Yesterday we got up at our now customary 6am and had breakfast on the lanai with the birds (a clarification – the birds are all around singing and squawking, but don’t actually come over and bother us while we’re eating. Though they do sometimes come over and inspect the area for crumbs once we’ve gone back inside). Then it was time to get ready for our UpCountry adventure.

We had planned to hike the Sliding Sands trail at least a little bit, though we weren’t sure how far because we were feeling a little tired from our early rising (though really it’s like getting up at 9am in Portland) and snorkel exertions. We had brought along camelback water bags in case we did any hiking or biking, so we got those out and filled them with water. There is a little cooler here in the condo (the condo is well stocked with activity paraphernalia – I’m hoping to get Lis to write a post about the condo here soon) which we filled with ice, and we put some snacks in our new Snorkel Bob’s Save the Yellow Tang tote bag, along with sunscreen and hats and jackets.

Then we went to the 808 Deli to get some sandwiches. We had read some reviews on Yelp’s iPhone app, and most said that this was a really good sandwich shop, but we found it just OK. I had the Chicken Pesto Panini, but to-go and as a wrap (normally it is a hot grilled sandwich), and it was better than our Big Town Hero offerings but not a lot. Lis had a Build Your Own on a hoagie, and it was basically about the same as her Big Town Hero mostly-bread-and-air sandwich. What did live up to the reviews was the Potato Mac salad – this is a regular potato salad with macaroni mixed in, and it is super good – I really enjoyed it. Lis: sounded totally disgusting to me. I did not try it.

The young man making our sandwiches asked where we were going. When we told him, he became fairly animated – “Oh, I hope you’ve got coats. It’s really cold up there. You’re really going to need to bundle up.” We asked how cold. “Like, 60 degrees!” He said this with the air of someone saying something shocking. We told him we were from Portland, Oregon and used to cooler temperatures. Lis said, “Can we wear shorts?” He said, “Well, if you’re used to cooler temperatures you’ll probably be fine. I go up there and I FREEZE!”

We put our sandwiches in the cooler and headed out. It was a beautiful, cloudless morning, and so the drive up was very pretty. I had read that there were usually clouds at the 5000 foot mark (the summit is at 10,000 feet), but today there were no clouds and we were able to stop at observation points and take photos of grand sweeping views. The road is switchback-y but in good shape and not too scary – we were able to make good time and soon enough were at the summit (about a 2 hour drive all told from our condo in Kihei to the crater).

It was definitely much cooler here (felt fabulous to me – I don’t do heat and humidity very well and had been looking forward to cooler air) and there was lots of wind. We put on our jackets and hats and camelback water things and binoculars (I was already wearing the camera bag, which was doubling as my purse), and got our sandwiches out. The plan was to hike along the trail for awhile and then have our lunch somewhere in the crater. Then we started walking around. The views were spectacular, but we couldn’t find the trailhead.

We went in to the visitor center (dodging other tourists – there was a Carnival ship in port, and we had already been overrun by a couple tour buses at an earlier lookout point) and asked the ranger where to find the Sliding Sands trailhead. He cheerfully informed us that we were in the wrong place, and pointed to the lookout just below with all the buses. “It’s down there – didn’t you see it when you stopped?” He expressed disbelief when we told them we hadn’t stopped there, but seemed to understand when we explained we were avoiding tour buses.

Then he asked “Where are you headed?” We looked confused and said “The Sliding Sands trail.” He said he meant what point along the trail. We said we had no real ambitions – just wanted to go a little ways in to the crater. He laughed and said “Oh, you look like you’re ready for a trek.” Well, I guess we were a touch over-provisioned for a stroll…

He gave us some good advice about the hike, reminding us that we were at high altitude (which we knew but hadn’t really been thinking about), and that it would feel real easy going down and so to time ourselves – “for every ten minutes down, it will take twenty to come back.” This turned out to be excellent advice. We went a little ways along the trail but not far – just far enough to find a nice place to sit and eat and take pictures. Even with this short distance, it was surprisingly hard to drag ourselves back out (and it had been easy going in). While we were sitting we saw several hikers coming back and they all looked pretty gassed – we figured they hadn’t had the benefit of our sage ranger’s counsel. Note from Lis: One thing I really enjoyed in our less-than-ten-minute “hike” was this odd combination of cold wind and hot sun. It was almost like some strange spa treatment. One minute there would be a rush of cold air, the next a rush of hot, then the cold again. I really loved it.

