Hawaii #1

 Hawaii

 So if you read that long boring story about our first trip abroad, you know that Australia was a complete surprise. A terrific trip but totally unexpected.  Our original trip abroad was going to be ...Italy!
 Yes even though the title of this installment is Hawaii, we were supposed to visit Italy. Have you ever heard the expression "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"?
 Well let me tell you about about our best laid plan.
 We had dreamt about going to Italy for years but with a new mortgage, etc. it took a while to save the money; but in mid 2009 Joani ( not only my wife, but also our financial consultant) told me that she thought 2010 would be a good year to go to Italy. To say I was excited would be like asking ,"Is the Pope Catholic?"
 I immediately started planning, one year in advance. You wouldn't believe how I would pore over maps and Wikipedia. I started by Googling a map of Italy with towns and cities. Sometimes with Joani and sometimes on my own. Each place I would rate the pros and cons and assign a star rating to each destination. Joani also did her own research and together we came up with our plan for 3 weeks in Italy. No guided tour for us. We were borrowing backpacks from one of Joani's sons and armed with a Eurorail pass we would do it our way.
 With two months to go before we left we already had every thing done. Airfare booked, check, Hotels booked, check, Wine tours, Art galleries, Vatican all planned and booked. Man were we ready. We had a plan.
 Remember what I said about best laid plans?
 We were supposed to be flying out Saturday to arrive in Rome Sunday morning and then..... How's your memory?
 There was this funny little mountaintop that blew up in Iceland and spewed ashes, sulphur and smoke into the skies for the next couple of weeks making Europe completely off limits for North American travelers. What's that you say about Mice and Men?
 So Italy was out. A trip that we had planned for a year was cancelled due to events completely out of our control and we were devastated!
 It took us 2 days to cancel all of our hotel reservations and tours along with getting our money back from the airline, so by Monday I started trying to pick up the pieces. Joani was incredibly sad but I pushed and prodded,
" Hey we still have three weeks holidays, we might as well do something."
 So I jumped on a computer, went to one of those last minute vacation sites, and started throwing out options.  Joani was so down but I said, "how about Mexico?" " That's not Italy" was the reply. "Jamacia?" "that's not Italy." "What about Cuba?" "That's not Italy." .... " So here's the thing dear, nowhere we go will be the same as Italy... But I promise you, next year we will go to Italy, so lets just do something different this year."
 So Joani got on our laptop while I was on our desktop and while I threw out other options she Googled what we could do at each place.
 On my fourth or fifth suggestion I mentioned Maui and when Joani looked at it they were saying things like, Drive to the top of a mountain, take a submarine to the bottom of the ocean. "That looks interesting she said." By the time she got interesting, out of her mouth I had clicked book on the computer I was on, and look out Hawaii, here we come.
 So that's the long version of how our second long trip was Hawaii. Maui to be exact as Hawaii itself is actually comprised of several islands.
  Our trip to Maui was very different for us. We are both into meticulously planning our trips. We like researching where we are going so that we can see everything that interests us and fits into our schedule.
 Being as this was a last minute though, the only plans we made, were where we stayed. We had ten days in a tropical paradise and no idea what we were going to do. Neither of us is too much into hanging around the beach, getting a tan while sipping umbrella drinks, so we basically tried as hard as we could to cover Travelocity's top ten list of things to do while in Maui.
 Before I get into what that turned out to be, I want to tell you about our arrival at the Maui airport.
 Like I told you, everything about this trip was impromptu so when we landed at the airport the first day, it was late in the evening and we had no idea how we were getting to our resort. We saw a sign for airport shuttle.. Hi there I said to the woman at the desk. We are staying at Royal Lahaina resort, will this shuttle get us to that resort? Yes she replied. Great, when is the next shuttle? 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Hmm that won't work. What about a taxi? Sure she said, you can get a taxi to your resort for about $75! One way!!! Wow, factor in the return trip and getting anywhere while we are here,and this could turn into an expensive 10 days. Off in the distance I saw a bunch of neon lights. Hey dear (Joani) let's take a walk over there. The lights were car rental signs.
If you know Joani and me, you know that I'm a little more naturally adventurous than Joani, so it took a little convincing to get her to agree to renting a car for the ten days, but I persevered  and with some very sketchy directions from an extremely strange car rental guy, we headed off in what was now complete darkness for our resort . Found it, no problem and spent the rest of that evening planning our Hawaii adventure.
  First thing anyone has to do is go to a Luau. If you haven't been to Hawaii, think big party with grass skirts and fire sticks.

 It was fun, but truth to tell while Joani and I both had a good time it felt a little like we were extra cast in an old Elvis movie.

 Next on the Agenda was driving to the top of Haleakala. The island of Maui is basically a dormant volcano... Mount Haleakala. So if you visit, it is recommended, that you take a drive to the top. Now most people do this on a tour bus, but hey, we had our own car. I can drive.Why not do it ourselves?

 In hindsight I wouldn't necessarily recommend this drive to anyone faint of heart. There is only one road to the top and it is mostly a single lane drive. Every kilometer or so there is a space cut into the side of the mountain allowing for a driver to pull over to allow for oncoming traffic to get through. The right of way is usually decided by who is the most aggressive. Both Joani and I have a bit of vertigo and found the drive interesting in a very scary sort of way, so we always conceded the right of way.

 The other scary thing about this drive is that you are heading straight up a mountain. Being as normally this would be too steep for a normal car to handle, the road is a series of switchbacks or hairpin turns where you are still always heading up, but at all points in time, you can see the mountain through one of your side windows. The problem is that through your other side window you're looking at nothing but sky and clouds, and through your windshield it looks as though you're driving off the earth!

 Several times on the drive up as we pulled off to the side to allow someone coming down to pass, Joani looked at me and said." we could turn around here and go down, and never tell anyone we never made it." but even though it was perhaps the scariest drive I ever made, I was determined to go on.

 By the time we got to the top, I don't mind saying, I opened my car door, fell out of the car onto my knees and kissed the earth. I was elated right until Joani said " I have no idea why you are so happy, we still have to drive down."

 The funny part about being at the top is when you start your drive you're in tropical shorts weather, but by the time you get to the top you are in a completely different world that is very cold, and we had to dig out extra clothes to walk around.

It feels like another planet.

 Nevertheless it was an awesome adventure and the drive down was not half as scary as the drive up. A must see in Maui.