Aloha, two!!

Good morning again, from Maui! It's been as wonderful the past couple of days here as the first ones and other than the miserable morning at Haleakala, it's been great weather. This morning there are some clouds outside, but it's still warm and Rick is actually sitting on the lanai in his shorts on a telephone conference for work - it's about 7:30 a.m. here.

To update you, we did make it back to Haleakala for sunset on Tuesday and it was a WAY better experience! It did get cold there, especially after the sun went down, but was beautiful. We arrived and looked around...amazed at what we could see in the daylight as we had NO clue what was there the day before, so this was spectacular. To see the crater was incredible...it is something else. It would have been great to see it with the sunrise, but that's okay, we got the sunset at least! It's like you are on top of the world as the clouds are all below and you can't see much of the land. As the sunset, we could see more of the distant islands, the higher elevations, but we did eventually see some city lights from below as the clouds broke a bit more after sunset. If you know me, I was cold, freezing, by the time we left and it took quite a while for my hands to thaw out, but of course, while photographing, I would not give in to the cold - can't miss any photo opportunity just because I can't feel my fingers! :-)

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove to Hana...and survived the drive! It was a bit hazy in the morning, so the "view" shots were not worth it and besides we would have been shooting directly into the sun and that just doesn't work. We traveled on to the many waterfalls and found some nice ones, but the water flow is lower, so nothing that was WOW! We thought that the Oregon waterfalls were just as good or better (and even heard others mention that). The road...they say it has 600 turns/curves and Rick says it must be 6000...each way! It's REALLY curvy and extremely narrow with many spots just one lane. Thankfully, everyone was courteous and took turns in those spots, so we didn't have any troubles. Our two favorite spots were the black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa - it truly is black sand, pretty amazing! After exploring that area, we ate lunch there before heading on to the next stop (well, a waterfall or two was in between!), Ohe'o Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools). That was a pretty amazing place and quite beautiful. TONS of people, many in the water and a few jumping off the rocks into it. A bit of dexterity was required in navigating the rocks to get to the other side and Rick slipped at one point...so his left foot was "blessed" in the pools!! Our trip back from the pools took 2 1/2 hours to our condo...and just 60 miles to Kahului and about 20 min. from there to our unit...so that gives you an idea how slow the driving is. On the way back, we saw one vehicle that had gone over the side and thankfully, the trees had stopped the fall...it appeared as though the couples in the vehicle were okay and police were there...but wow, that had to have been EXTREMELY scary!! It certainly makes you drive even safer after seeing something like that.

Two full days left...and really nothing planned other than relaxing and beach walks. We've talked about a whale watching boat, but we're not sure. We've seen tons of them from here and a nearby look out. The other day we actually saw one TOTALLY out of the water, but of course, neither of us had our cameras ready, although I did capture the splash, which was big. There appeared to be a mom and a couple calves...and the babies came out a lot , but mom just slightly surfaced most of the time.

We'll sign off and send this with some more photos. This will be the last post from here, future one will have to wait till we're on the "mainland!" Hope you are all doing well and not having too bad of weather...we're trying to send some sunshine your way, not sure if we'll be successful!!
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