Maui Day 2

It's been a busy couple of days on the island of Maui. We started yesterday at the rental car place with a hundred other folks. After we got there I realized I'd left both wallets in the safe back on the ship. Back on the shuttle, back to the room, back to get the car. Can't rent a car without your wallet. Then we headed to the Haleakala crater and the national park. You leave sea level and head up to 10,000 feet. A couple of beautiful mt side towns, about 60 switchbacks, the park entrance, and keep going up. We had to stop and put the top up cause it got cold. Finally we both put on our jackets we'd brought. Yes, we brought jackets in case we went up one of the Mts. Time we got to the summit the wind was blowing about 40 mph and the temp couldn't have been much more than 40 degrees in the bright sunshine. Whew! Cold in Hawaii!
Took a look over the crater that's about 37 square miles. Took a fewpics while freezing and then headed back down the Mt the same way. 1 way up same way down.

Back to Kahalui, where the dock is and then over to West Maui. We drove all the way past Lahaina past Kapalua to a public beach on the other side. Not very crowded, beautiful place. Got out and enjoyed the beach for awhile. Drove back by Kapalua and checked out the golf course. Wow. No wonder the pros come and play here. Not to mention the winner gets a million bucks. Stopped at Kaapalani to check out the west Ocean Marriott resort. Got out, took a brief tour, even got a price list on the timeshare weeks. Expensive. They are building on to either side with more 2/3 bedroom rooms. Most popular, and most expensive weeks in the system. No wonder either. No we didn't buy a week. Congrats to all, or sorry kids:(

Then on the the Old Lahaina Luau. Parked there a bit early so we went across the street and got the bride a double chocolate chip frappa something at Starbucks. They got it all in Lahaina. Cooled off in the mall and then on to the Luau. Supposed to be the most authentic in all the islands. Watched a guy make poi. He said it wasn't poi, but ipuke. That's kinda what it looked like too. He said it was much better than poi. He pounded it and talked about it and added water and pounded it into almost a taffy like consistency. Then he offered all those around a sample of this purple ipuke.(sp) We both tried it. Not bad. Never tasted anything quite like it.

Then they uncovered the pig (imu) that had been cooking in this under the beach steam pit. Saw it on the discovery channel a couple of weeks ago. Watch it some time. Pretty cool. Lots of food, island juices and drinks, and island food. Ate too much. Really neat show right on the beach as the sun sets over the Pacific ocean. Our first luau. Very enjoyable.

Well, its time for dinner on our last night aboard. Much more to say. Internet time running out on the ship. More later I hope.

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