A little of this, a little of that....

Maui! 9/22 Tuesday: Kula Lodge

I forgot to mention in my last post that on our way down Haleakala, we passed lots of cyclists.  It's a big thing to bike DOWN the mountain.  Lots of tour vans take groups up about halfway and then let them ride down.  I'm not sure how they don't wear the bicycle's brakes out, but quite a few people were peddling/braking their way down.

We got closer to sea level, and stopped off at Kula Lodge.  We peeled some more layers off and were now back to mid-80 degree weather.

Kula Lodge is a restaurant and a lodge, and then they also have a huge artisan gift shop (lots of goods made from local artisans).  I'd originally planned on us having breakfast here, but we really weren't that hungry, so we just walked around.  They had a great view and lots of beautiful plants and flowers.

They had this tree that I thought was so neat.  I'm not sure what it's called, but I loved it.

 

 

From here, we drove back to Lahaina (about 45 minutes away).  We decided to hold out and have lunch there at Aloha Mixed Plate.  I'll post those pics next!

Maui! 9/22 Tuesday morning: Sunrise at Haleakala

Along with the Road to Hana, another big "must-do" was watching the sunrise at the top of the Haleakala volcano.  Sunrise was around 6am and in order to get ready, make the drive and get a spot, we had to get up at 2am!

Our alarm went off at 2am and I almost told Jim "No way, forget it... there's no way I'm really getting up at 2am."  But, I got up and got ready.  I'd researched the sunrise at Haleakala and the biggest thing was to BUNDLE UP.  My 'Maui Revealed' book said to "wear every stitch of clothing you brought from the mainland".  One of our suitcases pretty much was packed with winter clothes just for the Haleakala sunrise.  I packed for tropical 90-degree weather, but then to also pack gloves, scarves, thermal long-johns and coats was really weird.

For a little "fun fact", Maui is made up of two volcanoes.  The larger one is Haleakala (which means house of the sun) and is 10,023 feet, and the smaller one is Halemahina (which means house of the moon) and is only 5,788 feet.  Over time, erosion has created the isthmus between the two volcanoes.

We started our drive up to the top.  It took us about two hours to drive to the summit from our hotel.  It's about twenty miles from the base to the summit, with constant switchbacks.  The road up to the top was nice and paved, but remember, on the side of a huge mountain, so as the road winds up, there's always one side of the road next to a steep side of the mountain.  Some parts had a guardrail, while most of the way up just has a 6" asphalt curb.  It was really dark as we were driving up and not a lot of other cars around.  We could see the lights from the towns at sea level and they kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller as we were driving up.  It was pretty unnerving to be driving in pitch black, watching the towns get really small beneath you, and then also to know there's a steep steep hill on one side of the car.

As we were driving up, the stars were amazing.  I don't think I've ever seen as many stars during that car ride as I have in my entire life.  I told Jim "Look... the stars are like they're so close...".  That's when Jim's fear of heights really kicked in.  He said the steep road, darkness, seeing the lights get so small below us, and having the stars right above us was too much.  We pulled over and switched so I could drive the rest of the way.

The weather at the top varies about 40-60 degrees, so it's not uncommon for it to be in the 30's at night.  Knowing this, when I saw the "caution: road may be icy" sign, I freaked out.  This is my worst fear- driving on ice UP a 10,023 volcano.  I pushed through my fear and kept on driving.  We got to the first visitors center, got out and looked around.  There were maybe another dozen cars there at that time.  We then realized there was ANOTHER visitors center a little further, so we got back in the car and kept on driving.  We got the summit- 10,023 feet above sea level!  We got out and made our way to the observation deck.  There were steep steps up to it, and a "Walk slow at this elevation" sign.  The air is so much thinner and normal things like walking up stairs can make you short of breath.  Jim and I neither one really noticed it much, although after a short hike, we felt really really tired (maybe a combination of thin air and also getting up at 2 in the morning).

