Now that I've got a little time to spare, it being winter break and all, I wanted to complete the Maui picture saga. Holiday pictures will be posted as well, but I wouldn't be too shocked if you have to wait a little while for those. I seem to perpetually be a month to a month and a half behind with my blog updates.
Soooo...in the last post, I left off with Amy and Mike's beautiful wedding. After that, April and I stayed on the island for another few days to just relax, soak up the sun and go snorkeling at every possible free moment.
Feeling a bit adventurous, on Wednesday (Nov. 8) we decided to brave the Hana Highway, which traverses the North coast of the island: 52 miles of one-lane bridges, mountainous roads, sharp drop-offs, and over 600 curves (it takes about 3 hours each way from Kahului to Hana in the east).
Of course, we had to make a number of stops on the way--moments of touristy glory gleaned from various magazines and tour guides. After peering over the cliffs off the coast of
On the way back from Hana later in the afternoon, we stopped off at the same roadside fruit stand (near the entrance to the path to the Falls) again to buy a coconut. After drinking all its milk from a straw, the teenager who had sold us the coconut chopped it in half with a machete so we could eat the flesh, too. Yummy coconut--Swiss Family Robinson, here we come!
There were also many scenic viewpoints, with pull-outs that could fit only a car or two—we made the mistake of planning on stopping at many of these on the way back from Hana, but by then it was later in the afternoon and each pull-out, especially near the bridges, was packed full with tourists (some of which should have been told that parking in a curve on a road that is barely two lanes is stupid, stupid, stupid).
In the photo below, April and I managed to squeeze into on of the scenic viewpoints and engaged in a friendly photo-taking exchange with another couple. Typical of vacations, it’s one of the few pictures of us together from the trip.
Once in Hana and its environs the real adventuresome exploring began. Hana is a little town nestled into the Eastern coast. There’s one gas station, a couple of bed and breakfasts, a tacky gift shop, a general store, and a pretty, well-kept state park (friends of ours rented cabins in the state park last year and loved it, but I’m not sure if I’d enjoy being that far removed from the rest of the island). Also, there’s Hana’s famous black sand beach, Waianapanapa; April and I took a stroll there, digging our toes in as well as discovering a little seaside cave where the waves occasionally caused water to shoot out a hole in the top like a blowhole. 
From the black sand beach, we went off in search of the mysterious and beautiful red sand beach, Kaihalulu, which, had I not read about in a tour guide and online (and gotten detailed instructions on how to find it), we never would have seen. Getting to this secretive beach entailed parking on a side street, walking through the backyard of a bed and breakfast, climbing down a grassy hill (ignoring “no trespassing” signs), and emerging on a lesser beach, where the sand was a brownish red. From there we followed a hilly and mildly treacherous path (flip-flops did not provide adequate footing) up one side of a cliff face and down the other. Of course, wanting to document our journey, I took picture of the beach from the crest of the hill, though we did wander down and spent some time walking its short length and wading in the crystal clear water. 
Apparently, the red sand beach is a place for snorkelers, if the weather is right, and I could definitely believe that considering I could see fish from the beach. However, we later read that snorkeling at this and other coves like it—where a pool of water is surrounded by rocky reefs—can also be quite dangerous for swimmers. It turns out that sharks often lurk just on the ocean-side of the rocks waiting for unsuspecting fish to be washed out from the relatively calm pool on the beach-side to the whirl and turmoil of the ocean.Occasionally, a shark wins the fish lottery and a swimmer washes out with the fish. Hmm...maybe some snorkeling is better left to professionals.
We returned from Hana exhausted—April was also a little harried from all that mountainous driving (since we had a rental car that I couldn’t legally drive), but recovered quickly—but pleased and settled in for another evening in Kihei. We had a fairly decent, though not spectacular meal at a bar/restaurant the name of which I cannot remember, and although the food was fairly good, the cockroach that scampered across our table at one point was not a pleasant dinner companion (to be fair, the restaurant was outdoors, making cockroaches much harder to blame on the management).After dinner, we spent our second of two nights in our lovely bed and breakfast, What a Wonderful World B&B (we stayed in the Patio Suite, for anyone interested), and had an amazing meal the next day of apple pancakes smothered in coconut syrup, made by the owner and our hostess, Eva Tantillo. She was incredibly friendly and generous, allowing us to leave our luggage in her living room/lobby all day because our flight didn’t leave till midnight, even though we officially checked out late that morning. Her bed and breakfast was inexpensive (in relation to other comparable B&Bs in Kihei as well as most of the hotels), personal (only four rooms), spacious, and welcoming. I would recommend it to anyone (plus, I’m not alone: her B&B gets rave reviews on trip advisor).
April checks her email in our B&B room. That bed in the background was one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept on.
Before jetting off at midnight on Thursday, we walked down the beach in Kihei to experience one more Maui sunset. Allow me one cliché: a perfect end to a perfect trip.
