First stop in Maui was the top of a dormant volcano called Haleakala. And when I say first stop, I really mean first stop. Janene and I got up at 5:00AM after arriving the night before and started driving to the top of a 10,000 ft. mountain to watch the sun rise out of the ocean. We thought we were the only ones going up there. Imagine our surprise when we came around a corner and found a National Park Sevice employee directing traffic and saw the silhouettes of hundreds of people lined up on the ridge.
We didn't think we could hang around for the sun to get high enough to properly illuminate the crater, or what's left of the crater. We couldn't walk too far on Janene's new foot so exploring the crater was out of the question. It was an eerie place to be with so much greenery everywhere else.
We saw a few of the silverswords, a plant that grows only on the top of Haleakala. After we started down, we got to see one of the Nene, the Hawaiian state bird, and the only state bird on the endangered species list. Just looked like goose without wings. On the way down the mountain we worked hard to get our ears to pop. Zero to 10,000 and back again.Can't do that back home in Utah. One of the girls at work was born and raised in Hawaii. She drove up to the top of Haleakala for the sunrise every morning for a whole summer. There must be something different in Hawaiian blood. I think she got a lot more out of it than we did. Then again, she put a lot more into it than we did.
6 comments:
Thank You for sharing your adventures. Both times I have gone to the islands Larry used he knees as the reason we had to view most of it from the road side. What a beautiful plants, I love seeing the different vegetation the Lord has created. Enjoy!
I was just feeding Caleb, looking out the window at the snow, and wondering what you guys were up to. Elsie just lost her 5th tooth today. Have a great time and REMEMBER TO RELAX!!!
Too fun! We're still upset you didn't invite us to come too - Mikey's can't wait to see your post about the beach!
Love every minute! You folks deserve a wonderful vacation!
Chad and I spent our honeymoon on Maui. I don't think I enjoyed Haleakala all the much, but then again I had just gotten married and everything was wonderful.
A few of my favorite things on Maui were snorkeling at the Molikini crater, swimming in the Seven Sacred pools at the end of the road to Hana, eating pineapple and having the juice just run down my arm, fresh toasted coconut, and then a sunset at Big Beach. I think it's called Big Beach and it was fun because Chad and I had the whole big beach all to ourselves.
Also there is a restaurant we really enjoyed in Kihei called Bada Bings.
Hmm, don't take my word for it on the restaurant. I get nervous offering people suggests about food. We enjoyed it, but that was almost eight years ago, things can change.
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