After a great first day on the island, we were up EARLY on the second day. We tried our hardest to stay up late the day before so that we could acclimate to Hawaii time. But getting up at 3am Hawaii time (6am Seattle time) to catch our flight the previous day made it a bit difficult that night. I think we made it till 8pm. Lame. And then when 3am Hawaii time rolled around on our 2nd day, we were both wide awake but made ourselves stay in bed until around 6am. Good old jet lag. Anyway, pictures again tell the best story of our day. Here we go:
After getting up, we went to breakfast and managed to capture a couple of pictures. It's pretty representative of most of our mornings on Hawaii. Breakfast outside, by the pool, views of the ocean, drinking tea, reading the local newspaper- fabulous!
The drinking tea and newspaper part.
Walking around and a quick stroll to the beach after breakfast.
We decided that we were going to drive to Haleakala (the volcano on the east side of the island) on this day since it was something we hadn't done last year. We originally THOUGHT about getting out of bed at 3am and going to see the sunrise up there since so many people recommend it. But, I have done that before and was really not that impressed and just froze my ass off. Plus, the sunset we saw the night before was awesome enough for us. So, we drove up to Haleakala mid-morning. After a stop at Starbucks.
It's about a 1 1/2-2 hour drive with totally crazy scenery. Crazy in that it is so varied. From
beachy/tropical, to
farmish, to forest, to volcanic. The above picture would be the farm part.
And a sign marking the entrance to the park.
One of the activities that you can do on the island is to bike down the volcano. They restrict where you can actually bike from now because so many people have gotten injured and some even killed (they used to allow it all the way from the top of the summit- now it's about halfway down). My family and I did this back in 2004 when we visited Maui and it was
ok (it was also the same time when we saw the sunrise- you got up at 2am to get picked up, taken to the summit, watch the sun rise, then bike down. So yes, we were one of the last groups to bike from the summit). Anyway, it wasn't my absolute favorite activity because they place the bikers in order from lightest to heaviest. I was at the front of the pack and I felt like I was holding everyone up because I didn't have enough weight to go fast. So I PEDALED the whole time. Down a mountain. Doesn't make much sense. And it was exhausting. Plus, there were a few scary people in our group that I swear had NEVER been on a bike and they were biking DOWN a mountain, on a 2 lane curvy road, with cars... easy to see why they now limit how far people can bike and why people have gotten injured doing this activity. Anyway, the above picture was one of the biking groups that we passed- that brought back all the above memories.
And entering the forest part of the road.
More
prairie. You can't really tell from this picture but it was crazy seeing all the
prairie right by us but then the
panoramic view had the volcano in front of us and the coastline/beaches down below. Awesome.
Up at the summit- we finally made it! Man, we are such elevation wimps. We feel it every time... must have something to do with the fact that we live at sea level. The volcano summit was at 14,000 feet. We were going to do a crater hike up there but changed our mind once we started feeling the elevation... and not to mention it was FREEZING and windy. I had a grandma stop me about halfway up when we went to the ranger station to pee to tell me that she was worried about me freezing. Luckily we had planned for it (and had planned to hike) so had all of our winter clothes in the car... we just hadn't changed into them. And really, we only ended up throwing on sweatshirts in the end since our time there was fairly limited. We are not such huge fans of the elevation/cold/windy combinations.
A view out from the summit.
At the summit. FREEZING. About to be blown over.
And T at the summit.
We did have a great sunny day to be there- we had a shot of the big island in view (the lump in the middle of the picture).
And a view of the Maui coastline from above the clouds at 14,000 feet.
On the top are some of the rarest plants in the world. Crazy to me that ANYTHING can grow up there but these things can. They are actually pretty cool looking. I can't remember what they are called other than silver something.... and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.
After visiting Haleakala in the morning, we spent the afternoon in the warm sun at the pool. Loved it.
After hanging at the pool for a few hours, we decided to go on a walk and ended up shopping at the shops at
Wailea. There is a boardwalk along the ocean that connects the
Fairmont to all of the major hotels along the way. It's probably a mile walk each way to the shops. Tim ended up buying me a couple of presents... a dress and a ring. The dress I was
ok with but we were in Tiffany just for fun and I was admiring a ring. As I was walking out of the store, I realized that he was buying it!!! I grumbled a little bit because I did not think it was necessary BUT then again, I can't really grumble too much because I love it (and him for being so nice!)
After we got back from shopping we got dressed and ready for dinner. We went to dinner at
Ko, a restaurant on the resort which is kind of an
Asian fusion restaurant that is made with all natural, sustainable foods grown on Maui. I say Asian fusion but it's also very specific to foods that are popular in the local Hawaiian culture. It's very delicious!
