day 15

the day began with feeding the koi and flamingoes in the resort lobby.

then we loaded up for our drive across the island to today’s destination: haleakala national park, home to maui’s highest peak.

rising 10,023 feet above sea level, haleakala means “house of the sun” and is where demigod maui lassoed the sun, slowing its passage so people had more time to dry kapa (cloth) and grow food.  the dormant volcano’s “crater” is actually a valley carved by erosion.

along the way, we stopped at the bailey house museum, home to a large collection of hawaiian artifacts.  the girls had fun seeing a mango tree up close and were amused by a free-range chicken roaming around in the fields around us.

we continued on the road to the house of the sun, which started to switch back and forth the closer we got.  it sure was a great view the higher we got. 

after a brief stop at the visitor center, we headed up higher until we reached the top of the clouds. the views were like from another world we had never seen.

it was much cooler at the higher altitude but the warm sun helped a bit to make it seem warmer.  we started in the gift shop and then soaked in the incredible views.

we saw some of the few silversword plants that we had read about as being endangered at the visitor center.  they too looked like there were from another planet.

on the way back to the resort, we stopped off in waikapu to try to locate the parcel of land owned by great-grandpa.  we had the gps coordinates to guide us, and the warning from grandpa that it would be difficult to locate.  the coordinates took us as close as we could get by having us drive thru what looked like private property with several houses built very close to one another.  daddy ended up getting out of the car to look around, and was soon met by one of the homeowners, inquiring about his suspicious-looking visit.  long story short, daddy explained why we were there and they had a good laugh about the oddity of the situation.  i took a few videos to show grandpa once we got back home.

we enjoyed dinner by the pool and another gorgeous sunset to end the day.

today's step count: 7,343

miles driven: 130