We sat in the crater, and felt simultaneously cool and warm. Neither of us needed to bundle up – Lis was in shorts and a t-shirt, and I just wore a long sleeved denim shirt over my t-shirt. What I do wish I’d had, and will definitely bring next time, is ear covering of some kind, as the wind is pretty strong, and strong cool wind hurts my ears. Otherwise we were perfectly fine. Note from Lis: I was well-bundled up in my Barbados hat that Mary bought for herself on our last cruise and then generously donated to me. I LOVE that hat. I wear it for sun-protection, but it was amazingly warm in the wind. So sweet of Mary to give it to me and then suffer the cold wind. Note from Mary: It’s less sweet when you know that the hat doesn’t really fit me, and I did have a straw hat from the condo – but I’ll accept the credit all the same.

The crater was really, really awesome, in the old “inspiring of awe” sense. Fabulous shapes and colors. The guidebooks describe it as a moonscape, but it seemed more like a sand sculpture to me – all the different colors – black, grey, green, rust, tan – all swirled around in different shapes and patterns. Plus the afternoon clouds were starting to form and slowly seep in to the crater. Really cool. I highly recommend a drive up to the crater on any Maui stay.

Then it was off to the Ali`i Kula Lavender farm. It was a little off the beaten track, and the road to it was very narrow and a bit crumbly, but thankfully far enough down the mountain that there were no scary drop offs – just not much room. We drove up to the farm and got out, and were instantly met by the pervasive scent of lavender. We went to the gift shop and looked around, and then started off to walk amongst the plants in the fields. Lis had picked up a treasure hunt map – if we could find all 8 places, we would win a reward. We found the first one easily, and then started off in search of the next, and quickly realized that we were too tired for such nonsense – it was time to start back. Plus, we still wanted to boogie board – didn’t want to squander our remaining energy.

Lis suggested that we return to the health food store (I keep forgetting to get its name) in Makawao to get some more of the fabulous sugar free cake we had gotten there on Monday, and then stop in Pa’ia at Ono Gelato because they have dairy-free gelato. Well, who am I to turn down dessert? On the way the gathering clouds turned in to a pretty good rainstorm, but it passed quickly.

At Ono Gelato they had two big display cases of gelato, each containing about 9-10 gelatos. The case on the left was all dairy free – my lactose intolerant girl was very happy indeed.J We tried several samples (the girl waiting on us was very patient and sweet), and then made our decisions – I had the peach and strawberry (local strawberries from the Kula region we had just driven through). Lis had the chunky monkey (chocolate, banana, and some Hawaiian fruit whose name I forget) and sea mist (lime, lemongrass, and some other stuff). As we were sitting outside eating our gelato, a woman came by and said “So, which did you choose?” I realized that this was the owner whom I had seen earlier making some gelato in the back. We told her what we got and she chatted with us a while. We will definitely try to go back.

While we were deliberating over the gelatos, a man and woman came in. Very soon the man started staring at Lis. I wondered what there was about her appearance that was causing such an investigation – he was looking her over quite carefully. (Note from Lis: Sadly, I am used to people staring at me. Whenever we go swimming in Portland at Mt. Scott Community Center, the children in the locker room all stare at me. I figure it is my attractive UniSuit. So I vaguely noticed he was staring, but it barely even registered.) Finally he came over and said “Are you from Portland, Oregon? We’re from Eugene.” And I realized he had been studying her Portland Century shirt, probably trying to figure out if it was Oregon or Maine. He was very friendly, and his wife never even looked at us. Go figure.

