Our Weekend in Maui: Part 2.

The next morning was a bit cloudy. I didn't fall back to sleep too well after returning home from dinner. Sometimes, due to cerebral palsy, my legs can tense up and hurt a bit. It's been less of an occurrence on the Hawaiian islands, but incidents do happen from time to time that I've grown to live with. Usually, my legs will tense and my muscles will be painful into the next day. I was determined to visit new sights though, not see the inside of my hotel room. I would see plenty of hotel rooms through travel in my lifetime, and sleep on lots of cushy beds and pillows, but walking around Maui would be a rarity. Popping back two aspirin, I waited until my spasms dulled, then headed to get free breakfast.

I was quite surprised at their breakfast selection. It wasn't the dry toast and cold cereal you see at a typical hotel. Downstairs, there was an actual diner, and guests of the hotel get to pick a free breakfast meal, have fresh squeezed juice and coffee. There, Auntie and I planned an itinerary for our day. First, we decided to visit The Lavender Farm:

The Lavender Farm is on the way up the Haleakala Crater. (more on that later) The property is owned by Alii Chang. He died this year, but a husband and wife team (as well as his co-workers) have taken over running the farm and keeping his dream alive. There are guided tours, an adorable gift shop and you can walk along beautiful trails, all speckled with lavender. When I entered the gift shop, there were all kinds of organic products made purely from lavender and all natural ingredients. Soaps, necklaces, earrings,  food products and teas. After purchasing a bunch of stuff for family back at home, I walked the trails.

Everything is kept immaculate. (in fact, one of the groundskeepers kept his distance to allow me to take pictures for this entry. I didn't even ask. It was so nice and thoughful of him. Oh and he probably didn't want to be on this blog or something like that. I will give a shout out to him anyway though. Thank you. You're the one who keeps this place beautiful.)

When Aunt Lynn and I grew tired of the Lavender Farm, she told me we were going somewhere else, but she couldn't tell me where. Soon, I realized why. If she told me where we were going in advance, there was a good chance I would have chickened out. When she began to drive, Auntie announced we were going to drive up the remainder of the Haleakala Crater. The Haleakala Crater is a dormant volcano that you can drive up around 10,000 ft. She didn't tell me how high we were going either. That was also probably for the best. At first, I was nervous as she drove up the winding roads.

But soon the view became more and more enthralling that I forgot to be nervous. Except when she teased me and would announce where a new cross was placed at every accident site we came across. Thanks a lot Auntie.

There are little stations you can stop at to take breaks on the drive up. FYI, this is probably a good idea, since the air changes the higher you go. If you start at the bottom and drive straight up without stopping to adjust, you could get altitude sickness. When I felt a little woozy, we pulled over to a rest stop, and I saw this view:

The blue beyond the clouds is NOT the ocean. Just the sky. Rain was happening below us, but we were up so high that we were above the storms.

Before we left to continue our journey, I had a funny idea: it took a couple of tries with my camera, but we managed. Can you fly? We did.

There's much more, but that will have to wait until my next entry. Until next time everyone!

Our weekend in Maui: Part 1.

Well, I just returned home from a relaxing mini vacay in Maui. I wasn't sure what to expect when Auntie decided that it would be best if I saw another island to get a full Hawaiian experence. One thing I discovered was this: Every island is completely different.

On Oahu, you mostly think of Honolulu and Waikiki. Waikiki being a touristy attraction, and Honolulu being a bustling city. (and continuing to grow)

It's still beautiful, and you can find quite a bit of astounding sights if you know where to look, but you won't find open land. Maui on the other hand, has tiny little beach towns and lots of space. I didn't think it was possible, but even the pace is slower in Maui.

We packed quickly on Friday night for our morning flight to the island. Auntie because she was busy, myself because....well....I thought our flight was on Monday. (Oh ADD brain. How you've reared your ugly head again.) Luckily, Auntie had called me on Friday afternoon to let me know that she would be home late to pack that night. That became my cue to return home and furiously fold things into my back back.

