Haleakala Crater Sunrise and Bicycle

Back when we first started telling people we were moving to Hawaii, we got to hear a lot of people's stories from the trips they had taken to Oahu and the other islands.  One excursion that kept coming up was Haleakala Crater and the activities that surround it.  The crater itself is MASSIVE.  It makes up 75% of Maui with a peak of 10,000 feet.  Though it hasn't been active since the 17th century, it's pretty crazy to imagine lava flowing out and down the side of it.

One of the activities suggested to us was to do the sunrise bicycle tour of Haleakala.  We ended up going with Haleakala Bicycle Company after reading a lot of reviews and they were a good group.  The bikes were better than some of the others we saw (9-speed vs. single-speed) and a comfortable bus ride to the top.  We had to meet at the bike shop at 3 am (ouch!) to check in and get our cold gear.  We took the long ride up the crater in the dark, getting some of the history and stories of the crater from our driver on the way up.

We finally got to the summit and it was still an hour and a half before sunrise.  Apparently the parking lots fill up and once they're full, you're out of luck so the buses get there early.  We were a little worried we wouldn't see the sunrise because a front had come through the night before, bringing a lot of clouds and rain.  Lo and behold, there was no sunrise.  At the time the sunrise should have been, one of the park workers sings out a sunrise chant to bring in the day, but there was nothing to see and it was FREEZING.  We couldn't believe how cold it was and were very grateful for the heavy duty wind breaker jackets and pants the company provided.

After getting everyone back on board, we rode the short ride out of the national park at the summit to a pull-off where we met the bike trailers.  We were fitted up with our bikes and off we went.  It was a really nice, easy bike ride since it was 95% downhill for 24 miles.

We stopped at one point to try and get breakfast, but the small shop was overwhelmed.  Instead, we went to the adjacent general store and grabbed a light snack.  We pedaled the rest of the way back to the bike shop in about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Our top speed was about 30 mph, but overall we kept a pretty good pace.  There were 3 uphill sections that got the heartrate up, but overall was a very easy and relaxing ride.  But, it had been quite a while since either of us had ridden a bike and, boy, were my sit-bones sore!  Totally worth it though, I would definitely do this again.  Once we checked back in at the bike shop, we went next door and got a pretty tasty breakfast.

The rest of the day we relaxed at our cottage on the cliff, soaked my sore bones in the hot tub, and got a nice nap after getting up at 2 am.  We went back into Paia that evening for dinner and got to walk around, checking out the little shops around the town.  The next day was our adventure to Hana, but I'll save that for another post.  Until next time, aloha!

Mini Maui Vacation

Ever since we moved to Oahu, everyone has been telling us we needed to get off-island and see the other islands.  While we've wanted to do this for the past year, the logistics of having time off and someone to watch Molly have kept us from traveling.  So, with a lot of planning in advance, we had decided to take a long weekend at Easter to see Maui and celebrate Joe's birthday.

We took off on a Friday morning after leaving Molly at a doggie daycare and boarding place for the weekend.  The flight itself was only about 40 minutes long, but we flew through a front getting there and had a bouncy ride.  We had reserved a convertible for the weekend, so after arriving to Maui we got to pick our Camaro convertible out (I picked the red one...) and off we went.

The closest town to our cottage was Paia, a small, but very cute and active town on the north shore of Maui with lots of shops and restaurants.  We stopped for lunch at a place called Rock & Brews and in a "what a small world" moment, our waitress was from Richmond and had lived 3 blocks from me while we lived in the Fan District.  The food was great and it was a very fun atmosphere.

The place Joe had found was a great little spot on Airbnb, a little cottage on a 300 foot cliff at the beginning of the Hana Highway.  It was very quiet, very secluded, and allowed for gorgeous views.  That being said, it was 30 minutes from the closest town so we had to pick up a few essentials from the store.  So, by the time we had lunch and stopped at the store, it was time to check-in.  Good thing too, because at about that time the front we had flown through had caught up to us and the rain began.  We had been worried all week that it would rain all weekend, but luckily it was just for the first day.  We had some great views of the thunderstorm off-shore from our little cottage and, honestly, it was just nice to relax.  Our cottage was pretty much off the cell phone grid, so we were able to just relax and unwind the first night.

The next couple blog posts will talk about our excursions on the island, but I figured I could talk about the food on this one...

All our dinners were in Paia, and they were all good.  We ate at a pizza place called flatbreads on Saturday night and we both thoroughly enjoyed our meals.  It was a surprisingly large place, but they seemed to have trouble keeping up with orders as the night went on.  Despite that, it was quite tasty.  

Our best meal by far had to be at Mama's Fish House.  I had heard rave reviews of this restaurant on the Food Network and by people that had visited the island, so we had to check it out.  It's a bit on the high-end of the Maui restaurant market, but we were celebrating Joe's birthday and it was very much worth it.  I to a macademia nut encrusted, crab and lobster stuffed mahi mahi which was out of this world.  Joe got a filet mignon (not a big seafood fan), but his was outstanding as well.  We also had to try their Mai Tais, which they were very well known for.  Again, outstanding.  We highly recommend this restaurant if you get the chance to visit Maui, but make reservations as far out as possible.

We had an overall great trip to Maui and loved seeing how different it was from Oahu.  There is just so much more space, so many less people, and it just feels so much more natural and beautiful.  It's also so much easier to see the landscape even from just the car, it's beautiful.  Coming back to Oahu was a sad reminder of how over-crowded the island is and has us looking forward to our next off-island adventure.  Be on the lookout for the next couple of blog posts to hear about our Haleakala Crater adventure and our drive on the Highway to Hana.