Maui Vacation 2014 Day 4

Our 4th day in paradise was spent in a car.

For nearly 15 hours. I cannot make this up.

But don't worry, it was all for a good cause - we all temporarily lost our sanity and decided to wake up at 3am, drive to the top of Haleakala to watch the sunrise and do the Road to Hana in one day.

Yep, that really happened. With a 16-month-old. Oh, and Dramamine for me. I don't think anyone I was with realized how truly violently ill I was the last time I did the Road to Hana and swore I'd never have to do it again, 11 years ago. I did get a t-shirt that says "I Survived the Road to Hana - but my car didn't!" last time, and quite frankly, I was holding out hope that I'd get a new one after this trip.

Now, here's my only caveat on this day trip: I felt funny all day, due to being sleep-deprived and having Dramamine in me, I had little patience, and I was grateful for one thing all day - that we didn't choose to do this the day before, on my birthday!

Without further ado, I'm going to post the pictures of Haleakala below. The trip up took a long time (not sure how long, probably an hour and a half or so), and it was dark all the way. (Remember, we all got up at 3am to make this trip!) So there are no pictures of the trip up the mountain.

I'm not going to caption a lot of these pictures, because they truly speak for themselves. But nothing - nothing - compares to experiencing this yourself.

As the clouds rolled in, enveloping the mountain, I was watching them - silky, soft, free - and it reminded me of my heavenly Kona coffee when it mixes with delicious Vanilla coffee creamer, and how the creamer swirls and blends in gently......






....but I digress..... 

 

 

 




I'll start captioning a bit now.... 

Here's Bryce, heading back towards the van where
I am standing.

This reminded me of something you might see
from an airplane.

Haleakala crater! Supposedly, the entire state of
Connecticut would fit in the crater!

Rise and shine! The sun is UP!

The other side

I don't actually have any pictures of the hundreds
of cars lined up along this narrow road going all
the way to the top of the mountain!

Here's me at 10,023 feet! It's lucky that I'm even
looking at the camera, let alone smiling. It was
so cold up there! My hair was still wet from
my shower the night before, and it felt frozen!

Breathtaking views. Seriously!

The clouds looked so small from here!

Look at all that space!

Clouds rolling in

Looking back up from where we came from

The bay!

Heading down the mountain. The clouds
were surrounding us!

 So after we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime view, we went to the Kula Lodge & Restaurant (Kula Maui).

Here's me, ready to get out!

Panoramic view from our seats!

We had to wait about 25 minutes for a table big enough
to seat us all!

Right outside

Little gondolas, stationary.

 I'm so glad I took some pictures with my iPhone when we were there! Honestly, when I think back on this trip, I think often of the Kula Lodge. I don't really know why, but it was so comforting!

I miss seeing these exotic flowers!

View from my iPhone

There was an art gallery downstairs, but
cameras were not allowed. These flowers
are right outside the gallery! Yes, that's
a cobblestone pathway!

Here's a picture of the front!

Windmills!

No filter!

This was a lot of the view on the way to Hana:
Mountainside and water.

We embarked on the Road to Hana!

One of the first stops!

You can see T2, Alisha & Ashley waaay out there,
if you look carefully! There is no filter on this
picture.

So beautiful!

Desert land! Or so it looked like, lol!

Loved this - water, land, clouds.

Auntie Sloane on the mountain. (See the Jeep
way up there?)

All of these pictures were soooo pretty!

I rarely used filters!

Horses on the Road to Hana!

Another stop on the Road to Hana. Again - no filters! It was breath-taking!

There's the girls!

Hands up on the rocks!

This was a lot steeper than it looks...

After a few stops on the Road to Hana, we finally arrived at the Seven Sacred Pools. This is a park, and we got to get out and stretch our legs (again, it was like hour number 7 of traveling), and have a picnic lunch. The pools are a little hike down, but well-worth it!

Here's a pineapple tree on the way down!

The Pools!

Ellie Jo relaxing with Grandma
& Daddy on one of our hikes

When you enter and exit the hike for the Seven Sacred Pools, you pass by this cool little hut. I wish I could say I stopped to read the signs about it, but honestly - I felt horrible by this point of the trip. I really don't do well in cars for extended periods of time, because I get so sick. (And I was in the back of a minivan for this entire trip). Even the Dramamine wasn't helping. I just wanted to snap a picture and get out of there. Sorry readers - no history lesson this time!

After the Seven Sacred Pools, we were able to go to Black Sand Beach! My absolute FAVORITE part about the Road to Hana!

Some of the views at Black Sand Beach remind me of Mermaid Lagoon from Peter Pan!

This picture has a two-fold meaning: 1) In 2003,
when my dad bought me these DC sandals on a
trip to Richland, he declared, "If I'm going to spend
$75 on a pair of flip-flops, they better last you a
few years!" Good news, daddy - they've made it 11
years, 3 trips to Hawaii, 2 trips to Vegas, and even
more. :) 2) The black sand got stuck on my toes. Hehe!

Everyone who was swimming must have been hurting. Seriously. You don't go to Black Sand Beach to swim! The waves crash SO HARD in that little cove!

The hubs was a good sport about my picture-taking! (And you can tell by my face - I was definitely not feeling good!)

Views by the blowhole - although it was not active when we were there.

These are some iPhone pics...

Ugli-fruit?? We never figured it out!

Gigantic spider. No kidding, this
guy was bigger than my hand! We
saw him from the CAR!

Strange animals on Maui!












By the time we got in the van, Ellie was pretty much done. With everyone. And everything. We all pulled out all the stops on the way down the mountain to keep her occupied - Uncle Bryce did his best with his tablet and cartoons, Robert kept feeding her, I kept singing to her, and Grandpa tried super hard to drive us home as safely and quickly as he could.

Bottom line here, folks: 16-month-olds do not last 15 hours in the car. Ours made it to about 13.5 before she really lost it. Gotta hand it to her; I wanted to scream and cry like she was. While I highly recommend seeing all the sights we saw, and the experiences we got to be a part of, I also recommend doing these two excursions on separate days! :)

More to follow....