Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 8

Monday was our last day in Maui. After we checked out, we still had the whole day before our flight back to the mainland. We decided to take the road to Hana (even though Tawnia warned us against it). The road runs along the coastline on the northeast side of the island. It was beautiful. It made me want to barf. There were so many hairpin turns. I ended up having to pick a tree in the distance to focus on until we passed it and then another and another. It helped. I did not lose my cookies. 

We made a few stops along the way. We saw a lot of mongoose. We learned that they were imported to take care of the rat infestation. However, rats are active at night and mongooses (mongeese?) are awake during the day, so now Maui has a mongoose infestation too. 

We saw a ginormous spider. Ick. There were waterfalls all over the place and we could see parts of the aqueduct system built to bring water from the wet side of the island to the dry. We had learned about the aqueducts at the sugar cane museum earlier on our trip.

We actually didn't technically go all the way to Hana. We turned off to go to the Wai'anapanapa State Park to see the black sand beach. It was so beautiful. After a short walk, we came to a small bay with black sand made from lava. It felt very weird to walk on because it was less dense than typical sand. There are a couple of sea caves there, but we didn't really get to look at them. Patrick was wiped out from our adventure, so I had to drive a good portion of the way back on the Hana highway. That part was not fun.

After dinner and a little last minute souvenir shopping, we made it back to the airport. Just in time to find out our flight was delayed. We did not end up leaving until after midnight. It was a pretty miserable plane ride. We were so tired, but it was really cramped. The guy I was sitting next to took up a lot of room so neither of us slept very much on the way to Seattle. Luckily, our next flight to Salt Lake was much better. We couldn't wait to drive home and see our girls.

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 7

After church on Sunday (where we saw the most epic Polynesian Mullet) we drove up the nearby Iao Valley. It was amazing to see yet another climate and ecosystem on the island. Everything up there was lush and green. Apparently, the Iao Needle is a popular Sunday hike. We walked up the steep path (luckily there were handrails most of the way) to a viewing spot. We could see several small waterfalls. As we were coming down, we got hit by a sudden cloudburst that was here and gone in only a few minutes. 

Just down the valley from there was a park that celebrated the diversity of cultures found in Hawaii. Each group of immigrants was represented through architecture and gardens. It was a neat idea, but a lot of the park was in disrepair. You could see the evidence of erosion and vandalism in places. We found out later that the park was scheduled to be closed for renovation. I liked all the different interpretations of dragons. There were even some on the roof of the Chinese pagoda.

Hawaiian Anniversary: Day 6

We spent our sixth day in Lahaina. We walked through three small historic museums: the Baldwin Home, the Wo Hing Temple, and the Lahaina Heritage museum. The museums gave three distinct perspectives on the history of the area and island. The Heritage museum is on the same square as the largest banyan tree in Hawaii. It was huge. We ate our lunch under its massive canopy and watched people walk around the craft fair that was there.

It was really hot in town and all the walking really did us in. We found a nearby beach someone told us about that had a small reef offering some protection from the breakers. To get to it, we had to park in an alleyway between a bunch of private property. It had nice shade and gentle waves. I finished reading one of my kindle books there.