We woke up to a beautiful rainbow outside of our hotel on Maui this morning. We took lots of photos, but I like this one Karen took the best.

As we were driving to the airport Hunt noticed how lovely the West Maui Mountains looked. I stopped the car and got out and looked both ways before carefully crossing the highway to get this picture. It was worth it.

Tropical storm Flossie caused a lot of flight cancellations, but not ours. In fact, I think that most of the inter-island flights were not as affected as flights to and from the mainland. Our flight was uneventful. Either I worried just enough to stave off disaster, or I worried for no reason at all.

The weather service is predicting a couple of days of (possibly heavy) rain – which has already started. So far it is not constantly raining.

We are in a condo outside of Lihue, on the 3rd floor. Our view is nice and the condo is spacious, clean, and comfortable.

Hunt found a great place for dinner on Trip Advisor – Chicken in a Barrel! It's a BBQ shack by the side of the road in Kapa'a. It was so very, very good!

Karen inspired me to find fun settings on my camera… this looks lke the 1950s, don't you think? That's Karen, Hunt, and Steve at the window, ordering.

Hunt took this picture of me. It's funny, I think I can see a bit of my sister, Christy, in my face in this photo. I don't usually see that.

We can't see the ocean from our condo so after eating, we walked to the nearby shore. The waves were up farther out. Here's Hunt, on the rocks, contemplating taking it in.

We're not really sure what we're doing tomorrow. The hikes we had planned are not good on rainy days. We're batting around a variety of ideas and surely by morning, something will rise to the top.

Tropical storm Flossie is headed our way. I am the designated worrier – no need for all of us to worry. I did my job and worried all day yesterday. This morning is blowy, no rain yet. Lots of warnings. We should fly from Maui to Kaui before the storm gets here. Our flight is still on schedule. But I am scanning the sky – and internet – for any signs if trouble. It may be that we get to the airport and then don't go. If we do go I'll continue to do my job and worry us all the way to Kaui.

We went back to Kahekili beach to snorkel yesterday. Karen took some underwater photos. That's Steve, or part of him…

Hunt gave us a scare, but managed to survive…

Karen was very impressed!

We have visitied happy hours, every day. Mai Tai's are very nice.

And we all took pictures, except for Steve. He's mostly enjoying life without feeling the need to do a lot. It's refreshing. He has, however, fed us more than once. What a man!

I have to go pack now, for the flight that I hope does take us to Kauai.

We went to a fantastic beach today. Ka'anapali beach park is over by all of the more expensive resorts. No wonder – the beach is amazing. There is one part that is better for snorkeling and that's where we went today. I didn't take many pictures, but a few are really nice.

This one of Karen is fantastic. It makes me wonder why I so seldom strike a pose. I really need to do that!

We went to the very fine mall next to the beach after lunch. Here's Steve in front of the Louis Vitton window. We're going back for more photos here tomorrow. Doesn't this look minty!

Karen's camera has a cool feature where you can tell it to see one color and shoot everything else in black and white. Here, she had programed it to see blue…

And here we are with the same camera setting. Cool, don't you think? We're going to do that more tomorrow too.

We have one more day on Maui, then it's on to Kauai! 

There are bumper stickers and t-shirts that declare "I survived the road to Hana!" We did and we all want the shirts. From Lahaina we estimate that it was about 80 miles to the Maui Stable where Hunt and Karen were supposed to be at 9:45. We left at 7:15 and arrived late, by about an hour. 

What is it about this road? I drove on the way out. It is insanely windy, and narrows to one lane often. The speed limit is 35 tops. The average speed might be 18 miles an hour. Or less. I have driven this with 12 students in a 14 passenger van during a wind storn where trees came down across the road. This was way better but still, it's not a Sunday drive. I have no pictures.

After dropping Hunt and Karen off to ride the horses (we are not horse people) we went to the black sand beach.

Then we went to the red sand beach, a place we had never visited. It's small, out of the way, not easy to find, and there were very few people. Luckily we met some folks who were leaving as we got there who point us to to the easy way down. 

We sat and admired the veiw. There wasn't a place to really swim but there was a shady place to eat lunch. We enjoyed it. 