Tim at dinner... we had a great view and a great sunset- again!
And yours truly. All in all, it was another great day on the island!
After getting up, we went to breakfast and managed to capture a couple of pictures. It's pretty representative of most of our mornings on Hawaii. Breakfast outside, by the pool, views of the ocean, drinking tea, reading the local newspaper- fabulous!
The drinking tea and newspaper part.
Walking around and a quick stroll to the beach after breakfast.
We decided that we were going to drive to Haleakala (the volcano on the east side of the island) on this day since it was something we hadn't done last year. We originally THOUGHT about getting out of bed at 3am and going to see the sunrise up there since so many people recommend it. But, I have done that before and was really not that impressed and just froze my ass off. Plus, the sunset we saw the night before was awesome enough for us. So, we drove up to Haleakala mid-morning. After a stop at Starbucks.
It's about a 1 1/2-2 hour drive with totally crazy scenery. Crazy in that it is so varied. From beachy/tropical, to farmish, to forest, to volcanic. The above picture would be the farm part.
And a sign marking the entrance to the park.
One of the activities that you can do on the island is to bike down the volcano. They restrict where you can actually bike from now because so many people have gotten injured and some even killed (they used to allow it all the way from the top of the summit- now it's about halfway down). My family and I did this back in 2004 when we visited Maui and it was ok (it was also the same time when we saw the sunrise- you got up at 2am to get picked up, taken to the summit, watch the sun rise, then bike down. So yes, we were one of the last groups to bike from the summit). Anyway, it wasn't my absolute favorite activity because they place the bikers in order from lightest to heaviest. I was at the front of the pack and I felt like I was holding everyone up because I didn't have enough weight to go fast. So I PEDALED the whole time. Down a mountain. Doesn't make much sense. And it was exhausting. Plus, there were a few scary people in our group that I swear had NEVER been on a bike and they were biking DOWN a mountain, on a 2 lane curvy road, with cars... easy to see why they now limit how far people can bike and why people have gotten injured doing this activity. Anyway, the above picture was one of the biking groups that we passed- that brought back all the above memories.
And entering the forest part of the road.
More prairie. You can't really tell from this picture but it was crazy seeing all the prairie right by us but then the panoramic view had the volcano in front of us and the coastline/beaches down below. Awesome.
Up at the summit- we finally made it! Man, we are such elevation wimps. We feel it every time... must have something to do with the fact that we live at sea level. The volcano summit was at 14,000 feet. We were going to do a crater hike up there but changed our mind once we started feeling the elevation... and not to mention it was FREEZING and windy. I had a grandma stop me about halfway up when we went to the ranger station to pee to tell me that she was worried about me freezing. Luckily we had planned for it (and had planned to hike) so had all of our winter clothes in the car... we just hadn't changed into them. And really, we only ended up throwing on sweatshirts in the end since our time there was fairly limited. We are not such huge fans of the elevation/cold/windy combinations.
A view out from the summit.
At the summit. FREEZING. About to be blown over.
And T at the summit.
We did have a great sunny day to be there- we had a shot of the big island in view (the lump in the middle of the picture).
And a view of the Maui coastline from above the clouds at 14,000 feet.
On the top are some of the rarest plants in the world. Crazy to me that ANYTHING can grow up there but these things can. They are actually pretty cool looking. I can't remember what they are called other than silver something.... and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.
After visiting Haleakala in the morning, we spent the afternoon in the warm sun at the pool. Loved it.
After hanging at the pool for a few hours, we decided to go on a walk and ended up shopping at the shops at Wailea. There is a boardwalk along the ocean that connects the Fairmont to all of the major hotels along the way. It's probably a mile walk each way to the shops. Tim ended up buying me a couple of presents... a dress and a ring. The dress I was ok with but we were in Tiffany just for fun and I was admiring a ring. As I was walking out of the store, I realized that he was buying it!!! I grumbled a little bit because I did not think it was necessary BUT then again, I can't really grumble too much because I love it (and him for being so nice!)
After we got back from shopping we got dressed and ready for dinner. We went to dinner at Ko, a restaurant on the resort which is kind of an Asian fusion restaurant that is made with all natural, sustainable foods grown on Maui. I say Asian fusion but it's also very specific to foods that are popular in the local Hawaiian culture. It's very delicious!
Tim at dinner... we had a great view and a great sunset- again!
And yours truly. All in all, it was another great day on the island! 
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