Saturday, May 25, 2019

Maui - Day 3 - Exploring!

We slept great and woke up feeling quite refreshed. The tour driver the day before told us that this restaurant down the road from us was a great place to get breakfast. So we got all ready and headed to Slappy Cakes. 

When we got there we realized it's a restaurant where there are griddles at the tables and you can cook your own pancakes. It was a pretty cool concept, but we didn't want to wait for a table. Plus I didn't even want pancakes. So we chose to sit at the bar. 



My breakfast was amazing! 

I had Avocado Toast Benedict. I had never had Eggs Benedict. This was sourdough toast with avocado mash and then poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on top. SO yummy! 



I also got a Mimosa....my favorite! 



Michael had a yummy Chicken Fried Steak...this was what the driver recommended. 


After that we went back to the condo to come up with a battle plan for the day.  We looked through the Maui Revealed book and decided to head north and explore a bit. I changed out of my skirt and into some shorts and hiking shoes. We also packed a bag with sunscreen and and some snacks. 



Our first stop was at Dragons Teeth. 




Because of the wind and the water the rocks have been shaped into these jagged pieces. 




All along the Northside of this peninsula they look like teeth sticking up.



Here's another shot! 




We walked out further where it doesn't really look like dragon teeth anymore. There was this cave area where the ocean was splashing in. 




I love this picture! 




It was a longer walk that we thought it was, but it wasn't really difficult! 




A view of the other side of the "cave". 




I ended up getting splashed a little, but it felt nice! 




Such beauty all around us! 


After that little hike we drove further north to see the Blowhole. I had read in the Maui Revealed book that depending on the tide the Blowhole can be non-existent or it can be shooting 70 ft in the air. 



For us it was non-existent....well I guess we did see it shoot up twice about 4 - 6 ft in the air. Because it wasn't shooting like crazy we decided to not walk all the way down to it. 



Here's a closer up shot of where the Blowhole is supposed to be. It's just to the left of that big rock sticking up that's in basically the middle of the picture. The problem I don't think was necessarily the tide being out...it was just the way the waves were coming in. You can see how the waves are going toward the right. They aren't coming straight on in the direction of the Blowhole. The current was just too strong going the other way. Oh well! 



We sat up on the top of the hill enjoying the scenery! 




Our next stop was going to be the Olivine Pools. The directions told me to park across from a Big Boulder. While we were driving we past a big rock, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a BIG boulder. Plus on the map it showed this Mushroom shaped rock and we needed to pass that to get to the pools and we could still it up ahead.

 While we were driving we got to this section of the road that was CRAZY!!!! It was horrible! I finally told Michael to turn around and then we had to wait for people to come so we could go and there was a cliff and the road was only so wide. I seriously almost got out and walked it. Of course by this point we had realized we had gone too far....the rock we were looking at wasn't actually the mushroom rock after all. That rock had actually been the Boulder that we needed to park across from. This picture above isn't even showing how it really was. It was awful! I found out later that the Hawaiians actually call that the Divorce Highway! The maps even tell you that you could void your rental car agreement if you drive it. Good gracious!!! Later on we looked again at the map and we were seriously almost all the way around the West Maui Mountains and we had wished we would of kept going just to say we had gone all the way around. 



We drove back to the BIG Boulder and parked...This was definitely a time when our cute small rental car came in handy! 

I had read that the Olivine Pools can have this gem like coloring to them except when it rains sometimes they can look gross. 



Well it had rained the day before...so they looked gross! Like rusty water gross! There was only one pool...the closest to the ocean...that looked good. You can see people swimming in it. I didn't actually bring my swimming suit and the hike down looked pretty iffy! We sat there taking in the scenery and then decided to head out. 




After that we went back to the condo and ate our lunch that we bought at Costco. We also just relaxed and read our books while enjoying the breeze coming in our Condo! 



I had read that Ka'anapali Beach is a great beach and there is a walkway that you can take and walk the whole thing. So we parked at the Northern most parking lot and started walking south. We figured we'd find a place to eat dinner at along the way. 




One thing we found funny was that Maui has cats...all over. Our condo property had 6. There are two ladies that take care of the cats. They are only feed in certain places on the property. They also get their shots and they get fixed. Some of them were super friendly even though they are technically feral. 

This sweet cat was right along the walkway on the beach...she looked REALLY pregnant to us...and totally uncomfortable since it was HOT outside. Poor thing. She didn't mind letting us pet her though. There were a couple other cats that were sweet and let us pet them as well. 


So the beach walkway.....that's kind of lie! The boardwalk only goes so far and then they start snaking you through different resorts and you can't even see the beach. It was still beautiful in areas just a bit misleading. Also I was wearing my new pair of white sandals. I had worn them a few times before and if I put mole skin on my baby toes I was fine. Not this time!!! My feet were not doing well. I finally ended up taking my shoes off and just walking barefoot. 



We decided to have dinner at Leilani's on the Beach. Thankfully we were just a little bit before the dinner rush so we got right in. The bad thing was I had to put my shoes back on. 




One thing we had been noticing is that the portions weren't small which was nice, but at the same time I can't eat that much and I felt bad paying for all that food and not finishing it. Leilani's had one of those dinner specials where you get an appetizer, entree and dessert for a set price. I decided to go with that and our server let me know that the portions were smaller. I was okay with that. This is my dinner...after having a nice size salad. It was SO yummy! It also had 2 shrimp, but I had already eaten those. My steak was done to perfection and it was the perfect amount. I also got this yummy chocolate cake that came with strawberries. Mmmm...so good!!! 

After dinner I could not wait to get my sandals off! My feet were killing me! I knew that instead of going through the resorts this time I wanted to walk on the actual beach! Plus we were there at the perfect time to see the sunset! 



Heaven!!!! 




Of course it's harder walking on sand, but at least my feet weren't killing me!!! 




It absolutely amazed me how fast the sun would go down once it started! 




 I was wearing a long skirt so I had to bunch it up and hold it so the water wouldn't get my skirt soaked! It was so fun walking in the waves! 




Once the sun is gone it doesn't take long before it really starts to get dark. We had a long walk...I believe it was almost 2 miles. 




My feet were just so sore....we had contemplated calling an Uber, but at the same time it seemed silly. So just kept putting one foot in front of the other. 




I'm glad we actually walked back or we would have missed out on some pretty cool views. When we got back to the car Michael did have to drive up to me since the roadway was filled with these hard pod things that fall from the trees. I tried to walking to the car and it was just too excruciating. 

The end of another wonderful day!!! 

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