Maui - aka Paradise!

Here's our long epilogue of Maui. More details to come but it takes so long to download pictures that I just can't take it anymore :o) So, be patient and we'll let you know more soon (as if anyone will suffer through and read the entire thing :o)
Day #1: arrive in Maui. No pictures.

Day #2





Day #3




Day #4





Day #5



Day #6





Day #7: Arriving in Makena. We stayed the first half of our trip in central Maui and then went to southern Maui for the rest of the time. On our way we ran into the Whale Festival in Kihei. Kind of a cute little festival with the usuals: food, booths, arts/crafts, and shows. We saw some little girls doing hula and just missed the whale parade. Then on past Makena there is a nature preserve to the southern tip of the island. It looked like an alien planet with red, sharp rocks as far as the eye can see. Cool though! And the sunset is from our hotel room. Could have stayed forever!



Day #8: Relaxing in Makena. After spending all our time driving around and doing things, we decided to just relax at our hotel today and at the pool. So nice! Enough said :o)




Day #9: Back way into Hana. We drove around the back way to try to see the 7 sacred pools (which unfortunately were dry) and had quite the adventure. Apparently "paved" to the Hawaiian people means throwing down random blobs of tar and running over it with a vehicle. It was like driving over cobblestones made of uneven road tar. The dirt/gravel road was a much smoother ride! So when we got to the pools we were disappointed to find out that because of the current lack of rain there was no water in them. Instead, we decided to hike the other way to a 400 foot waterfall through a bamboo forest. What an amazing experience! I've never been through a bamboo forest before. It was so thick, you couldn't see more than 5 feet either way. I also learned that my right leg must have sweet blood because I was eaten alive by mosquitoes, but only on that leg. Weird!




Day #10: The end. Today we just played on the beach in front of our hotel. We rented a sea kayak and went out to check out the whales. We were out about 1000 yards at least and were about 100 yards (that's the closest they let you get) away from 3 whales that were showing off for us. It was amazing!!!