Day 4: East Maui + Craziness

Last night was quite possibly the best night of sleep I have ever had. Almost every window in the Garden Suite was open, and the jungle was alive with nocturnal life. Couple that with the crashing surf, and it was like sleeping to a medley of sleep-aid soundtracks. Think: Sounds Of The Jungle + Sounds Of The Ocean. And then it poured rain around 2 AM, which just added to the effect.


We were up and on the beach before sunrise, which was stunning. I was hoping to go for a swim before breakfast, but the surf was rough, and the beach turned to rocks about 20 feet out. Since we still had some time before the buffet was prepared, we walked down the road and went to a reddish-black beach, where I did indeed get my morning swim.



After eating delicious fruit and such (I'll try to figure out a way to get some of this pineapple home, it's amazing), we parted ways with the Hana Hale Inn and continued down the coast. Not far down the road, we came upon the Hasegawa general store... truly "general", it contained a small slice of each of the following: liquor/beer, food, clothing, fishing gear, hardware, and pharmacy. Across the street, I paid more for gas than I ever thought was possible. I would bet actual money that gas is more expensive here than in California.



At the recommendation of one of the guide books, we tried to go see a vernal pool on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, but the supply stream was very dry, and we didn't find much.


Today had some more waterfalls in the itinerary, including the "Seven Sacred Pools" in a very large state park. We hiked down to the coast for some amazing views.





Not far after that, a small "road" leads down to a church and a cemetery. It's rather uninteresting, except that Charles Lindberg is buried there.


Almost immediately after that.... disaster! The freakin' road is closed due to earthquake damage and falling rocks. I was ready to try it anyway, but Sabrina wasn't thrilled with the idea. Honestly, I doubt that Alamo would have been on my side, either. This totally screwed the plans for the rest of the day.


So, we turned around and drove all the way back up the entire road to Hana. We came upon that road closure sign at about 2 PM, so we had some serious driving to do by nightfall. It took about 3 hours to drive all the way around the eastern coast, past the airport where we started, and over to the west coast (Lahaina) to the hotel. The traffic started getting bad, and the last hour was stop-and-go. Of course, whenever we stopped, we would just look around and take pictures.


The hotel room has a view of the mountain/volcano that is the western piece of Maui, and also a "partial ocean view", as they call it. The peak of this mountain may very well be the wettest place on Earth, according to one book, averaging over 360 inches of rain per year.



Down below, there was a fair attempt at a luau going on, but we're scheduled to attend an authentic one on Sunday. We toured around the hotel grounds and inspected the pool situation, just in time to watch the sun set over Lana'i. (On the same day that we watched it rise, on the opposite side of Maui... weird.)



Pictures start at page 52.