MAUI!!!!!

George and I took some time to get away!! We have had a stressful few months, and needed time for R & R. So, when you need time to relax, where do you go? We go to Hawai'i! Specifically Maui, near Lahaina, just north of Ka'anapali beach area. We had the most awesome condo. Right on the water, waves crashing, wildlife abundant! We had only 3 full days on Maui, not nearly enough, but then, what would be enough? On the second day we decided to head to Haleakala. As we were driving, I was checking out the map and saw the Iao Valley. Did some quick reading and discovered it has some history to it. So, since we were so close, we drove up the valley and this is what we saw! The pinnacle thing to the left of George is called Iao Needle. It was used as a lookout by the local Hawaiians in the early 1800's, and this is the location of the final battle between the locals and King Kamehameha. The king won, and was able to unify all of the islands under 1 ruling King.


After we did a little bit of hiking thru the Iao Valley, we headed east across the valley to Haleakala. It is miles of switchbacks and many different changes in vegetation as we climbed the side of the big volcano. Below are a few pictures from the top! We could see the Big Island, Hawai'i in the distance.

This photo is looking down into the crater. It is HUGE!! We passed the cloud layer at about 5000 feet. The top elevation is 10,023 ft. Pretty amazing!

There were these plants all over at the highest elevations. It is called a Silver Sword. It is a very tender plant, it glitters in the sunlight. So George has renamed it Vegas Cactus.

On our last day we were treated with several sea turtles that decided to play in the surf by our condo.....for several hours! They were also HUGE!! Earlier in the week there were a few monk seals that were also playing in the surf below our condo.

We had a great time and were very sorry that the time went so quickly! But on the plane home, we were already planning our next visit! We are still trying to decide if it should be 1 or 2 months long!!