We'll Be Back!

It was with a somewhat heavy heart that we headed back to the Mainland after our fabulous vacation. Maui was fantastic -- beautiful, lush and....we want to go back!! We're exploring the idea of going back every other year. Is it wrong to plan that far ahead? :) Here are some parting images of paradise!

We are SO fun!!!

Our alarm went off this morning at 2:30am. No fluke. We went to bed around 7:30pm, and I think we were able to fall asleep by around 8:30pm or so in order to be up early for our Haleakala bike ride. I’m well versed in the get-ready-in-25-minutes-plan but you should have seen mom this morning! We had to meet the van at 3am in front of the hotel, and when our alarm went of at 2:30am, she shot out of bed like a rocket. I turned on the light, and played with my phone for a few minutes. By the time I decided to get out of bed, she had her clothes on and had already finished in the bathroom. It was like a whirlwind! By 2:40 she was standing around twiddling her thumbs. Apparently the 25 minute thing is a gift I have (which I practice five days a week…).

The van picked us up, and after we picked up three other people, we drove to their shop in Paia to get gear and such. I was sort of in and out of consciousness at this point, so I can’t tell you much about this stretch of the trip except for the moments when Dudley Do Right behind me thought that whistling at 4am was a great move. Argh.

We got to the top of Haleakala at around 5:50. The goal was to see the sunrise over the volcano before we biked the rest of the way down. Unfortunately, the summit (10,023 ft) was completely socked in (and freezing), so when the sun came up at 6:15, it just sort of got light, with no spectacular sunrise.

You aren’t allowed to bike from the top anymore, so we drove down to 6,500 feet where we started our bike journey. It was still chilly enough to need all the gear we had on: sweatshirt, fleece jacket, gortex jacket (Briana, if you are reading this, I needed a parka in Hawaii!!!), gortex pants and gloves.

The perk of going on a tour was that they handled the cars completely. We had a guide on a bike in front and a van in the back. We rode in the middle of the lane until the cars backed up behind the van and then they signaled us to move to the side. It was slick and required almost no thinking.

The bikes had excellent seats (wide and squishy), no gears, and were made for smurf sized people (which is funny because we were all in blue gortex!!). The first bike I had was SO small. My knees were nearly knocking my teeth out. After I switched out, my knees were happier, but I had a somewhat terrifying brake situation. I found as we were going around the turns (the road zig zags at a fairly steep incline the whole way) that I had my brakes pulled all the way in and I was still hauling. Our guide made the signal to stop, and I had a frightening moment when I didn’t think I could stop. After they adjusted my brakes, I had SO much fun. This was definitely something that mom wanted to do, but I loved it too!!

When we got home, we were famished, and inhaled our leftover pizza (Rhonda, it’s even better cold!!), and I promptly fell in to bed for nearly three hours.

And then to complete a completely fabulous day, we went snorkeling. I mean where else can you be at the top of a volcano in the morning, and following fishies in the afternoon? We LOVE it here!!!

Teddy Roosevelt and Darth Vader

This appears to be the first trip we have taken in recent history where our good friend Teddy Roosevelt hasn’t made an appearance. Since we have a love for National Parks, we seem to find evidence of his work wherever we go: Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota… It’s an ongoing joke between the two of us. It was pretty dark this morning when we were at the summit of Haleakala, but I think, sadly, this is a Teddy-free trip. Sigh.

In lieu of Teddy, there have been numerous Darth Vader connections. One of the Hawaiian kings ended up in a battle with someone who turned out to be his son: “Luke, I am your father.” Then I saw Yoda go by on a shuttle bus the other day (no lie), and finally, the helmet they made me wear today had the coverage of the Darth Vader helmet – there was no way to tell who was inside there!!!

Got a Whale of a Tale to Tell You

It’s better when you can hear me sing that! Yesterday one of the things we did was go on a whale watching tour. An Opstad parent that I ran into here (really, what are the odds?) recommended a boat company, and it didn’t disappoint. We were on a catamaran with an awesome crew. There were seats along the sides of the boat, but there were these two “trampolines” between the two keels that you could sit on. They said “trampoline” and I was thinking we’d bounce right off, but it was so fun! Plus we had the best seats in the house. :)

The whales are on their way north now, so there weren’t as many as there would have been a month ago, but it was pretty awesome to us!! I think we saw about six whales, and they put on quite a show. We saw a full breach out of the water, amazing tail shots and great side slaps with their flippers. The sun was SO bright that we couldn’t really see what we were doing with the camera, so we only got this one lone picture. But the experience was worth everything!!!

