Road to Hana

 We did the Road to Hana on our last 2 days. I knew I wanted to make it a 2 day event because there was so much to see. So I got us an Airbnb for the night in Hana. After that, we spent the next day driving back, shopping, and getting a little more beach time before our flight left at 8pm. 

We got the Gypsy app of the Road to Hana, which was super helpful. It told us exactly where everything was and how close we were to it. It also alerted you if you missed a turn. That came in helpful. It was nice to have the entire day to do the drive. Leah liked all the stories that the narrator told about Hawaiian history. 

 There were many scenic lookouts and many waterfalls. The roads were very curvy with many blind turns.  All the bridges were one lane bridges. The scariest ones were the ones where you had to honk before you drove over them, and then they would feel SO LONG and you couldn't see at all in front of you due to the curves, and you were just praying that nobody was going to plow into you. Luckily, the girls thought the entire thing was just fun, and didn't worry about dying in a car accident like we did. 

 The first half of the road is pretty boring, and there aren't a lot of stops. These two got pretty bored, and the complaining was just rising to annoying level when we got our first long stop. Perfect timing. 

 There were all these honor system fruit stands along the road. These avocados were INSANE. They were as big as the pineapples (one of which we bought and was fabulous!). We couldn't think of anything to do with an avocado, so we didn't buy one. We did get the pineapple, some tangerines (which Juliet was obsessed with) and some bananas. Everything was delicious! 

 We spent over an hour at Black Sand Beach. It was really pretty, but much more crowded than I expected. There was a campground right there, and there were many people camping. 

 The waves were also pretty strong, so I didn't let them play unless I was right there. 

 It took Juliet a few minutes to warm up to this beach. The sand was hot and the waves were strong. Later she made me hold her in the waves and twirl her around a bunch while Chris hiked to another lookout. 

Leah made a great structure. She spent a lot of time making it perfect. It was amazing!

 This was a really pretty waterfall. After checking this out, we realized that the keys were locked inside the car. It was a SCARY few minutes as we tried to get in and figure out what to do, but eventually the car just opened. It was a key-less entry car, so I think the car just somehow realized that the keys were inside. 

 We also went to the Seven Sacred Pools (not at all sacred) and the Bamboo Forest. Everything took longer than we imagined, so by the time we got here it was like 4:30. It gets dark a little after 7, so we knew we didn't have long to spend. We took a 1 mile hike, and thought we wouldn't have time for the Bamboo Forest Hike, which was like 4 miles. But, we had come all that way, and really wanted to see it, so Chris carried Juliet and we hauled ass. 

 A lot of the hike looked like this. So many stone stairs. I can't imagine how long this took to engineer. 

 This was a very large plant.

 The other part of the Bamboo Forest walk looked like this, with roots growing underneath the path. 

This was a pretty fabulous tree. 

 By the time we got to the bamboo, it was past 6:00. We took like 10 minutes to appreciate it, and then hiked as fast as we could out. I couldn't imagine hiking down over all those loose stones and roots in the dark. When we got back to the parking lot, there were like 4 cars left, down from over 100 when we got there. 

 When the internet finally came back, we found our Airbnb. It was a little converted cottage/duplex right on the ocean. It was a little rustic, but it more than served its purpose. The only thing that really bothered me was that there was no air. Even though we were on the ocean, and there was a nice breeze, it was still warmer than I would have liked. Our room was cooler than the girls', and they slept better than I did for sure. We stopped at the only store in town and got there 4 minutes before it closed to get dinner. We got a frozen pizza (for us) and lunchables (for the kids) for dinner. We were all happy. The cottage had Netflix, so the girls were very happy to catch up on their TV while Chris did some work. 

 The next morning we packed up and took a few pictures before we left. Juliet really enjoyed playing her ukulele.  

 We drove home and almost died. Most people are driving INTO Hana in the morning, not out of Hana. So, there was a giant cement truck that was flying through the roads. We came around a curve, and this giant truck was coming at us head on going FAST in the middle of the road. Luckily there was a shoulder where Chris could pull off. This was super lucky because almost none of the roads had any type of shoulder at all. Typically there were just giant drop offs. We even saw a car that was nose down off one of the cliffs, with just the tailgate visible from the road. It was pretty scary to think about what had likely happened to them.  

We shopped and lunch in Paia which was the CUTEST little town ever. I really wanted to go to Maui Brewing Company and have a guava beer, but it was like another 40 minutes away, and we were pretty done with the car by that point. So we hung out on this beach and watched the sea turtles (can you see him above?) and the wind surfers. I kept telling the girls that John Kerry was out there. Maybe he was.

Then we came home. The next day, the kids and I slept for 15 hour straight. It was a great trip! We hope to come back one day during whale season.