12/16-17–The long journey home

We are up really early this morning, as we want to be as tired as we can for our red-eye flight to Chicago.  We don’t even need the alarm, for some reason, and have to wait for the sun to rise before we can even take our morning walk.  Our circuit complete, we shower and prepare our grilled ham and cheese breakfast, enjoying the patio for the last time, then pack the car and head out to the airport.  We stop first at Costco for gas – which we figure will be a crazy zoo and have allocated 30 minutes to sit in line.  And, while it is definitely busy, it isn’t anywhere are crazy as we thought and we’re through the line in half our allotted time.

Turning in the rental car is a breeze, the shuttle arrives within moments and we are subsequently at the airport with tons of time to spare.  Checked in and through security, we scout out our gate, then come back to Sammy’s, the only bar/pub in the airport.  We score two seats at the corner of the bar and strike up a conversation with a sweet girl who is on her way to Honolulu to stay with her friend and surf for a few days.  Very fun people. 

Our beer and wine actually break our record for the most EVER spent on one drink ANYWHERE. It even eclipses the Bergen drink record, coming in at a whopping $30.20 before tip!  I mean, really, my wine was $19.50!  Holy cow.  Thank heavens for the club in Honolulu – at least there we can amortize this ridiculous expense with free food and drink.  LOL.

The flight to Honolulu is easy (it’s only 30 minutes) and we are in the lounge in a jiffy – we’ve got a long layover, so we charge all our electronics, have a light snack and fill up on beer and wine before boarding our long haul, overnight to Chicago.  That flight goes off without a hitch as well.  We sleep – as much as possible – and wake up to a rainy Chicago O’Hare at 5:00 in the morning.  Here we use one of our United Club passes to spend the 2 hours we have before our last flight.  It’s a waste of the passes – there is no hot breakfast, only carb-heavy continental, however at least there is good drip coffee – but if we don’t use the passes now, they will expire so….at least it is a relatively calm place to hang out.

Back into the melee that is O’Hare, we arrive at our gate with plenty of time to board, then the 1 1/2 hour flight to Asheville, and Voila! We are home.  Great trip, great place…we are definitely ready to go back again….soon!

12/15–Last day on Maui

It’s organizing task day today at the cottage. Morning walk, stop at Foodland for newspapers, but  no food shopping – we are whittling down our stocks.  Sigh.  Today will be grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch – with just enough left over for breakfast tomorrow (because even though I am dying to try the banana bread french toast at What Ales You? we have decided not to go there for breakfast and football – but to just leave from the cottage in the morning). 

After laundry and tidying up a bit, we head up to What Ales You? for our last night hanging at our favorite watering hole.  Football is on – but there are far too many interesting people to talk to – so we pretty much ignore the whole game (and we’re at the point where we don’t care too much anymore really).  We met Louie, a fantastic artist and great companion who was sitting at the bar creating his work.  He gave us tons of hints and tips on happy hours, restaurants, etc., for our next trip (where has he been these past 2 weeks?).  Chatted with Jess – who it turns out grew up in Penn Township and graduated from Penn-Trafford – and she knows our niece Allie!  (And, after chatting with Allie the next day – time difference – she knows Jess too, and worked with her sister at Schram’s.) 

Ok – it’s official – we LOVE this place – Maui and What Ales You? But sadly, our time is done here, so we walk home for the last time, do the final little bit of packing and sit out on the porch with our remaining beer and wine, soaking up our last Maui evening.

12/14–Sugar Museum and Friday evening on Maui

The drive out of Haiku is simple- I mean there aren’t that many roads on this island!  And we are treated to some great views of Puu Kukui in the distance above Kahului and Wailuku.

The Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum turns out to be a great little find.  We must have driven past here a bazillion times and never really thought twice about it.  They’ve been here for 20+ years, and have a wonderful assortment of exhibits, paraphernalia and videos that provide a really deep history of the sugar industry on the island.

Exhibits range from geography to plantation life to a miniature replica of  sugar processing machinery.  We refreshed our memory on how Maui was named (The demi-God Maui climbed Haleakala, the House of the Sun, with a net to capture the sun to provide more sunshine on the island for crops to grow), learned how Maui’s climate and geography affects the sugar planting and growing, how they had to change/create irrigation (still a big sticky political issue today), the history of Alexander and Baldwin (they were friends in school), what life on the plantation was like and how B&A tried to improve the worker’s life and living quarters by developing the “dream city,” which became Kahului.  Photos and videos took you through the entire process of sugar cane planting and processing (we had no idea that the cane actually is what survives and is collected after they burned the fields), and they also had a mannequin that was dressed exactly like that bizarre mannequin in the Bellas Artes museum in Tenerife!  Know we understand those bizarre glove like shields on the hands – to protect from stinging insects, snakes – and those nasty sugar canes. The last exhibit is a room that takes you through the whole processing with the aforementioned miniature processing machinery. 

