the road to hana

We set out pretty early yesterday morning, around 6:15, hoping to beat some of the crowds on the road to Hana. First tip: That doesn't work. If you're planning to drive this road, you should resign yourself to crowds. Everywhere. All the time. For an entire day. Ignore the fact that most of these pictures don't show non-Fort people. Those people are legion.

The first real stop we made was at the Garden of Eden, a privately owned botanical garden near Haiku. I have to say, this was the highlight of the day for me. It wasn't too hot, there was plenty of shade, and unlike everywhere else along the road, it wasn't crowded (this is probably because there's an admission charge). We spent plenty of time wandering along beautifully maintained paths, checking out waterfall overlooks, and admiring the native flora and fauna. Liam and Max even tried coconut water served out of fresh coconuts, which it turns out they didn't enjoy (I tried it, and frankly, warm coconut water isn't my thing either). They did, however, really enjoy being able to throw their "cups" into the jungle (at the direction of the owners) when they were done.

Once we left the Garden of Eden and got back on the road to Hana, the morning became kind of a blur of narrow curving roads, jungle pressing in on both sides, and waterfalls every so often. The view finally opened up around Ke'anae, a town just shy of halfway to Hana. We stopped at a roadside park with amazing lava rock coastline and explored for a little bit, and also stopped at Aunty Sandy's, a roadside stand with legendary banana bread and locally made ice cream (we got Kona mud pie, and it was delicious).

I didn't take any pictures of the road itself, probably because it was so disorienting. We kind of lost all sense of direction with the switchbacks and thick vegetation. There were plenty of waterfalls just alongside the road, and we did stop to take pictures of some of them.

The boys really wanted to swim in a waterfall pool; it was all they talked about all morning. They finally got their wish when we got to Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park. And even though the air temperature was about 90, they discovered that the water in the pool was COLD. So cold that it took them a good 10 minutes to even get the courage to venture more than knee deep. Henry lost one of his water shoes in the current, and they couldn't recover it, so he spent the rest of the day barefoot. Luckily for him, Liam came to his rescue with a piggyback ride back up the stone path.

The other item on the boys' wish list for today was to swim at a black sand beach. This we accomplished at Wai'anapanapa Park. The park also has a blowhole, which Mike got to check out up close. This area was extremely crowded, and the waves were really rough, so we made the boys get out much sooner than they wanted to. They were pretty upset about it, but their feathers settled a little after we stopped at another, calmer black sand beach once we got to Hana.

And this, friends, is where the day went sideways. It was after noon by the time we got to Hana, and we went in search of food, but everything we tried had some kind of disaster attached to it. One place had an entry so steep that we scraped the undercarriage of the minivan trying to get in. The next place was inexplicably closed. You get the picture. So we drove on past Hana, thinking we could just circumnavigate the island and get back to Kihei via less crowded and hopefully less curvy roads. We stopped at the visitor center for the ocean section of Haleakala National Park, and Mike talked to a ranger, only to find out that the roads we wanted to take would be dangerous to drive on, and wouldn't even take us where we wanted to go. Whoops.

So we set off back to Hana, along terrifyingly sharply curved roads with blind one-lane bridges. I was driving for this part of the trip (Mike needed a break, y'all) and can attest that it was extremely stressful. We got back to Hana around 2:00 and found a pod of food trucks that was accessible. Most of them were closed, but there was one called Eye Lava Tacos that looked promising, so we ordered a selection of tacos and burritos and sat down to wait. We'll get some food and things will look better, we thought. And the universe laughed, and the taco truck ran out of propane. They refunded our money, and we retreated to the minivan, tired, hungry, and all around discouraged.

At this point, I was also thinking ahead to the next day, when we planned to take the ferry to Lanai and spend the day exploring. I had made ferry reservations and rented a jeep to drive around the island, and we planned to spend the whole day there. A quick poll, however, showed that we were unanimous in wanting to cancel. Henry's throat was still hurting, and as Liam put it, we were all just burned out. So while we had service, I called the rental places and canceled all the reservations. We all felt pretty relieved about that, so it was the right call for sure.

The trip back to civilization was accomplished with as few stops as possible, but we still didn't make it back to our condo until around 6:00. Overall, we're glad we went because it's one of those things you're "supposed" to see if you're on Maui, but we definitely wouldn't do it again. It took up the entire day, pre-dawn to sunset, and we were completely wiped out and overwhelmed by it all. Our best advice if you decide you want to go is to start early, bring plenty of food, and turn around as soon as you get to Hana instead of going on to the national park (I can't believe I just said that, but I stand by it). If you can, take two days. And get ready to make several thousand new friends along the way.

hawaii has sunsets too!

