I thought I'd start with our last day first. Just so you could see how long our last day was:) I had a grand idea to get up on the last day and go to the famous Haleakala sunrise. Haleakala is known as the world's largest dormant volcano. They said though it is very likely it will erupt again in our lifetime!
We had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to make the 2 hour trek to the mountain. What seemed like a good idea for getting reacclimated to the time difference...didn't seem so great at 3 in the morning:) It was pitch dark and really cold.
Okay here's the worst picture I think I've ever taken! Now you've officially seen it...the really ugly me...the 3 o'clock in the morning...no make-up, face not even washed ME! Thought I'd get it out of the way. They improve greatly earlier in the week:)
The drive up the mountain about did us all in. It was horrendous. It was dark. The road was so curvy...we all got a little car sick. Mid-way we stopped and took Dramamine. Great idea, but just a little late:) And oh I forgot, my Honey is scared to death of heights. So imagine hair pin turns on the edge of huge drop offs in the pitch dark. SO MUCH FUN!!!
Oh here are some smiles:)
Not so much here! When we were almost all the way to the top Honey became literally paralyzed with fear...poor thing! I have never seen him freak out so bad. He cried. I knew he hated heights, but this was bad. So I told him to pull over and took charge. He was really undone. I told him to pull it together and then we switched places and I drove the rest of the way. He'd have to the same for me if we went snorkeling or scuba diving:)
This was the treat for us when we finally made it to the summit. The most beautiful shades of pink and orange.
The floor of Haleakala measures a colossal 7.5 miles wide, 2.5 miles long and 3000 ft deep. This made for a beautiful sunrise.
All these crazy people thought so too! Apparently this has become one of the must see things to do in Maui.
Here it comes.
I read somewhere that watching this sunrise is a powerful spiritual experience. Not sure if it was the exhaustion or what, but it didn't do that for me. It was really really pretty though.
Glad the girls were able to see it. It was breathtaking, especially as it started getting light. You could see the surface of the valley floor and it was almost like looking at the moon. Very strange and otherworldly.
Strange being above the clouds. We passed a sign coming up that said to turn on your headlights as you pass through the clouds. That completely freaked Honey out. Luckily we didn't drive through any clouds...but we did see them beneath us when we got to the top.
I drove on the way down. It was so much better to go down in the daylight. I think the darkness made it much worse. We got to see some really beautiful Maui countryside coming home.
If you look close you can see the ocean. That's how high up we were. I think our final elevation was 10,000 feet.
I was so doped up on Dramamine that I literally had to keep smacking my face not to fall asleep on the drive home. My eyes were soooo heavy. We got back to our room and took a quick little nap before setting off on the journey back to Minnesota. This all happened Sunday morning. We finally crawled into our beds and a blissful sleep on Monday afternoon...approximately 30 some hours later. Talk about exhausted! But oh so worth it.
I hope you want to hear more because I took over 1,000 pictures:) I have lots to share, so get ready to go to Maui!!! Now I have to go conquer my own mountain of laundry, emails and a dirty house. Welcome back to reality:) Oh and a big Mahalo to my guest bloggers and all of you who came by to "visit" them. I'll announce the give-away winner on my next post.
Have a blessed day.
