2005 Hawaii Trip...



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Travel day. And quite a long one at that. We left home around 1030 and flew out of Atlanta around 1445 after a bit of a delay due to a cargo weight computer malfunctioning. We did not find out until we got to the airport that we actually had a 2 hour layover in San Fran (we were told it was a nonstop flight when we booked it and our tickets said nothing at all about a stop). It’s not that I mind layovers, I just don’t like surprise layovers. In any case, the first leg of the flight was unexciting. We watched Fantastic Four and got a couple of small snacks. We got to San Fran and sat around for a couple of hours before re-boarding and departing at 1810(lt). We were probably about an hour into Batman Begins on the second leg of the flight when one of the flight attendants came on the speaker to ask rather urgently whether there were any doctors aboard and, if so, to please hurry to the front cabin. A few minutes later, she came back on to ask for any IV nurses on board. And a while after that, another announcement for anyone who might happen to have some prescription drug in their carry-on luggage. Once we landed in Honolulu, the paramedics were waiting to come on board and take two passengers off. It was pretty interesting. You see movies where they ask if there are any doctors in the house and you think, when does anyone ever say that? Well, it turns out that it actually does happen. There were a couple men that rushed forward from our seating area when the first announcement was made. I’m not sure what kind of doctors they were. I thought it was a shame that the couple seated in front of us on the first leg had gotten off in San Fran because I had heard him talking about getting paged by the ER and they were supposed to be calling his backup doctor. Anyhow, by the time we got off the plane, it was close to 2100(lt). The airport was unusual because it was all open air corridors, not a closed building. And it wasn’t like you see on TV at all – I didn’t see a single young Hawaiian girl giving out leis and alohas. We got our baggage and got the shuttle to our hotel and immediately went to bed at about 2130.



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The wake up call came at 0300 this morning, which was just painful. We got up, got showered, and were out in the lobby waiting for the shuttle by 0400. We were good and early for our flight so we had plenty of time to both be randomly selected for further security screening before getting to our gate. When we got to the gate, there were some very nice locals waiting to fly with us who gave us some advice on “must see” places around the islands. When we boarded the plane, it was still dark. We got to see the sunrise from the plane while flying over the islands. It was something to see. It took us about 30 minutes to get from Oahu to Maui. We landed, got our rental car, and started our journey. We decided to take it easy today and just drive the Road to Hana after a good breakfast at IHOP. The whole loop around the east side of the island was about 130 miles and took us 12 hours to drive. We got started around 0830. The scenery was very pretty and we took the time to stop and hike a couple of waterfalls. The first one we hiked was part of the Twin Falls area. We got all the way to the end of the trail and found that you had to walk through thigh-high water for the last 50 feet or so in order to see the falls. We gladly took off our tennis shoes and socks and began wading to the falls. It was at that point that we learned that we should do all of the rest of our hiking in water sandals. The water was nice but the little rocks were pretty rough on my poor sensitive feet. It took me a little while to get over all of the rocks but it was well worth it. There we stood, thigh deep in a clear blue pool of water 20 feet from the foot of a beautiful waterfall and I knew this was Hawaii. It was terrific. As we continued our drive, we passed by a grove of trees that looked like they had been painted with bright greens, reds, and oranges. Not sure what kind of tree they were, Randal said they looked like the Eucalyptus trees in Australia but those weren’t colorful. We’ll have to look it up later. We accidentally passed the pull-off to get out and take pics of them but we figured we’d see more down the road. We figured wrong. There were a few trees in one spot and then another mile up the road there was that grove of them and that was it. We’ll probably come back tomorrow so that we can get pics of them. Luckily, they weren’t far into the drive. The drive itself was nice and leisurely, with speed limits ranging from 10mph to 20 mph there was no need to rush. The curves were sharp, the lanes were narrow – signs said one lane bridge ahead but since the road was pretty much one lane anyhow, who could tell the difference. Luckily, it seems that most people travel the road in the same direction, heading east out of Kahalui instead of south – so there weren’t many cars passing the opposite direction but when we did meet up with one, one of us usually had to pull to the side and let the other pass. It was remarkable to see that so much of the island is just uninhabited. Miles and miles of great coastal property and not a house to overlook it. You would never see that in the mainland states. And the few houses there are out there were really nothing more than shacks. It was interesting. Also interesting was how quickly and drastically the land changed. On the north and east side of the island it was all rainforesty. On the Southeast side, all pastureland (Hawaiian language lesson: horse=lio, cow=pipi, goat=kao, duck=kaka {ain’t that the truth}). On the central south side, nothing but desert (well, desert with a coastline). We stopped for a short hike at the Oheo Gulch and at Charles Lindberg’s grave (just for you, Bob). We also stopped to take some pics of a very pretty window rock in the water on the south side. We made it back around just in time to see the sun setting as we drove around the volcano. It was a great idea to spend our first day doing a nice relaxing drive. Randal also got the chance to start using his birthday gift and has decided he’s never going anywhere without it again. I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty darned useful. We had no idea where the bike place is for tomorrow morning so we called and got an address, entered the address into the GPS, and it told us how far we were, approximately how long till we got there and then beeped before each turn. We found the place with no problems even though we had to go through some little neighborhoods to get there. And since it beeped and told us when to turn, it didn’t matter that we couldn’t even see street signs on some of the streets. After we found the bike place, we entered Wal-Mart into it just to see if it would find one. It came up with a list to pick from and then guided us there. Too cool. Anyhow, after all of that driving, we ended up in bed by about 1930.



