My parents, G, the Mins, and I recently returned from a fantastic family vacation in Hawaii. We went to celebrate my mum's 70th birthday. She went to the University of Hawaii over 50 years ago and wanted to check some things off her bucket list.
We started our trip in Maui. We stayed in a great condo right by a local beach in Kihei. The location was very convenient since a grocery store and restaurants were within walking distance. We went to McDonald's one morning to try their spam breakfast.
We spent a day visiting towns along the west coast. We shopped and had lunch in Lahaina, which was once a whaling village.
We then checked out the beaches in Ka'anapli and Kapalua (pictured above).
We spent another day doing the Road to Hana. We opted to do a tour with Valley Isle Excursions. This allowed us to drive around Haleakala (there's a very bumpy road for one stretch that is not covered by rental car insurance), as opposed to driving to Hana and turning back on the same road.
We had the opportunity to go for a quick dip by a waterfall. The water was clear and warm.
Here the Mins is at Wai'anapanapa State Park, which is famous for its black sand beach. Volcanic minerals and lava fragments make the sand black.
The Mins thought the banyan trees along the Road to Hana were pretty cool. Did you know banya trees are fig trees? Mind blown!
Ohe'o Gulch is a set of seven cascading waterfalls at Haleakala National Park. We went to different viewing points to see the falls. This is the Mins toward the bottom of the "Seven Sacred Pools".
We returned to Haleakala National Park to visit the summit on a separate day. The dormant volcano is +10,000 feet above sea level. It felt like we were among the clouds.
The views of the crater where phenomenal. The weather was also refreshing - a good 10 degrees cooler than other places on the island.
Next stop, Oahu!
No comments:
Post a Comment