As we leave, we wander around the yard, marveling at the huge pieces of machinery used to harvest and process the sugar cane. 

Fascinating!  Also fascinating is that the sugar processing plant across the street is completely empty and awaiting demolition.  The sugar company stopped production on Maui 2 years ago, and while there is some interest in converting the factory into a huge artistic and commercial venue, the museum docent said they were tearing it down because it was too old and dilapidated to be renovated.  Understandable, but a little bit of a shame, since the facade is so iconic and has such a connection to the island and its history.  (There is tons more to this story, like fears about what will happen to the thousands of acres owned by A&B that is no longer being planted – resort? overdevelopment?, arguments over the East Maui Irrigation company and redirecting streams back to their natural state, and plenty additional topics swirling around that we can’t even try to wrap our minds around!)

But, regardless of the drama, the museum itself is a great little find, inside and out. 

On the way home, we want to do a little shopping (Safeway’s $5 Friday deals are the ticket), but first decide we want to go to happy hour at Nalu’s – a restaurant that get great reviews and a couple of locals have said is the best.  We arrive, and as on 2 previous occasions, there are no seats at the bar.  And really none out in the dining area either.  Since this is a counter service place, we’re not sure we can even order drinks and then wait to sit, so we bag it – and go to Life’s a Beach.  First time here on this trip – after hanging out here so much last year!  It is just as fun as before, with great wine pours, fun people to chat with and sports on the TV.  We get involved in a conversation with a sweet girl who is studying for her PhD in marine biology and who actually lives in Haiku!  Small island.  So many interesting people you meet here – everyone has a story, and most are more interesting than not.

Happy hour accomplished, shopping complete, we head to Moose Mcgillycuddy’s for dinner because they have fish and chips for a special tonight – and I want another quesadilla.  We manage to get there right after sunset and the roads and sidewalks are packed, including this Buddha in the back of a pick up truck parked on the side of the road. Love it!

It is tons busier than last week, so much so, that there isn’t a space to be had in Moose’s parking lot.  We end up parking (shh…don’t tell) in the shopping center lot next door.  Fingers crossed we don’t get caught (we didn’t), we are not hopeful about getting seats at the bar, but once again, we luck out and get the last 2 seats (same exact seats as before) at the bar.

Another successful day – and evening!  The fish and chips are excellent, the quesadilla even bigger than before (I can’t even eat 2 pieces and have to take virtually 2/3 of the thing home), and the beer is cold – what more can you ask for?  Nothing – and as the car is still in the lot where we left it – we’re quite happy as we make our way back to the cottage for our 2nd to last night on the island.

12/14–Beach morning, Haiku afternoon–sort of

We are back to the beach this morning for the last time on this trip.  For some reason we were up really early this morning, so we make it to the beach really early too.  So early in fact, that there are a bunch of people still camping out here.  We’ve not seen this many people sleeping on the beach, so we don’t know if they have recently come here or they just leave before we arrive.  They make a comment about packing up before 9am, and are soon all cleaned up and gone – who knows?  There is a huge contingent of homeless here on the islands – and while these were all young adults (guessing early 20’s if that?) – it still could be they are living here on the beach while they look for jobs (one girl said she had an interview later) and try to get established. 

At any rate, they leave, and we have the beach virtually to ourselves – if you exclude the wildlife.For some reason we have attracted a chicken..  She is quite the ham, hanging out beside us, posing as we snap pictures.

She disappears for a while, then comes back with a friend!  We feel like we are back at home with Rachel, our Asheville bird “pet.”  But this bird is a little more acclimated to people than Rachel, and she and her friend keep getting closer and closer.

All fine, as long as she stays away from my toes – which sort of seems like her objective!  as my toes are in jeopardy, I unfortunately have to put a to this, and the duo strut off to bother someone else’s digits.

