DAY 3

Day 3 began very early. We were out the door by 5:30a. We wanted to make it to South Maui to get a head start on everyone hiking out to snorkel in the Fishbowl. We grabbed breakfast at McDonald's on the way. So healthy, I know. It was a bad idea. We were sluggish all morning.

Our idea to beat the crowds didn't work out that great. We did figure out where the trailhead was by the time the sun was coming up, but there were a lot of people there - even that early!

We drove down a little further and decided to hike out to the Aquarium, which was a lot larger area to snorkel. It was really pretty in the early morning. This parking lot was PACKED full by the time we got back from our adventure.



The first part of the trail to the Aquarium was through a grove of trees. It was very pretty and cool in here.



Then we emerged, all too quickly, to the lava portion of the trail. Sharp lava! Very warm once the sun hits it. I was very glad for any wind.



It was very pretty, and the ocean water was so blue.



The black lava always looks so beautiful against the greens and blues.



The remainder of this day was .... strange. And I didn't take a lot of pictures.

We got lost on the lava a couple times, and kept searching for the right trail. We drained the water we packed with us quickly, because it was stinking hot! It was really difficult to tell which pools had inlets from the sea and which did not. We didn't want to get in the wrong ones, and we didn't want to run across any of the quick-sand pools by accident.

We hiked out of there, and both decided that hiking on lava fields was not for us. There's just nothing fun about it! We kept saying, "We could be on a beautiful sandy beach right now, and we're out here sweating and cutting ourselves on this stuff."

Hiking back through the "cool" grove of trees wasn't as nice this time. It was very stagnant air, and almost felt hotter than hiking across the lava.

Like I said earlier, by the time we got back to the parking lot, it was packed. We headed toward Wailea and stopped at Big Beach. Matt went into the water, and I hung out on the sand in the sun. The beach is pretty steep and the waves crash in pretty hard. I'm not one for unpredictable waves. It ultimately ended up being a VERY, VERY GOOD THING that I stayed ashore. A miracle of sorts happened, that I'll tell you about if you ask, but I'm not going to post it. For this forum, I'll just say I was very grateful to know we were being watched over.

We drove up to Kihei for lunch at Pita Paradise. Fabulous food! Then we went shopping in Kihei Kalama Village. It was so strange to go through the tourist shops with oodles of tropical items! It was so different from any vacation I'd ever been on. Living in the west, there's always a lot of bear, tree, woodsy-themed items. You know what I'm saying. Even when you're at the beach near California or Oregon ... it's still woodsy stuff. This was all TROPICAL! I didn't see one moose/fishing rod lamp. It was all hula skirts, ukelele's, palm trees, and flip flops. I loved it!

We hung out near Wailea the rest of the day. Ahihi Cove, Black Beach (which wasn't truly black, it was gray), and then when it was getting near sunset, we went to Safeway in Kahului and bought groceries for dinner. That night we grilled stuffed fish and veggies.



I washed our stinky ocean water clothes in the sink and hung them out to dry. It was a good day.