After gelato we went to the condo and changed and grabbed boogie boards from the condo’s activity closet and headed to the closest beach. Neither of us have boogie boarded before – we just tried to copy what we’d seen other people do. I caught the first wave I tried, and it was an OK one, so I travelled a fair way and it was pretty fun. But all in all I think I prefer snorkeling. Boogie boarding seems to be a pretty sand-intensive experience, and I didn’t enjoy all the de-sanding that was necessary afterwards. Lis: I was not very good at boogie boarding and it hurt my shoulder which is recovering from an injury. I will say that yesterday’s boogie boarding, combined with my experience this morning that Mary will surely write about later, have cured me of my desire to learn to surf during this vacation.

My sweetie had the brilliant idea of getting takeout so that we could head back to the condo and stay there. So we went to Maui Thai and got some salad rolls and curry and pad see ew. The portions were significantly smaller than our Portland neighborhood Thai place, and even with the 15% early bird discount (we are on a good early bird special roll – haven’t missed one yet) it was 10 bucks more than we usually pay – but it was pretty good nonetheless, and we did get next day’s lunch out of it as well.

Lis: How could Mary neglect to mention the fabulous beers we had with dinner? Our first night here we bought a six-pack sampler of Maui Brewing Company (2 each of 3 flavors – okay, I know they’re not called flavors, but the only way I like my beer is fruity and flavored so I like that word.) I actually thought to put glasses in the freezer before we went to the beach, so our beverages were nice and cold. My beer was called CocoNut Porter and it was delicious. Very dark, rich, and creamy. I was told by two people at the store where we bought the beer that that The CocoNut Porter was too sweet and fruity so I knew it was the beer for me. I didn’t think it was sweet, though, and neither did Mary. Mary had Bikini Blonde Lager. That was a very pale beer and also amazingly wonderful. I am not a beer fan so I was very pleasantly surprised by both. Maybe I was just so tired that last night I was a temporary beer fan. Mary again – Lis is right; terrible omission. All the beers are super excellent – the night before I had had the Big Swell IPA, and even though I’m not an IPA fan at all, I really liked this beer as well. Highly recommend all three.

We weren’t able to make it to the Surfing Goat Dairy – Lis is thinking maybe we still will, but I’m thinking that will probably be on the next trip. Lis: L

Too tired for a full blog post – just a quickie for now.  We visited the Crater, and stopped at the Lavender farm, but didn’t make the goats.  But we did go boogie boarding, plus threw in a stop in Pa’ia for gelato.  A great day:)  We did manage to post some pics on Picasa – you can view them here.

Today we snorkeled at Kama’ole Beach Park III, or Kam 3 (Kama’ole Beach is broken in to three sections, with Kam 1 and Kam 2 further to the north). Kam 3 is across the street from our condo, so we were able to walk there. Because we were up so early (see previous post), we got there before almost anyone else – just a handful of other people were there. Which was cool, though Lis remarked that it also felt a little scary – she was glad when it became more populated as the morning progressed.

We were on the south end of Kam 3, and snorkeled between Kam 3 and the Kihei boat launch to the south. There was lots of coral here, but at first it seemed like not as many fish. But then as we got nearer to the boat launch there were more and more fish, so that when all was said and done I’d say it rivaled Maluaka beach from yesterday – except for no turtles. We did see a couple of moray eels, though (or maybe the same one two times – hard to say) which was really neat but also kinda scared me – he just sits there with his mouth open, showing his scary teeth and looking all badass – I swam quickly out of range each time.

When we were done snorkeling we hung out on the beach a little, watching some kids boogie boarding and talking with a nice (very tanned) old lady about where to see turtles. Then we headed back to the condo, talking about maybe heading right out to lunch after showering – only to discover that it was not yet 10am – a little early for lunch. So we had some snacks and hung out – I worked on my last blog entry and Lis sat on the lanai and read.