Back at the house, we finish off left overs for lunch, just to clean out most of the oldest food, then head out to Haiku, a little community described as one of the greenest areas in Maui and like stepping back in time. There are a couple of old canneries here that have been converted into artist studios and shops, so we figure we’ll go spend some time exploring there.  The drive takes us once again, through Paia and past Hookipa beach, where there are a few surfers today, but the waves are still pretty choppy and uneven.  A few miles past the beach we turn off the Hana Highway and make our way inland through little narrow roads that wind their way past ranches and farmland, until we reach Haiku town center, which is literally a post office and a couple of shops in one of the old canneries.  We pull into the cannery parking lot, but don’t see anything of much interest.  I’m now starting to doubt the promo copy I had read in the Upcountry magazine, but we press on and take Haiku road over to the other cannery to try our luck there.  The drive alone is worth it – suddenly we are winding our way through a little neighborhood of old, original Hawaiian style homes and the most gorgeous rainforest setting imaginable.  The road twists and turns scenically through the forest, passing houses here and there, but nary a car.  It is so beautiful over here – that is it almost a disappointment to come upon the old cannery with cars and people.

But once again here, there isn’t all that much to capture our interest.  It is a lot like RAD in Asheville, an old cannery turned into studios and workshops for different artists – but not a lot of studios are open and the few that are house an upholstery shop, a photo printshop, a surf board designer.  Nice – but not what we were expecting. Even the bakery, Baked on Maui, was a bust – I was jonesing for some banana bread (the best we’ve ever had was on the Road to Hana – but we’re not going over there just for banana bread!), and they didn’t have anything even remotely like banana bread.  Sigh.  Oh well, don’t need the carbs anyway. 

Overall, this adventure was a bit of a disappointment, but the drive and scenery was so great, that it wasn’t a complete loss.  Plus, we are driving right past the Sugar Museum on the way home, which makes for a perfect way to spend our early afternoon.

12/13–Lahaina morning, Kihei afternoon

We have decided to go wander around Lahaina, the last area we’ve not visited this trip, and then picnic at a beach park on the way back.  Its another gorgeous day over here in Kihei, but it is supposed to rain later, so we want to move out early to avoid getting caught.  On the drive over to Lahaina, the clouds are building up on the Wailuku (east) side of the mountains, but the sun is shining over here producing some cool looking rainbows of the Kealia National Wildlife Refuge.

 

As we get closer to Ma’alaea Harbor, we can actually see the end of the rainbow on the slope of the Olowalu mountain range.  Cool.

Even though the skies are sunny here, and the clouds are behind us, the winds are so ferocious today that it is pushing the rain over here.  Seriously, its a downpour and the clouds are no where near us!  Fortunately, as we round the edge of the mountains and turn northwest toward Lahaina, the rain stops, but the rainbows continue  A double rainbow even!

Driving into Lahaina, it looks like the rain is being blown in again, but only a little bit.  We take our chances on Front street and luck into a parking spot in the free lot (literally the last spot in there) and begin our walk through town.  We’re being Tilly Tourist today, just wandering around, window shopping and half heartedly following the historical trail.  It is too early to eat, and we have our poke picnic supplies anyway, and it is far too early to drink, so we just humor ourselves walking around, people watching and avoiding all the cosmetic hawkers on the sidewalk (there must be 5 or 6 of those cosmetic stores now – each with beautiful people trying to get you to try their product for free.  Yeah, right, been there, done that, not free and not worth the time or aggravation!). 

We do manage to stop for photos at the Baldwin House, then pause at the Wo Hing Chinese museum with the cookhouse out back….

Before turning around and meandering back to the car.  We make another pit stop at the tourist center behind the Banyan Tree for the restrooms, then walk through a very interesting historical display (seriously, it was interesting) before walking back to collect the car and go picnic.

The beach park, Launiupoko, is nearly deserted when we arrive and we have the choice of picnic table locations.  We decamp to one closest to the water and set up shop with our Poke and left over rotisserie chicken from Safeway.  The setting is beautiful, the weather is great (if you forget about the hurricane force gale that suddenly blows through causing us to grab hold over virtually everything on the table before they become ocean debris) and the lunch hits the spot (its the last of the poke….sigh, sad).

