Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 5 Sunrise

On our fifth day in Maui, we left our room while it was still dark and drove up to the top of the volcano Haleakala to see the sunrise. We got the Jeep parked with about ten minutes to spare. Apparently, a hundred or so other people had the same idea. Most of them were tourists like us, a lot hadn't even brought jackets and were wrapped up in beach towels. It was quite chilly up there. 

This sunrise was one of the most awesome things we saw in Hawaii. We were almost 10,000 feet in elevation, looking down on the morning clouds covering the east side of the island. At the first glimpse of sun, a native Hawaiian park ranger began a chant to welcome the sun. Wow. As we got more light, you could look west and see the shadow of the volcano over the rest of the island and the ocean. 

We went through the small visitor's center and also spoke to a park ranger a little bit. We learned that the birds we saw running through the lava rocks were chukars brought by sportsmen as a game bird to the island. The birds quickly learned that they were safer up higher on the volcano and have pretty much taken over. This was interesting since we have chukars at home and that is actually the name of our minor league baseball team. 

Afterwards, I had to drive back down the volcano. Switchbacks are not my favorite thing and neither are packs of bicyclists coasting down said switchbacks and not staying single file. Luckily it was a rather uneventful ride back to the entrance of the state park where Patrick was able to take over.

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 4

After our whale watch in the morning, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. We spent time in our room and in the pool there. We talked to another couple that had just arrived. Patrick tried to ambush me with the water gun. He's so not sneaky enough.

We called the girls from there and let them see where we were staying. They were excited to see the two parrots that live in a thatched cage in the yard. We showed them our room and the pool. Rachael was jealous about the pool. 

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 4 Sunrise

We got up early on the fourth day to catch a sunrise whale watching tour. We boarded the Pacific Whale Foundation's boat in Maalaea. It was a perfect time for it. We were there right in the middle of the whale migration and saw several whales including at least one mother and calf pair and another female with two males showing off for her. It was really neat to listen in when they dropped the underwater microphone. The tour guide gave a lot of interesting information regarding the humpback whales we were seeing and the unique features of the bay that made it an ideal birthing ground for them.

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 3

I loved the kitschy mailbox by our room and the trees that lined the road between the east and west sides of the island. On the third day, we drove up the west side of the the island to the northwest point and found DT Fleming beach as recommended by Tawnia. They spent their vacation here just two weeks before us. When we got there it was windy and rainy, so we stopped long enough for a bathroom break and to look around quickly. 

Then we got back in the Jeep to visit a couple beaches we had passed along the way. We ate our lunch at one and Patrick went wading for a bit. The waves broke pretty much on the shore so it was tough for him to keep his balance. I watched him get bowled over a time or two. We also watched the different birds that were hopping around. There were some red-headed ones that were fairly bold looking for crumbs.

The next beach was lined with lots of black rocks. If you held still and looked closely, you saw little jet black crabs crawling around and in between the rocks. It was hard to get a good picture of them since our phone cameras didn't want to focus on black specks on top of black rocks.

We made our nightly facetime call with the girls from here. I think they really liked being able to see the ocean and beach.

On our way back to our room, we stopped at an overlook. You can see such a  difference in the vegetation here versus what we saw at our sunrise beach from the day before.

Proof that we were both there together.

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 2

After our sunrise adventure, Patrick and I went to the grocery store and back to our room to get ready for the rest of the day. I loved the flowers that were just outside our door, especially the orchids. How can you not take pictures of flowers when you're in Hawaii?

Then we decided to drive along the coast a bit to see what we could see. We ended up at the H.A. Baldwin beach which is east of Kahului just before you hit Paia. It was a beautiful day for looking, not so great for being on the beach due to high winds that threw a lot of sand in our faces. Patrick couldn't help himself and had to at least stick his feet in the water. 

Then we found the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum which was housed in the old caretaker's home across the street from the still-operating sugar cane processing plant. There were a lot of neat old machines and farm trucks outside used for harvesting and transporting sugar cane. Inside we learned a bit about the different climate regions on the island, the history of irrigation there, and a little about life as an immigrant worker on the sugar plantations.