It was about 5am and by this time, I REALLY had to go to the bathroom.  I knew I couldn't make it until sunrise, and the bathroom was at the visitor center below us that we just left.  By this time, the upper visitor center's parking lot had filled up (probably a hundred cars and buses), except for about two parking spots.  I drove back down to the visitors center, but they had locked the gate right before.  Apparently, once the parking lot at the top fills, they lock the gate.  We were ALREADY at the top parking lot, so we were locked IN, not out!  I was so glad- I would have been so bummed to have gotten up at 2am, made that drive, and then not be able to get to the top observation deck.  We parked right by the gate, and still were able to walk to the bathrooms.  This visitors center was PACKED.  After a wait in line for the bathrooms, we walked back to the car and drove back to the top visitors center.  There was ONE SPOT left when we got back, so we really were so lucky. 

We stood in the outside part of the observation deck, but to my dismay, we got second row.  People with tripods had already claimed the front row (I was jealous).  We were still able to get a decent spot and I was able to set up my tripod too.  

Here's Jim, he's wearing jeans, thick sweatpants over his jeans, two pair of socks, a t-shirt, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a jacket, a hat, and gloves.  Here I am- I was wearing thermal long-johns, jeans, two pair of socks, a t-shirt, and long-sleeve undershirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a pullover jacket, a scarf, a hat and two pair of gloves.  Wearing all of this, we were still chilly, but OK to stand outside and wait for the sun to come up.

We look a little sleepy, huh?  Oh, I thought this was annoying... while we were waiting outside, there was a couple right beside us with a little girl- maybe 18 months old or two years old.  She was crying the entire time we were standing there.  I look, and she doesn't have gloves on, or a hat and her little pants were hiked up, so her legs were exposed.  Ummm... do you wonder why she's crying?  Put the girl in the car!  Fools!  They kept trying to cease her crying by pointing out where the the sun was coming up.  Like a two-year old gives a rat's ass about seeing a sunrise at 10,000 feet.  

The sun was starting to come up.  The sunrise at the summit is really cool, because we're ABOVE the clouds. 

 

This is the view looking towards Halemahina.  Off to the upper left, you can see the island of Lana'i, and then off the upper right, you can see the island of Molokai.  It's kinda hard to see, but it was really cool how far we could see.

This is looking down towards the first visitors center (where the bathrooms are).

 

This is the observation deck where we watched the sunrise...

 

Also at the top of Haleakala, is Science City.  We saw it from our helicopter tour, but now we were right beside it.  It was really cool to see Science City from two perspectives during our trip.  This was the picture of Science City from our helicopter tour...

And then this is Science City from the summit...

Science City is the fourth-best viewing spot on the planet, due to the height above sea level and also the clear atmospheric conditions.  I kept singing "Take me up to the Science City, where the air is thin and the wind is chilly..." to the tune of Guns-N-Roses' "Paradise City".  Jim thought it was cute the first seven times I sang it.

The little domes don't look that big, but then a white van was driving in and then I realized how big these domes were...

I imagined the white van was full of scientists in white coats and glasses driving into work to talk to Nasa.

Also at the top of Haleakala, is the Silversword.  It grows here and nowhere else on the planet.  It's an endangered species.

We drove back down to the lower visitors center.  This is the view looking up at where we were (at the summit).  You can see the observation deck (albeit very small, in the upper left corner) where we watched the sunrise...

If you click on the picture above and make it bigger, you can see where we were at the summit, but then also where we were at the Kipahula National Park where we ended on our Road to Hana.

It was about 7:30am and it had "warmed" up to about 40 or 45 degrees.  That's when I spot these fools...

They were out of their car about 1.2 minutes.  Idiots! 

We then went on the Sliding Sands hiking trail.  It's about 4 miles down into the crater.  I didn't plan on us going very far, just hiking until we got tired.  With getting up at 2am, I didn't want to hike in three miles and then have to hike back up three miles.

There was only a couple other people coming and going while we were on the trail, so it felt like we had it all to ourselves.  It was AMAZING.  The views were like something I've never seen before.

A guy came along on the trail and I asked him to take our picture.  He didn't seem all too happy to take it, so I didn't want to press my luck to have him take a second one with the flash.  Too bad this picture came out dark.

In this next picture, you can see a group of hikers making their way back up the trail (they're really tiny)...

By this time, we had to start shedding some of our layers. 

We then walked back to the car and walked around the visitors center for a bit (and to buy some souvenirs, of course!).

