This was the first day of our actual planned activities. Thanks to the fact that we were still on Utah time, we were easily able to get up at 4am and make it to the top of Mount Haleakala to start our day WITH the sunrise.
Just as the sun was cresting on the horizon there was a worker standing RIGHT NEXT TO US that started clapping her hands and then sang a beautiful chant of a song that the Hawaiians (apparently) once sang each morning to welcome the sun and the start of the new day. It was a cool experience, seeings how Jeremiah is Native American and his ancestors once did such a thing also.
(we were still trying to figure out the GoPro and all its many abilities at this point)
After the sun was fully up a HUGE majority of the people that had come up the mountain to view it had already exited the area, whether by bicycle (there is a "tour group" that will lead you back down the mountain road on mountain bikes) or at their own free will. This made things so much easier to get around and see the view from different angles.
Boy, oh boy did those people miss out. Watching the sky and just how huge it is appear from the dark skies with the stars to this ginormous, never ending, beautiful, clear sky was worth the early morning and the patience of not rushing off to "be somewhere else".
...plus it gave us some more practice with the GoPro...
After we had spent over an hour lazily walking around at the top of the observation area (there are 2 parking lots/areas to explore), we took our time coming back DOWN the mountain too. There were a few places to pull off and see the volcano's crater from different heights and angles that made it look all that much bigger.
---SUPER SCARY MOMENT---
So we are coming back down the mountain/volcano. It is a road with multiple switchbacks and many of them are blind switchbacks (you can't see hardly at all in front of you). We are on a straighter part, in between two such switchbacks when a truck comes towards us with a "Oversized Load" sign on it. They inform us that a larger truck is coming up behind him so we needed to "Stay here until they pass and then you can continue down". So Jeremiah pulls as far over to the far right as he possibly can pull (we are on the mountain side THANKFULLY). We sit there for about 20-30 seconds when Jeremiah can spot the semi coming up the road towards us... it is a small "s" bend so the truck moves to our left then back to our right as it approaches us... but it travels too far to our right and is straddling the center line as it comes barreling towards us... I yell out, "Jeremiah!!" and he just looks at me and we both thought that was going to be the end of us. The truck (it is a SEMI trailer) slammed on its brakes and veers to the outside away from our car and all we can do is pray in our hearts that it misses Jeremiah's side of the car. I do NOT know how, but it narrowly made it back into its rightful lane just as it came to the front end of our car. After such a terrifying moment we pulled off at the next available hiking area and got out of the car for about an hour to calm down... I was nearly hysterical in tears and sobbed for a few minutes while Jeremiah did his best to comfort me.
We finished hiking around in these trees and took some cool pictures of this beautiful red bird. Finally, we snapped the picture above before getting in the car to finish our drive down the mountain.
We found this sign just beyond a rather fragile fence. Jeremiah hoped we'd see some wild boars or maybe a deer, something wild anyway.
The beautiful noise these birds were making to one another helped relax me and calm my nerves. I asked Jeremiah to please say a prayer- not just for making sure we were safe from our encounter but also to help keep us safe from other potential harm that could come into our path.
After leaving the mountain we didn't actually have a definite plan, just a few options... we took the road less traveled haha.... If I knew how to draw a map and show you the actual roads we drove on this entire trip I would, but you'll just have to look on your own. We drove along the NORTH coastline of the smaller portion of the island (little did we know we weren't suppose to take the rental on this narrow winding road)
It was along this road that we pulled off and witnessed MY first whale breaching out of the ocean. It started with Jeremiah spotting the blowhole spray that he knew to look for. Then we say a few whale tales, which I though was pretty amazing... BUT THEN out of the water came a whole whale and out of my mouth came the most childish little scream of excitement that Jeremiah laughed out loud at me. I wished so bad that the kids were there to see it, but it was also a great thing to get to experience with my hubby.
We sat up on a ledge and watched the ocean/whales playing for a little while then drove on to the first planned stop for the day.
Nakalele Blowhole
At the blowhole there is this heart shaped cutout in the rock where the water splashes up and sprays...
It is a steep, short hike down into the blowhole so naturally by the time you get there you are probably hoping to get at least a little wet, but obviously there are some IDIOTS in life that need to have clear, set boundaries even around such a potentially dangerous water hazard...
There weren't that many people around the actual blowhole its self but there were several groups of tourists observing it from above. Jeremiah and I made it safely to the bottom by the actual blowhole and then after taking our pictures we started back up the mountain... at which point Jeremiah said something to the extent of, "Hey, I'll race you to the top. You go and I'll still catch you and beat you."
Roy Crossfit!
After our little workout and exploration at the blowhole we decided it was time to find somewhere to eat LUNCH. We had snacks and water with us in the car but by now it was well after noon and we were looking for a nice place to eat. We drove on down the coast (on the west side/sorta south side now) of the the little portion of the island to Lahaina.
We went ahead and walked on down the beach and we were enjoying the view... of DOLPHINS that were playing around the point of these rocks, known as BLACK ROCK. There were at least 10 if not more... oh if Kaiya could have seen them... and then out of nowhere there was a whale that just came out of the waters and turned a full breach, with the dolphins playing right there close beside it... what a wonderful WONDERFUL evening (and day) it was shaping out to be.
Since the afternoon was turning into evening we headed back to the car and drove a few more miles south to see Banyon Court. The Banyon Tree covers a nice big block... not quite as big as a "block" at home or a "block" like Jeremiah use to run, but still it is a pretty amazing tree.
In two of the corners of the block are the remnants of a fort that once stood on this block.
After walking up and down the street here, looking in as many shops as we could the sun began to set on this adventure filled day. We called the kids and said prayer over the phone with them. After saying good night, Jeremiah and I found a Shaved Ice with Ice Cream shop he had seen/heard about from YouTube.
This was the first of 4 visits we made to this yummy establishment. We learned that there was one over by us in Kihei which was where we went the other 3 times. We finished our treats. Finished our shopping and headed back to the condo. That bed was a very welcoming sight. I showered and fell asleep as my head rested on the pillow. That was a Great DAY!
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