(The Long and Winding) Road to Hana

Art and I were not crazy about going on the Road to Hana trip.  However, Jon and Sarah had heard it was wonderful so we had to try it.  We took the "kids" on it some 20 years ago and never made it to Hana. We turned around a third of the way and went back to the hotel.  With Jon driving this time, it was Hana or Bust!

We picked up some spam musubi (spam on rice square) and were on our way.  When we stopped at the Keanae Arboretum, we saw this car in the ravine that was sobering.

Looked like the ground was higher before.  I think.  I can't imagine how else this happened.

 With all the rains that were drenching the Hawaiian island chain, it would be a good idea to take these signs seriously.

Here, Jon and Sarah were standing in front of the Bagras (Painted Gum) Eucalyptus degulpta from Indonesia.

These looked like the smaller apple bananas that we like to eat for breakfast.

Mosquitoes shortened our walk.  There was also the threat of rain around every bend.

Jon wanted to see every beach that had high waves.  This was the Keanae Peninsula.

Actually this looks scarier than it actually was.  It was awesome to see the power of Nature.

You can see why these waterfalls are called the Three Bears.

When we stopped at Puaa Kaa State Wayside Park for our lunch this mongoose and his/her mate waited patiently to see if we would feed it.  We did not.

This is the first time I've seen a mongoose close up.  They're usually darting across the road.

This is a Mimosa pudica plant.  I love touching the leaves and seeing them close up.  It's also called the Sensitive Plant.

At the Waianapanapa State Park we saw a black sand beach and this old lava tube that opened up to the ocean.

The black sand beach was beautiful, but the waves were rough.  We were a little concerned to see a tourist try to go in for a swim.

After 5 1/2 hours we finally completed the 62 mile trip from Kihei to Hana and found the famous Hasegawa General Store.

Things were quite expensive there.  It's a lot cheaper if you go to the store down the street where the locals frequent.

 

Sarah and I had to buy some mugs to commemorate this long and winding journey.

We had trouble deciding where to eat the night before so I called an old elementary school classmate who lives in Kihei now.  Jasmine told me to go to Da Kitchen (2439 S. Kihei Road).  It was perfect, tasty, local type, reasonably priced food.  This is the Hawaiian plate with lau lau, white rice, kalua pork and chicken long rice.

This was a long, winding, tiring, but satisfying day.



(We've been back from Maui for four days now, but both mom and Sarah have caught respiratory colds.  Still, Jon and Art are both running their Half-Marathons today so it's a good thing they haven't caught colds... yet.  My post tomorrow will be about our third Maui day when we went whale watching.  I'll post about the Half Marathon after that.)