We left around 8am for our 9:30am flight to Maui. Flights between islands (generally) don't take that long, and the Hawaiian Airlines planes are nothing like the major airline ones. As we were checking in, Aunt Lynn warned me that our plane was a "puddle jumper". I wished she had warned me a little earlier, since I get airsick practically on reflex and would need to take Dramamine in advance. The smaller the plane, the worse it is. We got through check in pretty quickly, and I managed to take a chewable pill before I boarded. As we got on the plane, I became a little nervous. We had to go outside the airport to board and walk on the terminak itself. As I climbed up the tiny staircase to our puddle jumper, I figured I was in for it. Our tickets were for open seating. Auntie and I ended up in the very last two seats on the plane.
Did I mention I'm also sicker if I'm not in the middle or closer to the front?
As the plane took off, I could feel every dip and jolt in my stomach and the spinning in my head.
"If I don't vomit on this flight, I think I'll be cured." I said.
By the time a flight attendant came around with drinks, I definitely needed something carbonated. As I was sipping, Aunt Lynn reassured me that our flight was almost over. I thought she was kidding, since we were only in the air for 15 minutes. Nope, soon we were flying over Maui, then landing.
"Are you cured?" Aunt Lynn joked.
"Eh." I replied. Saying anything else would have been risky.
Luckily, when I'm on the ground, it usually takes a half hour to return to form. By the time we got the rental car, I was back to normal. As we drove to the hotel, I was amazed at how different the landscape was. Some areas were hilly, some were flat. All were open, luscious and GREEN. We entered the  town of Kahului (Ka-hah-loo-ee), which was more populated, but nothing compared to Honolulu.

I was amused when we passed a Costco.

Note to my favorite Costco employee back home: Transfer here why don't cha? Come on. You know you want to. Every one's nicer out here. And you wouldn't have to drive I don't think.

We stopped briefly at Krispy Kreme donuts. I should note that people go crazy for these donouts in Hawaii. Sometimes, people are even willing to hop a plane just to go there for a box and return home. Seriously.

I thought they were good, but not worth getting on a plane for. Next stop was....the Maui Swapmeet! You didn't think that Auntie could get away with passing by a swap meet with me in the car did you?

I didn't think so.

After lunch....

We visited the biggest tree ever!

This is serously all one. giant. root.

And I STILL didn't get all of it. It goes across an entire park.

Unusual for us, but soon after visiting the tree, we became pretty tired. We went to the hotel to take just a brief nap, and ended up sleeping until it got dark. This means our window of opportunity to do any more activities was gone. Maui is unlike home OR Honolulu, Even on a Saturday, they close up shop by 9pm. The only place we could find that was open to eat dinner? Ihop. We concluded then that it would be best to continue our adventure the next day. I didn't realize then that our adventure was just getting started.

Maui

Well everyone, tomorrow morning (or I guess today) I'm off to Maui! (I think my writing spirit will return after this weekend. New things to see and do.) There isn't much wi-fi where we're going though, so I can't promise I'll be able to update y'all while I'm there. We've decided to stay at a beach side motel/non resort type place. (My first idea was staying at a cabin. My second idea was camping outside. Auntie vetoed both. I can't believe it. I mean, who WOULDN'T want to sleep outside among wild pigs and cook spam? Don't lie and say you've never had that dream. You totally have.

Anyway, fear not readers, I will return. (Oh who am I kidding? The only people who really read this blog is Hayley and  maybe immediate family. Ah well. Writing for me is fun.)

See ya later dudes.

Update

Hey everyone! I know there has been major gaps in my entries lately and that I haven't been writing as often as I used to. Truthfully, that's because there isn't much to write about. I'll be hitting the pavement and visiting more landmarks soon. I'm also going to Maui with Auntie on June 13th, so I'll be writing all about that as well.

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. :) Haven't forgotten y'all. Aloha!