Road to Hana

We drove around Maui today.   We were in the car for most of ten hours, the majority of the time going slowly on little switch back roads, some of the time single lane requiting one vehicle to pull off so the other vehicle can pass.   I don’t typically get nauseated from car rides but the duration and intensity of the bumps, turns, twists, jostles and overall lack of back or arm support in the third row of the minivan, and I was beat by the end of the day.

It was worth it though.   The road to Hana is famous for it’s beautiful scenery.   The volcano who’s cap was covered in clouds but sunny just below set the view up for the small restaurant we stopped at for lunch just beside a winery that had some of the largest trees I’ve ever seen.

We’ve been taking pictures with Pengi, Juliette’s “Travel Buddy” for a school project.   We’ve all been committed to getting Pengi in as many “photo ops” as possible.   After lunch I took Pengi over to see the Ornamental Fig behind the winery.  It took three pictures, backing out after each one to get a real feel for the magnitude of the tree.   It dwarfed the little winery beside it.   Pengi is in the first picture, see if you can see him in the third picture...

After the winery and lunch the road got more interesting.   It got narrower, more turnier, bumpier and of course, more scarier.   My husband stayed calm the entire day, keeping a good disposition throughout .  At one point my mother-in-law was concerned about oncoming traffic around corners on the single lane road.   She kept telling my husband to honk the horn as a warning before getting to the turn.   This annoyed myhusband after a while but he was put in his place by my daughter who said, “quit it, dad; Nana can be nervous if she wants to.”  My son chimed in, apparently on the side of his father, saying, “‘yeah, and every turn Nana says, “oh no, we’re gonna die.’”

So that lightened the mood.   We were on the lookout for banana trees, which we found out weren’t trees but herbs, which is interesting.   My daughter said to the entire car, “everybody keep your eyes peeled…well, everybody but me.”

After a lot of treacherous yet well-executed driving with beautiful sights all around us we got to the Seven Sacred Pools, which we’d told my daughter we’d get to swim in.   She was willing to commit to seven hours in a car with “seeing” things all around her because she was excited about these pools in which you could slide from one of them to another over the rocks.   But they were closed for swimming due to recent weather.   ‘'

My daughter didn’t break down, which I was proud of her for.   We trudged on, stopping to look at another waterfall people were jumping off of.   We stopped and got Hawaiian shaved ice and then made it to the black sand beach, which I want to write a post on tomorrow as I’m about to fall asleep as I write this and the black sand beach was really something.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted his iPad, which we brought along in the car for the long day trip to Hana.  He was interested in the scenery around the car and actively participated in the conversations, although he was on the hunt for his iPad when there was a lull several times.   I asked him what he was doing once and he said, “I’m smelling for my iPad” and tried to looked innocent.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My favorite saying of the trip so far comes from my husband, several days ago.   My daughter is falling asleep early due to the time change and has missed lots of dinners.   She catches up at breakfast with a big meal, but we’d like her to eat dinner if she could wake up.   We’ve tried several things but nothing works.   My husband said he’d carry her back to the room the other night and I asked how he was planning on doing it when we had people around us we didn’t want to disturb.   He said, “she only screams when you make her walk.”   And boy was he right.   You can carry her, have her sit on your lap or just have her stand.   But if you try to make her walk to wake up, cover your ears.