Robyn also hates being a tourist. She wants to go places and hang out with the locals, eat their food, etc, etc, etc. She was very excited about getting a Lei at the airport.
Hi I'm Robyn, the happy tourist.
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I've always wanted to return to Maui after spending a couple weeks there during my college years with Jason and Greg. Robyn on the other hand has a bit of white guilt and didn't have much desire to visit the Aloha State. Luckily, for me, our friend Kim decided to get married in Maui and offered us the perfect excuse to go. And as it turns out I had to drag Robyn kicking and screaming from our hotel to the airport in Maui the day we were leaving (she's a sucker for sunny beaches and seeing me with no shirt on).
Robyn also hates being a tourist. She wants to go places and hang out with the locals, eat their food, etc, etc, etc. She was very excited about getting a Lei at the airport. |
Hi I'm Robyn, the happy tourist. |
Monday January 31st
Once we arrived at the airport in Maui we picked up our rental car and headed off to our hotel in Lahaina. The weather was 75 degrees and partially cloudy. It felt like a nice tropical summer to us after coming from San Francisco. We checked in at the hotel around 12 but our room wasn't going to be ready until 3:00PM so we wandered around down town Lahaina for a bit. We stopped and got some fish tacos and prawns and chips. The cheese on one of my tacos was bad but other than that the food was decent. We were beat from preparing for the dog show the week before so we went back to the hotel and slept till dinner. We had Pizza at BJ's Chicago Pizza and some Ice cream afterwards, and then we went back to bed again.
Tuesday February 1st
Vacation really started here. We woke up at 2:30AM to go on the Haleakala sunrise tour. Haleakala is the big (dormant) volcano on Maui. We were told the sunrises from the top are spectacular. When we awoke it was raining and we worried we wouldn't be seeing any sun but the tour bus driver reassured us that just because it was raining at the bottom of the volcano didn't mean the weather at the top wasn't good for viewing a sunrise. We slept most of the trip up the hill. At the top it was still a bit rainy and super cold (around 40 degrees). The sun came up around 7 and the sunrise was nice. The clouds didn't ruin it but made for a some nice effects with the other hills the sun was rising over. After the sun was mostly up we drove a little ways down the volcano and checked out some of the mounds in the giant crater that is at the top of the volcano. Unfortunately the clouds were too thick at that point to really see much.
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| Sunrise over the volcano | |
We drove back down the volcano (I slept) and had lunch back in Lahaina at Alexander's Fish and Chips. Their Fish tacos were much better and we made a point to go back a little later in the trip. Also that morning we picked up "Maui Revealed" to help plan the rest of our vacation. We didn't have anything planned except the volcano sunrise trip and the wedding.
We travelled north to the Nakalele blowhole. A blowhole is a hole along the coast line (in this case old lava) that shoots water into the air when waves break against the walls just below the hole. This particular hole has been known to shoot water up to 70 feet in the air. I suspect that it probably went 30-40 feet in the air while we were there. To get to the hole we parked along the highway and walked toward the ocean cliffs. Then we had about a 20 minute hike to the hole along the ocean cliffs. Don't worry Lynn it wasn't dangerous at all. Along the way there was a really neat section of rocks that were eroding away. The guide book described it as, "it looks like someone had an acid war." Most people stayed way up on a hill and watched the hole from a distance of a few hundred yards, but the hike we took brought us right down next to the hole. After playing in the water for a while we headed back the way we came.
 Robyn sure is a great photographer |
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| The hike to the blowhole | ||
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| The "acid war" | ||
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| The blowhole | ||
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| Is that Mars? |
On the ride back down to Lahaina we stopped along the road and watched some surfers. Nothing too exciting, though they did appear to be better than anyone else I'd ever seen surfing.
Back in Lahaina we went to dinner at The Fish Company which sat right on the water. I'd been craving seared Ahi, and Robyn had a shrimp pasta. It was the best meal we had the whole trip.
Wednesday February 2nd
Since we did so much the prior day we slept in this day. Then we wandered over to the local Internet Cafe so that we could call the Subaru dealership and see how our car was doing. We had decided to leave the car with the dealship to have it looked at while we were away. Interesting vacation detail right? I won't mention the car again, promise.
We decided to visit Iao Vally and take a little hike. On the drive to the valley we again pulled off the side of the road but this time we watched whales not too far off the coast. Every winter Humpback Whales visit Hawaii to mate and give birth, how romantic! So while this isn't the best time of year for warm weather it is a fantastic time to do whale watching.
Iao Vally is a valley cut into the smaller mountain on Maui. The trails are tiny so we didn't get much of a hike but it was quite beautiful. We travelled back down the the valley in search of some local food and we found "Mike's Local and Chinese Food". It was mostly buffet style Chinese and American food. I don't believe there was anything really Hawaiian there, oh well.
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| Iao Valley | ||
Robyn had heard that the best Savers in the world was in Maui so we stopped there on the way back to Lahaina. For those that don't know (which I didn't before getting there) Savers is simply a second hand clothing store. They also had books there so I even got something (The Prince and The Pauper).
Following our tradition that we started in Turkey we had to watch a movie. We choose "Coach Carter". It was the perfect Hawaii film ;). After the show we walked down the shoreline and talked about the good, the bad and the ugly of the American education system.
Thursday February 3rd
We wasted about 2 hours at a Pleasant Holidays Breakfast Orientation at a resort in Ka'anapali. We thought we were getting the hook up with a free breakfast but it really wasn't worth it considering how early we had to get up for it and how long it took.