At 1:30 we went back to get Hunt and Karen. They had had a great time on the horses. Not being a horse lover all I can do is be happy that they are happy. And I was.

Charles Lindbergh is buried within walking distance of Maui Stables so we visited his grave. Then we went back to the black sand beach at Hana because, really, they needed to go there too. We all got in the water except Karen, who sat with our stuff and emabraced not moving. She was still a bit nauseated by the Hana Highway drive in and was not looking forward to the drive home. This time the Dramamine helped. The next photo was taken on the way out.

80 miles. On the mainland, in Texas, that is 1 1/4 hours, tops. Here it can be a whole lot longer. We were gone almost 12 hours exactly. Tomorrow is a relaxing beach day. Perfect.

As I type this, Karen is asleep. Steve is reading. Hunt is playing the ukulele. After I post this, I am showering and going to bed. It sounds really nice, just like a vacation….

We (me, Steve, Karen, and Hunt) woke up before 6:00 this
morning and went out to sit on the sea wall and enjoy the view – with coffee
and cameras. It was wonderful!

We left Lahaina at 7:30 to drive to Haiku for our bicycle
trip down Haleakala. We did not do the sunrise tour because 1) we didn’t want
to get up at 2:30 AM and 2) Steve and I have done that before and were not
exactly impressed. Later was better.

 Haleakala is the tall, extinct volcano on Maui. The summit
is 10,023 feet above sea level. Our tour took us to the summit for a walk
around at the summit.

Steve and I have done the 12 mile hike across the crater 4
times. It is an amazing site. Like a brown moonscape. The views of the crater
from the top are very nice. I can tell you that the views from the crater are
better but it is a hard hike to see them. We took lots of pictures…

We went back down to 6500 feet to get on the bikes. Bike
companies used to put people out at the summit but after 3 people died in 2007,
the national park service put a stop to that. Probably for good reason. It's scary enough from here.

We were decked out in helmets that resembled those worn by the storm troopers in Star Wars. Found out later that the brakes on the bikes are replaced every two weeks. They should be.

 It's downhill 98% of the way. Very little pedaling. I kept my eyes on the road and only looked around when we stopped. That's when we took pictures. It was a lovely ride and one that I have no desire to do again.

 Hunt and I are the drivers on the rental car. We need two drivers and normally it would be Steve and not mre for one of them. But he is in full vacation mode and I have also driven these roads before (successfully). It's sort of weird because when it is me and Steve in the car, he is the default driver. Not unusual for a married couple. The only down side is that now I am one of the two possible designated drivers – and that's OK. I didn't need more rum drinks this evening anyway :-).

We stopped on the way back to Lahaina at a scenic overlook. Here's the guys, looking manly.

And, because my mom is reading the blog to keep up with our
trip:

Hi, Mom! We’re all fine. Off on another adventure tomorrow. I'll post more tomorrow if I can. Love you, Becky

I had hoped to post this from the plane on the way to Maui, but the plane did not have wifi. Sigh. So I am sending this from my hotel in Lahaina. I've been up a very long time but am not ready to sleep…

Chris, Steve, and I worked on the bathroom yesterday. I think you can tell from Chris' face that he is really ready to be done with this project. Luckily, we made great progress!

The toilet works! The sink works! 

The tub and shower work. Jack has already deposited what I hope are all of his bath toys into the tub. 

The trim is in, caulked and primed. We got the new door hung – that took a while. And the new linen closet that opens into the hall (rather than the bathroom) has shelves. The door isn't in yet but the closet works.

When we get home, we'll finish the rest. I believe I'll be painting.

This morning, at DFW airport we walked through this glass maze…

It was pretty on the inside.

We got on the plane and were only 45 minutes late taking off – at about 1:00 in the afternoon. After 8 hours in the air and a 5 hour time difference (earlier) we arrived on Maui at 3:30 in the afternoon. It's just odd. We met our friends, Karen and Hunt, drove to Lahaina and checked in to the Makai Inn.

It is quaint and fun and only the bedrooms are air conditioned. We are all very happy to be sleeping in cooler air. The living area is too hot to be in for very long. However, the patio and seawall are beautiful – and we shouldn't be inside that much anyway! Tomorrow we are doing the bike ride down Haleakala. I'll have photos – not taken while I am actually riding the bike!