On the way back, we stop at Ma’alaea Harbor to shop the Pacific Whale Foundation sale. Ed had bought a great t-shirt there for $10 when we went out on the celestial cruise, but unfortunately, is was a Ladies – so now I have a great t-shirt!  We successfully found more cool shirts – this time Men’s – and one Ladies shirt for me, then stopped for an afternoon beverage at Beach Bum’s BBQ downstairs on the harbor.  It is a very fun little place, open air with the harbor in front of you (or behind you if you are sitting at the bar as we were), tons of out of state license plates lining the walls and the tantalizing smell of BBQ wafting through the entire area.  Ack – we’ve already eaten and we’re hungry again!  We successfully resist the urge to order something (especially when we see the massive pile of nachos that comes out for another patron) while we quaff down a couple of beers, then head back to Kihei for the afternoon. 

Later we head out for What Ales You?, watch a little football, chat with Jess behind the bar, then walk back to the cottage, stopping on the way to take pictures of the clouds ringing Haleakala.

Another perfectly relaxing evening, hanging out on the patio, cooking dinner and enjoying the cool evening.

12/12–Lost day on Maui

There had to be one!  The day we have no idea what we did.  Which we think is just a lot of nothing really.  I know we went grocery shopping, picking up a few essentials, then reading on the patio and I did do some work.  But otherwise?  Clueless.

Dinner we do know – we finally made it to Three’s Bar and Grill where we luck out and get 2 seats at the bar.  (Actually this is a tad bit easier this year, as they’ve expanded the bar and added an additional 8 or 10 seats.) A couple of wines and beers and a great order of Bacon fried Brussel sprouts (yummy with balsamic soy, kimchee, bacon and shaved parmesan), a coconut crusted fish taco and a totally reimagined Kahlua Pork quesadilla (guava chipotle bbq sauce and cilantro lime aioli!).  Perfect meal.

Later, at home, more patio time and that’s about all she wrote for Wednesday here on the island.

12/11–Picnic on the backside (of Haleakala, of course!)

It’s picnic time!  Back up the road we go, passing the road workers again, stopping at some of the more scenic spots….

…and carefully avoiding the locals who come screaming down this narrow little road with abandon.  Actually, they aren’t really the ones we need to worry about – it’s the tourists who are now trickling down the road that scare us more.  So we are extra careful when we see what is obviously a rental car (Convertible mustang? Tourist. High dollar SUV? Tourist.  Beat up pick up or van? Local) Fortunately all these encounters are few and far between as there is hardly anyone out here (which is why I LOVE this side of the island).

There is a wicked wind coming from the South when we arrive at our designated picnic spot (actually it’s not the original spot, this is a smaller pullout further into the backside than the other spot).  No way can we get close to the edge of the cliffs, so we set up our chairs beside the car, using it to block to the worst of the wind, holding tight to our Poke containers and chopsticks while blissfully staring out across the waters.

As we happily munch on our poke, we begin to hear an approaching roar.  Looking over our shoulders, here come 2 fighter jets obviously on maneuvers, but from the angle we are sitting and the fact that there is a pick up truck (local!) on the road at the exact time these planes fly over – it looks like 2 big drones escorting the truck down the road. I only wish I could have gotten my phone in my hand fast enough to take that shot.

After that, it’s quite peaceful out here.  We hang out a bit longer, until the sun starts to burn us up, then retreat to the car and head back to town.

On the way, however, we have to stop at Bully’s Burgers!  This place used to the be the last food/refreshment stop on the road.   They cooked burgers made from local ranch beef on their gas grill and you sat in a little gazebo to eat them.  Bully’s got raves all the time, but they closed suddenly last year – something to do with permitting we think – and now…well….it’s like a ghost town restaurant with the menu still hanging on the wall and the vines taking over everything.  We’re sad we never got a chance to try them out!

About 15 minutes later, we are back in civilization (well, sort of) when we arrive at Maui Wine in Ulupalakua.  Deciding to stop to peruse what wine they have left (and use the bathroom), we end up buying these great little flip flop wine coasters and a bottle of Pineapple wine we’ve had before. 

It’s barely even 3:00 when we get home – so after organizing for a bit, we head up to Maui Brewing for their happy hour, intending to have pu pu’s along with our drinks.  But, in the end we once again decide against food, and settle for just beer on their great outdoor patio.  Dinner in this evening, and the day is done!

12/11–Haleakala backside and Nu’u Refuge hike

Today is my day.  I say that because ever since last year when we drove the entire way around the East side of the island on the Road to Hana, I have wanted to picnic on the backside of Haleakala.  And today is the day.  Ed is humoring me by driving 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to a deserted bluff over the ocean so we can have a Poke picnic. But along the way – actually a little further past the noted picnic spot – he has found a refuge/preserve where we can hike.  Perfect!

