Today was slated to be a lazy day...but it didn't turn out to be.Due to jet lag, I woke up at 3:30am. Ugh. I forced myself to go back to sleep...and woke up at 5:30am. I figured I might as well get up and start the day, even though it was very comfy in the bed. It's a "Westin Heavenly Bed", triple sheeted along with a fluffy duvet, and lots of pillows including down-filled ones.
We had breakfast in the villa and ventured out to take a stroll on the beach. We headed north, passing the Honua Kai and made it up to where the beach started to disappear and get rocky, near a condo complex called Mahana. The wind was blustery this morning; we were fighting against it when we turned around to head back to our resort. I was hoping it wouldn't stay windy all week.
We eat lunch in the condo and decide to head into the main town to go to Walmart and pick up some things, as I forgot to pack my beach bag. We buy one, plus a couple of thin velour beach towels, my favorite dried mangoes (7D brand), and other munchies. The "Maui Revealed" guidebook said that a really good shave ice establishment called Aloha Shave Ice was in the town of Paia, which was 7 miles further. We decide to drive out there to partake. 7 miles felt like a long way as we were passing expanses of sugar cane fields. We get to the shop and ordered the "Jumbo" size, with ice cream on the bottom and mango, lychee and pina colada syrups on top. (no azuki beans or condensed milk available, boo hoo) Boy it was jumbo! The huge ball of shave ice seemed to defy gravity. "Be the ball." I forgot to take a picture of it before we attacked it; what is shown has 1/3 of it eaten. The ice was shaved very fine, and the syrups popped with flavor. The store had an "FAQ" posted on the wall with questions like "What is lychee flavor?" and the answer was something along the lines that it was an exotic fruit and to stick with "normal" flavors if you weren't sure you were going to like the flavor! There was another question: "Do you sell shave ice?"; the answer was something like "Yes, you walked into a shave ice store." Can't believe people would ask these questions. I should have taken a picture of the FAQ.The town of Paia is very hippie-like. I was not surprised to find a co-op there, called Mana Foods. We went in to browse the products. It's like your normal co-op: a lot of organic produce, organic and/or hard-to-find grocery products, incense, spices, bulk foods, energy bars, you get the picture. The produce section had lychee...yay! We were waiting to check out with this one item. The lady in front of us bought around $200 worth of groceries. She got a free reusable bag for spending $150, but she already brought a ton of them with her, so she gave it to me, how generous! The bag came in handy for the beach later in the week. :)
We impulsively decide to go on an adventure. The guidebook mentions a hike to a blowhole up on the north side of the island. Normally, people would drive there from the Kaanapali side on a nice highway, but we (foolishly?) decided to drive up the other way since we were coming from Paia, along a twisty windy road. It had looked shorter on the map! There were areas where only one car could fit through against the side of a mountain. Not for the faint of heart. Almost 2 hours later, we get to the trailhead for the hike. It's 5pm and the sun was starting its descent towards the horizon. I wasn't sure if we'd make it in and out before dark, but we went anyway. The clouds were also threatening to drop rain on us. I was wearing flip flops too, not the best for hiking over lava that looks like an alien landscape, but I persevered. The hike wasn't too long and we were rewarded with a blowhole show, as it was high tide. It erupted several stories in the air and I was not comfortable getting to close to it, but Babe was more courageous. We eventually make it back to the condo in one piece, before darkness settled in. Whew, what a day, so much for being lazy! Good thing a spa morning is planned for tomorrow!
