Our Week In Maui Day 4

Day 4
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Today started early... And we were more than ready and excited. We awoke at 5:30 a.m. (no alarm clock needed here in Maui) and prepared ourselves for the day with coffee and fresh fruit. Today, we drive the road to Hana! It is 56 miles of winding road through the northern part of Maui, meandering through Paia, Nahiku, Ke'anau and other awesome lil treasures like Honomanu Bay and botanical gardens filled with the lushest of Hawaiian plant life and the most jaw-dropping scenery with inter tangled vegetation and Pacific Ocean views. This drive will take us all day so we are prepping accordingly.

We leave at 7 a.m. To meet Steve Scott up the road a bit. He is a wonderfully sweet man who went to school with my Uncle Ken and Aunt Terri and still stays in great touch with my mom via Facebook. He lives in Lahaina and has a business renting GPS units that connect to your AUX input and give you a Hawaiian history lesson and act as your tour guide throughout many adventures, one being the road to Hana. He very graciously offered to let us use one free of charge for our road to Hana day so we meet him on Papalaua and he gets our Rental car all ready to go. I can not tell you enough how sweet this man is. He gives us pointers, a few more spots to see in Paia and sends us on our way, after I request that he pose for a picture with me.

And the journey begins. Kelsey and I both know that the journey to Hana is not rewarded by the city of Hana itself, as this is a simple city, but the experience of getting there is the true reward. With that knowledge, we sit back and just start taking it all in.
Our first stop is in Paia and we found the quaintest, cutest cafe called the Green Banana. Here, we got our antioxidants in the form of Acai Berry Blast smoothies. Across the street, we noticed Charley's and down a bit further, we saw Mama's Fish House... But more to come on those later.

Acai in hand, we hit the road again, completely unsure of what terrain this was really going to be. The roads begin to wind, narrowing to just a single car width in some spots. The bridges are short but there is no room for sharing so we yield to the oncoming traffic and allow them to travel the bridge before us. And, then it is our turn. There are 46 one lane bridges in this journey and we make it through them all, abiding by all of the customary bridge etiquette. Who knew there should be such a thing?!?!
Our first stop along this journey is the Garden of Eden botanical gardens. It is here that we had our first run-in with peacocks... And the absolutely breath-stealing views of some of the most beautiful vegetation we have ever seen. If you only look at a few of our pics because you are a party popper and super bitter that we didn't take you to Maui, I suggest you check out these. They are some of the best yet.

Okay, we kept on cruising up and down and around and around and around and around.... You get the gist. We stopped and checked out Kaumahina State Wayside Park, Honomanu Bay, Ke'anae Arboretum and even the Nahiku Market Stands before we finally arrived in Hana. It really is a beautiful little city. We had lunch at the Hana Maui hotel and then began our journey back through the 56 miles, eagerly anticipating the views that every turn would have in store for us. the GPS unit that we have by now named Mogwai, is telling us very interesting stories about Hawaiian history. And, while I can safely say that I love rocking' out in Maui now, I say no thank you to being here pre-1900's. NO MAHALO FOR ME!

On our way back, we stopped in Paia once again, hitting the shops and hoping to get asked to smoke some Maui Wowie with Willie or Woody. But, alas, only a few natives asked if we wanted to buy some pot and we just giggled and said NO MAHALO! The day was coming to an end so we made our way back to the Ritz Carlton... Such a tough life. As we unwind and think of all the beauty that Maui shared with us today, we know life is good and we smile. We are happy.