To Tour or Not To Tour?

You can tell when the sun is starting to rise the birds go crazy with chatter and songs. I started the morning walk earlier than usual and included a couple of side trips with my coffee in hand. I entered Kamala Park. 

Mosaic on building in Kalamka Park

There is a great play area for kids and a - what is this???? hockey? NO WAY - oh okay it is an Inline Hockey Arena.  


 

 I continued along the sea wall walk on Kalama Beach Park. I watched the paddle boarders in the surf as the sun was coming up - then headed down LLili Road. There are a few small vacation rentals there and a couple of very nice houses.

  

LLili Road connects back to S. Kihei so I headed home to a very nice breakfast and plans for the day to go to Hali’imaile to tour a working pineapple plantation - Maui Pineapple Tour.  Okay I forgot the directions on how to get there so when we stopped for ice at Foodland I asked about a Plantation Tour and the lady said to go to Waikapu. Off we went. On arrival we realised this was not exactly what we had in mind - the sign said Maui Tropical Plantation Tour. They were very nice and gave us instructions go toward Hali’imaile to the Hali’imaile General Store. The General Store is actually a restaurant - the clerk inside was very helpful - he said that the tour bus came and picked up people for the tours as booked. He let me call them on his cell but I was put on hold. Mike and I decided to fore go the tour and check out Hali’imaile and Makawo - a historical town in the heart of "upcountry" - home to the Paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy.  On we went through the rolling hills, we finally hit the Haleakala Highway. We headed for Kahului but instead of taking the normal turn toward Kihei we decided to go through Kahului. Kahului (means "the winning") is a large industrial area - the main harbour, shopping, university, several colleges, the airport. This road took us over to Wailuku. Wailuku is a small town - the Maui County government centre. There are a lot of buildings that look like they must have historic status.

Instead of turning to go back to Kihei we decided to head to Lahaine to walk through the old town - what does Mike call it - Lufinasa, Lufistainia? The beaches along the highway are practically deserted.It is so nice to walk along them and see no one.

After our walk along the beach we headed up to Lahaina.

The old part of Lahaina - along the ocean is absolutely perfect - just the way I would imagine a Historic town in Hawaii.  Quaint old buildings have been inhabited by art galleries, restaurants, and shops.  

We could not resist eating a snack at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co.  That nice BIG drink was expensive but we were given the glasses as souvenirs - new ones and boxed to travel.

We wondered around until we could not stand the heat any longer. Now here is a sight you don't see very often - Mike sitting doing NOTHING. Well he was not really doing nothing - the whole time he sat there he was talking about when he gets home and planning the ripping and tearing in the hallway and bathroom.