Coconut Glen’s Ice Cream.

I can still remember the taste of this ice cream. Oh how I wish I could have more. It was sooo heavenly.

And if you caught it in the previous photo, and was wondering what Erick and some other guy in the ice cream shop were looking at, they were looking at this spider!

Recognize it? It looks like the same spider that I saw in Kauai (I think)!

By now it was lunch time and we were starving, having only eaten chips and smoothie for breakfast. Luckily we arrived at Nahiku Marketplace.

At this small outdoor market place, there are lots of little gift shops, small restaurants, coffee shop, and coconuts galore.

I didn’t know coconuts looked like this? Haha, I’m used to the young coconuts that you get in the market.

For lunch we had Thai food. I will say that Thai food is a lot better in LA, but then again, most food in general is… Unless you’re looking for Hawaiian food, haha.

My Thai’s little cooking set up.

Pad Thai with tofu?? Looks bootleg. But still tastes good, just not like Pad Thai.

At the Wai’anapanapa State Park we went to the black sand beach.

Next to the beach was a cave that led to a tiny little beach.

On the other side of the State Park was a very beautiful scenic view of the coast and ocean. This is my favorite of all of Maui.

Look at these rock formations! Aren’t they awesome?

Something about standing here and looking at the violent ocean waves really gets to me. I’ve actually never seen waves as big and violent as it was here. I couldn’t help but get this feeling of awe and how I am so small compared to this massive body of water that could easily drown me.

There was also blow holes around the area. If you aren’t familiar with what it is, basically its a hole where water occasionally splashes out of.

More violent waves… so amazing.

Ahhh and here is where the proposal took place! This is actually a reenactment.

How he proposed: We we sort of just walking around and we stopped here. I could tell that there was something on his mind and that he seemed a little nervous. He tried to kill time by saying “let’s dance,” and I replied, “what? here? now?” Dancing didn’t last more than an awkward minute, before he suddenly stopped and got down on one knee. I wasn’t really sure what he was doing, but I knew as soon as he started to recite a speech, that he was proposing!

It was really hard for me to just stand there and listen (no I didn’t cry btw). I really wanted to interrupt him  with a punch and laugh a little during his speech, but I let him finish. And in the end he pulled out the box with the ring inside and asked, “Sarah, will you marry me?” ahhh~ of course I said “yes.”

Haha, isn’t this funny? Erick looks so big next to me even though he is kneeling.

By this time, we had gathered a small audience who then clapped and congratulated us. Oh and look, we put the ring on the wrong hand! Oops.

So there goes my big announcement! But that’s not the end of our day.

Our final stop was Red Sand Beach. This was my favorite out of all of our destinations, and it’s located in Hana! It was a bit of a journey to find as you have to find the right path and hiking over to the spot could be very dangerous. But it was well worth it!

Red Sand Beach is amazing because it has a natural infinity pool.

The beach was super duper empty when we got there. But there was this group hanging around on the beach. One of the girls was playing around with two hula hoops simultaneously. Pretty cool~ reminds me of raves.

The walls that surrounded this little hidden away red sand beach were gorgeous as well. Also something about the red sand next to the bright blue water is breathtaking!

We didn’t really do much at the beach, but Erick took lots of photos of me. I didn’t like how any of them turned out, but here’s one where my ring is just glowing! Lol, you can’t even see what it looks light because it’s so bright from the camera flash.

Now comes our journey back home… more waterfalls. Actually this one was one of my favorites! Most people don’t drive past Hana, but we did.

It’s so crazy how the weather is so different on each side of the island. Look at all that fog!

Haha.. We stopped to look at the horse. Not like we don’t have horses in California.

Omg, so this isn’t a good photo. But there are actually 3 rainbows here. One faint one to the left (more visible in person), the right bright bold one, and if you look right next to the bright bold one, theres a tiny one under it where the colors repeat!

What’s even crazier is that these 3 rainbows went all the way across the sky!!! I’ve never seen a rainbow from end to end before, and 3!? That’s just a blessing.

Okay okay. So we saw a ton of cows everywhere too, and they were right on the side of the road. We were being weirdos and we actually pulled over for every single cow on the side of the road and went “mooOo~”

The reaction from every cow was the same. They just looked up at us like we were crazy. Lol.

I feel like these windmills are somehow recognizable for Maui. You see them from the airplane when you fly to Maui.

Ahhh, on the drive back overlooking the ocean.. There was some strange lighting going on with the sky and water. I tried my best to capture it. Pretty isn’t it?

Also, have you ever seen the tops of clouds? I haven’t. That’s why I snapped this photo. I guess there’s a first time for everything!! Oh yea, and we were NOT at high elevation.

I feel like there should be a pegasus or something flying in the sky. Haha.

 Alright, thats all I have for now.

My next post will feature a super kawaii etsy shop! Don’t miss out. Next week I’ll be posting photos from a photo shoot that my, hehehe fiancé, set up for us after the proposal.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
xoxo Sarah