The LONG WAY home

I was WIDE AWAKE at 3:30 and waited patiently for my alarm to ring at 4:30, which it did, and then, well, I just had a good sleep, and now I'm behind! But that's OK. 

I didn't sleep well on the plane for some reason, but that's a story for another day. 

We had to be at the airport at 5 PM, so we had time for another adventure. We decided to drive on the west side of Maui. And we were of the mindset that we could drive entirely around that section, even though the map from the rental car said we were not supposed to. 

Before we left, I had to stop by the cinnamon bun place and pick one up! They were so good!!!

Yummy cinnamon buns

We drove past Lahaina, where the fires were last year. It was so sad, as many homes (3000) were destroyed by the fires. And there were these banners along the highway. I'm not sure why they were there—100 people were killed in the fires, and there were way more squares than that. The main part of the town is closed, and there was a bypass. Did they build that since the fire? 

The fire zone in Lahaina

Once we reached a certain point, the roads became similar to the Road to Hana. They were winding and full of narrow roads and bridges but still paved, so we continued. 

The road on the west side of Maui

We stopped to do a small (1.2 KM) hike that took us to the top of some of the cliffs—not the high ones we had spotted from the helicopter, but we had flown over this part of Maui. It's absolutely fascinating to see how many loose boulders there are in the water, and this was definitely NOT a place to swim—that is if you could even get down to the shore.

Beautiful west side of Maui

This was the closest we got to the edge of the water, and the hike was very doable! 

Hello from Hawaii

The road got more twisty, and then the State Highway ended. Hmmm -- should we go on? We decided to until we came to this hill. It was VERY NARROW, with no guardrail, and it was obvious that we were going no further - at least not in our rental car. We managed to find a spot to turn around. 

Yikes!!!

OK—so DH didn't say anything on the drive the previous day; I failed as the back seat driver. There were a couple of points where I couldn't help myself. I swear if we were any closer to the edge on this hill (not in this spot), we would have been over the edge, and at one point, I was practically eating the guardrail. But we survived, and so did the car. And I tried to keep quiet!

By this time, it was after lunch, and I was hungry. I was checking the map and saw this famous golf course restaurant. DH had stopped on the way past, but after looking at Google and seeing it as a $$, we decided to stop. I'm not sure what the US version of $$ is, but it was VERY EXPENSIVE for the lunch buffet, but we thought, what the heck—what's a few more $$, so we ate there. 

The Club House at The Plantation Estates Golf Course

With the high price of food, I guess it wasn't so much out of line, but I made sure that I got my money's worth! I had lots of shrimp, and other goodies to fill me up! 

Then, we started on the way back and made several stops along the way. I got two geocaches! One of which I had to hike a bit down a path to find this box hidden in the rocks. The previous person could not find it, but I did!!!

A geocache

To find the last of the series of one of the geocaches (Adventure Lab), we stopped at a boardwalk along a beach. Good grief—I had to hustle more than half a kilometer there and then the same distance back to get the answer, but I did it!!

The boardwalk in one park

After filling the car with gas, we got to the airport with 30 minutes to spare, so we timed everything just right!!! 

We got on an earlier plane to Honolulu to enjoy the lounge while waiting for our direct flight home. But the lounge was completely at one end of the airport from our gate. Literally, we were boarding at D2, and the lounge was at G3. Oh well, I needed steps, so I wasn't going to complain. 

And this was the sunset from the plane. 

Sunset on the plane

Let's just say that when we finally got home, there were TWO very excited girls (even Lexi was excited!) and one ESCTATIC BOY waiting. It was a bit chaotic as they all wanted attention, and I only had two arms!!! But we managed. 

I spent a bit in the gazebo, just enjoying the sunshine, and OK -- so I napped for a while. But I was tired. 

Grandma's HOME!!!!!

I'll share the other plane stories tomorrow, but our flights were on time, and we arrived 15 minutes early!

I have to run because the girls and the boy are anxiously waiting for their walk and I'm late!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!