50!

Aloha! Mahalo! and everything in between. I have officially hit all 50 states and was greeted with a rainbow. Woot!

Maui is beautiful and like a foreign land. After a fairly rough 6 hour flight ending with a nauseating bumpy landing, we finally arrived in Maui. We spent our first night at the Royal Lahaina Resort. Today, we checked into our condo rental for the next week. It's a very nice two level condo in a fairly "trashy" area of Kihei. Oh well, Aloha.

So we are settled into the condo and even got some groceries. I haven't been feeling well since landing in Hawaii. My head is pounding with a relentless headache compounded by a bit of a stomach ache and the occasional nausea. Not fun.

Despite the dreckitude headache, David and I drove around the northern portion of Maui. Starting in Lahaina, we took on the "Rugged North Coast." It was stunning and well worth the hours of very narrow, extremely dangerous winding roads - some parts with only one narrow lane. Naturally, what I loved most was the very few visitors venture this way so we saw very few others. Those who were also there surely admired the stunning vistas, heart dropping cliffs, rugged shoreline and the vast ocean below. For a bit more info, check out: http://gohawaii.about.com/od/maui/ss/west_maui_north.htm

The drive was broken up with a short and amazing hike from the road to the magnificent cliffs to "Mushroom Rock." Yes, Mushroom Rock. I guess it looks like a mushroom... maybe if you are on mushrooms. The vertical drops below us were quite vast.



(Olivine Pools at the bottom of the rocky hill)

We also hiked a moderate distance down a fairly steep wall of rocks to venture into the Olivine Pools. (see them in the distance in the photo above) These natural pools are amazing. The lava rock creates and shields the calm pools from the wild ocean. Waves were crashing into the rocks every few seconds sending huge amounts of splash up and around the pools. The water in some of the small pools was cold but one of the larger pools had fairly warm water. The area was absolutely amazing and an incredible experience. There were other people there when we arrived but left shortly after we took a dip in the water. The experience was very exhilarating. Check this out: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/maui/html/sites/olivine_pools.html

We stopped at numerous other lookouts along the drive, each offering stunning vistas and each different than the last. We also found an incredible giftshop on the top of a hill, far from anything else. It was an artist coop with reasonable prices for very nice items. We picked up a few choice items and went on our way.

I'm really hoping to feel 100% soon to take advantage of more hiking and swimming.

To see all of Maui day 2 (and some 1) photos, check out:
http://bit.ly/aJd4xN