We got back to the room, and were discussing where to go to dinner, when the phone rang. Mom picked it up, and the side of the conversation that I head went like this: “What? Are you kidding? What government?” We had planned on going to Haleakala on Saturday to ride bikes, but with the threat of government shut down, they rescheduled us to Friday. So we threw some clothes on, went to Lahaina for dinner, and then went to bed by 7:30 so we could get up at 2:30 AM!!!!!!

Road to Perdition

The more traditional name for our journey is, “The Road to Hana”, but I think if you've been on this trip, you'll understand my artistic license. Let’s be honest, the road does not actually end in Hana, it blasts right through. And I’m sure there are several reasons to stop there, but we did not come up with any and continued around the island.. Usually on these journeys I am a passenger. But once in a blue moon, we will come across a road such as this, and due to the delicate nature of my equilibrium, I will have to drive. It was only a few moments in to our drive and I had downed several bonine and was already hiccupping and threatening to yack up my coffee when mom pulled over and I took the wheel.

You’ve probably heard about this road being the destructive force of rental cars. Um, what I would like to ask, is why doesn’t anyone mention the ONE LANE BRIDGES???? And more importantly, how terrifying they are when dump trucks (or school busses) come tearing down the hill, across the bridge, without stopping! Holy Cow. I spent a fair amount of time screaming for my life from the driver’s side. It gave my passenger an incredible feeling of security.

My other comment about the road, is I think they should add a sign that says, “Yield to Rock Wall”. A fair amount of my screaming came when I was sure we were going to scrape the paint (or door!) off the right side of the car.

Of course, we survived, as I imagine most people do, and we saw some amazing sights.

Our first stop was the Garden of Eden. All you Master Gardeners, this was a playground. There were…plants. I don’t know – anthurium, palm, bamboo… I just picked some basic groups that I can’t mess up. I suffocated in the heat and let the mosquitoes have some breakfast, and mom thoroughly enjoyed herself. I will admit that the rainbow eucalyptus had beautiful colors on the trunk. Mom took a million more pictures, which you plant people will have to get from her later. J

Next we stopped at Ke’anae, which apparently is a peninsula. The drunken truck drivers (from last night) told us the waves were amazing coming over the rocks. It was quite a sight. Plus it was more like the Big Island with so much lava rock. We tried to get one of our famous remote pictures, but the wind was blowing quite a bit, and it was hard to get the camera to balance, and then it was hard to sit on the rock. I was waiting for mom, wincing the whole time!

I had reached the maxed out heat factor again, so we stopped at a roadside “shack” for a soda. They had real shaved iced served Hawaiian style over ice cream, so we had that. It was delicious!!

Next we stopped at the Seven Sacred Pools. They aren’t really sacred – it was an advertising stint from long ago to get people to the Hana area. There was no chance of us jumping in those pools, but we did walk around and get some great pictures.

The road from here was loooooooong. It was along this stretch that we came up with several examples 0f seeing this road before:

Arizona: windy road in which we almost hit a cow as we came around a corner

Montana: “accidentally” turned on to an unmarked, unpaved road on which they were herding their cattle

New Mexico: the road in to Chaco Canyon

Alaska: road to Kennicott Mine (this one takes the cake!)

It was windy, in parts unpaved, mostly 1.5 cars wide, and devoid of bathrooms. On the last half, we were mostly alone on the road, which was really fun. We were very glad that we came because the land changed so much as we drove. It was lush and wet in parts and barren and dry in others. It was a fascinating (but yes, completely bumpy!) drive.

Don King and a Coupla Truckers

A different title for this post might have been, “Alcohol was definitely a factor.” We just got back from the hotel’s luau. With no big plans set in stone for the evening, we thought we would give it a try – why not? Well one of the reasons would be the group seating. I love the public. Actually, they were entertaining until the open bar really set in. Two of the ladies at our table were sisters, and the other two were truck drivers (and had the vocabulary to prove it!).

