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Love how wild and crazy this one is. How many plants have little feathers?

The pretty Wananalua Congregationalist Church in Hana.

The Waimoku Falls waterfall at the end of the Pipiwai Trail could barely fit in the frame!

We stayed at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort over on the southwest side of the island. We took a little stroll around the grounds and down to the Wailea Beach area and got this beautiful sunset shot there.

Looked around at some of the sea life before the sun set.

I think that may be Molokini Island Preserve and Kaho’Olawe off on the distance.

Truth.

Awwww…two little lovebirds. In a honeymoon paradise!

These adorable little dainty things had some pretty aggressive spikes. I love the contrast of puffy and cute with sharp and scary:)

I want to live at that house:)

We decided to stop by the Surfing Goat Dairy. http://www.surfinggoatdairy.com/ We were too late to do any tours but we did get to do the fun part of feeding grass to the cute little kids! And then we snacked on some delicious goat cheese and crackers. Yummm.

So cute! My favorite goat photo:)

Somebody wants some food!

The contrast of that bright Hibiscus flower against the gray white of the leaves is so cool!

A bottlebrush flower

I love this one!

Ok, so I have to apologize for the explosion of plant photos that follow, but I love visiting botanic gardens and I was really excited to visit one in Hawaii. We stopped in at the Kula Botanical Gardens and literally spent hours oohing and aaahing at the gorgeous plant life within. This place is run by the McCord family and has been since 1968. We met their son who works there too and asked him about weddings (Uh yeah, I’m always on the lookout for photo locations and interested in all of the beautiful places in the world someone can get married!) at the Kula Botanical Gardens and I was shocked to find out how affordable it is to hold your wedding ceremony there. Sure sure, most people who travel to Hawaii to get married are probably more excited about getting married on the beach, but seriously this place is STUNNING and your photos would be gorgeous. You could also host your reception somewhere next to the beach and get the best of both worlds. I am currently in the process of trying to convince all of my sisters to get married here. Here’s hoping a future bride reads this and asks me to photograph her wedding there because that would be a dream come true:) hint, hint, hint everyone!
http://www.kulabotanicalgarden.com/

It’s an otherworldly view!

Seven Pools

Sunset at the Old Lahaina Luau

You can get married at this gazebo! (more hints hints hints:)

This one was one of the only plants I remember the name of. Nicknamed the “Kangaroo Paw” plant. Cute huh?

Love the texture on this plant. Reminds me of braille

I wanted to show the size of this plant. Not sure why G has such a serious face.

This guy is right by the entrance to say hello to all of the visitors.

We went up the very steep drive of Haleakala Highway to soak up the views at Haleakala National Park.

I want these for my garden soooo bad!

Seriously, how beautiful are these?

They have a cool orchid house with a ton of beautiful varieties.

I’ve never seen such huge succulents in my life. Look how excited I was about it:)

Comfy!

Nothing like fresh coconut milk:)

Hana Ranch

How awesome is this huge Banyan tree?

Waianapanapa State Park in Hana

These roosters let me chase them around a little:)

We strolled around the town of Lahaina after a morning of surfing before going to our luau reservation.

The road to Hana is a must. But it is the scariest drive I’ve ever been on. I’m usually a pretty fearless driver but the way those locals whip around those corners scares the crap out of me. After pulling over to check out an arboretum along the way we noticed this unfortunate little accident on our way back to the car. It was a pretty effective reminder to be careful on the road.

Love that this church was made out of black volcanic rock:)

A bird of paradise flower

I honestly don’t know that I’ve seen more beautiful succulents in my life!

One of the prettiest parts of the Pipiwai Trail is the gorgeous bamboo tree forest

We went to the Kula Lodge for breakfast and discovered that they had a huge beautiful back patio with awesome views of the valley and one beautiful garden to boot. http://www.kulalodge.com/

This is one of my favorites from our honeymoon. Taken from the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort near sunset. Saved it for last:)

I love the silver color of the Silversword plant which is a rare threatened plant only found above 6900 feet in elevation and grow in volcanic cinder. In Hawaii the plant is knowns as ahinahina which means “very gray.” It’s my new favorite plant.

I decided not to bring my flash on this trip so that I could travel lightly. (Who wants to lug around a heavy bulky flash for the handful of shots you’ll really need it for?) Unfortunately that makes it pretty difficult to get a good shot of a person in front of a pretty sunset without it being a silhouette shot. But, at the Luau there was this reddish colored light which was bright enough to light us in front of the sunset so we waited for the right moment and got the shot. The color is a little off but better than nothing!

A view from “The Road to Hana”

We had heard that some luau’s in Hawaii can be kind of cheesy but I actually thought the Old Lahaina Luau was great. We got awesome seats sitting on the ground at a low table near the hula dancers and there was plenty of food. I would totally go again. The hula dancing was beautiful.

Haleakala National Park

We took a stroll around the back patio after breakfast before heading on to our next adventure.

My honey and I got married last May and I’m still hoping to share some more details and photos from the wedding at some point (maybe it’ll be a special 1 year anniversary post!) but for now I just have some photos to share from our fabulous honeymoon in Hawaii. As usual with my travel trips I’m having a hard time narrowing them down so I decided to split it up between Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii. Today’s post is featuring Maui aka the “Valley Isle.” I have to admit that when G first suggested Hawaii as our honeymoon destination I thought it was a little too “pedestrian” and not exciting enough for my taste. But, after having been I can’t recommend it enough. After planning a big ol’ wedding going to such a relaxing and beautiful place is just what the doctor ordered. And if you are like me and need a little more excitement in your vacation and can only spend so many days sleeping and reading on the beach there is plenty to see and do. I had no idea I would love it as much as I did and I dream about being there all the time.