We rushed back from the stupid presentation to go whale watching on a boat. The waters are super calm along the wester coast of Maui so we both managed not to get sea sick. We saw quite a few whales. We saw a new born and it's mother up close and they were later joined by an "escort", that's a male whale who's trying to get his mac on. The boat crew put a microphone in the water and we were able to listen to the whales sing their song. Mean while off in the distance we could see a couple whales jumping completely out of the water. They were too far out to get any good pictures but it was impressive none-the-less. It was the first day the sun broke through the clouds so we both picked up a little color as well.
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| The Whales | ||
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| The view from the boat, and Robyn napping | ||
We visited the Pioneer Hotel Bar and Grill for lunch and then headed off to Wailea for Kim and Aaron's wedding. The wedding was about the Gold and Emerald Golf course. It was a small simple outside ceremony. It drizzled a little the whole time but I think it made the ceremony all the nicer. After the ceremony we head up to Kihei for the reception. They had a wonderful couple of Hawaiian guy's playing acoustical guitar and singing at the reception and lots of good food.
Friday February 4th
We woke up a little late this day and grabbed some Jamba Juice for breakfast. Then we rented some snorkel gear and bought some Sandwiches for the road. We took the infamous Road to Hana. At our orientation earlier they said we should start at 8 (we started at about 11:30) and not to drive the back side of the mountain because of the dirt roads (which we did). Although we were a little rushed because of our late start it was still a beautiful drive, as pretty, if not prettier than, Highway 1 along the California coast. At about halfway to Hana we stopped along the side of the road over looking a little village and had our lunch. After lunch we tried to stop at the "Blue Pools" but the road to them were damaged and a stream was running across it so we decided to spare our rental car and turn around (next trip we're getting a jeep). Then we continued on and spent about an hour at the Black Sand Beach. This is apparently the only black sand beach in Maui (though there are many others on the big Island). the rocks are black because the sand is created from lava instead of shell and reefs. The water was a beautiful blue especially in contrast to the black cliffs and sand all around it.
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| The view during lunch | |
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| Pictures from the beach | ||
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| And some more | ||
Our main destination on the road to Hana was the Seven Sacred Pool. Unfortunately due to all the rain that the Island was getting the pools and streams were closed (flash flood worries). We walked up the 1.5 mile hike and viewed the water falls and pools anyway. This is the spot of one my fondest memories from my first trip. Back when I was a young crazy kid I decided (along with Jason) that it would be a good idea to jump off the 60 foot bridge into the pool below. Looking over the edge now I can't understand how I thought that was a good idea. There was also a very scary bamboo forest there that isn't much fun to walk in when it's dark. On the way back down from the waterfalls we ran across one particularly menacing bull (he even had horns) that didn't seem to want us to use his path. He chased us a little ways back up the hill, and when I say "chase" I mean he walked toward us and we scurried back away from him as if he was a raging bull.
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| Pictures from the Seven Sacred Pools | ||
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| And some more | ||
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 Me Conquering the bridge one more time |
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| And some more | ||
Once the cows let us off the hill we decided to break our rental car agreement (shhhh) and took the dirt/poorly paved roads back to the other side of the volcano. This was a great decision, while there were no tropical rain forests on that side of the mountain the tall grass and open space was just as beautiful. There were a lot of stray dogs and random old churches in the area as well.
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| The backside of Haleakala | ||
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| More Haleakala |
By time we got home it was dinner time. We went back to the Pioneer Bar and Grill to get Robyn some coconut fried shrimp.
Saturday February 5th
Our last full day in Maui was also the only sunny day there. So we took our snorkeling gear and hit the Beach. We drove down to what is suppose to be some of the best snorkeling in Maui. Along the way we grabbed some bagels for breakfast at Beach n' Bagelz. South of Wailea is the site of the very last Volcanic eruption on Maui (1780). The whole area is a waste land of volcanic boulders. But down at the shoreline the volcanic rocks have created many coves and bays where the water is calm and clear and fish are plenty. We hiked over about a mile worth of volcano rock to get to the coast and did a little snorkeling. I saw an Eel and a ton of tropical fish. We stayed there for an hour or two and then headed back to a proper beach with sand and everything. There Robyn spent most of her time on the beach and I did some more snorkeling. At first the snorkeling was disappointing since the water was murkier and not nearly as many fish. But on my second trip out a giant sea turtle swam right by me. I tried to follow him but he was moving way to fast. He startled me as he swam by (I thought it was a shark at first). The turtle was as big as me (though probably weighed a fair amount more). Then on my way back to shore I came across another see turtle (about half the size of the first). He was lazily swimming along. I followed him for a hundred yards or so until someone else spotted him too and spooked him. I'm convinced I should be a marine biologist now.
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| Snorkel Coves | ||
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| And some more | ||
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| The last lava flows on Maui |
We headed back to Lahaina and had some more fish tacos at Alexander's. Then we went off to the much talked about Warren and Annabel's Magic Show. People made it sound so good I was planning on being disappointed. But it lived up the hype, the guy is amazing with his hands and hysterically funny too. We got front run seats and were a part of the show, which means he made fun of me most of the evening. I was such a big part of the show that the other members of the audience gave me applause when I walked out of the building. It was well worth the money spent and I'd recommended it to anyone.
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| Our last sunset in Lahaina |
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| Christian Lassen, in his jeans playing in the ocean, how romantic! Robyn loves great art. |
Sunday February 6th
The last day we went over to the always crowded "Cheeseburger in Paradise" for breakfast. The food wasn't that great but it was one of the few places around that serviced breakfast at a decent price. After breakfast we vacated our hotel room, returned the snorkel gear and headed off to the airport. The sun was shining and whales were jumping, making it hard to go home.
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| Tatanka didn't get to go with us, how sad for him |