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This morning we got up at 0245 and headed to Haleakala Bike Co. We were there by 0315 to get all geared up. After about an hour, everyone was there and we all loaded into three vans and began our ascent to the top of Haleakala volcano. We got to the top just as the colors of the sunrise started to streak across the sky. At 10,000 feet, up above the clouds, we watched the most glorious sunrise I’ve ever seen. It was brilliant. And it was made even greater by the fact that it was a full moon so the moon was setting on one side of the volcano while the sun was rising on the other side of the volcano. When the sun popped up through the clouds, it lit the fading moon back up and cast a shadow from the volcano right below the moon – it was spectacular! I have to say that it was by far the most worthwhile thing I have ever gotten up before 0300 for. Once the sun was fully risen and we had all taken plenty of pics and video, we loaded back into the van to go a few miles back down the road. We stopped along the way to see some nene (Hawaiian geese, close to a Canada goose). These geese were pretty neat because they live up on the volcano and are actually evolving to lose the webbing of their feet since they are no longer waterfowl. When we got to the staging area just shortly after the nene stop, they unloaded all of us, gave us each a bike and a map back to the shop and said “later”. It was nice that we were able to bike back down at our own pace. It was so exhilarating to go careening down a volcano on a bicycle. After just a few miles, while we were still up above the clouds, we pulled over on the side of the road to take a few pics and have a little granola bar breakfast picnic. It was just so pretty. We continued on down, speeding around hairpin curves and enjoying the quiet morning scenery. We passed by some pipi pastures and a few lio stables and had to dodge several moa crossing the road (to get to the other side). There was no peddling until we got back into town (who turned the downhill upside down?!) and even there it was only sporadic. Eventually, our nice little bike ride ended back at the shop. We turned in our equipment and stopped at a diner in the same shopping center for some breakfast. Then we got back on the Road to Hana so that we could go back to get some pics of those painted trees (we looked them up and found out that they are Painted Bark Eucalyptus trees, Randal was right). After getting plenty of pics of the very pretty painted trees, we turned back around and began our trek to the west side of the island where our hotel for the week is. The trusty GPS guided us here with no problems but it was too early to check in. It’s one of the more touristy places we stayed, right on the bay with shops and stuff all over so we walked around for a couple of hours. By the time we did check in, we were ready for a shower and bed. Ended up going to sleep around 1745.



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