"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

12/18/11

What I Did on My Vacation

I am sharing a few of the hundreds of pictures we took while on our trip to Maui.

The motley crew.



First thing we did upon arriving at our destination is, well, first we went to Costco and Walmart. (I'm still wondering why we went to Walmart.) to buy food and drink. Then we checked into our condo, located right on the water in the town of Kihei. Immediately after that we had to go down to the beach and put our feet in the water.

This is a view from the beach of the lawn and pool area in front of the building where our condo was located.



One of the activities we did was go on a luau. It was held at sunset. I got a nice shot of that sunset.



I didn't take any other pictures of the luau. Too busy eating, drinking, and watching the hula dancers I guess. It was very good food and very good hula dancing.

The day after the luau, we took a drive around the eastern part of the island. We started from the upper part of highway 37 and drove around the whole loop that went south, east, north, and back. The first part was on the drier side of the island. As we went further south it got drier and drier. I even saw cactus in some areas.

This is how the beach looks on most of the southwest end of the island. Very rocky. It was also very windy. Almost blew me off my feet. The beach was mostly rocky. Where there was sand it was black or gray.



This is what the area furthest south looks like. Nothing growing but scrub grass and a few low bushes.



We drove east along the coast and gradually got into the wetter half of the island. Wow! What a difference just a few miles made. We saw waterfalls and miles of thick vegetation.

We stopped  in the Hana area and hiked into the Seven Sacred Pools of Oheo. It was pretty crowded with tourists, but very pretty.



The difference in climate between this side of the island and the western side is very striking, as you can see.  Along the highway we drove through forests of these African Tulip Trees. They are quite tall, and the flowers all bloom in the tops. I read that these are not native to Hawaii. They are a landscape tree that 'got away'. This particular picture is taken above them, looking down into a deep gully.



We stopped at one little roadside park along the drive where we found this leaf lying on the ground from a banana tree.


What I really love are all the 'houseplants' that grow wild there. I used to have one of these Monstera Deliciosa Philodendron growing in a pot in my house. It never got this big, that's for sure! It's a good 50 feet tall and the leaves are HUGE.


The next day we went on a sailing cruise to the island of Lanai to go snorkeling and be fed wonderful Hawaiian food (except for the Poi. Ick! Poi! Like eating slimy cardboard sludge. It desperately needed something for flavor-like garlic. Lots and lots of garlic!).

The snorkeling was AWESOME. The tour guide showed us how to properly put on our gear. Finally! I can put swim fins on without making a complete fool of myself. They also made us wear these floating belts (they use them in water skiing on the mainland.) which was wonderful. I could float on the water without worrying about sinking. I took my own personal snorkel and mask with me. I have one that is prescription, like my glasses, so I can actually see the fish when I'm wearing it. For the first time, with the belt and everything on correctly, I was able to snorkel continuously for over an hour. The fish were amazing! Every color you could imagine! Here are just a few pictures of what we saw.

I should mention that the night before we left on our trip, my daughter and I gave Sweet Hubby his Christmas present early. We got him a waterproof digital camera. He's always wanted one for just these kind of occasions. These pictures were taken on his new camera.

This is some coral growing on the reef with a sea urchin. This urchin was quite large. About 8 inches in diameter.



This is a huge school of  Convict Tangs with a Yellow Tang joining in who were nibbling on the coral. I don't know if they were eating the coral itself, or just the algae growing on the coral. The water was pretty deep, so it was hard to get a really good picture of them. There were well over 100 of them. It was fascinating to watch them.



This is a Moorish Idol fish nibbling on the coral. It's so pretty!



Another Yellow Tang and a yellow Trumpet Fish. Yellow Tangs are my absolute favorite saltwater tropical fish. They are so cute. I followed a small school of them for several minutes watching them eat and play.



On Wednesday, the guys went deep water fishing. They caught a few small fish, but nothing large. (We ate them for breakfast the next morning.) While the guys were gone we girls slept in, then went out to lunch at a very very nice restaurant in one of the big resorts. The food was excellent. After the guys got back we just relaxed, played on the beach, went swimming in the pool, and whatnot. I spent some time knitting out on the lawn with that gorgeous view in front of the condo.

On Thursday Doug went on a 60 mile bike ride around the west end loop of Maui. He rented a bike. I drove him to a Park and Ride a few miles from the condo where he started, and I agreed to pick him up there in a few hours. Then Ruth and I went looking for yarn shops. There were 2 listed on the internet. One of them was actually in the phone book too. Both were located in Lahaina, which was about a 40 minute drive from where I left Doug.

Unfortunately, both yarn shops were gone, long out of business. We're talking 2 years. It was very disappointing. We did a little bit of shopping in downtown Lahaina where I bought myself this beautiful hand made knitting bag made by a local artisan.


I also found a bead store just a few miles from the condo in Kihei. It was a wonderful little shop. The owner was very sweet. She makes lamp work beads, so I bought some, along with some very small pearls, some tiny faceted donut shaped beads, and she gave me the shell pendant.


When it came time to meet Doug, he didn't show. The ride took longer than he thought it would. So he called and asked me to drive toward him on the route he'd taken because he was tired. So, we headed out his way in our bright red rental Jeep. Ah, what a disaster. They don't mark the highways very well in Maui. I was following the highway through a town when it just ended in a residential area. I figured I must have missed a turn somewhere, so I turned around and headed back looking. I turned on what I thought was the right road and happily drove on, and on, into a deep valley where the road ended at a park. I was totally lost! In the meantime, because it was taking so long for me to find him, Doug had managed to ride all the way into Kihei, to the bike shop where he got the bike. He was trying to call me, but that deep valley was totally out of cell service.

Meanwhile. I turned around and headed back to the little town. Eventually I found the highway and was going the right direction-not knowing that I was not going to find Doug cuz he was already back at the condo (Sue drove down and got him from the bike shop.) Finally, we got back into cell service about half an hour down the east side of the island. Doug finally was able to get a hold of me. I was not happy about finding out I'd completely missed him. I turned around and drove back to the condo. All in all, I drove 2 hours for nuthin'. But Ruth and I did have a very scenic adventure.

On our last full day, we took a drive up Haleakala mountain in Haleakala National Park. It was a beautiful drive, until we got about halfway up the mountain. Then it got foggy. By the time we got to the top it was so foggy we couldn't even see the caldera or the view from the mountain. We did see these though.

This is something you'll NEVER see in Idaho. A Poinsettia tree, 5 feet tall, growing in someones yard. They were all over the place. Some of them were as much as 8 to 10 feet tall! And so beautiful covered in their bright red blooms. Yes, this is the same plant we buy every Christmas season in little pots and chuck into the trash when the holidays are over. I'd heard they grow big in their natural habitat. But you know how it is, you don't believe until you see.



These are called Silver Sword.



They only grow on Mount Haleakala. Nowhere else in the world. Very intriguing plants. I felt the leaves and they were a lot softer than I was expecting.

On our way back down the mountain we had to stop and wait for these Nene, Hawaiian geese, who were strolling across the road.



This is the end of my vacation pictures that I'm sharing on the blog. Between me and Sweet Hubby, we took almost 800 of them, so it was hard to choose which ones to share. These are my favorites of the highlights of our trip. I hope you have enjoyed them.

Live long and prosper. \\//






2 comments:

  1. Looks like a beautiful trip. I can't believe how big that banana leaf is!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hawaii is also known for its active volcanoes. We made sure we visited Volcanoes National Park on our Hawaii getaway last year. By the way, those are excellent underwater photographs you got there. A waterproof digital camera is a big plus when visiting Hawaii.

    ReplyDelete