Maui Days 3-4

Day #3
Thursday, July 3rd

We woke up pretty early again to the sweet sounds of three little girls screaming about something or other. I've quickly learned their pattern:
1. I'm uncomfortable
2. Since I'm uncomfortable, I'm going to whine
3. Since no one listens when I whine, I'm going to scream/cry.
4. SUCCESS!

It works, I suppose. No one can ignore it.

Anyway, we got out a bit later than we wanted on our long trek to Hana. It turned out to be OK. I'll explain in a minute.

We drove to Kahalui which is about an hour North East of here and then jumped on the Hana Highway. We had a CD that's basically a driving tour (thanks Noah).

The first stop on the tour was "Twin Falls". We decided to pull off and see what we could see. As we walked across the bridge, I looked down and saw that there wasn't any water in the river, just rocks. That's not a good sign if you're going up the river to a waterfall... We began the hike up the trail with a positive attitude but each group that came back down discouraged us more and more. The "falls" were apparently more of a "trickle". So, before exhausting ourselves carrying Logan any farther, we turned back.

Tide pools at Ke'anae peninsula (Autumn, Anissa, & Logan). We also bought DELICIOUS Banana Bread here.

Pua'a Ka'a State Park

It turns out that the lack of rain meant that every last one of the waterfalls on the scenic drive was nothing more than a trickle at best, many of them were completely dry. One vendor brave enough to hope that someone would still stop at Wailua Falls commented that because of the lack of rain, it should actually be called "Wailua Walls" instead. I had to agree.

Wai'anapanapa Park (Black Sand Beach)-Aubrey, Noah, Rachel, Logan, & Kurt

Despite the lack of any discernible falls, we still had a ton of fun at the coast on this trip and the scenery of the drive was incredible. There wasn't much traffic and none of the popular places were very crowded. I guess the Road to Hana isn't all that popular in the Summer (lack of falls, maybe?).

We took a dip at the end of the road in the seven sacred pools (Waimoku Falls). Since the water level was so low, it was really safe to swim in the pools. Several people were jumping from the cliffs overhead. It's really safe to do since the pools are really deep. It felt really good after a long day of hiking on lava rocks at the beach, tromping through the dense, humid jungles, and just enjoying ourselves.

'Ohe'o Gulch AKA Seven Sacred PoolsI wish I could say that was the end of a very pleasant, easy going day, but it wasn't... On the way home, Logan got REALLY sick on the winding road and vomited all over himself and his clothes. Luckily it all stayed in his car seat. We pulled off as soon as we could find a turn-out. I began moping up the mess with towels, paper towels, napkins, and wipes as fast as I could. Poor little Logan just sat there saying, "Hold" and "Blankie" while reaching for me. It was heart-wrenching. Rachel helped by running around the front of the car and vomiting three times herself. Apparently a passing van full of people got a great view of the spectacle.

Again, I wish I could end this part of the journey here, but I can't. Logan went to sleep almost immediately after we had him cleaned up and changed, but he woke up crying for his blankie again and then started erupting in round two. It was dark, and we were out of ammunition this time to take care of the problem sufficiently. We did what we could, wrapped him in a towel and drove home. The poor little guy finally fell asleep again.

Needless to say, I drove REALLY slow after the first round (think, 10-15 mph around all turns) so it took us FOREVER to get home. We had left the pools at about 3:30pm. We stopped at Burger King to get something to eat because we hadn't had any dinner. It was around 9pm. After bathing Logan, we all went to bed. It was a long, long day.

Day #4
Friday, July 4th

Full morning of cleaning vomit out of clothes, towels, and car seat materials. Fun.

We ate lunch sitting outside in the shade with the ocean spreading out in front of us. It was glorious and I admit we just sat and enjoyed the peacefulness of the breeze and the palms swaying in the blue sky with the puffy clouds floating by.
After lunch, we decided to take Logan for a dip in the pool again. He did great this time! He didn't cry at all and even kept wanting "down" in the water. He blew bubbles, kicked while I held him out at arms length in the water and jumped up and down on my knees while I went around the pool. He loved the water! We're hoping he likes the Baby Beach we're taking him to tomorrow morning. It's shallow all the way out to the reef. Just right for babies. :)
That night, we at at Hula Grill, right on the beach again. The chairs and tables were even in the sand! They had tiki torches lit and live, local, Hawaiian music. We ordered Big Joe's pulled pork sandwich, Hawaiian cerviche, and the fruit sampler. We also had their virgin Lava Flow and Strawberry Smoothie. It was amazing! The Lava Flow went the fastest.
Logan and I didn't want to leave but we needed to go to Noah's client's house. Bill and family were very nice to us and they had a very nice house. The fireworks in Lahaina were REALLY far away and short, but the neighborhood put on quite an extreme show. I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of middle aged guys together with too much money. I took a few shots of them and some people playing with some sparklers.