Travel: September 2005 Archives
Sigh.
This will be my last post until we get back to Chicago. Funny, I'm not really lamenting the return to Chicago, except that it means leaving Maui. Yesterday, as John and I made our second trip down the road to Hana, we saw a FedEx truck making it's rounds. John decided that if he could be the FedEx or UPS delivery driver on the Hana Highway, he'd be be happy to stay in Maui. It's also clear that Maui needs a yarn store. Ah, to dream...
We have many many pictures from the road to Hana. Interestingly, as I went back over them, I realized we didn't get any pictures of Hana itself. Funny how we get the small things and miss the big ones. It's going to take me a little while to organize and categorize the pictures. So while John and I will be coming home soon, the vacation tour will continue on the blog.
However, no trip to Hawaii would be complete without some rainbows. I love the license plates on the cars with rainbows, but John and I have been lucky enough to see some real rainbows. Yesterday, we drove all the way past Hana to the ocean edge of Haleakala National Park to Oheo Gulch. It was a stunningly beautiful place and we had a gorgeous afternoon. I got to work a little bit on the toe of my Rodeo sock while enjoying the scenery. And while we were there, nature provided us with the most stunning display -- a full arc rainbow.
This is only the one end of the rainbow. I'm hoping I can use photoshop to stitch together the several pictures we got with all the rainbow pieces so that I can show you the whole thing. It was nothing short of stunning. John and I just sat there and watched it as it grew and ebbed. It really felt like Hawaii was putting on a magic show just for us.
In the interest of full disclosure, however, I should let you know that the north side of Maui is not sunny full time, and those rainbows don't show up without a little help. This morning, as we prepare to pack up and leave for our last location in upcountry Maui, it's raining. Actually, it's been raining off and on (sometimes quite aggressively) since 8 PM last night. You don't get all the beautiful green here without a little water from the sky. But on this last morning in Paia, we were rewarded with another colorful treat.
Now I've got to go shower and pack and get some dishes cleaned up so that we can get moving. We'll have one more breakfast in Paia and stop to get some of the best Chocolate Chip Banana bread that I have ever had courtesy of Cake Walk (Paia Bakery) on Baldwin St.
Aloha to everyone who's shared my vacation with me. I'll see you all again when I get back to Chicago.
Yesterday we got into the Mustang and headed down Highway 360 -- the Road to Hana. We took so many pictures and there's just too much to put into one post. In fact, the taking this road is about the full sensory experience. The visuals are incredible, you can hear the sounds of birds and waterfalls and the ocean. You can smell the scent of gingers and other tropical flowers in the air. You can reach out and feel the gentle rain that doesn't quite make it into your car, even though you've got the top down. And there's just nothing better than the tast of fresh pineapple that you bought along the way and ate at a beautiful beach at the end of the road.
And driving the road is an experience in and of itself. So I thought I would start out with a few images that highlight the road itself. If you like some S curves in your life, this road is probably the ultimate. But don't expect to get much over 15-20 mph. Or, as the signs all over say... "Slow down, this isn't the mainland!" It's excellent advice.
.
Everywhere you turn, there's something new and wonderful to see. The vegetation just draws you down the road, creates it's own lush and beautifully lit "caves" of green.
And the vegetation is both exotic and beautiful. These are the rainbow eucalyptus trees. Their bark is a rainbow of beautiful tropical colors. There are a couple of stands of them early on in the trip. Makes you feel like you are in a magical fairy wood. The colors look like they were painted on with water color or pastel brush strokes.
You might expect the same tropical plants to repeat themselves everywhere. In fact, as you go farther down the road, the plants you see change as the road does.
The road itself clings to the edges of the mountain sides. There were several places where we got out just to see where we had come from and to watch others take the path along the road.
I wish I could remember the name of this falls. Perhaps it doesn't have one. It's literally just off the road in a little turnout before one of the one lane bridges on the Hana Highway. And it's beautiful. This part of the island is clearly rainier than other parts, but without the rain, you wouldn't have sights like these. There are three lower falls and one above the main set of three. Probably hard to see in this picture that I made smaller for the blog, which is too bad. It was definitely one of my best pictures of the day. And one of the nicest falls we saw on the trip as well.
Aloha!
Since John got a mild migraine today, we decided to stay closer to our home base and take it easy. Even so, the camera came out a few times. It's so easy to find things here to photograph!
For those of you who need a white sandy beach fix...
You can't see it very well, but the beach house we are staying in is roughly in the top center of the picture.
I spent most of the afternoon on the lanai working on my sock (there might actually be a real finished item accomplishment while I'm in Hawaii), but I took some time out from knitting to have a glass of wine with John and to watch the sun go down over Halemahaina. I love this cloud formation over the mountain....
See that little "break" in the clouds in the center of the picture? That's actually the sky behind the mountain that is visible beneath the cloud layer. The clouds were hovering just over the tops of the mountain.
