Escape to Paradise - Maui Vacation, Pt. 3

I think Thanksgiving was one of our most enjoyable days on Maui. It didn't hurt that it also happened to be my birthday! :) Instead of attempting to cook a full Thanksgiving meal for two and a half people, we decided to go out to eat at one of the quintessential Maui restaurants: Duke's Beach House. They offered a special Hawaiian style Thanksgiving meal, complete with succulent turkey breast with gravy and cranberry sauce; sweet bread stuffing; golden mashed potatoes with garlic; purple Hawaiian sweet potatoes mashed with butter; and traditional sweet potatoes roasted with brown sugar; and a medley of roasted Hawaiian root veggies which included brussel sprouts and multi-colored carrots. For dessert, we had pumpkin spiced hula pie (ice cream pie) topped with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and chopped nuts. It was to die for! A perfect birthday treat! When I write it all out, that sounds like a ton of food. But the portion was actually perfect for a Thanksgiving meal. We were full and satisfied without over eating. The only problem with eating at a restaurant meant there were no left overs!

 After lunch, we let Kaden work off some steam by toddling around on the boardwalk behind the giant resort where the restaurant is located. I loved seeing him in his little Hawaiian shirt. Since it wasn't feasible to attend a luau while we were there due to Kaden's early bed time, we decided this would be the day to get decked out in our Hawaiian gear.
 

That afternoon, after Kaden's nap, we attempted to go swimming in the pool at our resort complex. The water was warm, but it was still a bit too breezy and cool outside to stay in for long. But even that short time was fun. Kaden loved floating around and kicking his legs in his baby pool floatie.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about and watching some football on tv. We did go outside just in time to catch yet another stunning sunset. The fact that we got some good pictures of us holding Kaden with that sunset in the background topped off my great birthday!

 Friday, it was raining again. What to do in paradise when it's pouring outside? Drive up above the clouds, of course! We'd read that one of the top things to do on Maui is to drive up to the top of the Haleakala Volcano and explore the unique landscape inside the crater. It's interesting because the volcano doesn't look very tall when you see it from ground level because the base of the mountain is so wide that the sides don't appear very steep. However, the road to the summit has so many switchbacks that you rise in elevation very quickly and it's rapidly apparent that you are on a BIG mountain. It was a very windy couple of hours on our way up, but amazingly Kaden and I both did pretty well. I credit James's considerate and gentle driving with the fact that I did not get too car sick.

Our destination

Looking down on the ocean from above

Above the clouds

No Joke.

 This timelapse video should give you an idea of what the drive was like

We made two stops when we reached the summit. One was an over look where you could see the full expanse of the crater. The other was up at the mountain summit where you could look out across the ocean and see The Big Island, and a few of the other smaller ones in the Hawaiian chain. It was definitely a unique and wondrous landscape. Since we had Kaden with us, we couldn't do much hiking around. But even what we saw was very interesting and memorable. Definitely worth the trip!

Teaching Kaden about sharp, porous volcanic rock

The only place this unique plant (called a Silver Sword) grows in the world is on top of that one volcano. Crazy!

View of the Big Island and its two volcanos

 When we got home that afternoon, we were greeted by a perfect double rainbow out the back of our condo. In some ways, I felt like Hawaii was apologizing for the less-than-ideal weather with these impressive natural displays. That's ok with me! We had a spectacular day!