Haleakala Day

First thing in the morning yesterday, we went to the swap meet in Kahului. I think it’s a fun thing to do when you’re in Maui, so I recommend it.

It looks super cloudy, but it was still hot and sunny.

Denis said we should get some coconuts to drink because he hadn’t done that for many years. I hadn’t either. The coconut water was delicious!

It always reminds me of Gatorade for some reason… lots of electrolytes?

After the swap meet, THEN we went to Haleakala. The drive up was pleasant – lots of nice views, and puffy clouds. The cloudiness was a little bit of a problem at the top. We couldn’t see the surrounding islands at all. The nearby views of the crater and such were enhanced by the clouds though. They would speed by, and when they hit us, it was COLD!

This is a view of the volcano crater.

There are observatories at the top of Haleakala. Denis and I both commented on how much they reminded us of some kind of Star Wars scene. I think it’s the white buildings and the barren ground.

It makes me crave blue milk.

The whole time we were driving, we kept looking for nene, a kind of goose native only to Maui. We didn’t see any. We did, however see some non-native chukar. We thought they were baby nenes, but they weren’t.

There were two of them running alongside the road.

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at a lavender farm, where we ate some sweet goodies and relaxed a little.

The view was nice, but the breeze was too cool for me… brrr!

We planned to have a nice dinner and relax and hang out for Denis’ last evening here, but I found a couch on Craigslist, and asked him to help me move it. The evening turned into kind of a mess. We had to cram some pizza in our faces before meeting the couch person and then doing a bunch of heavy lifting. It was not a very relaxing or fun end to a Maui vacation. Sorry, Denis. But thank you SOOO much for helping me with the couch! I’m so happy to not have to sit on the floor!

It’s kind of big, but it’s very comfortable. I really like it.