Maui No Ka Oi (Maui is the Best)

Since Maui is reputed to be the best, we decided to take Jon back to the island he visited when he was little and introduce Sarah to the beautiful scenery.  You do realize that Art grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii that he thinks is the best and I grew up on Oahu and think this is the best.... sort of.  I think Oahu is the best if you took away all the congestion, added a live volcano or two and safer drivers.

We considered going to Kauai for a while, but decided to go to Maui instead and bought our tickets two days before.  It was a good thing since parts of Kauai were declared a disaster area due to torrential rains in the following days.

We pride ourselves on being intrepid travelers.  I like (LOVE) my comforts, but I was outnumbered.  Even Sarah was in Africa with the Peace Corps and can keep up with our son cheerfully.

Like I said.... I was outnumbered.

We woke up at 3:00 Monday morning.  You'll notice I had blog posts scheduled well in advance because I knew blogging would be hard with Jon and Sarah always on the go.

Go! Airlines had cheaper flights but they're notorious for not being on time and having all kinds of scheduling difficulties.  We decided to go on Hawaiian Airlines.  Besides, my cousin is a Hawaiian Airlines pilot and I wouldn't want to tell him we chose to go on Go!

It was raining.

We got our Dollar rent-a-car at Kahului Airport on Maui and were on our way.  We watched the sun rise as we headed toward Makawao.

The reason for going to Makawao was to visit the famous Komoda Bakery.  Maui is known for having the nicest people, but people at Komoda seemed a little .... not so friendly.  Maybe they weren't quite awake yet.  We were there a little before 6:00.

It did not detract any wonderfulness from their baked delights.

This is what I selected.  Yes... it's true.  I got the stick donut, the guava malasada, the cocoa puff AND the cream puff.  And yes, with just a little help, I did finish all of it.  Yes, ALL of it.  I've not gone on the scale since returning, but Jon was shocked at how much weight he gained.  No matter.  He's running the Half Marathon with Art.

At 7:30 we left Makawao and headed for the summit of 10,023 ft Haleakala.

It's famous for the silver sword plant which only grows here and on the Big Island.  This was not the season for flowering.  Summer is the silversword blooming season.

It was COLD!  The rangers told us it was 40 degrees F, with wind chill 30 degrees!  I'm glad we brought wind breakers, but I wished we brought down coats.

Every so often the clouds would part to give us a glimpse of the crater.

Jon and Sarah decided to forgo the hike they were going to take.

I thought this was a quail, but it is an Alectoris Chukar which was introduced from Asia in 1923.  I've never seen this bird in Hawaii before.  It's some kind of partridge.

We were trying to use each other for a wind break when we asked a nice tourist to take our photo in front of the crater that you can't see because of the cloud cover.

Dropping down to a lower elevation, it was slightly less freezing so we decided to take a "little" hike.

We didn't see much wildlife.

However, back at the parking lot, this Hawaiian Nene goose walked right past us. 

The Nene is our state bird.

We took a short stop to watch whales along the coast.

We drove into Lahaina which was a whaling port.  I think we liked the block sized Banyan tree the best.  Otherwise, Lahaina is really a congested, high priced tourist mecca.

I think we managed to the find the only free parking lot in the whole town. They have two that we know of for sure, but the other one was full.

By now we (actually it was mostly me) were exhausted and drove on to Kihei where we had booked two nights at the Maui Coast Hotel.

I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.