June 9

Well today, we did get up at three. We needed to leave the apartment by 3:20 in order to be at our designated location by four and we wanted a little wiggle room. We arrived at about five till four, followed a large passenger van in, and got out and signed lots of forms. The gentleman in charge he gave us fleece jackets and gloves to wear because where we were going was going to be cold. Some friends did this when they were in Hawaii so we opted to do it as well. We took a van along with eight other people up to the Haleakala  crater and stopped right outside the the state park entrance.   This was called the “sunrise tour” even though, because of where we were specifically located, we did not get to see the sun actually rise on the horizon. But once the sun popped up and shines upon the landscape our guide said, “OK, you can go ahead and get started,” and we got on bikes, put on our helmets, and rode 23 miles back to where we had parked our car, all down hill.  It felt like we were flying!  We had to watch out for cow patties, yes,  cow patties as we were in a field of cows, or rather the field shared the area where the road was.  We had to watch out for various birds and rocks and other things that could be on the road.  I led the way and Andrew followed closely behind! He lost a chain at one point but figured out how to get it back on. There were several turns that we had to make sure that we turned correctly, and there were several areas that we had to pedal, and the bikes only had one gear! And my seat was slightly low so I felt like I was five. I might have taken out a bird, as Andrew said he saw a bird hit my bike and feathers and the bird flew away from the bike.  I was so intent on watching that I didn’t fall or veer into cars or ditches that I actually passed where we were supposed to stop. I landed up about half a mile further down the road.  Andrew, of course, came to save the day. He drove the bike back and I drove the car. My hero! We beat the rest of the group back to the starting point, including the van driver. We’re not exactly sure why they were so far behind us.  We made it back in just a little over an hour!!  Woo hoo!

We headed back to our apartment and decided to eat at Fred’s Mexican Café, which was a restaurant that shares the same block as our apartment building. It was a really good breakfast and included a fresh banana muffin, with banana butter. Quite tasty actually. 

We decided to go swimming in the ocean for a bit, so slathered on the sunblock, and waded in. We had to wear our shoes, as the sand is actually really rocky. We sort of hit a drop off, and then got into a little bit of a good zone to swim and float. We got into a conversation with a family from Virginia, who, ironically, was a 6th grade social studies teacher. Go figure.  While we were chatting we noticed a dog float by.  It was riding on the back of a snorkeler!  And then we saw another dog float by on the back of another snorkeler!  

Every morning, Andrew‘s brother Tom sends a “good morning everybody“ text. Andrew‘s niece Elizabeth replied it was 80° in Maui. Andrew and I looked at each other and thought, there’s no way that she’s in Maui too. But she was! So we texted back-and-forth. They are with friends  and they were going to do the Road to Hanna today and that is up all day adventure. We decided to take another driving tour on the north shore, which was described as the Road to Hana on steroids and no guard rails. Boy, they weren’t kidding!  Literally, at points the road was single lane and winding and did I mention narrow? Large vehicles would come barreling down from the other direction and we did squeak by each other. Or back up or get CLOSE to the rocky cliffs, or whatever it took for us both to move on. It was stressful to say the least. But the views were amazing. Floral, and fauna, and ocean, and trees, and beautiful.

Part of this journey was the Nakalele Blowhole.  Yes, it is forceful explosion of sea water like a geyser.  See water is trapped in an underground lava tube and needs to escape so it pushes it out of this hole. They were many warning signs that it could be quite dangerous when it erupts, which is dependent on the tides and wind, etc.. There have been instances where people have been sucked back down the hole and out to sea because it’s hat powerful.  It did not erupt while we were there.

Since we were driving by, we decided to check on the turtles that we had seen on the beach yesterday. There were more than 50 there today. It is such an amazing sight. While we were there, a young wildlife worker try to help a turtle that was sort of wedged between several rocks.  They really are sort of at the mercy of the waves, and the waves were pretty strong today. When the waves came in he sort of helped jostle the turtle loose so that he could go back out again. It’s just so amazing that there’s that many on the shore. According to our bicycle guide this morning, there are eggs actually buried in the sand there. They have about 30 more days until they hatch, and then the wildlife workers help make sure they make it back to the ocean. That would be fun to see.

We decided to grab a bite first before we went looking for more turtle beaches, and ate at a restaurant called Rock and Brew. There was lots of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia all over the place, and the fish and chips that we shared was excellent.

After our quick supper, we were driving to two different beaches that have been noted to have turtle sightings. While we were driving, we noticed two people walking up a hill toward a hotel. And, you’ll never believe it, but it was Elizabeth and Greg!! They had gotten back from the Road to Hana, and were taking a quick walk before going out to dinner with their traveling ecompanions! Such a small, small world!  We did get a selfie to prove we’d seen each other!  We are leaving tomorrow; they had just got here and were staying until Thursday.

We did get to the beaches that were suggested for sighting turtles, and there was not a single turtle anywhere to be found. The first beach was really busy ether lots of young people.  They were surfing and playing volleyball and having lots of fun.  The second beach was a lot less crowded and had more families and older people sitting and enjoying the setting sun.  We decided to go back and watch the sun set from “our” beach near our apartment.  While we were driving back to our apartment, Andrew made the comment that there was a cat driving a motorcycle with a dog. I looked closer and sure enough, the person driving had a helmet with cat ears. I thought there was a person sitting on the back with a long ponytail, but it really was a dog! A dog wearing goggles. It look like he was having fun.

We made it with a few minutes to spare to see the sun set, and it was gorgeous.  Most of our sunsets have set into cloud banks; this one sank beautifully into the horizon of ocean blue. 

We decided to swim in the pool instead so headed home.  The pool was a icy way to end our evening as  we take off tomorrow.