After
a week in Kauai, Doug and I were ready to move on to the next island - Maui! We mostly enjoyed the low-key way of life on Kauai, but were ready for a little more activities and were hoping maybe it would be a little sunnier too.
We got in in the evening, and went out to dinner. Doug's dad said he had to try poi, so he did. It is a paste made out of the taro root, and it pretty much tastes like nothing, with a smeck of a fruity/grape taste. Meh. At least we can now say we tried it!
Hawaii does have this thing called a shaved ice, which is almost like a snowcone. But instead of grainy ice, it's really smooth like snow. And they put these delicious concentrated juices on top (as opposed to a snowcones sickly sweet HFCS flavors). Our friends had been here on their honeymoon and someone gave them a giftcard which they forgot to take, so they gave it to us. Yes! We went there 3 times :) You can also pay a little extra for this delicious blob of super creamy coconut icecream at the bottom. Of course I had to have it. Tasty!
This cool banyan tree in Lahaina is the largest tree in Hawaii. It is actually one main tree trunk, and the branches send down viney things that turn into another trunk. Pretty cool. So that main trunk in the middle is the 'mother trunk' and those other trunks you see are just supporting trunks that grew later.
We loved Maui, but it was not relaxing really at all. In Kauai we woke up early because of the roosters, and on Maui we woke up early because all the excursion/event things we wanted to do were on the other side of the island so we had to wake up early and drive over there. We did 3 main things: watched a sunrise over the volcano, we drove the road to Hana, and we went snorkeling to Molokini.
The morning of the sunrise, Doug and I woke up at 2:30am. The sun was set to rise at 5:30 and we had to drive way over to the other side of the island. We got there with plenty of time and bundled up because it was very cold and windy!
Doug was reading in the guidebook it said "it will make you weep". We did not weep. But it was beautiful, and a good memory, and we had fun sharing the experience with lots of random strangers. That was actually funny. We were sitting up there and it's getting closer and closer to sunrise and then still people are trying to drive up the road to the observatory. The parking lot was full and there was a line of about 75 cars lined along the side of the road. But no, car after car kept driving past that line thinking that surely there'd be a parking spot left. Nope. So then we'd all watch them drive slowly and swervingly in reverse all the way back down again. Then one car parked but kept their lights on down there right in everyone's view of the sunrise. So one guy was like, 'alright everyone, on the count of 3!' and then all of us sitting up there yelled at that guy to 'turn off his lights'. It was pretty funny.
Since we were up so early and on the other side of Maui, we saw a bit more of the volcano/crater.
This sign in the bathroom made me laugh, it warns you not to fill up your water bottle with toilet water. Honestly, it never crossed my mind to do that! Had this been a problem for them!!?
Doug by the crater
And then we did two things I had been reading about and really excited to see. A lavender farm, and a goat dairy farm. I guess it wasn't the season for lavender, so it wasn't really all blooming. But we learned about some plants and ate these super delicious lavender scones.
The tour guide lady made me this bouquet from the trimmings from along the tour
Next stop was the goat dairy farm tour. I had been excited about this for weeks. But when we got there, I was crushed to learn they stopped the part of the tour where you could milk the goats. Noooo!
Doug with the horns of their oldest goat
we did get to feed the goats some grass and feed
goat milk truffles! we tried pink peppercorn and chipotle chocolate. tasty
I don't know if I had just overly high expectations, but the tour was not that great. Doug and I still had fun, but I didn't really learn anything. This guide had only been there for 2 months and it was obvious. I felt bad him though because me or this other lady on our tour would ask a question, and he would almost never know the answer, or once answered something so unbelievable the other lady was like 'that's impossible'. I did end up writing to the farm later about how disappointed I was learning more about goats on wikipedia than on their tour. Which they didn't even respond to! Disappointing again. Anyway. I didn't plan to open my own goat dairy farm (although maybe I'd like to have one goat one day??) but I love tours and learning stuff, and it was a bit too casual (and inaccurate) for my tastes.
geez, I'm getting tired of writing, looks like this Maui post is going to have to be continued!