All through the day while we were at Haleakala, Henry kept making it known in not-so-subtle ways that he would very much like to go to the beach now please. And while we understood, come on! It was our first day here, and we had stuff to do. Plus he started feeling crappy too (all three of the boys are in various stages of having colds, which sucks for vacation purposes but could be a lot worse). Long story short, we ended up spending most of the afternoon hours resting in the condo.

BUT around 4:30 we ventured out in search of food. We found this pod of food trucks, where we ordered obscenely expensive burgers (Mike and Liam) and tacos (me and Max) and fries (Henry). We ate outside at picnic tables with some chickens for company. The food was really good, just what we needed.

Bellies full, we went back to the car and drove to Wailea, a town a little south of where we're staying, because Mike read that the sunsets are good there. We got to park close to the beach, and there weren't many people out, so it was perfect. The boys frolicked in the waves while Mike and I admired the view of Molokini and some other island in the distance. I think this sunset would have been pretty impressive on any other day; it just sort of paled in comparison to the sunrise at Haleakala. That's it, we're spoiled now.

We've read that there isn't a lot of good shelling in Hawaii because the Pacific churns and crashes so much, but Henry found a perfect cowry shell that was unoccupied, so we were all pretty excited. He's set the bar high; I'm not sure any of us can match that feat.

Other sights from the day: flowers in the condo building courtyard, a cattle egret by the side of the road, plus a peacock in a parking lot, because why not.

haleakala national park

 

Before yesterday morning, I could not have predicted that there could exist a sunrise so extraordinary that it would make my 15-year-old spontaneously hug me. But friends, that's exactly what happened. And honestly, even if nothing else on this trip goes our way, that one perfect moment will have been enough for me.

We took advantage of our jet lag and left the condo at about 3:00 yesterday morning for the long and winding drive up the switchbacks of the volcano in the dark. We went from just above sea level to over 10,000 feet in elevation. We also went from 80 degrees to around 55 degrees with a cutting wind. And we got to the summit with a couple hundred of our newest friends, and we thought, oh crap, there are a lot of clouds up here, it might be a bust. (Not to worry, in a move that is 100% on brand for me, I made reservations for two days in a row so we would have a backup day in case it sucked the first day.)

But once first light came through, all those clouds turned ethereal. We were surrounded by pinks and reds and oranges. Sunrises are maybe the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience, and this one was exquisite. Pictures definitely don't do it justice.

Pretty soon, though, even though we were wearing our Indiana fall clothes, it got to be too cold for Henry and especially for Max (who even allowed me to hug him to help him warm up), so they went back to the car. Mike lasted a little bit longer, but eventually he said he couldn't feel his fingertips anymore, so he joined them. Liam seemed unaffected by the cold, though, and did a FaceTime with his friends back at school (they were on lunch break) to show the sunrise to them. I did the same, FaceTiming my parents and Jack so they could share the moment with us. What an age we live in!

It seemed like after the sunrise, everyone headed back down and left the park right away, so it kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves, which is just the way we like it. We explored a scenic area with incredible views of cinder cones, and Henry and Liam had fun climbing the rocks. Max was still too cold, so he only came out for a little bit before he headed back to the car.

We also tried to do that thing where it looks like you're jumping up in the clouds, but it didn't quite work out as planned.

Our last stop was the Hosmer Grove Trail, which the park service said was half a mile but definitely was longer than that. (Damn you, park service, you tricked us AGAIN!) By this time, Max really wasn't feeling well (a combination of a cold and I think maybe altitude sickness) and he opted to stay in the car, so Mike and I headed off with Liam and Henry. We walked through groves of eucalyptus trees (which are not native) and some pines and other trees that Mike can tell you more about because that's more his arena than mine. BUT eventually we got to an overlook, and we found the birds. Hawaiian birds! We saw three different species of honeycreepers, and there were a bunch of each, and they were happy and jumping around but we managed to get a few good pictures. We were pretty worried about Max, though, so we didn't stay too long before we made our way back to the car. He's okay, but they all three slept the whole way back to Kihei, and then took a siesta on top of that once we got back to the condo.

iiwi (scarlet honeycreeper)

apapane

Hawaii amakihi

Liam's review of the morning: "10 out of 10, would definitely Haleakala again!"

aloha!

Friends, it's real early in the morning. 1:37 Hawaii Standard Time, to be precise. I'm wide awake long before I need to be, but I guess that's how jet lag works. But let me back up...

