Maui (eric's perspective)

Aloha.

I think Jaime and I were on different trips. First of all, we didn't go to Maui, we went to Oahu, and we didn't camp in a van, we rented a convertible Mustang like all the other fat mainlanders.

I kid. Jaime is not crazy (on the day of her posting) and I admit, the bugs ate dinner with us some evenings, but otherwise, it was pretty awesome. Imagine driving around a mountainous, beach-surrounded tropical island in your little mobile home, stopping wherever and whenever you darn well please while still maintaining a better turning radius than the aforementioned over-rented Mustang convertibles. The theme of our trip was T.F.D.I. (Totally friggin' doin' it), and that we did.

Because we didn't need to return to a "home base" hotel room each night, we got to take in a lot more of the island, soaking up much more outside time and seeing many more obscure roads and places. I'd have to say my favorite part of the trip was just being the driver. Driving on narrow, winding cliff-side roads, up the volcano, on the beach, windows always down, bob on the radio = good times and very therapeutic for me for some reason. Some people relax by sitting on the beach with a book, and we did plenty of that too (I re-read Catcher in the Rye on the trip), I enjoy driving as long as the weather and location are beautiful. We had both. Jaime's right, people did think we were locals in the van, which makes a surprising difference on the road. On two occasions, we picked up hitchhikers on the way into Pa'ia, and especially the second time, after our skin had seen plenty of sun, we had them fooled. You can sense a bit of a feeling of disdain and resentment from the locals that their economy heavily relies on the predictable touristy escapades of aloha shirt clad mainlanders. Personally, my goal was to see the island while avoiding the typical and commercial.

I'll post some of my favorite photos here (as soon as I get them on my new computer), and encourage you in the meantime to see the whole batch on my facebook album HERE.

Camping on Maui (Jaime's Perspective)

Well, we went to Maui. We booked this trip about nine months ago, and it finally happened. So we rented a VW Westfalia camper van (alohacampers.com) for a week and bummed around the island. OK, I thought it was great and I loved the trip, but I kind of got tricked into a week long camping trip - we showered at the beach. But I did really truly love it (despite the bugs and no AC).

This is a picture of Eric being BLASTED by the Nakalele Blowhole (taken by my phone). He was soaked, it was really funny. This was a few miles before we got to the Olivine Pools.

We found these Olivine Pools (mentioned above) which were little pools in the lava rock, mere feet away from the angry ocean, but really calm. This was around Kahakuloa. (Side note: the "world's best banana bread" stand around there, not so amazing- my banana bread is better.) We went swimming and here is me, wet.

This is us on our drive up to the Hosmer Gove Campground in Haleakala Nat'l Park (about 6,000 ft). It was so beautiful and we actually got a break from the heat.


When we woke up, we went to the summit of Haleakala (10,000 ft.) to see the sunrise. I would highly recommend this. It was super early, but so beautiful and totally worth the wake up (especially since I was waking up at 6:30 every day due to the time change).

Pa'ia: So I don't think we got any photos (I drew the picture below if you couldn't tell), but our favorite town on the whole island was Pa'ia. It's a funky little fun town right as you begin the Road to Hana. We had pizza at this delicious pizza place called The Flatbread Company, the best food we had on the island. I would recommend sticking with the basic pizza (but other choices are delish), and their salad is amazing. There is also an awesome beach on the west side of town by a youth center. There are decent sized waves and good surfers, etc. and the surf was especially wild when we were there.

On the road to Hana we hiked through this bamboo forest with really cool waterfalls. Yay, my cute Eric.

So here was our living arrangements. I would recommend staying in one of these for a few nights at a time and then get a hotel every third or fourth night. I don't like bugs and they seemed to get into the van during dinner time. No Thank you. But it was really awesome because you have your rental car and hotel in one, and you can just pull over and park at most beaches and camp for the night, like this beach on Ahihi Bay. And the locals think that you're local, so they're nicer.

Also, stupid wild roosters will wake you up every morning if you are camping.

Here is our view from our hotel room in Wailea - SWEET - that we stayed at our last night (my birthday) in Maui. Unfortunately, by this time, I was done with nice views and just wanted to relax in my air conditioned hotel room with TV. But we had an awesome dinner on our balcony with lots of Pineapple!!!! YUM!
This is my birthday present from Eric: A trip to Maui and a Dinosaur Tattoo. Intimidating, huh?

Also, for the record, Lahaina is overrated, but we really liked the HUGE Banyan tree that's preserved downtown. And we found a secret beach (unless you're local) with a view of Bali Hi (it wasn't really but looked similar. South Pacific, anyone? Anyone?)

Being all manly and building it myself

Spent an hour at home depot walking around measuring stuff with measuring tape WHICH I BROUGHT MYSELF AND CLIPPED TP THE OUTSIDE OF MY POCKET as to make perfectly clear that a) i knew what the crap i was doing, b) i do this all the time, and c) i mean business. Or at least attempt to give that impression and have loads of fun playing make believe.

Walked out with some lumber (not "wood"), hardware and stain, among other raw/manly odds and ends.

More on this later. I'm going to go kill an aggressive animal and eat it as a midnight snack. You just wait.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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ketchup

dear blog,
I owe you posts. All kinds of stuff has happened, i swear.

Hold me to these:

• Jaime's total surprise birthday party
• Maui amok running
• music this and that
• dog poo left of the living room floor, and it wasn't annie's fault.
  

excited? sorry for the neglect. been very busy. honest.

love,
eric