Maui - Day Two

 Making the two hour drive up the mountain to watch the sun rise at Haleakala National Park is totally worth getting up in the middle of the night. Literally! 

We didn't get any pictures of the drive up but the view of the city lights was pretty cool!

We actually had to bring sweats, a stocking hat, gloves and a sweat shirt just for this. At 10,000 feet, it's about 30 degrees colder up there than where you start. It's also very dark when you arrive at the parking lot at 5:15am. 

Then, while above the cloud line, we watch the sun begin to peek out above the horizon... Much like the sunsets where we live, God is a master painter! "From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." Psalm 113:3

You have to have reservations to watch the sun rise there because it turns out lots of people want to get up at 3am... 

Once it got a little light, we walked up the trail to the highest point at the park at 10,023 feet. 

The view just continued to get better and better! The crater was breathtaking! A tour guide at the visitor's center said it was 7 miles across!!! 

Apparently these little birds had woken up by the time we got back to the car and it was all we could do not to run over them with the car on the way up to the observatory... 

There were also some pretty cool plants... 

The observatory boasts the fourth-best viewing conditions on the planet and the largest scope can track objects as small as a basketball more than 20,000 miles away!

Despite the clouds we could still see pretty far, even seeing nearby islands. From the top you can see Moloka'i, Lana'i and part of the big island...

You don't really appreciate how high above the clouds you really are until you drive through them on the way back down...

First stop: Kihei Caffe for breakfast. Being up for 6 hours makes you pretty darn hungry! But our prime rib loco moco and breakfast fried rice made for a good start to the day..

I really wanted to see the beach, so we wandered across the street to Kalepolepo Beach Park. I was kind of surprised that there wasn't any sand. But there were tons of little black crabs all over the rocks!

If you drive to the very end of Makena Alanui Road in South Maui, you get to La Perouse Bay. The bay was named after the French Admiral who landed there on May 30, 1786. It's believed that Haleakala erupted in 1790, forming the jagged a'a lava rock coastline. The beach trail also follows a grove of trees that is home to lots of little black "beach goats"... 

Since we'd reached the end of the road, we drove back the way we came and stopped at Makena, a beautiful beach but a dangerous place to swim... 

Then it was back to Kihei for lunch. We checked out South Maui Gardens food truck pod (the most beautiful food truck pod we'd ever been to) but ended up at Ululani's Shaved Ice... 

Oh my gosh! Why isn't every shaved ice like this??? Our order: Ulu sized Sunset Beach (passion orange, mango & guava house-made fresh fruit syrups) with non-dairy coconut ice cream, sno-capped with fresh lilikoi mochi! Unbelievably delicious! 

We'd already been in Maui for 24 hours. Obviously it was time to go snorkeling. Honolua Bay was Tatum's choice for our first time. Not only was the water clear and warm and teeming with all kinds of fish and coral and sea life but the walk through the jungle to get there is pretty impressive, too...

 

Now we were definitely ready for dinner and we made it back to the room just in time to watch the sun set while getting changed...

I was pretty excited for sushi at Miso Phat but we were remarkably less excited after a very long wait, horrific service and we didn't even get to enjoy the drinks we bought at the liquor store next door. The food wasn't bad but it was a disappointing (and late) dinner...