Hawaii
Trip 2006Hawaii
Trip 2006We slept strangely Monday night, listening to the extra-loud sounds of the ocean crashing on an all-pebble beach near our room; we also heard birds, other animals, rain, and lots of wind. We got up at 6:00 again and hurried to “check out” (i.e., leave our key in the locked box, load the car, and back out of the narrow driveway) and get on the road quickly. Breakfast was the last of the red bean buns from the Home Maid Bakery and another apple banana. Before leaving, we walked down to the beach as the sun was starting to come up, and then we admired the fish in the fishpond again.
We stopped at a fruit stand just outside of Hana, on the road going north, and bought another two apple bananas, since they had been so good, and another passion fruit, for $1 total. We stopped at an arboretum along the road for a little walk through tropical trees and along a stream bed, and then we made it back to Paia in two and a half hours, which all of the guidebooks say is the time it takes the locals, as opposed to the tourists.
In Paia, we wandered through a supermarket that seemed positively bounteous after the dearth of groceries in Hana, and we ate a second breakfast (yes, we’re Hobbits) at Cafe des Amis; we split a cane sugar and lime juice crepe and a breakfast crepe of spinach, feta, and scrambled egg, both of which were very good.
Pictured below, me at a small overlook/streambed, me near a painted eucalyptus tree in the arboretum, and Robert (wet from the dew on the branches of the tree, and cold) at the arboretum after moving that tree aside so we could walk down the trail.
Next we drove back to the center of Maui and went into the Sugar Museum, opposite the bad-smelling sugar mill, which it seems impossible to go anywhere in Maui and not pass, since it’s in that central isthmus. The sugar museum was really nice—there was a great deal of information on the plantations, on how A&B sugar became C&H (California and Hawaii, since it’s grown in Hawaii and finishes being processed in California) sugar, on the different cultures of the immigrants who lived in the plantation houses, etc. Interestingly, the woman touring ahead of us with her kids and grandkids had grown up in one of the houses in the Japanese section of the plantation, and it was neat to hear snippets of her memories as she talked to her family. Between the actual museum exhibits and the friendly woman at the front desk who gave us samples of sugar cane to chew, all of our questions about the sugar growing and milling process were finally answered.
Pictured above, a rainbow spotted driving near Paia, and Robert and me near various pieces of sugar equipment.
After the museum, we drove up to Wailuku and went into Iao Valley state park, where we walked up to the Iao Needle and read about the legend of the demigods and the history of this valley. The park was fairly crowded, but it was a nice view and a short, pleasant walk up from a little bridge to a viewing platform closer to the needle. On the bridge were lots of locals, clowning around, chewing on sugar cane, and proving their manliness to each other and the tourists by jumping down into the rocky stream from the bridge—about a 30-foot drop.
Back down the road we entered Iao Valley on, we went into the county park that had different replica houses and statues for every major ethnic group who settled in Hawaii. There weren’t any attendants, and there wasn’t all that much to read, really, but the park was still nice despite its disrepair. It reminded me of an extremely low-budget Alaskaland—just in Hawaii. Our favorite part was a statue of, as the sign said, “a mythical omniscient lion-unicorn” in the Korean pavilion; we couldn’t see any horns at all on this cute fat lion, though we looked, and Robert noted that the description of the statue read as though it had been written by an eight-year-old girl, with an adult then adding the word “mythical” at the beginning.
Our plan was to go next to a few old temples, also in Wailuku, but en route we realized we were right by a place I’d read about, so we swung by Sam Sato’s for lunch, making it just before they closed at 2:00; we ordered a saimin and then got talked by the waitress into a dry-min, which apparently is their specialty, along with two lima bean manju, one red bean manju, and one pineapple-coconut turnover. The manju in general were way better than the turnovers, with a better, flakier dough, and the lima bean one was by far the best. “Ono, no?” said the waitress, when she came back and found us devouring the delicious dry-min. Yes, it was very ono, but I was too shy to say that, so I just sort of nodded.
After lunch we went to Halekii-Pihana Heiau State Monument in Wailuku (pictured above), which was very run-down and unmaintained, but still lovely, dating from 1790. 1790! I mean, that’s not so long ago—tea parties in Boston, and temples and prayer and sacrifices here. I was in heaven, and Robert humored me in my walk among old sacred stones. The site certainly seems neglected both by tourists and by the government, though in addition to the historical aspects, it boasts a great view of the Kahului harbor and a giant cruise ship currently docked there.
At 3:00 we went straight down to Maui Ocean Center near Kihei; it’s a very neat aquarium, with all of its fish collected from within three miles. We saw a fish-feeding, we watched sharks swimming around, we admired their turtles, and we loved their interactive exhibits on dolphins and whales. We also learned about how the Ocean Center participates in a program to take little broken bits of coral from beaches and rehabilitate them, giving them something to grow on and feeding them amino acids; these re-grown corals are then used in all of the aquarium’s exhibits, so they don’t have to plunder the coral reefs, yet the fish and other creatures can enjoy living coral while they’re on display.
At 4:30 we went up to Kahului again and checked into our hotel; the Maui Beach Hotel isn’t luxurious, but the beds were comfortable and the location and price were good, so we just relaxed for the rest of the evening, turning in early again.
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Created: 12/26/06. Last Modified: 12/26/06