Warning: This post is not at all nutrition-related, except that at one point on this trip we enjoyed the turkey sandwiches on whole-grain bread we packed with us. And we drank a lot of water. (Gotta stay hydrated.) That blue dot on the map was where we were staying, btw.
When too many people say “Oh, you have to [do this/go there/eat at this restaurant] I sometimes get suspicious. I felt that way about The Road To Hana, which screamed “tourist trap” to me. But we decided to go, anyway, and upped the ante by choosing to really do the trip right: driving there via the less scenic “back road” and returning via the prettier “touristy road.” While we wouldn’t take the back road again, I was glad we did it once, because it showed us just how diverse Maui’s geography is. It’s not all beaches and lush jungle, oh no. A lot of it is like this:
That’s right. Makes you think of tumbleweeds, doesn’t it? There was a whole lot of not much out here, other than one-lane roads (some paved, some not) and goats and cows and miles and miles of walls built of lava rock:
And a lone, welcome outpost, with a fridge stocked with cold beverages, and rustic restrooms.
But just when you started yearning for green, green was what you got:
I was expecting to see polar bears and a smoke monster. (If I lost you with that reference, it’s a reference to “Lost.” Which was not filmed on Maui, I know that. It was filmed on Oahu.)
Then came a string of parks (some state, some national) with great things like pools…
…and black sand beaches.
Then the road led us over bridges…
…and past more cows. (These friendly bovines were situated right next to a surfing beach.)
Most of our “travel photos” came from this one day trip. Our iPhones were our cameras, and since our rental vehicle was a soft-top Jeep Wrangler, we left our phones locked up in our condo when we drove someplace to snorkel.
So this concludes my Maui wrap-up. We had a great time, and plan to make a return trip someday sooner rather than later! When we do, time permitting, we would do the prettier, more popular part of the Road to Hana again, and would recommend it to others. But don’t let that deter you ;-)