 

We then started our trek down Haleakala.  Jim didn't want to chance it driving, so I drove all the way back down.  I put the car in a lower gear and everything was fine.  Since we walked around and hiked a little, we missed the big rush of cars back down the mountain right after sunrise. 

I stopped off a couple of times to take in the views. 

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the park sign on the way up...

It was about 10:30am when we got back down to the base of Haleakala.  I'll continue our Tuesday adventures in the next post(s).

Maui! 9/21 Monday: Sunrise Snorkel Cruise

We got up bright and early Monday morning of our trip for our Sunrise Snorkel Cruise!  We were really excited about being able to be on a boat out in the ocean and sailing to another island.  We left the hotel at 6am and were on the boat by 6:30am.  We checked in and unfortunately Captain Mike told us our SNUBA instructor was sick that day and we'd only be able to snorkel.  While we had psyched ourselves up for our SNUBA adventure, we were actually relieved- we were both nervous about being able to SNUBA, so regular snorkeling was just fine with us.

For the entire trip, Captain Mike, Gabe and Dominic took care of us.  They served our food, cooked our food and came around and talked to every single person on the boat.  We went with the Trilogy company and it was top-notch.  Very professional and very friendly. 

While we were waiting for the boat the leave, the sun was coming up...

 

Then a rainbow came out in the middle of the clouds out about the water...

It took us about two hours to get to the island of Lana'i.  During our trip over, Dominic and Gabe served us homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit and coffee.

Look how cute Jim is in his new swim trunks!  I made him get new trunks because Jack Tripper called and wanted Jim's old royal blue swim trunks back (he knows I'm kidding!).

We pulled into Hulop'e Beach and Marine Preserve in Lana'i. 

Before we went snorkeling, we had the option of going on a high-speed jet drive Zodiac.  The boat ride went along the sea cliffs of Lana'i and then looked for spinner dolphins.  Jim and I thought it would be fun, so we went on it.

 

I wasn't sure if I would get scared about it going too fast, but honestly, it didn't go fast enough!  There were about 22 of us on the Zodiac- only 4 people in our group went straight to the beach to snorkel.

Lana'i doesn't have much to see.  There's a Four Seasons right near the bay where we pulled in that's super expensive.  There's two golf courses on the island.  This is the 12th hole on one of the courses.  The fairway skips across the sea cliff.

This is where Bill Gates got married (on the 12th hole).  Our Zodiac driver told us Bill Gates rented out every room possible on the island of Lana'i and also bought every tour on all of the helicopter companies on all of the Hawaiian islands just to make sure no one was at his wedding that he didn't want to be there.

There were only a couple of houses that we could see from the boat.  I don't want to know how much this one cost to build...

The water was so clear around the sea cliffs.  It was so blue and so beautiful.

While we were zipping around in the Zodiac, there was one woman that asked our Zodiac driver about four hundred questions- she kept asking about EVERYTHING.  At one point, the Zodiac driver pointed out these little caves in the middle of the sea cliffs that were little lava tubes.  These little caves were hundreds of feet above the water in the wall of the sea cliff.  The woman that was asking questions then asked him what kinds of animals lived in those little caves.  What!?  Really?  What other animals besides birds could even GET to the caves?  Jim and I started laughing and wished the Zodiac driver would've told her raccoons or squirrels lived in there. 

Our Zodiac then headed out into the ocean to spot dolphins, but our driver couldn't find any pods (a pod is a group of dolphins).  At the very end though, we got to see a small pod of three dolphins playing around the front of another boat...

Our Zodiac boat ride ended and we pulled back into the bay.  We got in a shuttle van and we got to Hulopo'e Beach!

We got our snorkel lesson and then headed out into the water.  Jim and I were new at snorkeling, and we both had some challenges getting used to it.  It felt so unnatural, just floating along with your face down in the water.  We both kept trying and eventually we got the hang of it.  Gabe was helping us and he said once we saw our first fish we'd "be stoked!".  He was right... we saw a school of fish and we got so excited.  It was amazing... we were floating along just watching hundreds of fish swim below us. 

I had an underwater camera, but the pictures definitely didn't come out as vivid as what we actually saw.

We snorkeled for awhile, then took a break, then snorkeled again.  We spent the last bit of our time just using our floatie belts to float in the ocean.  It was awesome. 

That's Jim bobbing along in the ocean.

