Even full-time RVer's have to have a "vacation" from time to time!
For us, this year, it was flying to the islands of Maui for a week, then
to Kaua'i for the another week. Ah, the joys of being retired...
We
parked our baby at my nephew's side yard in Tacoma for the two weeks
and flew off to sunny Hawaii! Our timeshare hosts greeted us with
packages of wonderful goodies and promises of a good time while we were
on the island! We planned on taking them up on it too. Jack and I
hadn't been on this island in over 25 years, and for me, I had only been
for a couple of days, so hadn't seen much when I
was here! So much to see and do, I hardly could sleep!
Our first day trip was to
Lahaina.
Both of us wanted to see how much it had changed over the years. It
used to be the "heart" of Maui...a small, quaint town, always full of
fun. Well, like everything else of course...it's grown! Still fun and
lively. We were able to spend some lovely time just wandering around,
enjoying the various sights, like the beautiful old banyan tree that was
originally planted back in 1873 by William Owen Smith and has spread
out to cover several acres now. They have created a whole park around
them! Simply beautiful...
A wonderful surprise was a sand dune Japanese cemetery, Puupiha Cemetery, that was across the street from the
Namu Amida Butsu, Jodo Mission.
I've visited a lot of interesting cemeteries in my travels, but never
one built in sand before! The Japanese never cease to amaze me.
It was such a clear day, we even got a wonderful view of Moloka'l from town!
And what's a shot of the beach/ocean without seeing surfers?
A trip to Maui isn't "complete" without taking the
drive to Hana!
So, off we went (complete with "app" in hand). What fun! Jack loves
driving all those twists and turns, and the traffic wasn't all that bad,
and lucky us, it was a nice clear day too. Of course, we had to stop a
hundred and one times so that I could jump out and take a picture (or
three) of every waterfall, weeping wall, flower, tree, and 'special
scenes' we saw! Me and everyone else too! ha ha
There
were "extra special" highlights along the way tho... I absolutely fell
in love with the Ke'anae Peninsula. The black lava rock jutting out
from the deep blue of the ocean with the green plants alongside, was
just so beautiful. Then, add a 150 year old church and small cemetery
to the scene, and you have a photographer's dream! I could have stayed
there all day...
Another
special stop was at the black sand beach, Honokalani, where I could get
my feet wet and gather up some of it to take back with me!
Jack had only one wish for the day, and that was to visit the
grave site of Charles Lindbergh
who was buried in Kipahulu in 1974. Lindberg loved Maui and it was his
wish to live out his days here & be buried here. It's quite off
the beaten path, which I'm sure was also his wish, after all the
hounding he suffered while he was alive. There is also a sweet church
here, built in 1857 along with a small cemetery. When we arrived, we
were greeted with a couple of horses peeing through a banyan tree! No
one else was around.
The
rental car (and phone app) people tell you to turn around here and go
back the same way, but our local host told us as long as it wasn't
raining, and we kept our eyes out for "cows", the locals just continue
on around the island, and we could too! She shared that the scenery
really changes, and it would be a shame to miss it, and to just repeat
the same long road back (we agreed), so on we went!
We were so glad we did too! We came across such wonderful surprises and beautiful scenery!
The
first was a beautiful rainbow came out to greet us. We never saw any
rain, but what a glorious rainbow, it just filled the sky everywhere you
looked! Once, when we turned a corner, we came upon a lovely old
church and when I got out to take it's picture, the rainbow followed
me...I think I captured the most perfect picture...don't you?
And some of the wonderful scenes we would have missed...
..and of course those cows!
All
to soon our visit to Maui was coming to an end. It was our last day,
and our last trip back to the condo, and BANG! We were hit! Jack saw
blue and red lights coming at him, a car coming AT him, he said "holy
shit!" and swerved (just in time!!) and was able to save our lives by
only colliding our headlight into his taillight. I had been looking
down until I heard him, when I looked up, all I saw was a silver car
flying into the air and crashing down and another coming at us (the one
that hit us) and then BOOM, the air bags going off. Minutes later a
policeman rapped on the side window and asked if we were "okay?" We
assured him we were, to go to the others. We were the only ones that
survived. We were sent to the hospital for ex rays, etc. and came away
with deep tissue bruises, cuts and scratches, but the whole ordeal was
very sad. It had been a police chase, and the young man (29) had
crossed the meridian into on coming traffic, hitting a young woman (33)
head on, sending her into us. If Jack hadn't seen it all in time and
reacted as fast as he had, we would also had been hit head on. A heck
of a way to end our stay.
We were glad to be moving on to Kaua'i and joining our friends for another week!
...on our way to Kaua'i, Marie
If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my
Flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/