We decided to have lunch at the Four Seasons in Wailea – Lis has read a lot about it, and her dad ate there and said the view from the lunch restaurant (near the pool) is spectacular. Plus Lis wanted to check out the facilities because whenever we’re able to swing it (usually need to score pretty good deals), we like to stay at a Four Seasons.

The view was definitely amazing – we could see the beach and the snorkelers and swimmers and surf-board-paddling-ers, plus the West Maui Mountains and the island of Lanai in the background, and the clouds hadn’t moved in yet (as they’ve done every afternoon) so the sky and water were beautiful shimmering shades of blue.  There was also a guy in a flowered Hawaiian shirt wandering the beach with a metal detector, which I thought was a fun counterpoint to Four Seasons swankiness.

Lunch was good, and the waitress was wonderful to us even though we split a burger and drank only water (more out of seeing how big the burgers were than out of cheapness, though cheapness was a close second since the burgers were 20 bucks). Note from Lis:  25% tip for this waitress.

Afterwards we walked around a bit and Lis checked out the exercise room and spa. It is really a gorgeous hotel – maybe we’ll be able to finagle a stay there someday – heaven knows this is Lis’ plan. Though I have to say that I prefer the messy strip mall sprawl of Kihei to the gorgeous manicured sameness of Wailea.

After lunch we drove in to North Kihei to a farmer’s market, which sounded better on paper than it actually turned out to be, so we didn’t get anything. We were able to see some of North Kihei, though, and I must say I was unimpressed. The beaches aren’t swimmable, and the condos/hotels didn’t seem nearly as nice as in South Kihei.

After this we went to the grocery store to get some additional supplies, and stopped by Snorkel Bob’s to pick up the complimentary canvas bags that we got for our purchases and bookings yesterday but which they had been out of. Our girl Katie wasn’t there, but her replacement was just as friendly and helpful (we didn’t get her name, unfortunately) and we came away with THREE pretty good quality canvas bags, one with a sea turtle on it, one with a yellow tang, and one with a shrimp. The girl said that people from Minnesota always think the shrimp is a mosquito, which I think is a sad story (an aside: how awesome that there are hardly any bugs here!).

Back to the condo for the afternoon, then dinner at Sansei’s. We made sure that we got there in time for the early bird special – 25% off from 5:30 to 6 pm. In fact, we got there at 5, and so had some time to kill. There was a consignment shop nearby where we scored an old-lady swimsuit for Lis for 8 bucks (she had been wishing she had a second swimsuit for evening swims – with only one your suit is still wet the next morning). It has polka dots and a skirt and Lis is cute as a bug in it – I’m going to try to talk her in to letting me post a picture here or on Facebook or both.  Update:  I can’t get her to pose for a photo (at least not one I can post online), so I’ll have to settle for a pic of the suit itself – here it is. 

Dinner was good, and we were right across the street from a ball field, where we watched the practices of what I would guess as a 7^th grade football team and 7^th grade cheerleading squad. They were so young and cute. Just as we were leaving the restaurant, the sun was going down, so we stopped to watch it, and Lis is pretty sure she saw the Green Flash as the sun dropped in to the water.

After dinner we did some laundry and consulted our guidebooks to plan our day tomorrow. We are going to head to the UpCountry – start out at the Halealaka Crater and try to hit the lavender farm and the goat farm. And, if we have any energy left, attempt boogie boarding in the afternoon at Kam III. We’ll see how many of these things we actually manage…

Up again with the birds – this time Lis is up with me. It’s quite nice, sitting on the lanai in the early morning, listening to all the birds. We’re hoping to keep our early rising ways the whole trip.

Yesterday we went snorkeling at Malu’aka Beach in Wailea. It was super fantastic. The books said to go to the South end of the beach, and that if you swim out toward where the tour boats were anchored you’ll see turtles. A person we passed as we walked toward the beach also told us that the good snorkeling was to the south (or to the left as you face the ocean). So we felt well informed.

