Dave and I have a goal to visit as many National Parks as we can. So when we found out we were going to Maui, naturally we needed to visit Haleakala National Park. Joe had really wanted to "see" a volcano and this would get us as close to one as possible. My niece, Dorothy, had just returned from Maui and she had told me about the app GyPSy. I had downloaded it and I downloaded the drive to Haleakala volcano. It was a very cool app and we loved listening to the narration and the story about the island Maui on our way up the mountain.
This curvy road (think Yosemite) and narrow road (think Million Dollar Highway) had these unique parts to it where it narrows to one way only. Thank God the GyPSy app narration would alert us that this was coming up. You basically have to stop and let one car come from the other direction and then you go. Yikes. There is also a very popular bike ride on this road. Or should I say bike fly or bike coast. People rent bikes near the top and "fly" down. So not only are you being aware of the narrow parts of the road, but also the bikers flying down the mountain. Good times!
Down by the beach it was a warm 80 degrees. Up at 9500 feet we were at about 50 but very windy so it felt colder. We took some photos at the top but we were pretty socked in with clouds.
About 1/2 way up to Haleakala
Those clouds though
More clouds (at the top) 9500 ft
Joe, McKenzie and Dave wanted to do a bit of a hike to see if they could see more. The other carful started down the mountain.
Sliding Sand (no thank you)
On our way down the mountain we found some shops and we went back to a place that William and Crystal had found (a pie place). They said they were delicious. I had a bite of the banana creme pie and it was delicious!
Look at the size of that avocado!
The line was consistently long here.
Pie Time
After we came down the mountain we were headed to a Maui Sunset Luau Dinner Cruise on the Pride of Maui. We got there a little early, but we headed down to the dock.
Pride of Maui
Sunset photo
Dave and I
Jess, me, Joe, McKenzie
Titanic
We did see whales a couple of times. Not up super close, but it was still very cool. AND we saw dolphins. I got a bit of a video of the whales.
I was thrilled with the day but also very ready for bed. I was thankful that Wednesday was a "free" day for me. 5 of our group would catch a flight and go to Pearl Harbor and 3 of us would stay in Maui. I was planning on staying in Maui and I was more than fine with that.
WOW! 2022 already. January of 2020 Dave and I had the entire year planned out with travel. Ben had just graduated high school early in December and Dave and I were ready to go! Little did we know what was to come. Life has changed in many ways these past two years, but that is not what this post is about. Every year with Hunter Douglas we have the opportunity to hit a sales goal and "win" a trip. They have different levels of trips. Over the years, we didn't care much about winning the trips because I was "that" mom who didn't want her kids staying with "sitters." As the kids have gotten older, we've taken a few of these trips as we have won them. One was a cruise to Bermuda. And one was a trip to Munich. Two years ago, we said, "Let's try for Maui." It was the highest level trip. We had never tried for the highest level trip. Thing is if you don't make it, they don't let you slide down a level. You just ...
When you win a trip with Hunter Douglas, you often have a choice of excursions to choose from at your expense. Dave and I looked through them all. What seemed the most appealing to me and right up my alley was The Road to Hana. The road has 617 turns and 54 one lane bridges. We decided to go with a tour company. Nick and Dorothy drove it on their own! We learned a lot of history and we took a lot of photos. We stopped at a Lava Tube and went inside the Lava Tube with our flashlights. We learned that one side of the island (Hana) gets up to 400 inches of rain a year and the other side (the side where we were staying) gets about 4 to 10 inches of rain a year. We learned that Kahelaka Island is off limits because for years it was used for target practice and now there are unexploded bombs throughout the island. Boats can't even get within a certain distance of the island. We learned that Monkey Pod trees were built for the sugar p...
That Sunset!!!!
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