On our 2nd day Siena & I went out to the beach. She couldn't wait to get in the sand with her bucket & shovel. The water is crystal clear. The sand isn't really white but rather brown, I suppose of all the added lava rock sand. In the waters are thousands of small black rocks. The water felt cold at 1st but not so bad after being in it awhile. But that was only my feet. I didn't even try to walk out any farther on those rocks! We went back up to the pool & got in there where the water was much warmer. Even though Siena is not that fond of the water she actually did pretty good this time. She didn't try to really swim but she did let me move her around in the water more than usual. Oh...by the way, the hot tub was great too.
That evening we went into the town of Lahaina where it was full of tourist shops. When we dropped into one of the beach side restaurants for lunch Siena was sound to sleep. I carried her to the table & she was still out of it so we ate while she slept in the chair. Of course as soon as we drove off she was cranky & hungry so we found a McDonald's & got her a Happy Meal. Unfortunately the "Happy Meal" didn't really do the trick because after she finished eating we reluctantly decided to go back down the street to do some window shopping & it wasn't long before she had a major meltdown. All of the people in the shops were coming out to see what was happening. Because if you know Siena, her screams could pierce & break windows. But we survived. That evening I took Mark & Siena back to the condo & went back out to do some shopping & all was better.
While I was gone Mark & Siena said that they saw whales just off the beach. I had the camera so they weren't able to catch any pictures. But I did catch the sunset off one of the other roadside beaches & a free Hawaiian dance show at the mall that I went to.
Now this leads us to Friday. We were going to do the drive to Hana but we got started too late. So instead we 1st booked a Luau at one of the hotels. We got a great price on it but we did so by agreeing to listen to a timeshare sales pitch on Sunday morning so yes, we have that to contend with that yet. After booking the Luau we then drove out to the Iao Valley state park. There we trekked up through the mountains that gave way for the view of the Iao Needle which is a natural rock pinnacle. Also along the trail was a small water fall & stream. Lots of great picture taking!
That evening we set out for our Luau. Siena was happy to hear that she could go on stage when the MC announced that anyone wanting to learn to hula could come up & learn from one of the dancers. She was happy to go but only with me. So there we were, with about 30 other guests up on stage trying to hula...& yes Daddy got it all on video. Anyway...the food was an adequate buffet. I finally got to taste poi which really didn't have a lot of taste to it. But the pig that had been roasting all day in the imu, which is an in-ground pit, was really good. The show was great. Great dancing & even a fire show. I believe Siena was even impressed.
We finally headed on to the famous Road to Hana on Sat. morning. Now the start of this road is way on the other side of Maui from where we are staying. With that distance & the time it takes to do this ever winding cliff hanging drive we had to set out pretty early. The drive starts out in a quaint little bay/surf town called Paia. Mark had done his research to find the best coffee beans on Maui, so a pit stop at Anthony's coffee shop was a must to-do before starting the scenic drive. And by the way, who do you think did all the driving? For most of the way, Mark was a bit car sick. There were so many scenic stops that we just couldn't even do all of them. We did find a private garden, "The Garden of Eden", that we paid to drive into & had our picnic there & also saw our 1st large waterfall. Once on the road again we came upon the same waterfall just off the road. While some of the falls were not easily accessible I did manage to trek down to one of them myself. I stepped on about 20 large black rocks to get to that same big waterfall after finding out that just on the other side of the bridge I could have taken a nice smooth path along side of all the rocks. Oh well...it was worth the adventure to get there anyway. But Mark & Siena waited up top since we knew that Siena would not have been able to make the trek. Several hours later we reached our pilgrimage...Hana! While there wasn't much there but the old General store that I had read about it felt good to know that we had "Survived the Road to Hana." And yes, we had to do the same drive back. The views were incredible & the drive was adventurous to say the least!
Well now this brings us up to date. Today was our day with the timeshare salesman. I won't bore you with the 2+ hours of sales pitch but just say that "No" sorry, we didn't buy a timeshare in Hawaii. The rest of the day was spent doing a little shopping, lunch on the beach at the Hula Grill, then back to the condo for some pool & beach time with Siena. Again I was able to get her into the water without being so fearful. Swimming yet? No...but for her this was all progress. While down on the beach we made a small sandcastle before heading back to wake up Mark from his nap to get ready to go to dinner.
Tomorrow we leave to fly back to Oahu. Mark will start his work week on Tuesday while Siena & I hang out at the Hilton & maybe do some sightseeing & shopping on our own. Aloha!
No comments:
Post a Comment