The beach was pretty, and not crowded. We put on our sun protection shirts (We are very well covered at the beach. Lis has a swim suit with legs that come down to just above the knee, and I wear my tri pants that do the same, and then we both have long sleeved sun protection shirts, and yesterday Lis bought a sun protection swim cap – we are just this side of the burkini) and snorkel gear and headed in. It didn’t take long to hit lots of coral and lots of fish. It was really great – there were tons of different varieties, large and small, all brightly colored. The coral was very pretty, too. A great site – highly recommend it (one of our guide books said it was their favorite snorkel place).

But no turtles. The guide book said to head in the direction of the tour boats, so we started to, but this took us in to deeper, murkier water with mostly sand bottom (thus no fish). We did this for a while and didn’t see anything, and were thinking about heading back to where we knew there were tons of fish. Then we saw some divers heading back to shore, and asked them if they had seen any turtles. They said “Try over there to your left” and we did and voila – turtles! It was very exciting.

We hung out with them for a while, waiting for them to surface. Then one did, swimming about 5-10 feet from us toward the surface. Just before it surfaced, I did, too, so I was able to see its adorable turtle head break the surface – they are very cute this way, and their colors are deeper seen above water. Later Lis told me that she did the same thing (see how we’re meant for each other).

Meanwhile a tour boat of divers arrived, and some snorkelers, so it started to get somewhat crowded – though it was cool to be at the surface and watch a diver with an underwater video camera swim down and film a turtle. But we decided to head back to the less popular snorkel area where the fish were.

Once there we were swimming around, looking at fish, when I saw a turtle resting on the bottom about 6 feet or so below us, just underneath a huge school of long yellowish fish. The water was pretty clear, because pretty shallow, so we had really good visibility. It was very exciting. We floated above them for a bit, watching, and then we surfaced. I said “Wow, how cool.” Lis said “Yeah!” I said “And all the fish are so awesome, too.” Lis said “What? Aren’t we looking at the fish?” I said “You don’t see that turtle directly below you?” We both put our heads back down and I pointed and I heard her say under water “Wow!!”

We stayed with him (her? Lis just told me that you can tell by the length of their tails – boys = long, girls = short – but I don’t remember now anything about the turtle’s tail) until he surfaced, then watched him from above water like before. This one, though, stayed at the surface and started swimming along, so we swam along about 6 feet behind. He went up for air three more times, then dived back down and settled himself in to the sand. The cool thing about this whole episode (besides the awesomeness of swimming with a sea turtle, of course) is that we had him to ourselves – no other snorkelers or divers noticed him.

We snorkeled for a bit longer and then decided that we were done. On the way back to the car we walked through the grounds of what used to be the Maui Prince hotel, which were very pretty. At one point we were walking under a grove of plumeria trees. At the car rental place, the woman who checked us out was wearing a plumeria flower in her hair, and it was so pretty that I asked her about it. She said that that one was fake, but that she has a tree in her yard and often wears a real one, and that they are very fragrant. I thought to myself then that I wanted to wear a plumeria in my hair at some point this trip. So here we were walking by some plumieras, with tons of fallen flowers on the ground. I picked up one that had just fallen and was in good shape – it smelled divine – and put it over my ear and felt very Hawaiian.

We were now starving, so went to the condo and showered and then went in search of food. The woman at the condo office had given us a list of local restaurants that they recommended – we picked Café O’Lei. It’s in a strip mall among a bunch of other strip malls along the Kihei main drag, and was very good. I had a turkey sandwich and Caesar salad, and Lis had mahi mahi. At a table near us were some girls with big beautiful fruity drinks with pineapple slices and umbrellas. Of course one must have fruity umbrellas drinks in Hawaii – I asked what they were. The waiter said Lava Flows – blended rum, pineapple and coconut layered with strawberry puree – a definite must-have. We decided to wait until dinner, though – any alcohol now and I would settle down for my nap right there at the table.

