What a lovely day it was today! A perfect 80 degrees and sunny, with a pleasant breeze and occasional cloud cover. When we walked downstairs to the open-air breakfast buffet this morning, we could see clear out to the ocean. And the first thing we saw was a humpback whale breaching! It leaped way up out of the water and came down with a huge splash. Spectacular! Almost as if it did it just to greet us!
Breakfast was delicious, luxurious and exotic. We were treated to all of the tasty and abundant fruits which Hawaii has to offer. Guava, orange and passion fruit juices accompanied the meal. And what a setting, looking out over the serene Pacific. Here is where we sat.
After breakfast, we set off for a drive farther up along the west shoreline of Maui. We are staying at the Westin resort in Ka'anapali, which is also along Maui's west shore, but today we wanted to go as far north along that shore as our rental car company would allow us to drive!
Before heading out, we stopped at a local farmer's market to stock up on munchies for our road trip. We found a delicious banana bread, and topped it with some to-die-for fresh passion fruit cream cheese. Yum! Also, David was ecstatic about purchasing a few Apple bananas. Are you familiar with them? They're about half the size of their long cousins we get on the mainland, and much more flavorful. Plus, I don't know about you, but I'm not one for eating something that's either mushy or hard as a rock like our stateside bananas usually are. These are just perfect. So we grabbed the bananas, a papaya, and some fresh pineapple and hit the road.
We drove through two very picturesque towns along the way. Napili, with its beautiful bay, where we walked out and sat on the beach for an hour or so. Kapalua, which has lovely and scenic golf courses overlooking the ocean and spectacular beaches. North of Kapalua, the drive gets a bit more rugged and windy, but it is still a nice highway. This was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever done, right up there with coastal Rte 1 through Northern California.
Just as the sun was beginning to beat down on us a bit too strongly, we spotted a roadside vendor up
ahead selling cold coconut water and decided to stop. What a refreshing treat it was! The man had a machete that he used to cut the coconut open just enough to allow the ice cold water to come out. We were shocked by how much liquid was in there!! We kept drinking and drinking, and it didn't seem to empty. Continuing on our journey, the road abruptly narrowed to the point that it actually became a one-way passage. This portion was not a drive for the faint-hearted, as we were hugging the edge of a steep cliff at every turn on a mountainous road with no guard rails. Since I (Karen) am a wimp about such things, I politely asked David to please turn around, for only the most adventurous spirit could continue on this road. Of course, David is a VERY adventurous spirit, and I think he was more than a little disappointed at having to oblige. But he very kindly did so. I was wondering what would happen if we met oncoming traffic, and unfortunately I found out!!! It was VERY SCARY.
So, we turned around and headed back the way we came. It was a lovely drive in reverse too.
Along the way we stopped to watch a kite surfer. It was an absolutely awesome experience. Just to watch was thrilling.
This guy was good. Pretty soon another one joined him and it was like a ballet. How in the world those guys stayed on their boards we will never know. We had just decided that they surely must be strapped into them somehow when we saw them shift their feet to another spot on the board. There went that theory. It was truly amazing to see.
We left there and decided to continue a bit past our hotel south to the next town of Lahaina. Lahaina is an interesting town that wears many hats. It is a Maui hot spot, with art galleries, unique shopping, and trendy restaurants, but it is also a quaint and historic fishing village. We parked and walked the main drag in town.
After a bit of shopping, we headed to Cheeseburgers in Paradise for a late lunch.
Great burgers and a colorful, lively and fun place to eat. David ordered the Island Special, with a pineapple slice and kahlua pork. As you can see, he is anxious to attack it!
I had the traditional - lettuce, tomato, onion and thousand island with a side of onion rings.
It was quite a busy day of fun in the sun and driving, so we were a bit tired when we returned to the hotel. We got back just in time to catch the sun dip below the mountains on the island of Lanai eight miles off our coastline, and to see a few more whales passing by us out at sea. All in all, a lovely day.
Good night everyone!
Karen and David
No comments:
Post a Comment