It was a cold cold night! A few hours in I woke up and put my joggers on over my pajamas and then it was better, but still chilly. We woke up at 5:00 still a little sleepy. We were both already in our clothes so all we did was fold our bed up, push our chairs back, and get driving to the summit. This is what it looked like at 5:47am ππ»
I snuggled with our blanket and pillow for a few minutes once we got to the summit, but Matt came and got me pretty quickly because it was getting light. 6:04 ππ»
It was so cold. We brought our big coats for just this morning, and Matt even packed us hats. But the wind was biting. 6:11am ππ»
I tried to take pics every 10’ish minutes. 6:19am ππ»
Trying to stay warm! 6:20amππ»
HaleakalΔ is 29,703ft above sea level if you measure from the very base that’s in the and ocean. From the land on up it’s just over 10,000ft. And that’s pronounced Holly ah ka la. I’ve been practicing it for days and still have to think about how to say it every time. 6:29am ππ»
6:30am ππ» the white domes are university of Hawaii and the buildings on the right are Air Force. This is one of the best (the 4th best if you believe their signs) place in the world to explore space.
6:32am ππ» We made some friends from Minnesota that had tent camped where we car camped. They through we were pretty smart, but we assured them we were cold in our car too.
6:42amππ»
And finally - 6:46am ππ» How cool are those clouds!
Frozen but worth it!
There were 42 parking spots at the summit and we were pretty happy to have gotten one.
How many times in your life do you watch the sunrise above the clouds? ❤️
Matt was so into it.
It made him radioactive ππ»π€£
We hiked around up there and then went back to our campsite and finished packing up and organizing.
We asked a fellow camper to take a pic of us in our bed for the last 3 nights. We had plenty of room and I never felt claustrophobic, which I had worried about. All of our luggage fit under our bed and it was pretty comfy. I’d recommend this way to travel for a few days at least. π€£
We hiked around Hosmer Grove and bought the boys each a bird from their gift store.
We decided to check out LΔhainΔ with our last few hours on Maui. It was a beautiful drive on the coast and on the way back I saw 3 whales breach! It was incredible! Maybe a lighthouse? ππ»
We found an outdoor mall and I finally found sweatshirts for the girls. I don’t love them, but I like them. π€·♀️ And I’m pretty sure I saw the teacher I did my student teaching with 20+ years ago. Her son had a shirt on with their last name and I only saw her from behind and it looked like her. If I wasn’t in a hurry I would have said hi, because I was 75% sure, but we had a flight to catch. Ps - when I checked fb she had posted pics of her with palm trees behind her, so now I’m 95% sure. What are the odds?! I wish we’d had more time. Beautiful ππ»
We filled up our camper rig with gas and dropped it off and uber’ed back to the airport. Our flight was running a bit behind, but we enjoyed a salad and a pizza and caught up on work emails for Matt and updates and blogging for me.
We’re staying the next three nights at the Royal Kona Resort where we were supposed to have a private beach but it’s actually closed, so that makes me sad. It is nice to have an actual hotel room to stretch out in though.
We are right in the heart of Kailua-Kona in a very busy touristy area, so we walked to find dinner and ended up at kind of a hole in the wall Hawaiian place.
The beach was just beyond the buildings and we could see this sliver as the sun went down.
Their main focus is kava, which is a “psychoactive” traditional drink that we did not try. We ordered a Lau Lau Pork that was wrapped in greens and slow cooked, and for the real Hawaiian experience we tried poi which is a thick (cold!) paste made from mashed taro root. It had no flavor and was purple and cold and I didn’t love. Good ol’ Matt ate it all though, so no bad dreams for us!
After, we made a fools decision and we each got a Gecko Girls shave ice. They were huge! But we did manage to finish them and then felt super full! And Kaua’i is still the shave ice winner. This one is #3, it was pretty good though.
Our last activity of the day was to swim with the manta rays from 8:30-10. I was nervous that it would be cold and I’d be afraid of the rays, but as we chatted we found most everyone felt the same.
We got our wetsuits on and boarded their 50” catamaran, which was a beautiful boat.
Their main focus is kava, which is a “psychoactive” traditional drink that we did not try. We ordered a Lau Lau Pork that was wrapped in greens and slow cooked, and for the real Hawaiian experience we tried poi which is a thick (cold!) paste made from mashed taro root. It had no flavor and was purple and cold and I didn’t love. Good ol’ Matt ate it all though, so no bad dreams for us!
After, we made a fools decision and we each got a Gecko Girls shave ice. They were huge! But we did manage to finish them and then felt super full! And Kaua’i is still the shave ice winner. This one is #3, it was pretty good though.
Our last activity of the day was to swim with the manta rays from 8:30-10. I was nervous that it would be cold and I’d be afraid of the rays, but as we chatted we found most everyone felt the same.
We got our wetsuits on and boarded their 50” catamaran, which was a beautiful boat.
They told us how how they came to be when a hotel put a spotlight on the water in a large harbor and they found huge manta rays coming every night to eat the plankton. At first people were swimming with them on their own, but they often inadvertently injured them by touching them too much, so companies started offering these tours. I grabbed this pic from their website to show what it looks like. You’re out in the water and they put these float things for everyone to hold onto. Matt wanted to be the first one in, so off we went! It was warm and as soon as I touched the floating thing the guide told me to look down and bam, there were huge rats under me! We moved on down the line and they put a floating device under your feet to keep them all the way up so you don’t kick the rays.
It was incredible! The water felt warm and I didn’t feel sick and I wasn’t scared and I finally learned how to breath normally with my snorkel. It was the coolest thing.
I can tell I’m almost ready to go home though because as we were night swimming with the rays I started thinking about the kids and how much I’d love to show them this. And I’ve been looking at the pictures they send frequently.
So anyways, after about 25-30 minutes of swimming, I started to feel a little sea sick. And then i started to feel thirsty and cold. I’d take my head out of the water and focus on the horizon, but I really wasn’t feeling great. At least half the swimmers had gone back to the boat by this point, including my friend next to me, but I really wanted to stay out the whole time. I threw up a little and thought maybe that would help, but no. With only about 5 minutes left, I asked to go back to the boat. They gave me a ginger ale and I shivered in my wetsuit till Matt came in and brought me one of our towels. And then I shivered in the towel till we got back. I felt pretty yuck, so I laid down for the drive home and Matt put me right to bed with extra blankets. Even though I ended the night sicky, I would still recommend the night swimming, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