We dried off, turned in our snorkel equipment and got back on the shuttle bus to head back towards the bay.  Trilogy has a pavilion at the bay and the crew cooks lunch for each group.  We lucked out on our trip- the trips can take up to 60 people, but there was only 26 in our group, so it was nice to have a smaller group.

While Gabe and Dominic were at the beach helping us and lifeguarding, Captain Mike was at the pavillion cooking our lunch.  He was cooking this AWESOME batch of Asian stir-fried noodles. 

We also had Captain Coon's Kiawe grilled BBQ chicken (this was fantastic), peas, salad with this blue-cheese vinaigrette dressing, rolls, and fresh Hawaiian pineapple.  Plus, all the POG juice you could drink!  It was a great lunch.

After lunch we're all sitting in the pavilion when Captain Mike talks to us about our trip back to Maui.  He asked "Did everyone get enough to eat?"  Everyone said yes.  He then asked "So every has a full belly?"  Everyone said yes.  He then reminded us we got here on a SAIL boat and we'd be SAILING back.  He then brought out a tray of sea-sickness preventative medicines and explained that the boat would be really moving around once he put up the sails, and that being sick for two hours is not fun.  Jim and I took Dramamine before we left, and then took more right after our lunch, just to be safe.

We waited about fifteen minutes around the pavilion before getting on the boat.  There was this beautiful Plumeria tree that had these pink and yellow blossoms...

Here were the Trilogy catamarans docked in the bay.  Our boat is the one on the right.

 

We chose seats in the back of the boat for the way back.  Captain Mike said that was the best place to be if you were feeling sea-sick.  Jim was affected more than I was by the waves and I didn't want either one of us to get sea-sick.

We had a nice view and were back by Captain Mike...

Once we got going, Dominic and Gabe put up the sails...

 

Our sail back was awesome- it was so relaxing and really cool to be out in the middle of the ocean.  About halfway back, Gabe and Dominic served us ice cream sundaes. 

We got back to Maui pulled into Lahaina Harbor about 3:30pm.  We got some great views of Lahaina from the boat...

 

We headed back to Ka'anapali and to our hotel.  We had an early dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. We ate at Cascades- a little outside restaurant and bar area that overlooked the pool area and had lots of tiki torches.  This was one of our favorite spots from our trip.

 

We sushi and a Pupu platter (why would they call appetizers that?).  We also had a complimentary bottle of champagne (the Hyatt gives all honeymooners a bottle of champagne when you dine in one of their restaurants).

We turned in early and went to sleep around 9pm... we had to get up at 2am (yep, you read correctly- TWO O'CLOCK in the MORNING!!!).  Stay tuned for our trek to the Haleakala Summit to watch the sunrise.

Maui! 9/20 Sunday: The Road to Hana ends

By the time we left the black sand beach, we were getting tired from being out in the hot sun and also the slow-and-go driving.  We were at mile #32 of Hana Highway and hadn't reached Hana yet.  At this point, it was probably about 3:30pm and we still had a ways to go.  I'd wanted to go about eight miles PAST Hana, and if we were going to drive the Hana Highway before the sunset, we had to hustle.  Jim did a great job of driving- he definitely had more patience than I would've if I were driving.  The constant breaking, going 20 miles per hour, and the one-lane bridges definitely tested my patience. 

We drove through Hana and on to the Haleakala National Park at Kipahulu.  This is where the Oheo Gulch was, which is also known as the Seven Sacred Pools.  I'd wanted to go here because I'd seen pictures and it was really pretty.  Plus, my friend Debby and her husband went here when they were married in Maui, and I wanted to be just like Debby.  (Hi Debby!).

One of the most memorable road signs I saw on the Road to Hana was one close to the Oheo Gulch.  There was a one-lane bridge that was AROUND a curve.  There was first a 5MPH sign (yep, FIVE miles per hour) and then a "HONK BEFORE ENTERING BRIDGE".  The road was that curvy that the only way to tell if another car was coming was to listen for another honk.

Anyway, we finally reached it...

I was really tired by the time we got here.  It was a hike too, to get to the pools, so I was really tired by the time we reached them.

I thought the people were quite adventurous on all of the pull-offs and waterfalls on the Road to Hana.  People were always hiking up to/down to/right in the middle of a waterfall or the waterfall pool.  I also wasn't sure if these people were tourists, or if they were locals. 

