Ahhh, we are back. From an 8 day, 7 night dream of a vacation to Maui. I've uploaded 510 pictures and 6 videos to my computer. Where to begin . . . .
How about I start at the beginning, with a sunrise . . . .
When the van arrives to pick you up at your hotel at 2:30 AM, that means the alarm went off at 2:00 AM, but thankfully you went to bed at 8:00 PM the night before, because your body is still on pacific time. Why, you ask, are we waking up at this insane hour? To witness the most stunning sunrise you could possibly see on the entire earth, that's why. 10,000 feet to the top of Haleakala, a dormant volcano. The night sky is crystal clear - more stars than I've ever seen in my life. You can even spot hazy patches of the Milky Way.
On the observation deck we position ourselves along the railing that separates you from the vast empty crater. We're up above the clouds.
It's about 5:20am, sunrise is at 6:07am, and we wait for the show to slowly unfold.
looking down into the crater
did I mention it's cold up there?
the first glimmer of light appearing above the clouds. Looks like the cloud is on fire.
Just beautiful! What a cool experience.
Now what should we do?
How about ride (actually, coast) a bike down 6500 feet of mountain highway, winding through switch-backs with hair-pin turns, take in the scenic (and aromatic) countryside, and end up in a beach town for a big breakfast. Sounds good to me.
I don't have a picture of the bike group, but hopefully that will be posted on their website soon.
Scott and I in the "honeymooners" pose. Just quotin' the guide. I loved that everyone thought we were on our honeymoon.
And that big breakfast I told you about. We were in the town of Paia (a hippie, surfing town) at a restaurant called Charley's. I ordered the whole wheat macadamia nut pancakes. As you can see, they are bigger than my head. Before we arrived at the restaurant our guide said he would pay $5 to anybody who could finish the whole thing (he's only seen it done 3 or so times). I was the only one who ordered the pancakes and confidently declared that I would NOT be finishing them.
Perfect sunrise, 28 miles of downhill biking, filling breakfast, and back to our hotel before 11:00 am.
more to come . . . .
