Friday, December 9, 2011

I DID it!! I drove the entire Hana Highway! By the time we got  back to the condo I racked up 180 miles today. whew!  We left by about 7:30 a.m. and filled up the gas tank (at $4.39/gal no less). We packed a picnic lunch and noted how light the traffic was this morning.  Always a good thing when driving a typical tourist route.
We brought along our Maui Revealed book to use as our guide and also a CD we found in our condo to act as an audio guide along the way.  Both were very helpful in finding all the waterfalls and parks we wanted to stop and see.  Some included a hike of at least 1/4 mile and with Kylie we felt those might be more than we wanted to accomplish and still make it as far along our journey as we intended.  From the time we began the trek along the Hana Highway we could see occasional dark clouds.  The first one produced a few light showers and stopped by the time we got to Hookipa beach and we parked to see the surfers on the north shore catching some decent waves.  While watching we saw a rainbow grow across the ocean.  I ran to the car for the camera and it began to dissipate just as quickly as it appeared. Meanwhile, Kylie met a little girl about her age who came walking off the beach.  Her surfer dad was standing nearby and Kylie and the little girl talked about Monster High and what they were wanting for Christmas.

We proceeded down the Hana Highway with it's over 600 very sharp curves and more than 50 one lane bridges.  Some of Kylie's requests on this trip were to see a black sand beach and some waterfall.  Many of our stops during the day were at locations that we did not stop at on our first adventure down to Hana.  The highlight was going beyond Hana and  seeing the Oheo Falls or Seven Pools as it is also known. It was a very treacherous drive and made me quite nervous.  Oh but maybe it ranks right up there with the Black Sand Beach in Hana too.  We had our picnic on the black sand beach and played with the sand and surf which was way to rough for swimming.  As a dark cloud loomed over the beach we began to gather our belongings when the winds picked up and the skies burst down on us and we ran for cover. With our towels over our heads we stopped under some thick trees and waited out the cloud.  We huddled together and giggled and talked about how this was just another "adventure" on our trip.  Then the sun came out and we were on our way again!!  Just another day in paradise!