I concluded this guy was a local, because he knew exactly where to jump off of this rock on one side, then hold his breath and swim UNDERNEATH the big rock to get to this little secluded pool.  He did it a couple of times and I thought it was so neat.  But it made me wonder, who figures that out for the first time?

The hike back to the visitor center was all uphill, so Jim had to pretty much drag me back to the car.  We finally reached the car and the sweet sweet air conditioning.  We pulled back out onto the Highway and started our way back.  You can't "circle" this part of the island.  The Haleakala National Park was about as far as you can go, comfortably.  The road from here, on around the other side of the island is gravel and no pavement.  It also is very rocky and has the roughest ocean around the island.  With our active imaginations and picturing ourselves driving on a narrow gravel road just mere inches from the cliffside plunging our Pontiac rental into the rough ocean, we drove back the way we came in, just like 99% of the other tourists.

It took us a couple of hours to make our way back to Paia.  The way back was nice- not a lot of cars, which was great for all those one-lane bridges.  There was one part of the road where we met another car and we had to back up because the road wasn't wide enough for us to pass each other.  The other car was inches from the inside wall of the cliff and we were inches from the small curb on the OUTSIDE of the cliff.  That wasn't fun.  Also on the way back, we had to pull over to let faster moving cars pass.  There's lots of road signs and also printed on Road to Hana maps to pull over and let the locals pass you.  They're used to the roads and can drive crazy fast on the Hana Highway.  They would buzz by us and I have no idea how in the world they could drive that Highway going as fast as they do.  I also figured out that most of the locals (at least on this side of the island) drive trucks.  They love puffed-up trucks (big wheels, etc..), so it was easy to know when a local wanted to go around us.

We made it back to Paia just in time for dinner, so we parked (in the parking lot where the man with the red suitcases lived) and went to dinner at Flatbread Company.  It was really good- it's an all-natural wood-fired clay oven pizza place with lots of gourmet type pizzas. 

For any non-foodies, skip this next part!  We got a 1/2 'Jay's Heart' pizza (homemade wood-fired cauldron organic tomato sauce, premium whole milk mozzarella and Parmesan cheese baked on organic bread dough with organic garlic oil and a blend of organic herbs) and 1/2 Paia Bay Ohana (wood-fired cauldron tomato sauce, caramelized organic onions, organic mushrooms, premium whole milk mozzarella and imported Parmesan cheese baked on organic bread dough with homemade organic garlic oil, sprinkled with organic herbs).  I had a Mango Lemonade and Jim had a Iced Mint Green Tea.  I thought the pizza was good.  Jim thought it was just OK.

We headed home, very tired from our Road to Hana adventure.  Now we know those t-shirts that say "I survived the Road to Hana!" are justified. 

Maui! 9/20 Sunday: The Road to Hana continues with Black Sand Beach

We turned off the Hana Highway down a little road to the Wai'anapanapa State Park.  Even though it's a State Park, the little road isn't anything commercial and you think you're driving down a road you're not supposed to.  We wound our way towards the ocean and found the park.  We parked our car and started walking around.  There were lots of paths and lots to see here.  It was so beautiful... I think this was by far the prettiest spot we saw on our trip.  Blue sky, lush green plants, beautiful water and stunning black sand.  The black sand is from crushed lava rocks and was a beautiful contrast to all of the bright colors.  We also got to walk into a lava tube, which was just like a cave. 

While I remember this being such a beautiful place, I also remember it being incredibly hot.  Like "my face is melting off" hot. 

Here's one picture to whet your appetite... I posted more pictures of the black sand beach in a photo album (you can find my photo albums in the left side of my blog) named "Black Sand Beach".

 

Ahh!  I loved it here. 

Maui! 9/20 Sunday: The Road to Hana!

I'd done extensive research about Maui and one of the most highly-recommended experiences was The Road To Hana! 

We got up early Sunday morning, ate our breakfast (I needed my daily ration of bacon and POG juice and Jim needed his daily selection of Eggs Benedict and Chocolate Banana Cake).  We packed up our snacks and bottled drinks and waters and headed out.  The 26 mile Maui Marathon was also this morning, so it took us awhile to get going.  There were a TON of runners.  They started the race at 5:00am so the runners could run in the coolest temperatures. 

