So today, after my mornin' shift I called up my friend Kara and we took off for a mid-day adventure before I had to work at five.
She scooped me up around noon and we coasted down Haleakala, thru Kahalui and over to Wailuku to arrive at Iao Valley State Park. She is just learning to drive her stick-shift Maui cruiser- a real beaut, purple canvas top tracker- totally rad. After freakin' out the whole way looking at our destination, we hiccuped to a stop at the trail head parking gate and asked the gentleman how much parking would cost. He took one look at the car and said- "Residents?" Shes new here too and we both laughed as we realized, "Why yes, we are residents!" After stalling out and starting back up we found a parking spot and headed into the jungleeeeeeee.
Holy smokes. Its days like these that I cannot freakin' believe that I actually live here. We walked around the paved trails and admired the beautiful flora and streams. We stared in awe at the Iao Valley and the West Maui Mountains and hiked our way up to the look-out of the "spike"(http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/maui/index.cfm?park_id=36)
We climbed back down- did some off trail jungle climbin' and then turned back to find a map so we could get to some good swimmin' pools. We headed back toward the trailhead and then went around back to the other side of the towering, steep mountainside. After hikin' through the jungle for a bit, we found a beautiful little swimming hole in the stream. When we were walking out- we saw some older ladies doin' a hula dance, I've never seen a real hula and it was like watching a story unfold.
We sat in the stream on super hot rocks and chatted for a while. I really like Kara. We get along really well and she is a really neat girl. Right behind where we were sitting, she spotted some mayyyybe lilikoi trees (a kind of passion fruit- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/ways-to-eat-lilikoi_n_3921303.html) . Even though the fruits smelled and looked right, the seedy-fruit inside wasn't the same color as any of the lilikoi fruit we'd seen before. So we took the ones we picked and saved them in our packs to ask before we ate them.
We headed back to Kahalui to eat some dank sandwiches before I had to work at 5. We went to Maui Coffee Roasters (http://www.mauicoffeeroasters.com/) and I got a Basmato sandwich and a side salad- SOOOOO GOOD- by far the best, totally loaded side salad I've ever had. Greens, tomatoes, sprouts, cukes and more. YUM.
The parents were off to some friends for dinner so I got to eat some pizza with the boys and put them to bed. Now, its time for me to get some ZZzzzZZzzz before I work and open my first Hawaiian credit union account tomorrow. Yippeee!
Aloha Pumehana,
Betsy
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