After lunch we went in search of a grocery store, and found a nice natural foods store in the next mall over – and also Snorkel Bob’s. I had read Snorkel Bob’s tips for saving the reef yesterday, and he seemed pretty hard core environmentally, so I thought that would be the place to get recommendations for Snorkel trips and things that wouldn’t be bad. Also, Lis wanted to get some stuff (such as the aforementioned sun protection swim cap). There was a very cute girl named Katie working there who spent all kinds of time with us, helping us find what we needed and also setting up a Molokini snorkel trip for us and making our Old Lahaina Luau reservations – she was very friendly and helpful, and I was glad that Snorkel Bob’s lived up to my expectations as a neato place.

We came back to the condo and rested for the rest of the afternoon, then set off in search of pupus for dinner. This time we went to Moose McGillicuddy’s, because Lis had read somewhere that it was good. We ordered Lava Flows and tacos off their happy hour menu, and they were good, but the service was slow and the waitress became mildly hostile when she realized that we were cheapskates ordering cheapskate things (I believe that our failure to add avocado to our tacos was the last straw). And it was a little young and loud and party-y. Plus we only got pineapple with our Lava Flows – no umbrellas. We decided we had no desire to come back, and when we got back to the room and consulted our local restaurant list, we saw that Moose McGillicuddy’s was not on it. So now we know – don’t deviate from the list.

Petty Note from Lis: It is very normal for us to go to a restaurant and share a meal or just order appetizers, and when we have not spent a lot of money I tend to tip higher – 25% or more. When we don’t order much and because of that the waitress is a bitch (dirty look after we say no to an offer of guacamole, for example) I believe I should tip lower. I had already decided that this evening’s waitress did not even deserve the normal 20% we tip when we order a full meal. I decided to tip 15%. But there was the Oregonian dilemma. Those of us from Oregon pay no sales tax, so everywhere else I am never sure whether to tip on the tax. I grew up in California and my mother taught me not to tip on the tax, but being the researcher that I am, I have learned that many people DO tip on the tax and that you may be considered a cheapskate if you do not. So now I usually tip on the tax. At Moose McGillicuddy’s, I wanted to tip 15% and NOT on the tax, but Mary said that would be too cheap. So I did what she said. But I immediately regretted it, especially when we left and the hostess said, “Goodbye!” and our waitress standing with her couldn’t even look at us. So …. Watch out, next bitchy waitress we come across. You’re not gettin’ no tip on the tax! Okay, back to Mary.

Back in the room we played Who Wants To Be a Millionaire (boardgame) until about 8pm (Lis won, but I made a run at the end), and then off to bed, where I was out by 9pm. I slept pretty well, but Lis was awakened by loud people from the condo complex across the street (our condo complex is wonderfully quiet, and has some fairly strict no-noise rules, which is partly why we chose it). They have awakened her both nights so far, so she is a little bumming. But otherwise it was a fabulous day.

It is 6:15am on our first full day in Maui – I tried to convince my body to sleep longer, but it thinks it is 9:15 and wants to get up. So here I am. But it’s very lovely, sitting here listening to the birds, while everyone else is asleep (Lis is still gamely trying to sleep, I hope successfully). There are lots of birds and beautiful tropical flowers on and around the lanai, which is where I’m writing this – a very excellent start to the day.

Yesterday we got up early to get to the airport for our 9:45am flight. We were (uncharacteristically) already almost completely ready to go – just had to shower and change the sheets and kiss the kitties goodbye and we were on our way – ON TIME (or pretty close). Lis had a master plan of food and entertainment for the 5 plus hour flight – she had rented a DigE player from AlaskaAir, and determined where we should get food for the plane (Big Town Hero) – so the flight went quite well (though the huge 8″ sandwiches that we got, which we thought would be enough for a meal and a snack, turned out to be mostly bread, and the bread turned out to be mostly air – so we each ate our entire sandwiches and then had to buy one of the airline’s snack packages. Ah well – best laid plans and all…)

We watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and I LOVED IT!! LOVED IT!! It was such high silliness, from start to finish – and I am a girl who is a sucker for nonsensical silliness. I had read reviews that said it was a so-so movie but you should see it for Amy Adams, who steals the show as Amelia Earhart, and while I loved Amy Adams as I always do (plus she could not have looked any hotter in her little Amelia Earhart outfit), I think it was Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah who really stole the show – he was HI-larious. So I was much pleased. We also watched an episode of CSI:NY, and then Lis watched an episode of Bones while I listened to music and watched (minus audio) the end of My Life in Ruins, the movie that the person in front of me was watching on her DigE player. It looked mindless but mildly entertaining, plus it was shot on location in Greece so it was beautiful – so we might watch that on our DigE player on the return trip.