We got in in the evening, and went out to dinner. Doug's dad said he had to try poi, so he did. It is a paste made out of the taro root, and it pretty much tastes like nothing, with a smeck of a fruity/grape taste. Meh. At least we can now say we tried it!
Hawaii does have this thing called a shaved ice, which is almost like a snowcone. But instead of grainy ice, it's really smooth like snow. And they put these delicious concentrated juices on top (as opposed to a snowcones sickly sweet HFCS flavors). Our friends had been here on their honeymoon and someone gave them a giftcard which they forgot to take, so they gave it to us. Yes! We went there 3 times :) You can also pay a little extra for this delicious blob of super creamy coconut icecream at the bottom. Of course I had to have it. Tasty!
This cool banyan tree in Lahaina is the largest tree in Hawaii. It is actually one main tree trunk, and the branches send down viney things that turn into another trunk. Pretty cool. So that main trunk in the middle is the 'mother trunk' and those other trunks you see are just supporting trunks that grew later.
We loved Maui, but it was not relaxing really at all. In Kauai we woke up early because of the roosters, and on Maui we woke up early because all the excursion/event things we wanted to do were on the other side of the island so we had to wake up early and drive over there. We did 3 main things: watched a sunrise over the volcano, we drove the road to Hana, and we went snorkeling to Molokini.
The morning of the sunrise, Doug and I woke up at 2:30am. The sun was set to rise at 5:30 and we had to drive way over to the other side of the island. We got there with plenty of time and bundled up because it was very cold and windy!
Doug was reading in the guidebook it said "it will make you weep". We did not weep. But it was beautiful, and a good memory, and we had fun sharing the experience with lots of random strangers. That was actually funny. We were sitting up there and it's getting closer and closer to sunrise and then still people are trying to drive up the road to the observatory. The parking lot was full and there was a line of about 75 cars lined along the side of the road. But no, car after car kept driving past that line thinking that surely there'd be a parking spot left. Nope. So then we'd all watch them drive slowly and swervingly in reverse all the way back down again. Then one car parked but kept their lights on down there right in everyone's view of the sunrise. So one guy was like, 'alright everyone, on the count of 3!' and then all of us sitting up there yelled at that guy to 'turn off his lights'. It was pretty funny.
Since we were up so early and on the other side of Maui, we saw a bit more of the volcano/crater.
This sign in the bathroom made me laugh, it warns you not to fill up your water bottle with toilet water. Honestly, it never crossed my mind to do that! Had this been a problem for them!!?
Doug by the crater
And then we did two things I had been reading about and really excited to see. A lavender farm, and a goat dairy farm. I guess it wasn't the season for lavender, so it wasn't really all blooming. But we learned about some plants and ate these super delicious lavender scones.
The tour guide lady made me this bouquet from the trimmings from along the tour
Next stop was the goat dairy farm tour. I had been excited about this for weeks. But when we got there, I was crushed to learn they stopped the part of the tour where you could milk the goats. Noooo!
Doug with the horns of their oldest goat
we did get to feed the goats some grass and feed
goat milk truffles! we tried pink peppercorn and chipotle chocolate. tasty
I don't know if I had just overly high expectations, but the tour was not that great. Doug and I still had fun, but I didn't really learn anything. This guide had only been there for 2 months and it was obvious. I felt bad him though because me or this other lady on our tour would ask a question, and he would almost never know the answer, or once answered something so unbelievable the other lady was like 'that's impossible'. I did end up writing to the farm later about how disappointed I was learning more about goats on wikipedia than on their tour. Which they didn't even respond to! Disappointing again. Anyway. I didn't plan to open my own goat dairy farm (although maybe I'd like to have one goat one day??) but I love tours and learning stuff, and it was a bit too casual (and inaccurate) for my tastes.
geez, I'm getting tired of writing, looks like this Maui post is going to have to be continued!
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