Maui: Rugs, Car Sickness, and Snorkels

Next is a picture-heavy, not-very-funny post about our week in Hawaii.

First of all, this hotel.

Both of these are taken from the lobby. It's open air and huge. There are all sorts of reading nooks and plants. There are a few pools and a hammock, which is where I spent some enjoyable afternoons, reading Mary Roach's Gulp.

Notice, if you will, that I am wearing shorts. It was in the 70's the week we were in Hawaii, maybe a couple days in the low 80's. Pretty much the exact weather in Florida. Many of the people in our group asked why we were even in Hawaii. Certainly not to escape a dismal winter - more to see the area. It was cloudy and rainy about half the time we were there. We felt bad for the people in our group who planned to sunbathe all day every day. Matt and I donned our swimsuits once, to go snorkeling in chilly waters. It was almost painful for us, watching people on the beach and around the pool, stripped down to swimsuits in 75 degree sun. Desperate Minnesotans and New Yorkers, trying to soak up as much warmth as they could.

There was a funny thing about the hotel elevators. Every single one of them had these rugs in it:

Three times a day, they were changed to say "Good Morning, Good Afternoon, or Good Evening." That's right. Three times a day, the rugs were changed. It is actually someone's job to change out the rugs. And really, Carpet Relocation Specialist sounds pretty good on a resume.


On our second morning there, we got up at 3 am to watch the sunrise over the Haleakala Volcano. It was stunning.

Yup, a 2 hour drive for that. Good times. Later that day we drove to another town and took a selfie along the coast. Because we're cool like that.

That night we had a luau for the company. The picture of the dancers is mostly the backs of audience members, but you get the general idea.

During the trip, we took a day and drove the famous "Road to Hana." It's a road with hairpin turns, often narrowing down over bridges to one-way roads. It rained all morning we drove and there were several trees down in the road which backed up traffic. We didn't stop at any of the places I had written down to stop (banana bread, coconut candy, smoothies - it was all food, really).  It was a joke among those who had been to Maui to tell the newcomers that it's a great idea to throw your kids in the back of the car and take the drive. As we drove it, I could see why that would be difficult. We would've been cleaning that morning's breakfast out of the rental car.

Around the town of Hana, the sun came out and we decided to travel the rest of the road around the volcano, a road sometimes not recommended for being unpaved and difficult.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. Easily the best drive we've ever taken (and Matt having driven across the country a few times). We stopped at a state park and hiked half way through the drive. The funny thing is, I had spur of the moment decided to put on makeup that morning. I had planned to wear makeup every day of the vacation just to jazz things up. I had, of course, forgotten all about my new plan until Friday, 5 days into our 7 day trip. Anyway, I got really sweaty hiking in the rainforest and absentmindedly wiped sweat out of my eye with my shirt and got mascara all over my shirt. This is why I don't wear makeup!

I told Matt in indignation "Look, the graffiti isn't even correct!" And then as we got closer, I saw that someone had corrected it. A person after my own heart. "That makes me feel so much better," I said to Matt in relief. "It shouldn't," he replied, with a look of concern.

We keep on going and there were fewer and fewer cars. We were told that Jurassic Park was filmed on that side of Maui and it's easy to see why that location was chosen. It's a virtually untouched rainforest.  It's probably a sad sign of my generation but my first thought, when I saw the sun shining ribbons of yellow on the ocean and land, was, "This looks like a movie."

This is how crazy close the cliffs were to the road. See that curve? You have to honk your horn and slow way down in case there's a car coming the other way on the narrow road.

Really, State of Hawaii? Where, oh where, has the proper use of adverbs gone?

We stopped at this funky little general store. I got a cheap silver bangle that says "Aloha" and we ate a snack and drank pop on the porch while chatting with other patrons.

This was a local winery. It goes without saying that we popped in for some samples.

Really amazing sculptures of hula dancers. It has a great history, as evidenced by a sign, but all I could think was a chorus of a song: "If you've ever loved somebody, put your hands up..."

Finally, as an end to this long, long post of pictures, our last day in Hawaii we went snorkeling. As I said before, it was hella cold for these Floridians but we still enjoyed it. Matt suggested we hold hands while we snorkeled so we didn't get separated. We were like the Romeo and Juliet of the sea. We saw turtles and angelfish and starfish. It was like being on the set of Finding Nemo. We had some Mai Tais and food on board the ship too and met some lovely people and talked about cardiology, adoption, parenthood, sea mammals. The usual conversation topics of completely normal people. We also saw a pod (a herd? a gaggle?) of dolphins, swim-sleeping (so we were told).

Later that evening, we had the farewell dinner. It's always a little tough, trying to make small talk with a bunch of other people we don't know. You can't ask the usual name and where they live and what they do, because we're all wearing nametags with that information. But by the end of the week we'd made some friends in the group and passed an enjoyable evening. One more post in this vacation series chronicling the way home. I know you're all dying to know what it will be about but I can give you a couple teasers, including the Theory of Relativity and being heavily medicated.

If that doesn't whet your appetite, I don't know what will.