Maui: Gardenhire vacation 2018

ALOHA!

Welcome to Maui. Gardenhire trip June 2018.

From Salt Lake to Seattle and 6 hours later we land in Hawaii and are welcomed with lais.

Hello vacation.

Day one we woke up at 1:30 to take a bus tour in the dark up to the top of Haleakala, Maui's 10,000 foot volcano to watch the sun rise. It was a once in a life time experience. We were in heaven- or so it felt like it. At the top of the crater, we stood above the clouds. In fact, at that high, it was so cold that we had to wear 3 layers to stay comfortable.

After the sun rose and standing at the edge of this mountain it was as close as I could imagine to standing at the edge of the creation. The beginning of time may have looked much like this.

They took us to the top and then we got to ride to the bottom. All. The. Way. Down.

Weeeeeeee!

We rode through at least 6 climate zones. As we were explained on our tour, Maui has 12 out of the 14 climate zones. Pretty neat, eh?

Pool time!

Barry and Alecia took the family out to a really nice, really $$ fish-house Tuesday night. Our waiter was spunky and unforgettable as was Austin's breath after we ate. He made history that night- he tried 4 different types of fish that night. 4!

Though we didn't get pictures, we had surfing lessons on Thursday. What a blast! And everyone did really well. We all got up and Austin even caught a wave on his own.

Friday was ziplining day. Though we zipped down 8 lines and an entire mountain, I almost think the ATV ride up the train was just as impressive. Those things are amazing! We sped up a 50% rocky incline without feeling a thing. Say what?

Look at that view!

There was one line where they let a few of us go upside down. No other line was remotely scary, but that was a rush. I felt like I could see better without the wind in my eyes. Some lines we were going so fast that we got upto 60 mph with the longest being 3/4 mile long. I guess I stayed upside down a bit too long because I didn't have enough speed going in to the end. Instead of hitting the brake hard, I rolled backwards over the highest line at 640 feet high and just hang until they could rescue me. Oops.

You can't go to Hawaii without snorkeling. Saturday was spent riding a boat to a little island to do just that. The boat ride was a little rough on a few of our tummies, but once we made it to the island, it was awesome. Even Eden wanted to jump in the Ocean and swim. Swim she did and loved every minute.

This looks eerily like St. Kitts. Being in Maui made me realize that everything is relative. Some things are uniform across all islands: rotten, imported, and expensive food; desert looking landscape; hot heat; poverty. What makes the difference is having money, staying in the right place, and for us, being a tourist. Still, it's beautiful and we had a great time.

Our last big adventure was around the other side of the island where we hiked down to a blow hole. What an indescribably beautiful view and cool thing- Eden did great hiking down and had a blast looking for crabs and getting splashed with the water. The blow hole sprayed upwards of maybe 30 feet and quite resembled a geyser.

Crabs!

I think we saw a rainbow at least once every day, often doubles. 

Now I know why there are rainbows on the Hawaii license plate and that song makes a lot more sense. We found the place "somewhere over the rainbow."