This guy was enjoying the last rays of sunlight to glide across the bay on his board with the help of his kite/sail. We've seen a number of people doing this in different places. Looks like it must be fun. We enjoyed watching this guy cross the bay and surf into shore before we headed off to dinner.
John and I love to stay in small places when we travel. B&B's, vacation condos, beach cottages. But we've found, over time, that you have to be prepared for a few clunkers every now and again. Places that don't live up to your expectations or even come close to their description. Places that weren't bad, just weren't really what you wanted them to be. Places that would have been great if they'd just been in a slighly different location.
When we first got to Kihei, and we walked into our condo at the Kealia Resort, I was pretty sure that I was going to put it into the category of "nice, but not quite up to our standards". But then John found the beach towels all ready to go to the beach, and I discovered the coffee filters and coffee grinder so that I could engage in my favorite morning ritual with some fresh Kona, and I noticed some of the hand-stitched pieces in the bathroom and the quilts on the walls. It wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, but it felt homey and warm and cared about. And it overlooked a beautiful beach. So finding the Kealia Condos was clearly a victory (they are quite affordable as well) in my book and when it was time to check out, I didn't completely want to leave.
Our next stop was supposed to be a small cottage adjoining a vacation house on Pa'ia Bay on the north shore of Maui. When we got there, it was cute enough, but it hadn't been cleaned and wasn't ready for us. John made a phone call to the group that manages the property and suddenly we found ourselves moved from the cottage to the house (no one had reserved the house while we were scheduled to be here). We wouldn't have complained about being in a cleaned up cottage, but to be upgraded to the house was really a wonderful surprise. It's a two floor place that could probably house 8 people. And it has a full kitchen (complete with coffee maker!) and a wireless router. And John's favorite part? It has two available hammocks.
And the sleeping accomodations aren't bad either... you go to sleep and wake up with the breeze and the sound of the ocean. If you're me... this is paradise. In Chicago, I never get to sleep with the balcony door open because the city noise makes it hard for John to sleep. Here, I get my fill of wonderfull breezes.
And the view? Well, it isn't so bad, either! Before we went to bed, we sat under the palms and watched the stars. Amazing!
We face west and when the clouds aren't too bad, you can see Halemahaina. And there's nothing like doing a little surfing off your back porch.
We've had a number of people gently rib us about not being able to leave our computers behind and enjoy the world around us. But at the end of the day, we are what we are, and we like having out digital windows on the world , being connected to our friends and family, being able to post to a blog. As I put this post together, it's still not quite 8 in the morning yet, I'm having coffee on the lanai and enjoying a spectacular view. Peaceful and connected. It may not work for everyone, but it certainly makes us happy.
We're also within easy walking distance of Paia -- a nice little town with a host of cute restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and touristy galleries. We felt much more at home having dinner last night in the Mexican/Southwestern style restaurant we found than in any place we went on the southern part of the island. I can see now why people like northern Maui. Southern Maui is a wonderful place to visit, but the north shore feels like a place you could really settle into and live.
A warning and an apology to everyone who is not on a broadband connection. This post contains a lot of pictures. I've tried to make sure they are a reasonable size, but I they are big enough so that they can be relatively high quality.
On Friday we headed up route 30 around Halemahina the extinct volcano on the northwest of the island. Haleakala is the "House of the Sun" and Halemahina is the "House of the Moon". Just past Ma'alaea we stopped at Papawai Point to look back at the Kihei-Wailea coast. Its actually kind of lovely and mystical to see the mountains and shores enshrouded in clouds.
We continued driving up the shore, past some lovely parks and beaches until we reached Lahaina. Lahaina seems mostly like a tourist shopping area. It's got the requisite ice cream parlor, places to buy T-shirts emblazoned with "Maui", too many jewelry stores, a few art galleries, restaurants with names like "Cheeseburger in Paradise" combined with a small shopping mall. After all, what good is a trip to paradise if you can't shop at Banana Republic? Since you've probably all seen a Banana Republic before, I took a picture of the walled shoreline instead. This wall extends all along the length of Lahaina -- or at least all along where there is no retail presence.
One thing to note about Lahaina, is that the beach around the city is still a sandy beach. As you progress north on route 30, the beach experience begins to change dramatically from sandy to rocky. The landscape also changes from relatively dry to relatively lush and the old volcano top is blanketed in clouds most of the time. After we passed Kaanapali, we stopped at another turn out to take a picture and look back along the shore. Like the Wailea-Makena area, Kaanapali to Kapalua is another shoreline where you'll find a bunch of resorts. Clearly this area has a very different feel than the Wailea-Makena shore.
Our next stop was at a Honolua Bay -- a stony beach with some excellent snorkeling potential. The trip to the beach takes you through a forest area that makes you think that elves and fairies must be hiding somewhere within. I couldn't resist taking this picture of John as he explored a bit.
While John scanned the shore for fish (this is known as a good snorkeling spot) I got in a few stitches on my sock as I admired the scenery. This was probably one of the few sunny spots that we found during our trip. It's also definitely some place we will be coming back to so that John can work out his snorkeling gear.