We stopped off at the "Hana CD Guide Booth" and got a CD Guide/Hana Coast Map.  It was $20 and claimed "It's like someone in your car leading you to Hidden Pools and Waterfalls, Rainforests, Hiking Trails, Exotic Plants and Flowers, often-missed Spectacular Sights, Black Sand Beach and much more!".   I wouldn't say it was a 100% accurate statement, but it was still a good buy.  Hana, here we come!

I'd called ahead to the Hana Bay Picnic shop in Paia and ordered two picnic lunches.  They specialize in packing lunches for the Road to Hana.  For $18, we got two Turkey subs, two pasta salads, two chips and two cookies.  Fairly good deal (for Maui).

We got so excited about the waterfalls and "authentic tropical" sights we were going to see that we drove right through Paia and past the Hana Bay Picnic shop.  It was about fifteen minutes past Paia that I realized our missed stop, so we had to turn around and get our lunches.  We parked in the Paia parking lot (and yep, the man with the red suitcases was there) and picked up our goods.  We were soon on our way again for our adventure!

On our way back to Paia though, it started to drizzle a little.  We got our first dose of Maui rainbows!  Although missing Paia on the way through, at least we got to see beautiful rainbows on our way back!

 

The Road To Hana is one of America's Most Scenic Drives.  

The Road To Hana "requires some effort. The legendary road to Hana is only 52 miles from Kahului, but the drive takes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to complete because it's fraught with narrow one-lane bridges, hairpin turns, and incredible island views.  The Hana Highway (HI-360) has 600 curves and 54 bridges."

(Also from this map, you can see the Ka'anapali area where we were staying, and then we got married on the southern end of Wailea.)

I'd also read and re-read the 'Maui Revealed' guidebook and they listed specific (I mean SPECIFIC) places to stop and hike, but honestly, it was so easy to miss something.  The sights aren't marked and you have to go by mile markers or count "three fences from 8/10ths of a mile past mile marker 10".

In all of the Maui publications/guide books/maps/tour brochures, they print a bizillion warnings about not leaving valuables in your car while on the Road to Hana.  "This goes for anywhere in Maui. You may notice when you park in the dirt at certain sights that there's broken glass on the ground. The vast deep vegetation of your surroundings is the perfect place for Maui thieves to sit and wait for unsuspecting tourists to pull up. Leave your valuables at home. Even the trunk of your car is not safe from a determined thief. Remember that Maui rental cars are easy to spot, and make for obvious prey. Don't take any risk of being a victim by leaving your valuables at home or taking them with you from the car." 

So many warnings made me a little skittish about exploring hiking trails on our own.  I only felt comfortable pulling over or exploring those "hidden" gems when there were other tourists there.

Jim drove the entire day and he did a great job.  Once we got really into the hairpin turns and one-lane bridges, it was a little stressful driving.  We're driving on the edge of the sea cliffs and while there may be a guard rail, you can still see that you're thousands of feet right above the ocean with steep drop-offs.  Jim's afraid of heights, so I'm glad he was concentrating on the road. 

I wished I would've taken pictures of all of the road signs.  There's one about every ten feet reminding us "Drive Slow", "No Passing", "Speed Limit: 15". 

We first stopped off at Waikamoi Ridge Trail.  There were lots of cars parked here, so I felt safe!

 

This picture above is from the view we saw where we felt like we were in "Lost". 

We continued on to the Kaumahina State Wayside Park.  On our Hana map, this park's description was listed as "has nice restrooms."  We walked to the edge of the park towards the road.

Things were pretty and scenic, but we wanted Boom!-Pow!-In your face waterfalls.  We kept driving and pulled off (along with other parked cars) to the scenic lookout spots of Honomanu Bay.  This view was pretty breathtaking. In the far section of cliffs, you can see where the road winds its way around the cliffs.

 

Our next stop was at the Ke'anae Overlook.  It overlooked the Ke'anae Peninsula.  You can see where they are flooding the taro fields.

