Surviving the Road to H@na

So, one day while we were grabbing lunch in Maui, after a long morning sitting around on the beach..taking walks on the beach, snorkeling, enjoying the wonderful beach sand (you get the idea, right?)...we ran into a very interesting couple (in their 40s or so) carrying around a plastic toy doll about 15 inches long. And I just want to put out there, it was naked.

She holds up the baby and says to her husband "take my picture right here, so the menu is in the background". You know, like a Fl@t Stanley - that you take with you and do pictures with on a trip or whatever.

She sat near us and proceeded to laugh out loud telling us that they were doing this and sending the photos to their kids. ALL. DAY. LONG. Because they left their kids at home (they had a teenager or two and a 9 year old).

AT HOME.

At first I thought she was a genius. Seriously. A vacation without the kids.

Then I thought 'Lady - you are in SO MUCH TROUBLE when you get home'. 'Did you think this all the way thru?????'

If I thought for ONE moment, that I could escape for a week to the islands and no one would banish me from their lives, don't you think I would have already done that? 

Anyway, that has little to do with anything at all. As usual.

But I want to tell you about the Road to H@na.  It is said to be in the top 10 things to do if you are in Maui. I do agree. My sweet husband and I have done it 3 times now. Our favorite beach is at the end...and we try to get there early afternoon so the waves aren't too rough. Bear with me, I hope I don't get too long winded and over share pictures. It was a long and amazing day.

They say that there are 600 hair pin turns (I think I lost track at 7), 56 one-lane bridges, lots of waterfalls and many scenic places to pull over. Holy cow it was a day (bwahahaha...sorry, you'll understand when you get to then end...)

Yup. It's real.

Waterfall and pools - can you see the peeps down by the water?

Black Sand Beach

We made a bunch of stops. My mom wanted to make sure she saw waterfalls and that she did. Black sand beach is just that - black. Lots of rocks from lava formations, and the swimming isn't easy due to the river rock type rocks at wave break.  

We stopped for lunch at a place that sold banana bread, with local bananas we are told. When we stopped later for a snack, I got another loaf, that would come in handy later!  At the snack stop we had some kahlua pork and rice and everyone drank water straight from a coconut (um, yuck) and tried some coconut chips.  

Finally we got to H@moa Beach. It was overcast most of the day. Apparently the day before it rained so bad you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. Glad that wasn't the day we went!!

A-Dog boogie boarded almost 2 straight hours!

Twins

I know you can't really see it, but Mini P has beach sand plastered ALL OVER HER. Top to bottom. She was fearless in the water, tho with it overcast and the water a little chillier here, she didn't get in at H@moa.  However, when she did get in, she didn't care if waves took her under and muddled her with sand, she wore it proud.  We even had to leave one of her suits in Maui...in the garbage...it was so ridden with sand it was never going to recover. Even after we got her home and washed her hair 5 times, we were still picking sand off her. Of course, Monkey...well, he hated it. Really did NOT like the sand sticking to him. Barely tolerated all our excursions to the beach. Sad really. All he wanted to do was come home to Hank.

BUT, after we left the beach, we needed to decide how to go back home.  Route A: Back the way we came (600 hairpin turns). Route B: Continue on the back roads, some not maintained roads and no food, water, stops, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  What do you think we smart adults chose??? Yup. B.

SO, off we went.

It was not too bad in the beginning. It wasn't dark (yet) and we weren't hungry (yet).  We ended up seeing some really amazing waterfalls.

waterfall

driving thru the trees

1 of 4 cars we saw that night, and no, I don't think that is my parents...

So, we are cruising along this stretch of road. At one point, I am very uncomfortable because we are very close to the edge. I am not good in those situations.  My sweet husband is getting uncomfortable because the other side is a steep rocky cliff, and he doesn't like how they look - not as safe as he would have recommended. It was a bad mile.

But come around the corner and we are at a full and complete stop because there are about 400 of these (this is where holy cow comes in :) ):

This went on for a while. At least 30 minutes. Just when you think they would be gone, another few hundred were around the bend.  We rolled the windows down and literally they could have stuck their heads in. They kept moo'ing and we laughed so hard - they kids thought it was HILARIOUS! And it was. 

I have to tell you the rest of the ride really, well, sucked. I'm sorry for the language faux paux, or however you spell that.

But it was awful.

I knew sort of where we were on the map. It's not like we could get lost. But I really needed to know how much longer!  The sun went down. So far down it was pitch black. We stopped at one point and split our mini loaf of banana bread among the 8 of us, hoping to make it to dinner.

About 6:30 or 7pm or so, the kids fell asleep, thank goodness. it had been a long day and I was whiny enough.

At almost 8pm (a near 12 hour day) we finally got back into Kihei, and stopped to eat dinner. I have never considered buying one of the shirts that said "I survived the Road to H@na"...until then. I'm pretty sure we ALL agreed on that.

Cheers!