Day 12 - Whale Watching, Maui Market, Bad Road

January 23 - Saturday - Maui

Another colorful Maui sunrise over Haleakala as seen from the condo.

We watched a number of whales in the bay near the condo.

The neighborhood cat joined us in the whale watching.

Sigrid and Edel spent a few hours at the Maui Shop & Swap. Here are a few photos of the market.

After the market, Sigrid and I set out to find a local restaurant for lunch. We figured that this would be a relaxing and fun way to end our stay on Maui. We set a restaurant into the Garmin and drove to its location only to find that it didn't exist any more. We decided to keep going on Highway 30 to see what we could find. By the time we got to the town of Waihee, the road started to deteriorate. No more smooth pavement and regular lanes. I don't know for sure why we keep going, but we did. The scenery was breathtaking with near vertical cliffs, deep valleys, waterfalls, and sweeping views of the ocean and beaches at least a 1,000 feet below.

I realized that we had gotten on to a road that was similar to the one going around Haleakala that we mentioned in a previous blog posting. The Haleakala road was about 10 bad miles. I guess I was hoping that this bad road would quickly improve. It didn't for the next 22 painful miles.

The road was carved into the mountainside with continual zero visibility hairpin turns. The road quickly became one lane which added to the thrills on the turns. We honked going into the turns hoping that we wouldn't meet another car in the middle of the curve. If we did, someone had to back up until there was a wide spot in the road where two cars could pass.

These photos don't do the road justice. I asked Sigrid to take these photos. When things got really tight, I forgot to ask for photos. Sigrid wouldn't have been able to take them anyway. She was writhing in the car seat making moaning sounds and could not have operated a camera.

Sigrid and I have been on a lot of bad roads together and very few have really bothered us. Height isn't really a problem. Neither is a curvy road. The utter lack of road on curvy high places is a problem. Maui's Highway 30 between Wailee and Honolua is the "Mother of all bad roads".

The road eventually turned into not much more than a cart path on the edge of the mountain. The most feared event did happen twice before we got done.

We met a guy driving a huge older Caddy going down one step hill. We got to a slight wide spot in the road and we inched by each other with about a hands width between us. Our windows were both rolled down and I said, "I think we are going to make it". He never looked at me and just kept driving with teeth clenched. I could hear the far side of his car scraping the bushes as we passed. I was on the very edge of the road with no where to go but down. After we got by each other and Sigrid was able to speak again, I asked her, "What in the hell is he doing driving a huge car like that on a road like this?"

Shortly after the Caddy encounter, we met a jeep convertible with four young girls in it at a really bad place. There was no wide spot for either of us. I stopped and shrugged my shoulders at the girls. The driver of the jeep half stood up out of the drivers seat so she could see and began fearlessly backing the jeep back down the road until she found a small wide spot. She pulled over and I began driving. As I passed her, I gave her a "thumbs up" for the great driving. She was most likely a local and familiar with the road.

As I said, the scenery was spectacular.

We had a very late lunch at the first restaurant we found once we were back on normal roads. We called it a day and went back to the condo to rest.

Day 11 - Iao Needle & Haleakala

January 22, 2010 - Maui

We started the day with breakfast at a local restaurant named Tasty Crust. It was written up in Frommers Travel, so Sigrid wanted to try it. We all had Loco Moco. This is a Hawaiian favorite for all times of the day. It is a bed of steamed rice covered with a hamburger patty and brown gravy. All this is topped with two eggs any way you like them. It is really good and a must eat if you come to the islands.

The Iao Needle.

A great battle was fought in this valley between King Kamehameha and the King of Maui. Remember him from and earlier post? This was the first battle between the two. Many were killed but Kamehameha won. This added another island to the Kingdom of Hawaii that Kamehameha was building. I guess the Maui King survived this battle because Kamehameha kicked his butt again on Oahu and finally united all the islands. Some guys learn slow. This photo shows the valley leading to the city below and eventually the sea. The stream running down this valley was blocked by dead bodies after the battle.

Just below the needle, they have a nice park with memorials to all the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants who worked the sugar cane fields and helped build Hawaii.

Sigrid enjoyed the park.

There are lots of strange but beautify plants and trees in Hawaii.

Edel in the Korean pagoda.

A Nene (Hawaiian goose) on the way to the summit of Haleakala.

Haleakala is a dormant volcano that makes up the eastern side of Maui. It is 10,023 feet high from sea level and continues down for many thousands of feet under the sea. As I recall, it is actually taller than Mt. Everest when the under water portion is considered. We are above the cloud level in this photo and still had 2,000 feet to go to the summit.

The government has a tracking station on the summit where they monitor all the space junk that floats around the earth in orbit.

You can see the volcanoes on the Big Island from the summit.

Sigrid & Edel at the top of Maui.

I was so proud of myself for being old and getting my lifetime National Parks Pass. Once you are 62 you pay $25 for the pass and never have to pay at any National Park again. Those in the car with you also get in free.

These strange bushes are the Silver Sword plant. The only place in the world that they grow is at the top of Haleakala. The plants live for up to 50 years and bloom only once before they die.

Haleakala's crater.

A panoramic view of the crater.

Edel's new drinking buddy.

We went back to Paia Town for dinner. Paia is an old plantation town. It is now a series of shops and restaurants. A pretty neat little town. We ate at Milagros Food Co., a Mexican eatery. We all loved the food. I had a seafood enchilada that was unbelievably good. It was the best enchilada, of any kind, I have ever had.

Later that evening, I realized that I had made a big mistake as the day began. I figured that after 10 days in the sun and planning a day without lots of exposure, I could do without the sun screen. I was so wrong. Not only did we spend the entire day in the sun, we also spent lots of time above the cloud cover and haze while on Haleakala. Days later, as I write this, I am still peeling.