maui | part II
yesterday was spent in west maui. lots of hiking and driving, which in an open-top jeep is awesome at first but by hour seven, you can barely feel your face and even with SPF 45 (applied multiple times), you are sunburnt. but really, who's complaining. our first stop was julia's shack, where we bought banana bread, taro chips and coconut candy. all of which are so darn good (i can't stop eating the coconut candy). then we came across this sign, which i yelled, "wait. stop. back up. i need a picture of that sign.". driving through a certain part of west maui, there are a lot of one lane roads, which again totally scared the crap out of me. you'll be driving, turn a corner and there, directly in front of you is a car, going in the opposite direction. no way to go for one of the cars, except backwards, because if you pull over to the side, you'll be rolling down the mountain cliff.
anyways... i just had to get a picture of this sign. steve and i never had a honeymoon. we were instant family. then separated for six months because of the AF-navy thing. once together, we had a baby (skyler) a month later. nine months after that, i was pregnant again and steve deployed, returning a couple weeks before ryder was born. so, we talk about how this trip to hawaii is our 8-year honeymoon. and yes...falling in love (all over again) rocks. i'll definitely be printing and framing this photo for our house.
we also came across this cross along the way, in this open field along the ocean's edge. the area wasn't really accessible. such an incredible sight. sadly, i don't think photos do this area justice.
hike 1 | iao needle (hawaiian god of the ocean): a beautiful area but pretty touristy. amazing history though. we went hiking (off the paved path) for quite a ways, but not knowing where the trail went or how long it was, we eventually decided to turn around, making the hike beautiful but pretty anti-climactic. i think the coolest part of the hike was seeing some of the local kids having a blast, swimming in the stream.
hike 2 | the ovilene pools: so cool!! we hiked down a small-ish, rocky mountain to get there. there's these pools of water there. one of them being deep enough to swim in, which we did. there was a dad and his son there. the boy was snorkeling and his dad fishing. the dad had interesting stories to share about the pools (one of them being a story about a man, who was severely injured when a massive wave barreled him over, resulting in a mangled body and multiple broken bones). but the place was absolutely amazing. i wish i had my underwater camera there but it's just too big to hike with (especially down a mountain of lava boulders). you can see the boy and his dad in the photo below. the swimming pool is the one directly to the right of them.
hike 3 | nakalele blowhole: another pretty spectacular site. and another pretty good hike down a small-ish mountain. there's a few signs along the way about the dangers of the blowhole and how dave potts got sucked in and lost his life. and OMG...little did i know (until i just googled it right now) that the incident just happened...about a week ago. how sad and how terrible!!
and if you walked just a bit from the blowhole and turned the corner, there was this heart formation in the rocks. we initially thought someone had to carve the hole, but looking at it, it didn't look that way.
after our visit to the blowhole, wind and sun burnt, we decided to head home. tonight, i am so looking forward to a family session on west maui.
note to self: next trip to hawaii, bring and wear hiking / water shoes. the converse / barefoot thing is doable, but not always easy.