Maui Part 3. Thursday


Woooo! Thursday was a packed adventure day!

Ate the Cinnamon Roll
We stopped by The Cinnamon Roll Place and grabbed a roll to take back to the lanai. Perfectly decadent!




Shopped the Shops
There was lots of shopping at Kalama Village's many booths. Without a lot of room for souvenirs, it was mostly browsing, but I got a cute local-artist-designed pin for my travel backpack!


And this apropros magnet by the same artist:

We were both tempted by this cute handbag



Drank the Maui Brew
Well, one of us did. We had a nice lunch, brewski, and mocktail at Maui Brewing Company. Split a sammy and an elote! Delish!



Milked the Goats
Surfing Goat Dairy in the upcountry town of Paia was a blast! Plenty of big 'n little goats! Baby goats, daddy goat, mama goats, and to-be mama goats waiting for our hands to milk them. 

Who doesn't love goats!?

Toasted Coconut was a single baby to her mama and only three weeks old. Huge!

Hemingway, the stinky daddy













Thanking our sweet subject

Lastly, the fruits of goaties' labors. Chèvre, liliko'i goat cheesecake, and goat milk truffles.



Missed the Beach
No beach day today!


Made the Boat!
Holy Cow!

We had scheduled the Dairy and a sunset boat cruise on the same day, thinking an hour was plenty of time for the half-hour drive between them. 

Ha. There was an auto accident on our route.

Our map app kept showing later and later on the arrival time. Once we were a mile and a half from the harbor, it was saying we had 45 minutes left. What the heck.

We tried calling the boat people. We tried calling the harbor.

Should we abandon the car and walk/run? Should I drive on the shoulder? 

We fretted. We wailed. We hoped. We cursed.

"We're not going to make it." 

"We might make it."

"They are going to leave without us!"

"Other guests might also be in this mess! Have faith!

"It's ok. It wasn't meant to be." 

"Maybe they'll have mercy and give us a refund."

"They'll call us! Don't worry!" 

"Damn."

"Damn!"


We watched as a tow truck, and then an ambulance, pass by on the shoulders. 



We watched cars turn around. We watched people drive on the median/shoulder. 

We fretted some more.

Finally, I spotted the turn-off to the harbor, just a little ahead. It was time to veer left and take the non-road less taken and get there already!

We zoomed the last bit, (safely) squealed around curves, and pulled into the parking lot just as the cruise people were calling us! They ushered us to a parking spot dock-side, and as we ran to the dock ramp to board the Pride of Maui, I zipped up my dress that I had wedged myself into during the slow slog. 

We made the boat!

It was a beautiful sunset cruise.  Hawaiian dancers danced to a man playing guitar. We were served a nice dinner and cocktails. It was the most beautiful sunset we had had yet. We had a great time! 
















A leeeetle windy on the way back to harbor.








Maui Part 2. Wednesday

We woke up Wednesday, stuffed a bunch of tropical fruits in the blender, and had yummy smoothies for brekkie on the lanai. 

Then we loaded up the chairs and cooler, stopped at Foodland for poke, and headed for Ulua Beach, one of my OG favies.

It's a popular beach, but we found plenty of parking and a nice spot on the beach in the shade. A bit of reading, a bit of people watching, a bit of snorkeling, and a lot of relaxing. 





See the li'l guy peeking out from the coral's 1:00 position?



When the wind picked up we headed down to the lava fields. We found Ahihi-kina'u preserve and lava field and made the short walk to a small black-sand beach, passing ancient ruins on the way.
No, I didn't pee my pants! Wet swimsuit and headed out!








Of course, we needed refreshment after all that! Ululani's was just the ticket. Another day, another shave ice. 



Of course, a Maui sunset!


We had overheard another tourist talk about a honu haul-out just down the beach from our condo complex, so after the sunset we walked down, stopping around where we thought they might be. Soon we saw little turtle heads poking out. We had been lucky enough to find the exact right spot to watch them come onto the beach for the night. Such magnificent animals!




It got dark before we continued on down the beach a bit, where we found the pathway toward Nalu's, a wonderful restaurant where we enjoyed Loco Moco (Annette) and Ono (me). 



The short walk home took us back to the condo and to bed!