Haleakala Volcanic Crater

I'm back! Hello all! Time to talk about Maui.

About a week ago I went to Maui with a coworker to visit Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge. We weren't even there for two full days, so we didn't see much of Maui, but on Thursday we were given a vehicle and drove up to Haleakala.

It took us quite a while to get up there, because it was a very twisty road, with lots of swung out turns. I'm glad Trish was driving and not me (plus then I got to take a bazillion pictures). Luckily, we also had some folks looking out for us:

Always good to have a cattle guard keeping watch... Actually, the sign indicates a metal pop up gate like the ones in secure parking lots in case some of the open range cattle that graze on the mountain decide to make a run for it.

About halfway up there's a visitors' center where we stopped to use the bathroom and they have some funky plants. I think the species is really old... See if you can actually read the sign.



Now for the best part: the crater. It is unbelievably gorgeous and awe inspiring, and neither my words nor my pictures can do it justice, but I'll let my pictures try.






Trish and I didn't expect to be allowed to leave the refuge and go sightseeing, so I had been thinking I'd come back to Maui just for the day to drive around the island and see Haleakala. It absolutely would have been worth it.

After we stopped at the crater, we went up a few hundred more feet to the absolute summit, and this is what the crater looked like from there, all filled with clouds.


Another very cool thing is that you can see the Big Island from the summit:


Don't these clouds look like snow? I just loved that!


On our drive back down we had some incredible views of the west side of Maui and the Pacific, but it was hard to get good pictures from the car on that twisty road. Here's my best shot.


So our visit to Haleakala made up for the previous day's weed pulling. I'll post about that too, when I put up the pictures from Kealia Pond. If you ever get the chance, Haleakala is one of those must sees in life -- plus, you get to think about how it could actually blow while you're standing there. It's just dormant, not extinct...

Sorry for the delay

Several things have conspired against me doing a Maui post - the main ones are Safeway's apparent lack of caring that their wireless has been down for several days and my forgetful brain. If I could remember to put my Maui pictures on my flash drive I could bring them to work and post from here. Anyone want to remind me?

In the meantime, my adventures here in Honolulu have been somewhat damper than usual. The weather the last couple of days has basically been hot and humid with intermittent downpours that last 5-10 minutes. So I've been sweaty and wet... as most of you know, I hate the rain. I especially hate it when it wakes me up in the wee hours of the morning because it's coming down so hard. The dips in our street were flooded this morning. Oh well, the crappy weather makes it easier to avoid the many beaches experiencing jellyfish warnings right now. It's a strange week in the islands. Oh well, I'll just remember that there are places like this waiting for me this weekend. Worth braving the bursts of rain, don't you agree?
Beach on the North Shore of Oahu

I'm Back!

I just spent two days in Maui, and there will be blog posts to follow - expect lots of dirt, some grumpiness, and some unbelievably beautiful volcano pictures.

In the meantime, here's the picture of the cattle egret my mom was wondering about:



The horses are on the beach behind James Campbell NWR. As my mom said, "Unfortunately the cattle egrets like to eat endangered birds' eggs and chicks." You can see why people brought the egrets to Hawaii though - they also really enjoy hanging out with livestock.

Hmm...

Ok, apparently if I write a post and save it before it's published, it puts itself in the order it was written. I just put up a post titled "Baywatch" that is actually under my mom's post from yesterday. Please read =)

We have a guest blogger!

Yup, it's true. I feel like an official blog now =) So without further ado, take it away Mom!

Greetings from Colleen’s guest blogger, Mom.

Her father and I had a fabulous visit with Colleen and were so happy she was able to take most of the week off work. Of course it went too fast and I didn’t take nearly enough pictures. But I am getting better.

We had a nice room at the Hyatt Waikiki with a gorgeous view but I think next time I’d like to rent a condo so we can have our own kitchen. $9 mai tais in a plastic Dixie cup is just too much! Plus I think I ate my weight in breakfast every morning at the buffet, moo!

Thanks to Biologist extraordinaire, Mike S. who gave us celebrity treatment on our tour of the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge near Kahuku on Oahu’s north shore. This particular refuge is primarily devoted to four Hawaiian waterbirds on the endangered species list: the stilt, moorhen, coot and Hawaiian duck or koloa. We were lucky enough to see all 4. The bird on the horse’s back is a cattle egret which unfortunately likes to eat the babies of the endangered birds. Mike shared loads of information with us and we thoroughly enjoyed every bit. Thanks to you too Colleen!


This was our 4th trip to Hawaii and I am still overwhelmed by its beauty.

But this was my favorite view: (Mom's view from the sand)


BTW next time any of you complain about the cost of groceries think about $6 spinach and loaves of bread!


Aloha!

Baywatch

After lunch on the North Shore, we drove over to see Alii Beach, a beach I'd never been to before. What makes this particular stretch of Hawaii special is that Baywatch was taped here. Woohoo!


Pretty, yes? Can you see them running?


According to Mike S., one of our biologists, this building sweetened the deal for whatever company was producing Baywatch. The city/state/town (not sure which) built it in order to bring the fabulous acting of luminaries like Pam Anderson, Nicole Eggert, and the incomparable David Hasselhoff to the beaches of Haleiwa. Now the building is a rec center.




The North Shore is just so gorgeous. And, I want you to remember when looking at these pictures, it was a beautiful day out and the beaches were nearly empty! This was true of almost all of the beaches we stopped at while my parents were here, with the exception of Waikiki. Unbelievable.

Oh! I almost forgot! One last Baywatch type touch. The rescue surfboard! I love it.

Eating Pig on the North Shore

So right now my posts are all out of chronological order, but that's ok - I'm doing it this way because I'm just writing the things that are easiest for me to do at work. Then, you get to be entertained by all of the most fascinating happenings in my life and I have something to do at work and don't have to sit in a grocery store for hours on end.

One of the dishes Hawaii is famous for is kalua pig. You can click on that link to read a Wikipedia article about the yumminess. At least I hope so. Let me know if it doesn't work. Basically kalua pig is a slow cooked pig that's been wrapped in ti leaves. Those are ti leaves. Mom mentioned that she definitely wanted to have some while she and Dad were in town, and me loving all versions of slow cooked pork, I knew just the place to take them.


I don't know if Kono's has the best kalua pig on the North Shore or Oahu, but I know I love it. And I knew it would be the perfect place for lunch after our tour of the refuge. The sandwiches come with grilled onions and barbeque sauce. Clearly I ordered mine without the onions, but I think Mom had the right idea going sauceless. The pork is juicy, with occasional crispy bits, and the sauce takes a little bit away from the porkiness. Here's my sandwich: Yum!

We also had some lunch company at the picnic tables where we ate:


They didn't bother us much. Much like Kaua'i, the North Shore has chickens and roosters roaming everywhere. Keep the country country!