Day Six In Maui

Our 6th day in Maui was looking good weather wise, so this was the day we decided to drive the road to Hana (for those of you not familiar with Maui, the road to Hana is a scenic drive that goes almost all the way around the island… if you can brave the second half of it). We downed a couple aspirin to shake our headaches from the night before, picked up a bunch of water, a few snacks, and we were off. We headed to the town of Paia to get breakfast that day; not only was it on the way to the start of the road, but Paia is where Vince was baptized, so I was looking forward to seeing where that took place  :)

Paia Bay Coffee looked promising

The outside dining area- quaint, but very cool! It was nice

sitting outside, having our coffee, and listening to the birds

We took a quick stroll up & down the main street of Paia

and headed to the beach- this is one of my favorite beaches now

…I played in this tidepool a bit- there were a bunch of

little fish; I had fun wading in and following them around :)

We went down the beach a little further to the spot where

Vince was baptized… He finished the story about how and

why he decided to get baptized… and then… he proposed!!!

What an awesome and totally unexpected surprise that was!

I had NO idea- not even an inkling! Little did I know that he asked

my dad for permission before our trip… I was (and am) so happy!

I have never been with anyone that makes me feel as accepted and as

good about myself as he does, which just makes me love him even more

…wow! Google-eyed and happy, we headed back to the car to start our road trip :)

Our first stop was a pull-off from the road near
the beginning of a beautiful trail into the woods...

…which led us to some fantastic waterfalls & pools

We saw this neat little plant near the trail, and V showed
me something really cool! If you touch their leaves, their leaves 
close up! I felt like a little kid in Narnia hehe

Next stop: rainbow eucalyptus grove- not
super obvious at first, but just wait….

Amazing!

Here we are :)

The road to Hana is definitely not lacking in
picturesque scenery!

This spot made me think of the Garden of Eden

Further along, there was a place that you could
go inside a lava tube (basically a huge underground cave
that was created by flowing lava) - we had to check it out

Heading into the dark...

View looking up

Once we got away from the entrance, it was pitch black down there;
it's a good thing the stand at the beginning provides flashlights! Another
interesting fact about this particular lava tube is that it used to be set up as
a nuclear fallout shelter in case of a serious nuclear event… pretty cool!

There was another short trail that we stopped to walk 
along; talk about awe-inspiring...

Some local flora

It would be interesting to know how many different
varieties of flowers grow on Maui… they are everywhere!

At this point along the highway, the road was pretty
crazy; there are lots of places with one-lane bridges, and
the roads are narrow, windy, hilly, and a little sketchy! Very
neat though. We had just passed a particularly rough part of 
the road when we saw this sign… we decided to stop 
and see if this church was even still in use

As we got closer, we could easily tell that the church
was abandoned, but its place near a cliff with a beautiful view 
of the ocean just beyond the edge made it really stoic and peaceful

This area looked like a green version of the Grand Canyon

Finally nearing the end of the road and (yay!) back on to

pavement. This road trip definitely takes a full day, but it is 

extremely rewarding. We were pretty hungry at this point, so we

headed into Makawao for dinner, headed back to the hotel, and had

a nice relaxing evening before drifting off into blissful sleep- GREAT day!