Painting By Numbers

Land Crusin'

My dad's sweet ride.

Cirticular Clouds

Cloudscape

Seen from 35,000'.

Creation and Erosion

Faded

4 Sacred Pools

The Sugar Mill

Maui's last surviving sugar mill.

Tropical Drinks and Candlelight

Our table at The Feast at Lele luau. Order the Banana Madness, you won't be disappointed.

Birthday Bro

For my brother, an unabashed car lover like myself, happy birthday.

Sweet Ride

I rented a Jeep for our time in Maui and loved it! I'd never driven one of these and I thought it would be a fun vacation car. There are so many Jeeps on Maui! Seriously, I would come out to the parking lot and have to wander around clicking my key fob to remember which was mine. There are many like, but this one is mine. ;)

Maui: Water II

So I said I would have more water pictures today, and here they are! Yes I know it's the middle of the day. Circumstances out of my control (I fell asleep) prevented me from having the post up first thing this morning. But I've worked through those issues ;) and I'm back. Enjoy!

Maui: Water

To say that water defines Maui is obvious, but it's not just the ocean that surrounds it. The rain, or lack thereof, creates unique and beautiful landscapes across the island. The central plain gets around 6 inches of rain a year, contrasted with the rainforest (only a mile apart in some places) which gets over 300 inches. We stayed at the Sheraton Maui on the southwest part of the island and we would watch it rain in the mountains and not feel a drop where we were. From sea level on the central plain you could look straight up to the 10,000+' peak of Haleakala. Water must be brought through an impressive array of gravity powered channels and pipes from the east side of Maui to the central plain to support farming there.

Some of the most amazing water features of the island remain hidden to most. Although there are some beautiful waterfalls to be seen on the Road to Hana, such as this one,

the vast majority of them can only be seen from helicopter. We booked a helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and toured Molokai (to the west of Maui), and west and central Maui. If you want to take a helicopter tour, these guys are the ones to use. Their staff and pilots are amazing, and their Eco Star helicopters are simply the best sightseeing helicopters available.


I actually had such an amazing time on our first tour that I booked a different one for the next day! Seeing the island from the air gives you a unique perspective on the geography and interaction between land and water. Here are some images from the air.






It's really difficult to get the scale from some of these images, but to give you some perspective, that last waterfall drops 1000'.

Check back tomorrow for pictures from ground level!

Sunset Leap

I'm back! Very tired, but back. I had this grand idea for a post today that would talk about our trip and introduce this weeks pictures, but our we didn't get home until 4 in the morning and I'm wiped out. I'll be posting lots of images from Maui this week and write about the favorite things we did there. As a starter, here's an image I took on our last night, right in front of our hotel. This is Black Rock, which is significant in Hawaiian culture and as an attraction for would-be cliff divers.

Road to Hana

We took a tour van down the Road to Hana today. Ah-mazing. A windy, narrow, dangerous road that is breathtaking and spectacular. I was so thankful to have someone else driving so I could see all the beautiful views. Our driver, Debra was hilarious and informative. Couldn't have asked for a better day. If you're ever in Maui and want to take this drive, think about booking Valley Isle Tours.