We then went to the Ke'anae Arboretum.  Nothing too exciting to see- lots of green lush forest.  A little into the hike, we realized we were surrounded by a cloud of mosquitoes.  I'd packed OFF! bug repellent wipes, but somehow managed to only bring two towelettes with us.  We wiped our legs and arms as best as we could, but I still got about a dozen mosquito bites.  We walked all of the way to the back of the arboretum in hopes we'd see a waterfall, but nothing but trees and plants (I know, I know, it IS an arboretum).

 

 

 

Rainbow Eucalyptus...

We drove down a little road down to the Ke'anae Peninsula.  There were pull offs where we could get right near the ocean.  I loved the waves crashing on shore.

 

We made our way back to Hana Highway and stopped off at the Wailua Overlook.

 

We continued driving and pulled off into the Wailua Valley State Wayside.  I had voted to keep on driving after we pulled into the stop- it didn't look like anything special.  Jim said we should give it a try and walk up the stairs.  The view was worth it (OK, so I admit, I'm glad I listened to Jim).

 

Something to mention about the Road To Hana... most of these pull off spots aren't paved- they're like worn-out spots next to the Highway.  I think that's why it's so easy to miss some of the sights.  They don't advertise the good spots, so you have to really be paying attention to the CD or the map, or a guidebook.  I guess if you're trying to pay attention to all three, then there's a good chance you're missing the actual sights (which happened to me a couple of times).  The "parking lot" for the Wailua Valley State Wayside consisted of two (TWO!) paved parking spaces.

At this point, we're at mile #19 into the drive.  33 more miles to Hana.  Also as a fun fact, this area of the island gets an average of 365 inches of rain per year.  All of the water and run-off water is irrigated to Central Maui to the sugar cane and other crops.

So we were frustrated at this point because we hadn't been able to see an actual waterfall.  We came up a group of cars that had pulled off along side the road.  Jim followed suit and we walked to see what everyone was looking at (now I know why they say Hana Highway is subject to the lemming effect... you tend to follow the crowd).  We walked a little ways and saw a waterfall!

 

 

In the picture above, if you look closely, you can see a guy that had hiked down to the waterfall.  He's in an orange shirt (no it's not Jim) and by the big rock in the lower right hand corner of the picture.  I thought it was good so you could how big the waterfall was.  Not Niagara Falls good, but still pretty.

It was around 1:30pm and time for lunch.  We stopped off at the Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park.  Just like the rest of the roads and places in Maui, I couldn't pronounce anything on our Road to Hana.

 

Most of the Road to Hana and all of it's pull offs and parks are very "rustic".  And for some reason, most of the signs along the Highway are covered with stickers and bumper stickers.  ?

We had our lunch at one of the picnic tables at this park. 

 

This park had two waterfalls- one near the picnic tables and one you had to hike up this steep hill and beyond to see.  We started the hike, but realized we weren't wearing the right shoes (I had on flip-flops).  Also, people were swimming in this waterfall.  Hmmm, just like at home at Old Man's Cave.

 

From here we drove about ten miles without stopping.  While the scenery is beautiful, I grew impatient with all of the braking and the constant curves and hairpin turns.  It was slow going and I was anxious to get to the good stuff.

We made our way down a little road off of Hana Highway to Waianapanapa State Park, a beautiful black sand beach.   Since this post is really really long, I'll continue in another post all of my pictures from the black sand beach (there's a lot- it was BEAUTIFUL!).

Maui! 9/19 Saturday evening: Kamaole Sunset

I've been sidetracked recently with our move and then all the preparation for our post-wedding open house.  I still want to post about our move and the past two weeks, but I wanted to keep on posting about our Maui trip.  I've had a couple of comments about my blog that have been a positive reinforcement, so I feel inspired to post more pictures!  (Thanks Felicia and Alison for your recent comments!)

So, back to our Maui trip!

After we left Paipu Beach, we headed back towards Ka'anapali to our hotel.  Though we wanted to time it so we could stop off at one of the three Kamaole Beaches to watch the sunset on our way home.

This was like sea weed, but was attached to the lava rocks...

It looked like wilted lettuce.  

We waited around for a little while watching the waves roll.  Finally, the sun started to set...

My picture of the sunset could have been better.  I used a tripod, but I know I didn't have the right shutter speed/aperature setting.  Also, on a side note, I thought every night there would be this spectacular red/orange/pink/purple sunset like in all of the postcards and pictures you see from a tropical place, but we didn't see anything like this.  Our sunsets were pretty, but nothing too amazing. 

