Wowie Maui (Part 1)

We just got back from an incredible vacation.  We spent 11 days in Maui.  I can't describe how wonderful the trip was. 

My husband's cousin has a condo in Wailea.  It is a beautiful place with a spectacular view of the ocean.  The condo sits up on a hill.  The balcony faces west.  You can see the other part of Maui on the right and the island of Lanai in the center.  On clear days Molokai is faintly visible between the two on the far horizon.

I think the what amazed me the most were the sunsets.  Here are a few.

One of several from the condo.

From the top of Haleakala Crater, 10,023 feet above sea level.

From sea level while on a sunset dinner cruise.

The most spectacular sunset was on July 4th.  We went to a luau. We didn't see any fireworks to celebrate the nation's birthday, but Mother Nature provided a spectacular replacement.  The colors were incredible.  I have seen paintings of sunsets like this and have always thought they were exaggerated.  I no longer think that.  This photo really doesn't do it justice.

We took many day trips around the island.  On July 3rd, we drove the infamous Road to Hana.  It is a twisty, narrow road.  I wasn't feeling well that day (recovering from a head cold I caught from the flight over to Maui) and really didn't enjoy the drive.  It was nerve-racking.  There were many one-lane bridges which required us to stop and look for on-coming traffic.  You could tell the locals from the tourists by the speed and caution used at them.  Here is one with a line of cars waiting to proceed. A local woman (we know she was a local because she was driving a US Mail car) got impatient with the traffic and sped past the queue.

After we reached Hana we continued another 15 miles down the road to the portion of Haleakala National Park that reaches down to the coast.  There we hiked the 'Ohe'o Gulch.  We went past a Banyan tree,

through a bamboo forest

  

and back to Waimoku Falls.

After that we retraced our path back to the condo.  The trip took the entire day.

I'll post more in another blog.  This one is getting quite long.

Aloha!