No SUN DAY

The mornings are starting to have some form to them - up early, updates to Here and Now, catching up on emails, then a brisk walk to meet with Max and Jules and on to coffee. Today the sun is out but there is a nice cool breeze. We dawdled back looking some shops, checked on a yoga studio and watched the paddle boarders. We parted ways at my street.

Mike was up when I got there and he said it was a no sun day - he had a bit of a burn. The day was going to be exploring and looking for kielbasa. Now you would think that would be an easy do - go to a grocery store and there it is. NADA! And the only place we found it - it looked like a coil of the meat they put in wieners and that is no thank you. We finally did find some sausage that Mike said he would use for our perogy dinner. I on the other had bought fresh fruit - you can find farmer's markets every where.

It was still early in the day - we did not have to be back until 4:30 to get our dinner ready for our company. The plan was easy in our minds - perogies, now the sausages, salad and my dessert of cake, fresh fruit and whipping cream - so we headed out - map in hand.  We decided not to head up towards the airport but to turn off towards the west coast. Once past Ma'alaea Bay we just kept following the road. Puu Kukuii on the right and the Pacific on the left. The scenery was amazing. We did a stop in Lahaina (Mike kept calling it Lufinasa) - that is where we did our hunt for the sausage - we found a place called Maui Prime thinking it would have kielbasa - they advertised themselves as Maui's premier gourmet market and while they had a plethora of wonderful foods no kielbasa.

As we left Lahaina the road we passed resort after resort and strip malls. We kept driving and driving up the coast not sure of what we were seeing - happily looking out at the water. The road started to climb and twist. There were cars parked here and there with people standing looking out over the ocean. From the car we could only see the waves crashing in on the cliffs. We decided to stop and see what everyone was looking at - okay - surfers and the magnificence of the ocean.

 

We continued on until finally the road narrowed. We found ourselves hugging the cliffs at times so other cars could pass. The saving grace was there were not too many cars and we could see them coming on the other side of the hairpin turn.  

We came across a rock formation that reminded us of the Piton's in St. Lucia - now I know that it was call Kahalkuloa Head. Further on we decended into a small village. There were signs everywhere for the best banana bread ever. A very enterprising young man jumped out in front of us - selling bags of cut up pineapple and coconut - we bought a bag of coconut and he informed us that we were in the Kahalkuloa Valley - village of the same name. Reading on the web now I see that we passed a lot of interesting scenery that we should have stopped to view. But we were content with our adventure. Coming up of the valley we came across a beautiful house perched on the cliff facing the ocean - Kaukini Gallery and Gift Shop - a perfect place to stop. The garden was incredible and the gallery was well stocked. Leaving here the road kept twisting and turning - the country side looked like farming country - I felt like we were on a plateau. There were cattle grazing and large houses with well kept fences and yards. Finally we could see the Kahului Bay and a large city off in the distance and airplanes taking off. We decided not to go into Kahului buat to cut down highway 330 towards Wailuku, then hit 30 and then North Kihei and home. AWESOME DAY.

 









At home we prepped for our 6 visitors. The dinner of homemade perogies, sausage (and it was YUMMY), salad and fresh fruit cake was fabulous. We were a bit crowded but I think we all had a good time.