The Silent "I"

The Road to Hana is Paved with Good Intentions

The Road to Hana is a legendary stretch of road through the northeast coast of Maui, through lush tropical forests and along the jagged, rocky coast of the island.  It is probably one of the most beautiful roads in the world.  While only about 50 miles from Kahalui, it takes about three hours to make it to the town of Hana, because of the many twists and turns and 46 one-lane bridges you have to cross to get there.  Count in carloads of tourists stopping to take photos every mile or so, and you have yourself a day trip.

On our trip to Maui, we decided to explore this famous highway, and see what we could find at the end of the road. We had some Dramamine along for our motion-sickness prone boy, and for the first half of the trip, he was just fine.

The highway is probably one of the greenest roads I've ever been on.  In parts where a light tropical rain was falling, it looked almost neon.  We slowed down in a stretch of bamboo forest that seemed like it could glow in the dark.  I half expected Po from Kung Fu Panda to come bounding down the mountainside, snacking on some delectible bamboo treats (and yes, I do know there are no pandas in Hawaii, kung fu masters or not).

When the warm tropical rain started to fall, all I could see out my window was a soft, green blur.  In some parts, we hugged the mountainside and could see the ocean stretched out below us, like a misty blue blanket. When the rain cleared, we found ourselves looking out over a green valley and some gorgeous blue water below.

Greetings from Maui: Surf's Up

We're in Maui this week, staying at the Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas, on a long-overdue family vacation. We were supposed to come here in June, but Frank was not fully recovered after having open heart surgery in March.  Frank and I visited Maui about twelve years ago, before Alex came along, so this was Alex's first visit to Maui.  He's been to Kauai four times, and Oahu a few times, but never to magical, mystical Maui.

On arrival, Alex picked up just about every brochure the concierge had to offer. He promptly decided that he wanted to try surfing, parasailing, ziplining, and extreme hula. He was disappointed to learn that: a) his parents are not made of money; and b) are old fogies who like to just lounge around on the beach with rum drinks in hand.  He was also disappointed to learn that he had to have a parent with him if he wanted to plunge to his death on the jungle floor on a zipline or into the depths of the Pacific from a parasail. It's hard out there for a kid.

After much pressure of the sulking variety, we opted for surfing lessons.  The concierge cheerfully arranged for the lessons with a local shop called Outrageous Surf on Front Street in Lahaina at a discounted price. Alex agreed not to mention the words "parasailing" or "zipling" again for at least fifteen minutes after the lesson. We had a deal.

We arrived as instructed at 10:30 am for an 11:00 lesson, forgetting that nobody is ever on time for anything in the entire state of Hawaii.  Slowly, other intrepid surf-bum wannabes trickled in, including an Italian family who informed the shop manager that their combined surfing skills were "less than level 0." 

The shop manager assured them that they could teach anyone, which got a big eyeroll from Alex, who said, "I think I'm going to be the only person who ever surfed before in this class," and yawned.  By "surfed before" he meant the one time in Kauai when he managed to stand up once and declared himself ready for the Mavericks competition.

The shopped filled up quickly around 11:00, and Frank and I were shooed out and given beach chairs to hang out on the beach to wait for the surfers to arrive.  The shop had a small truck that they loaded surf boards onto while the students watched a safety video.  Frank and I decided to have a snack at Maui Swiss Cafe, a small ice cream and pastry shop next door with pink umbrellas.  Who knew that you could get homemade crepes in Maui? Not us, that's for sure. We ate some freshly baked mango and banana bread, then strolled down to the beach to watch the surfers.