Swimming, Snorkeling, Road to Hana, Haleakala Crater

Sorry I haven’t given an update for a few days. Obviously we’ve been having a lot of fun. As we’ve been swimming, snorkeling, and playing in the sun, we’ve thought many times about the reports of snow from home. We’ll try to bring some sun home with us on Sunday!

Monday, April 28 we went to the dive shop and rented all of our gear for the week. We followed the guide book we have and stopped at a tiny town called Olowalu. We drove on a dirt road to the mouth of a little canyon, where we then hiked to some petroglyphs.
We drove to Lahaina and enjoyed sightseeing. We saw the old courthouse, the Baldwin House, and Banyon Tree Park.
We had a great lunch at the Front Street Grill, where Ryan was fascinated by Duke Kahanamoku’s surfboard on the wall (his surfing hero).
We visited the old jail and other famous sites in Lahaina, and enjoyed shopping at Hard Rock, Hilo Hattie’s, Crocs, Del Sol, and other favorite stores.

We left Lahaina and went to Ka’anapali Beach/Black Rock Beach. Ryan and I snorkeled, and were thrilled to see a humuhumunukunukuapua’a in person! I thought Ryan was going to inhale half of the ocean as he was trying to get my attention! We also saw several different colors of butterfly fish, a needle nose, several grouper, and even a puffer fish!
That's Ry and me snorkeling in the middle left with the divers in the background.
Tuesday, April 29 had a high surf advisory, so we started the day at the Maui Ocean Center in Ma’alaea. We were able to see the only tiger shark in captivity in North America…
We were fascinated by "the tube"…
And the jellyfish…
We made friends with a gecko on our bench…
And learned that humuhumunukunukuapua’a means triggerfish (humuhumu) with a snout (nukunuku) that looks like a pig (apua’a).
We met Marc and Frances in Lahaina for lunch at Cool Cats Café. Both Monday and Tuesday, we talked with Mani, the newly returned missionary who spoke in the Sacrament Meeting we attended Sunday. He is a fourth generation carver and is set up on Front Street. We bought a turtle and a tiki from him, and he carved our names, the date, and his name into them for us.
We went to Ka’anapali Beach again, but the high surf advisory was still in effect. The surfers loved it, but it wasn’t conducive for snorkeling. So we just played in the surf for a while.
Wednesday, April 30 we took the famous Road to Hana. We enjoyed playing at several different waterfalls…
We were awed by the surf pounding against the lava rock…
We tried breadfruit, and Marc taught Ryan about the extremely non-nutritious, but hilariously fun EZ Cheese…
One of the neatest things we saw was the Black Sand Beach near Hana (that's Ry and me walking into the surf)...
We also saw a very cool red sand beach near the Hana Bay Pier (I'll post a picture later, it's not on a digital camera).

We had heard mixed reviews about the Road to Hana, but we were extremely pleased that we decided to do it.

Thursday, May 1 we drove to the Haleakala Crater. We drove the same route that our friend Kevin ran about a month ago. We went from sea level to 10,000 feet in just a short period of time. As we ascended, we went through a layer of clouds, and ended up above the clouds. It was an amazing view.
We picked up a Junior Ranger booklet for Ryan (we do at every state and national park we visit). We had fun doing the activities and having him “sworn in” at the end of our journey.
The Haleakala Crater was amazing! It is HUGE! The pictures don’t even do it justice. But I’ll share a couple.
As amazing as the crater was, we made it home in time to see the most beautiful sunset tonight! We’ve been out pretty late the past several nights, so it was fun to be home early enough to see it. This was the view of the sunset from our balcony (lanai).