Click for part 1, Welcome to Maui, part 2 the Road to Hana, part 3 Pearl Harbor.
Day Seven, August 16: (Yes, I skipped Day Six-we were lazy bums and didn't do much at all after our two jam packed days) We got up at 2am to prepare for our 2 hour drive to watch the sunrise at Haleakala National Park. This is a big tourist thing to do on Maui, so we figured we had to suck it up and do it. The drive itself is only about 50-some miles, but with the slower speed limits and long windy, hair pin curve roads to get there it takes longer than you'd think. We put on whatever heavy clothes we had because on top of a mountain is chilly, even in Hawaii. We got to the visitor center, where the big event takes place, at about 5am. We stayed in the warmth of the car for half an hour then decided to head out and wait for the sun to rise. I prefer cold weather to heat, believe it or not, but this was cold. The temperature itself wasn't so bad, but man was it windy. I had on a sweatshirt and a windbreaker and zipped my hood shut as tight as I could. Had I known it would be that windy, I honestly think I would have tried to bring my snowpants. Anyway, the idea is to watch this awesome sunrise from way 10,000 feet high, above the clouds even. The pitch black dark photos are pretty much worthless, so we'll start with this one, the sun hadn't peeked up yet, but there was some light telling us it was coming.
It started to get brighter, but we still couldn't actually see the sun yet. Here's a look at our view. You can see all the people on the right, bundled up, just waiting for the sun to rise.
The view got better and better as it got brighter.
And, finally, the sun started to peek up at us. It was a lot of waiting and anticipation for something that happens so slowly!
It looked a little bit like Mars if you ask me.
I hate to admit it, but the drive down was almost a better view than the sunrise. We were driving above clouds, then through them. We could see parts of the island as well as the ocean. It made the drive down a lot better than the pitch black drive up.
We made our way back to the resort after a quick Starbucks stop. I think we were back before 8am. The whole thing wiped me out so it was back to bed for a while! After we got up, it was more lazy time then a sunset cocktail cruise around the ocean. We were on a pretty small boat with a one man cover band that sounded like the real thing. The views from the boat were a-maz-ing.
We got some really cool photos with this sail boat.
And that wrapped up our last full day on Maui. The next day we took our time packing up and headed towards the airport. We spent some time in Paia, a Bohemian/hippie town, got gelato, walked around, and ate at a fish market. We had a little more time to kill before we needed to get to the airport, so we pulled over at the beach for a while.
One more biology lesson from Trevor.
And we took one cheesy mushy beach photo.
Totally awesome trip! Just what we needed after a long year apart and before all kinds of baby excitement. I'd definitely recommend Maui to anyone!
-A
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