Since we took a little break here to catch our breath, and we're pretty much at the halfway point around our loop, this seems like a good place to take a blogging break. I'll finish up the journey tomorrow.
Since I'm not sure I'll have internet access after we leave Kihei...
We've had another delightful day on Maui that took us all around the green mountain and northwest spur of the island. I've got to get ready to go to dinner, so those pictures will have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, I leave you with this lovely sunset shot that John took from our lanai while we were having a nice glass of chardonnay
Have I mentioned I love this place?
Someone really needs to start a biotech company here...
Sometimes a little splurge is worth it. Let's face it. Would you rather be driving a Taurus or a convertable Mustang around an island paradise? It took a little bit of haggling with the woman behind the Hertz counter, but it was worth it.
It's first trip out was a trip down through Kihei (where we had a nice breakfast at Kihei Caffe) and then down the shore through Wailea and Makena, which are filled to the gills with very nice resorts. We decided to take the road (Wailea Alanui Dr.) as far as it could go. The car is parked at a little unmarked turnout with some lovely shoals and tide pools.
The next stop was a turn out after the road had dropped to less than two lanes and we were driving through the 1790 lava flow from Haleakala. The landscape is vaguely lunar, but 215 years has brought with it some recovery. This picture is long and narrow because I was able to "stitch" three pictures together using PhotoShop Elements. How cool is that?
The road ends at roughly the midway point along La Perouse Bay at what appears to be a pretty nice surfing beach. John and I got out to watch a group of surfers catch a few waves. I was lucky to get a few nice shots. Clearly this is not a sport for those of us who can barely walk straight without running into most of the time. But it's very fun to watch.
I was asked for more beach shots, so I had to post this one. We turned around from here and headed back for home. We did make one more stop, however, at a red sand beach called "Big Beach". This beach was absolutely stunning and we were both wishing we had our bathing suits with us. Towards the end of our walk up and down the beach we got to see some pretty spectacular waves crash in toward the shore. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good pictures of those, but I rather liked this shot. That's Molokini island in the distance.
We're not sure yet where tomorrow will take us. We're just playing it by ear so far. But I'm going to be lobbying for a trip up the Kaanapali side of the island to the north and west of Kihei.
Aloha from Maui! The first stop in the our tropical vacation is Kihei (just north of Wailea Makena). The photo above is the view from our rental condo's private lanai (lanai is Hawaiian for "balcony"). We face west and have already acquired a bottle of decent wine with which we can toast the sunset tonight. I was a little worried when John arranged for most of our vacation to be in condos that I was not going to like not having a full service hotel arrangement (yes, I admit it, I am not a cheap date when it comes to vacations... fortunately John is not either, so it works out okay). But how could I not like this?
Me in my pajamas, my computer and a cup of fresh Kona coffee on our lanai over looking the Pacific Ocean with the sound of birds and waves crashing into the shore (okay, so there are also sounds of cars from the nearby road and helicopters, but those are easily ignored when you have an ocean calling your name). How could I not be happy? Actually, there's something to be said about being able to have your happy home routines in a place that is not your home. Being able to make myself a fresh cup of coffee this morning, editing pictures for my blog in the sunshing with an ocean breeze. Reading a few of my favorite blogs while sipping my coffee and contemplating a morning swim. It's like being at home on vacation. (As an aside, Hawaii is 5 hours behind Chicago, time wise, so even though it's 1:30 PM CST as I type this, it's only 8:30 here on Maui).
There are only two downsides in the whole thing for me. The first is that I seem to have gotten a little cold. It started manifesting itself on the airplane. It's not terrible, though and I've got a stash of vitamin C and some DayQuil and I am giving my immune system all the mental encouragement I can to fight the invader. The second is my brother and his family facing hurricane Rita. They live in a suburb south of Houston. After we got into Maui we chatted a bit through the Google Messanger. He and my sister-in-law were busy packing up their brand new house (they just bought it a few months ago) and their cats and preparing to head for a hotel in Dallas with her parents. It hardly seems fair that I can be thinking about a swim in one ocean while he is evacuating his home because of dreadful weather off of another. Please think good thoughts about him and all the others who are facing this terrible natural occurrence.
It's been an evening of packing and checking and checking and packing. I don't know why I live in fear of leaving something important behind -- it's not like there aren't stores on Maui! I guess I just always have to have something to worry about. But come 10 AM tomorrow morning, I'm going to be on a non-stop flight from Chicago to Maui enjoying the first class treatment that can only come from cashing in those frequent flier miles. Mimosas and a sock project, anyone?
I've found my compact flash reader, and I'm taking my trusty Nikon CoolPix 880. With a little luck, we'll find couple of good wireless hotspots so that I can share a few picture from paradise. If not, I'll be back on October 3rd, hopefully with a tan that will get me through the winter and enough Kona to brighten even the most unpleasant winter day.
10 days of sun, beach, beautiful surroundings and my sweetie... what more could a girl want?
