airbnb maui style!

AirBnB, aka Air Bed & Breakfast, is a fantastic concept that I have been interested in for quite some time. The basic idea is that if someone has a house, a room, or even just a couch that they would like to rent out, then they can post it on airbnb's website and set a price. Then, if someone who needs a place to stay wants to take advantage of that rental opportunity, then they can make a reservation with the owners. The appeal is that the rates are typically much cheaper than hotels, and it could potentially be a more homey experience. Also, the host often is willing to offer advice and recommendations that only a local would know. Sounds cool right?!

The only thing that was holding me back from giving it a try was the risk of getting a bad (read: criminal/creepy/or something along those lines) host. An airbnb customer went through a terrible experience not too long ago, so since then the company has added protective measures to the site to make it a safer experience for all parties. This made me feel a little more comfortable in giving it a try.

Brian and I booked our first airbnb rental for our honeymoon trip to Maui. We were offered to stay at a friend's condo for the second half of our trip but needed a place for the first. It ended up being a great experience. Our hosts were very friendly and accommodating. Here are a couple shots of our place.

Happy Hubby

  

It def had the island vibe.

And since we're on the topic of the honeymoon, here are some more pics from our trip just for fun!

Purple looks good on him, no?

Sunrise on the clouds at Haleakala mountain

Then, of course, some beach time

A stop on a scenic (and steep and narrow) drive

a love rock next to...

a blow hole where...

lovers go!

purdy flowers by the pool

and of course some geocaching!

inside you can see we dropped our "love bug" heart travel coin that Brian gave me on our wedding day. (awww!)

and for the grand finale...a beautiful sunset!

Ohhhhhhh-Ok-lahoma!

So after packing up our things and heading out of Memphis, we were on the road to Phoenix to get hitched! By the way, regarding all of the Memphis-specific goals on the list that I obviously can't realistically complete now that we have moved, I plan on replacing them with Hawaii applicable goals. But back to the road trip...once I discovered that I hadn't yet found a geocache in Oklahoma, I knew we had to stop at some point to check that state off of the list. The opportunity presented itself when we stopped for gas the morning after our stay in Oklahoma City. The cache was called "tramlaw" (jannell, you should be all over that clue) and it was in the store's parking lot across the street from the gas station where we stopped.  It was a park-n-grab (aka easy), so we logged it then got right back on the road. Here's the nerd badge I earned:

and here's a picture of the Oklahoma plain:

ceiling plate

Here's a real exciting one...I painted a ceiling plate. It was so thrilling that it only took me 2 months to write about it. ;]  Here is the before picture. You can see that it was definitely dingy.

This plate was in my Memphis condo, so I was pressed to get it done before moving. I really don't mind painting things, in fact I kind of like it, but this one was a pain because the light fixture had to be partially disassembled in order to remove the plate. This actually ended up being a blessing, because it forced me to replace the fixture arms which I had also been meaning to do so that they would match the glass. Here is the completed result: bright white plate and correct fixture arms!