We got up way too early yesterday to get to Midway and get checked in and get settled. It was so early that we didn't bother buying any breakfast, which turned out not to be such a great idea. The first leg of our flight got us to Oakland around 9 local time (I have no idea what time zone that was) and we had about 90 minutes before our next flight departed. When the Oakland flight landed, I got a very bad headache, so we went in search of coffee, food, and water thinking they would help. Half a breakfast burrito and two sips of coffee later, and I learned that those things, in fact, did NOT help. Not gonna lie; by the time we boarded our second flight, I was a mess. I was sweating and shaking and 90% sure I was going to throw up ... or worse. I had taken some ibuprofen and some sinus medicine during the layover, so once we boarded the second flight, I made myself go to sleep for a few hours, then I woke up and drank a coke and ate some wheat thins and felt much better. Liam was my seatmate for all of this, and he was a total champ at keeping Mike updated (Mike, Henry, and Max were seated together, but far away from where Liam and I were) and making sure I was ok.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I started feeling better just in time for us to catch our first glimpse of MAUI! That's right, we made it to Hawaii! I always thought of this as a dream destination but so far out of reach that I would never get here, but we saved our points, got creative, and here we are. And the best part isn't even that I'm here. The best part (so far) was seeing how excited Liam got when we were finally approaching and he got his first glimpses of the islands. I had been a little unsure about the boys' level of enthusiasm for me dragging them on yet another trip, so it made my heart happy to see him so excited. He had the window seat, so all these pictures are his work.

Once we landed and found the rental car place and waited for half an eternity to collect our minivan, we still had three hours before we could check in to our condo. Three. Hours. Keep in mind that by this time we had been up for ... oh, I don't know ... ever, I think. We went and got groceries, found a place to get some food, and ate in a random parking lot with a view of a volcano. Like you do. But at last it was finally 4:00 here (which our bodies interpreted as 10:00), so we checked in, got all our stuff in, took some showers, and then I went to bed, so I couldn't tell you if anything of note happened after about 7:00.

But it's fine! In 15 minutes or so (it's 2:00 a.m. now, I've been writing for a while), it will be time to wake the family so we can drive up to the summit of Haleakala for the sunrise. I love a good sunrise, and this one's supposed to be fantastic, so stay tuned. At any rate, it's a really good way to put our jet lag to use.

P.S. I've downloaded the Hawaii package for my Merlin bird ID app, and I have a laminated fold-out brochure of common birds and good birding locations. So far, we've seen a ton of common mynas, one cattle egret, and about a dozen ... chickens. Everywhere. Crossing the road even. Needless to say, they don't obey commonly accepted traffic rules.

engraved danger

You know what livens up a Tuesday morning? Having to take your kid to the fire department to get a ring cut off his finger before his circulation gets compromised.

Let me back up a little. We recently ordered Liam's class ring, and as a bonus with the order, he got a companion band with his graduation year (2022!!!) engraved on it. Now, Liam's never worn any jewelry on a regular basis. This is an important fact for the purposes of our story. He left his ring on during practice Monday after school. It was hot (87 degrees) and VERY humid.

You'll never guess what happened next.

Wait, what's that you say? You've worn a ring while exercising before? Great! Then you already know what Liam found out the (very) hard way: Your fingers can swell up when you exercise, leaving you stuck in the unforgiving clasp of a very tight ring.

After practice, we tried running his hand under cool water and using dish soap to lubricate his finger to get the ring off. No dice. We tried having him elevate it for a while. Nope. We tried wrapping dental floss around his finger and then unwinding it with the end hooked into the ring, which is apparently the internet's favorite and most successful method of ring removal. Sorry, internet, you struck out too. His finger seemed to be a normal color, so we decided to just wait and let the swelling go down overnight.

Yeah ... that didn't work out either.

This morning, we tried all the things again with the dental floss and the cool water and the soap. We even tried coating the floss in the soap. But no. His stubborn finger stayed swollen, and the ring stayed on. So then I tried to cut it off with some wire clippers. That worked out as well as you would expect, which is to say not at all. Then we got the bright idea to try cutting through the ring with a Dremel, which would have worked except that we forgot about how much friction that creates, and how metal conducts heat, and I burned his finger. That's right, Mom of the Year over here.

At this point, I decided we needed outside help. It seemed to me that the two groups that would have the most experience in ring removal would be jewelers and emergency responders. Since it was 7:30 in the morning, none of the jewelry stores in town were open, so I went with plan B. I called the non-emergency number for the fire department and asked if they could help. They said we should come downtown and ring the doorbell, and they would see what they could do. So off we went. The firefighters couldn't have been nicer, and they had a pair of bolt cutters all set up on their table in anticipation of our arrival. A couple quick snips, and Liam's finger was free, his circulation fully restored in time for his tennis match after school. Of course, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't make the boy pose for a picture to mark this momentous occasion.

Funny postscript: Liam was ONE MINUTE late to school, and I had to call in so his tardy would be marked as excused. I called, introduced myself, and told the person, "He was at the fire department getting a ring cut off." She laughed and laughed. "That's what he said, but I needed to hear it from you." Ah well. Like the old proverb says: He who keeps his fingers fully functional gets the last laugh.