Road to Hana

On the 17th, we woke up around 4am (8am CT) and were lazy for most of the morning, except for mom who was doing laundry. Around 9:00am we pick up a rental jeep (with the top down) and set off to explore the island. Although it was looking like rain all day, we decided to take the Hana Highway up to the "Seven Sacred Pools." It was a very interesting and sometimes difficult journey as the 68 mile highway is primarily made up of winding road and hairpin turns with nearly 60 bridges, mostly one lane, and one section of 25 miles that is especially hazardous. There were so many tourists, even on the narrow roads people were parked everywhere. We finally got past Hana (nearly to our destination) to find the road closed for bridge construction but only until 1:30 that afternoon. So we walked around for a while near the Venus Pool (though we never saw it) and ate lunch; then we found this neat little beach maintained by the locals, called Koki Beach. By that time it has started to rain so we stoped to put the top on the jeep and FINALLY got to the Haleakala National Park. The rains pass quickly in the mountians and we were soon swimming and cliff jumping (shhhh) in the "Sacred Pools"; after that mom cohersed us into a two mile hike to see the Waimoku Falls which falls 400ft. When we retuned to our jeep we were ready for a nap but it was still many, many miles back to the hotel, plus mom was getting nervous about having to drive down the mountian in the dark. I offered to help drive but apperently you have to be 25 to drive a rental car (who knew?). Although we made it saftley down the mountian, the rough 25 miles, with rain, took us an hour and a half.

By the way, we were glad to get to the hotel that night.