And then we arrived. We got our baggage, and then Lis went insane at the tourist literature kiosk and we came away with a stack of tourist brochures 2 inches high, which we perused at bedtime (though we’re still not done by any means). And we bought ourselves some flower leis (tuberose and some round purplish flower that reminds me of a clover flower) from a lovely lady selling them in the baggage claim area. Lis was very pleased, as she had done research (she has logged countless hours researching this trip – I have the best travel agent ever!) that said not to pay for the relatively expensive lei greeting, as you could just buy them at the airport – so we paid 10 buck each for our leis, rather than 25-40 bucks each for our lei greetings.

It was pretty hot by the time we got our rental car and got on the road. It was about 2pm, which meant our bodies thought it was 5pm, so they were starting to want some feeding. We came to the condo and checked in (it is gorgeous – more later) and then hit the road in search of food. We had wanted to go to Roy’s – we had eaten lunch at Roy’s in Carmel with Lis’ parents and really liked it – and were saddened to learn that the Roy’s in Kihei is closed. This is still another one on the island, but they only serve dinner. So after some consulting of Lis’ travel notes and our iPhone Urban Spoon app, we decided to go UpCountry to the town of Makawao, to a Mexican Restaurant called Polli’s. Our hosts had said that they really liked this town, and they really liked this restaurant – so off we went.

We were concerned that maybe it would take too long to get there, as for various reasons time had passed and it was nearing 4pm (7pm for our bellies, who are used to being fed around 6) and we were quite hungry. But it was a gorgeous drive through sugar cane fields and tropical flowers, and the town was cool (a little trendy, though – reminded me somewhat of Cannon Beach), and the restaurant was good, and because it was early we were able to order off the happy hour menu – we had two drinks and three pupus, and the whole thing came to 15 bucks. We’re hoping that we can maintain our early dining ways our whole stay, and hit the happy hours and pre-sunset specials for dinner.

After dinner we walked around the main drag a bit, bought some local beer and some sugar free desserts at a People’s Co-op type store we found, and then drove back to Kihei (where the condo is) a different way, through the town of Pa’ia, which is another cool but somewhat trendy little UpCountry town. It appeared to have a lot of neat places to eat and another health food type store, so we will probably be back (my friend Toni says there’s a good restaurant there we should try).

We didn’t get back to the condo in time to watch the sunset from the pool, which I guess is pretty awesome – we did get to see a little of the sunset from the car. Back at the condo, we were fairly wiped out, but also a little hot and sticky from being out in the heat of the day, so we went to the pool for a dip. The upper pool has a little waterfall – it was pretty neat, and we had it to ourselves (it was dark by this time). We didn’t swim long, but it definitely hit the spot – I felt refreshed, and able to unpack a bit before bed.

I loved driving around the UpCountry – the cane fields and flowers are gorgeous, and then once you turn around and start heading back down, you have these sweeping views of the cane fields you’ve just driven through, plus the ocean and/or Haleakala Mountain, and neighboring islands in the distance. It was really spectacular.

There are some other UpCountry places I hope to get to this trip – there is a lavender farm and a goat farm, an orchid nursery and a winery, and a cool sounding hike along the Haleakala crater – I hope we can do at least of few of these things, as they sound fun in themselves, plus I really, really like the UpCountry.

For the morning, though, I want to go snorkel with some turtles – so maybe it’s time to go roust my sweetie and get this show on the roadJ