First Day in Maui

One thing I forgot to mention about yesterday was we went to Spouting Horn, a hole in the rocks by the ocean where the water spouts through. It wasn't making much of a spout that day, but it did make an impressive noise, like a very big horn.

This morning we took a short flight to Maui, about the same length as our flight to Kauai had been. Once we were here and had our rental car, we set off to explore the island, starting with trying to find a restaurant for lunch that had been recommended by the locals. We never did locate it, but we found another one that was really good. Then we drove to Iao Needle, a rock formation rising over a gorgeous valley with a stream. We took lots of photos. We also discovered a small county park with all sorts of gardens and buildings honoring the diverse ethnicities on the island, like Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and "New Englander." Then we checked into our hotel, and from our balcony we can see the ocean and the island of Molokai not even all that far away. There are several islands right by the west coast of Maui. We drove along the mountainous north coast on a very picturesque, winding road to find a lighthouse, and we saw a huge black billy goat with an enormous beard hanging out on the sand dunes. We took a walk in a park that was a total jungle, with lots of bird calls filling the air and vines hanging from the trees. Then we came back to watch the sunset over the beach and had dinner at the restaurant in our hotel that faces the beach. There was a guy playing guitar and singing traditional Hawaiian music, and then he was briefly interrupted for the "lighting ceremony," during which two guys blew conch shells and some other guys lit tiki torches, and then three girls hula danced right in front of us. I got some pictures, but they are blurry. We tried a coconut porter beer and then discovered that this hotel has a FREE business center, so I can blog for no charge, as long as I keep it under 15 minutes.

Tomorrow I will have a ukulele lesson, and then we will go whale watching.

Famous Hat