We take off around 9 and start the trek around the island and into Upcountry.  Its another beautiful day on our side of the island, sunny, warm with only a few clouds.  It remains that way through most of our drive, through Pukalani, past Kula and into Ulupalakua where the the ranch store and Maui Wine are the last two commercial entities we’ll see until we reverse our course and head back home.  But as we make our way around to the southeast and approach the backside of Haleakala, the clouds roll off the mountain and we begin to get short little rain showers. Poop.  This could put a damper on our day.

Fortunately, the rain doesn’t last, and the end of our drive on the narrow, barely 2 lane road is made through sunshine and wind.  It is so peaceful out here – with nothing and no one around.  One minute you are driving through luscious ivy (albeit probably invasive Kudsu) covered hills, the next through vast dry hillsides of yellow wheat-like grasses.  Then its into the craggy, lava strewn cliffs and hills rolling off of Haleakala.  The only thing you encounter out here are wildlife, the occasional car (a few tourists, but mostly locals) and a few lonely houses perched alongside the road or out in the hillsides.  Magical.

And nerve-wracking when winding our way along narrow roads with dips where you can’t see what is in front or behind you and sharp curves where you are either up against the jagged lava rock or on the very edge of the oceanside road with absolutely no shoulder or guardrail. Along the way, way, way out there, too is road work.  There are about 20 guys and tons of trucks repairing one of the bridges.  Crazy they have to drive out here every day to do the work – and they must stay late because they have lights set up as well.  Talk about being organized – in the middle of nowhere, it’s easy 1/2 an hour to just get back to the ranch, so you better have all your food, drink and supplies for the day with you from the beginning!

Passing the road work, and the picnic spot, we near the Nu’u refuge for our hike, watching road for our landmarks of a little bridge over a small gulch, and a dirt road blocked by a locked gate on the oceanside.  It’s actually quite easy to find, even though our instructions say it is difficult to spot.  The road is right past the 30 mile marker, as promised, and there is a little space on the right of the gate to squeeze through to the refuge.  And squeeze through we do, ducking under the semi-barbed wire attaching the gate to the lava rock wall, then making our way down the overgrown two-track path leading into the preserve.

The Hawaiian Islands Land Trust bought the property fairly recently, in an effort to protect the wildlife as well as the ruins of temples and other sacred sites left here from what was a thriving village from the 16th century until the mid-20th century.  Nu’u is reputedly a place of myths and legends, all passed down verbally by local Hawaiians through the centuries.  Which is why the Land Trust tries to preserve these historically significant areas, while providing access to the public so we can learn more about Hawaiian culture and protect their heritage.

A short distance from the gate, we veer off down the mauka side of the lava walls looking for petroglyphs and pictographs.  After examining the walls as closely as we could, we do find what we think are a few petroglyphs and these faint turtle and animal shaped pictographs…

…but darned if we can find the “dramatic” specimens we read about. Oh well, it’s still lovely out here and the panoramic views of the lava rocks in different shapes and sizes make the expedition worth while.

Soon we reach the coastline, which is totally scenic and dramatic.  And utterly devoid of people.  Lava stones line the beach at Nu’u Bay and there is an uninterrupted view back toward the north of the island while behind us, scenic views of Haleakala. 

This is the place for the picnic!  But we left the cooler in the car, and are not traipsing back there to get it and the chairs – so we’ll settle for simply hiking and taking in the views. 

At the end of the bay, we climb up onto the lava rocks to explore the coast and hopefully find our way through the marked (and unmarked) path to the interior of the refuge where there are heiau (temple) ruins and other artifacts left over from the village.   The views from up here are even better than down below.  Dramatic coast line, craggy lava rocks, azure water, sea grass, long shots back up Haleakala…

…and Sunny!

Following what looks like the path around the top of the lava cliffs, we end up high above a beautiful little cove, with no clear way around the rim to the other side.  The info we had read said the path is unpredictable, but that you will end up in a beautiful little cove with lava and white sand – which is what this looks like.  We are supposed to head North into the interior of the refuge now,  and even though we try a couple of different path like areas, we’re flummoxed – there isn’t any indication of where to go next.

So, what the heck, while we’d have loved to have found the ruins and explored more of the park, the views up here are still spectacular, and we’re content as we turn around and retrace our steps off the cliffs and back down to the bay, through the grassy path and on to the car.