The luau itself was fun – the food was great, and the performers were of course amazing. The “host” was a cross between Don King and Bob Saget (yeah, the jokes were that good…). If you’ve ever been to a luau, you know the best part is the fire dancer. This guy did not disappoint!!

Other than that, today was a relax day! We slept in, then spent the day on the beach. Our beach is apparently one of the best snorkel beaches around, so we made good use of our snorkel gear and headed out in search of fishies.

The beach is nice and flat and then slopes at quite a severe angle in to the water. It’s great when you are sitting on the beach because the water rarely comes up over the slope to where people have towels and books etc. If you are in the water trying to, I don’t know, put on flippers, it’s tragic. The wave powers up the slope, and then drags out to sea, taking everything with it. One second you are standing up, and the next you are either rolling around in the sand or treading water quite a few feet from shore. Mom was holding all the snorkel gear while I was putting one flipper on when we first experienced this phenomenon. The wave tossed me and my flipper around, and when I finally righted myself, mom is laughing hysterically, treading water with ALL of our gear. It was challenging, and hilarious.

We didn’t see a ton of fish on this snorkel trip, but we both saw a giant sea turtle. This one must have been pretty old because he was not only gynormous, but sort of beat up. Their coloring is so camouflaging with the reef, that they come out of no where. This guy swam right below me, and fortunately, mom got to see him this time. We watched him from a distance for a while before his slipped between two reefs. I’ve pretty much lost interest in fish, and I’m all about the turtles. J

Whales, Turtles and Subarus -- Oh my!!

Well, here's what did not happen today: our car was not hot wired and stolen, leaving us stranded in our bathing suits on the side of the road. I know -- what a relief!! More on that later.

We arrived yesterday in Hawaii, and it is so beautiful!! Maui is nothing like the Big Island, where we have spent countless trips with our little faces tilted towards the sun. The Big Island is really all about lava. I was so surprised to see how green and lush Maui is. As different as the islands are, I still burst into tears on the way to baggage claim as I caught my first whiff of the air and my first glimpse of the palm trees. I think these islands will always feel a little bit like home.

We didn't do much yesterday. The day was SO long!! We left San Diego at the crack of dawn (literally I was up at 5:30 -- I know..). Then the flight was several hours, minus the 3 hour time change... We got here at 10:30 in the morning!! It was great to have the whole day ahead of us, but really, we were so tired. We did hang out by the pool a bit and watched the sunset cliff diving ceremony. The sun was gorgeous, and man does it feel great!! If you are still at home in the sogginess of the northwest, we are soaking up some rays for you! Even I appreciated it! As the sun was setting, the torches were lit, and a man dove off the cliff. Then the sun gently slipped below the horizon. What I loved was the applause on the beach. I leaned over to mom - "Gotta love the applause for the rotation of the Earth!".

Today we drove…I don’t know, west, maybe out of Kaanapali. Obviously I wasn’t the driver. But let’s be honest, there was only one road!! We stopped in several parts along the windy road for some awesome views of the ocean, and were even treated to some whales waving to us!

Along the way back we decided, somewhat spontaneously as we had the snorkel gear in the car, to stop at a beach for a snorkel. It was awesome! I came face to face with a little sea turtle. He swam right towards me and looked me square in the eyes before diving back towards the reef.

When we got out of the water and made our way back to the car, there were a few terrifying moments when we were fairly certain that our car had been stolen. As mom said, “That’s impossible!” My response was, “Um, do you watch TV? It’s possible! We’re totally hosed!!!” The how we came in to this pickle cannot fully be revealed because of a “Safety First” clause we signed before leaving Snoqualmie, but dad, I can assure you that no helicopters were involved. As I was getting ready to hike up to the emergency phone, mom decided to hike down the road and low and behold, across the OTHER bridge, and around TWO more corners, there was our car. Here are two very relieved swimmers (with the snorkel lines to prove it!!).

PS It's not like I don't know that the fonts are coming out different sizes, but me and my Green Flash Colada have lost the will to care about it. ;) Aloha!