So, this day was fraught with indecision - but it turned out well anyway. Knowing it was our last real day on Maui, we kind of lingered, enjoying our oceanfront room and the grounds of the Ka'anapoli Shores resort (OK - I'm going to drop the apostrophes from here on out - trusting that only family is really reading this - and I'll be forgiven if anyone even notices. I kind of like the native authenticity of properly spelling and apostrophe'ing everything, but trying to get everything right is driving me nuts).
Based on my need to hit all of the beaches I thought we should hit, we went north to Oneloa Beach just on the other side of Kapalua. It seemed like a great beach - but the wind and waves would have killed us. Seriously. No one was at the beach and we were starting to worry that our last day might not be a beach day. Suzy suggested we head south - which kind of threw my agenda out the window - but she was right, and we did so.
It takes a bit over an hour to get from Kapalua to Wailea, but it was worth it - we parked at the public lot and hit Wailea beach for a few hours - we snorkeled and saw our third sea turtle (Paige's first - and the biggest at that!), and had our lunch before deciding, early afternoon (which all the guidebooks say is a no-no), to dip our toes in the water of the road to Hana.
We were very glad we did, although by my calculations we maybe made it about halfway before turning back. If the second half is as much fun as the first half, we'll finish it next time. People had given us mixed opinions about this - but if you like fantastic, unseen-elsewhere scenery mixed with LOTS of diverse hiking options (most with hidden waterfalls as destinations, it seemed to us) - the road to Hana is supercool.
Thanks again to "Maui Revealed", I targeted our first stop at 1-6/10 mile past the 5 mile marker - no signage, only a tight dirt turnout shoved up against a bamboo forest. Suzy was a bit reluctant to hop the wire fence where there was a break in the bamboo, but the kids scrambled right over so we had to follow.
We made our way down the hill along a sliding, slippery mud path through the bamboo, down to a stream (I want to call it a river, but really shouldn't).
It took us awhile to figure out how to cross - because at the time I didn't realize that it was private land that we didn't have permission specifically granted to, so I figured there had to be an easy way - finally I submerged to waist-high water and helped everyone else swim/walk across the flowing (rushing?) water.
From there, it was navigating the trail through the bamboo and rocky pathways, to two fantastic waterfalls, one of which had a great swimming pool below that Alex and Paige enjoyed. There apparently are two more falls beyond, but we were satisfied with the ones that we saw (and, though the rest of us may qualify, I had a hard time considering Ford an "Advanced" hiker).
The payoff:
We headed back to the car and kept driving. We hit a few more shorter trails, but the first one was probably the highlight of the entire vacation for the kids. One of the trails identified in the Maui Revealed book had a very strict "No Trespassing" sign covering it and the very smelly, rotting remains of some sort of animal (by the looks of the jawbone, I'd identify it as a cross between an antelope and a wolf - but I'm not sure if those exist in the middle of the Pacific. Guess I'm not sure they exist anywhere, but that's what it looked like. I can still imagine the horrible smell.) - so we didn't take that trail.
The rest of the road to Hana, including our return, consisted of banana bread (two stops at the same shack), and watching surfers between driving along the beautifully winding road. Again, supercool and we will return some day.
We ate at BJ's Pizza in Lahaina that night, and were glad we did. BJ's is situated justlike Cheeseburger in Paradise is - on the top floor of a two story building along Front Street (the main drag along the coast in Lahaina), completely open to the outdoors and oceanfront. Great atmosphere and feel, and we were glad we did it. Great end to a great last full day on Maui.
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