From here, we headed back to our hotel.  We stopped off to fill up our rental car, plus a stop off at the Safeway Grocery store to get some bottled drinks.  We ended up having dinner at Umalu at the Hyatt... we each had a 'Drunken Sausage' sandwich (a beer brat cooked in beer) and a Pina Colada.  It was tasty! 

We turned in early so we could get a good night's sleep for our big day on Sunday.  Coming soon- the Road to Hana!

Just Maui'ed! September 17th

Finally!  I'm able to post our wedding pictures!  We finally got the CD our photographer mailed to us. Hooray!  Our package included 200 photos on CD with a photo release so we can print all the pictures we want.  Our photographer took 714 pictures and we had to narrow it down to 200.  It was fairly easy, but still took awhile to go through them all.  We really loved how our photos turned out.  I thought our photographer did an amazing job- the pictures were just the style I wanted.

I've added a portion of our pictures to a photo album here on my blog (look for the photo album section on the left-side of my blog and the one album labeled "Just Maui'ed").

Jim and I didn't even know the photographer was taking some of the pictures that he did- he was so unobtrusive that we were really able to listen to the words and not be conscience of anyone else there or be distracted by someone taking our picture. 

As you can see from the pictures, I have a weird sunburn... I wore a v-neck t-shirt the day before and got a little red.  It looks stupid, but what could I do?  I can always have it Photoshopped out.

Jim and I talked about him wearing linen pants, but he really wanted to wear khaki cargo shorts.  It was his wedding too, so I thought he should wear what he wants to wear. 

When we were going through our pictures, we were laughing because it seemed like we were kissing in every other picture.  It didn't seem like we kissed that much, but looking through the pictures, it looked like we were liplocked for an hour.

We met Reverend Fay and Dmitri (our photographer) at 4:45pm and we were out of there by 6:30pm.  We even had a little wedding cake and a sparkling juice toast (we couldn't have champagne on the beach).  Fay set up everything for us while Dmitri was taking our pictures.  She did a great job- she had to lug a cake, a table and everything else over the path and down over the lava rocks.

Jim and I both cried during our ceremony- the words were just perfect for us.  Don't tell Jim that I spilled the beans that he cried.  When we looked through our pictures for the first time, we both got teary-eyed.  We thought the pictures really captured the moments we shared on the beach.   

I am posting this on our one-month anniversary.  I can't believe it's been four weeks already!

Maui! 9/19 Saturday afternoon: Paipu Beach

Back to work on our Maui photos!

From the Wailea area, we went back to Paipu Beach- the beach where we got married.  We loved our little beach so much, we wanted to go back and just spend some time there taking in the views again.  I took a tripod so I could get shots of the both of us.

Our little beach is also called "Secret Beach"... maybe because you have to walk up this little sandy path up a hill, over lava rocks and then down the lava rocks to the beach.  At one point the path narrows to about 12" on the edge of the rocks.  It's actually not so "secret"... later on in our trip we heard there can be up to ten weddings a day here.

Here's the path up the little hill...

And then here's the path that continues over the lava rocks (bring back memories, Debby?)

This is Jim pointing to Clint Eastwood's house.  Here's a close-up...

Sharon Stone is his neighbor... here's her house...

As we were hanging out here on Paipu Beach, all of a sudden our photographer and then Reverend Fay came over the lava rocks with a bride and groom!  Another wedding at "Secret" Beach!

From here, we headed back towards our hotel, but stopped off at another little beach on the way home to watch the sunset.

Maui! 9/19 Saturday afternoon: Fairmont & Grand Wailea

From Paia, we drove about an hour to the Wailea area.  We wanted to walk around the beaches there and then also check out some of the bigger hotels.  We went back to the Fairmont to walk around (you remember, where we went after we got married where I ruined their white handcloths in the lobby bathroom?).  When we were there before we'd gotten there after sunset, so we couldn't see any of the views from Nick's Fishmarket.  Seeing the hotel during the day was amazing- this hotel was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  The entire lobby area was all open and overlooked the pool and then on to the ocean.

We saw this little guy on our way out of the Fairmont.  We then went to the Grand Wailea...