Maui Days 2 and 3

So on Sunday I forced Kuniko out of bed much earlier than she would normally get up and so we could get started on our (epic) hike of the trip. We stopped at Grandma's coffee house in Kula and bought some fantastic baked goods for my breakfast (Kuniko had some pasta salads which were good) and then we drove to Haleakala. The drive is really cool- very windy. We were upgraded from our economy car to a mid size which was good for this drive but not so good when I had to fill it up (gas was 3.85 per gallon for the cheap stuff). Anyway we got to the top which is 10,000 feet and began our hike called sliding sands trail. First off it is a really cool hike and very unique and I highly recomend it. It is 4 miles down into the crater of the extinct volcano. The pisser is you have to hike down first and then back up it (at an altitude of 10,000 feet). They also have horseback riding up and down it on the same trail. I didn't mind avoiding the horses so much, but I did mind avoiding horse shit and the occasional odor of horse shit and pee (it's actually kind of stinky). I have to give Kuniko public recognition for doing this hike with me- it is no small task and she was a trooper.










After the hike we grabbed a beer which my have been the coldest best tasting beer of my life and grabbed some pizza that was really good (which is nowhere to be found on Oahu).

Day 3. Again I woke Kuniko up pretty early and we headed out to do the rode to Hana. There was a fatal accident on the only road out of Kula so we got the chance to sit in our rental car for a while before sitting in it for even longer on the road to Hana. The road to Hana is cool but not as cool as hiking in my opinion. We didn't really stop too much and check stuff out. To be honest I think for most people it would be really amazing but we are spoiled living in Oahu. Then we went to Pa'ia and walked around and had more really good pizza. Pa'ia is pretty intersting- it may have the highest concentration of white people with dreadlocks in all of the US. There are some serious oddballs in that town. That being said there is a fantastic healthfood grocery store and a really nice cafe- which we don't have in Oahu so we really enjoyed that. We had an awesome trip to Maui and I highly recomend going there.