Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to Maui (2014)--Day 19
5/23/2014
The picture taking expedition continued today, with Iao Valley State Park being our primary objective. I thought that, with the trade wind machine turned off--winds are light and generally from the southeast--the customary cloudy conditions I always seem to find up there wouldn't exist. Boy, was I right! It was the first time in eight visits to this park I was able to take shots in nearly total sunshine. When the sun is shining, this park is amazing!
View toward the bridge crossing the Iao Stream
Iao Needle
And a close-up look at the Needle.
There are several paths in this park. After taking the path to the closest Iao Needle viewpoint, we crossed back over the Iao Stream.
Looking down at the stream from the bridge
And then we took up on a trail lower down near the stream
Iao Stream
A better view of the Stream
After leaving the Iao Valley, we moved on to Waiehu Beach Park, located between Kahului and Waihe`e. Thanks to excellent directions in the book "Maui Trailblazer", finding this beach was easy. I don't think many tourists know of this little place, located nearby the Waiehu golf course--it appeared to be all locals here. Not wanting to intrude, we hung back, took a few pictures and moved on.
Looking north toward Kahakuloa
View of the West Maui Mountains
At this point we were prepared to continue on to Kanaha, Spreckelsville, Baldwin and Ho`okipa beaches, but with the winds as they are today, the customary visual feast of wind surfers and kite boarders would have been nowhere in sight, so we decided to cut our trip short and return to Lahaina. Along the way, we stopped at Ruby's in the Maui Mall and Patty bought some chicken strips for lunch. This allowed me to feast on the four leftover strips of pizza from last night's meal at Porto.
Staff at Lahaina Shores have always been so friendly, and this trip has been no exception! Despite the fact they couldn't help us with anything "officially" due to us booking our room through Chase N Rainbows, they've always been eager to talk story with us about a wide variety of things. With Allison on vacation the past two weeks, Bill has filled the void very well, and Kaulana has also been a real treat to chat with. Ann is a little more shy than the others, but everyone working the registration desk has the Aloha spirit going on.
We drove to Kihei and Three's Bar & Grill for dinner tonight--it's a good thing I printed out these maps prior to leaving Duluth! With map in hand, Three's was easy to find. Without a map, it would have been considerably more difficult to find as there are no obvious visual clues as you drive down South Kihei Road.
You have three choices of seating here; inside, in the bar area, and outside. We should have chosen outside seating, but Patty was concerned about flies. It was loud inside, and the seating isn't exactly intimate. We were seated at a table for two, right next to a table of six. We could hear nearly everything they said, and vice versa.
But that was the only drawback to our experience. The service was friendly, helpful, upbeat and prompt. Patty got the Big Island Natural Beef Burger, and I had the Hawaiian Jambalaya, which included kalua pork, Portuguese sausage and chicken. Fantastic! My Caesar Salad was equally impressive.
Hawaiian Jambalaya; great taste, big portion--what else could one want?
Back at the room, we hit the hot tub for about an hour. Putting my scraped up knee in the hot water is uncomfortable, so there wasn't much point in staying there longer.
Previous: 5/22/2014--Our Trip to Maui (2014)--Day 18
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