After breakfast we left the ship to board the Alamo rental car shuttle taking us to the airport rental location for our vehicle. Today, we decided to try a Jeep Wrangler. We chose the deep red one with a soft top. Jill and I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how the top came down… You know, it is necessary to have the top down for the entire time of renting a car in Hawaii, right?... Well at least we think so! We gave up our attempt to remove the top and asked for help. A lady at the rental stand was nice enough to put it down for us. I just hope they don’t expect me to put in back up when we return the Jeep.
The car is situated and we are off for our day of driving the famous Hana coast. It is a beautiful scenic drive along the coast line. Along the way are breathtaking views of the beaches, ocean, waterfalls, and flora. Did I mention they have white, red and black sand beaches in Maui? This is my first time ever seeing black sand beaches. The black sand is actually crushed lava rock from the volcano.Before we turned onto the Hana coast we made a couple stops to purchase everything we need for a picnic. There are very few town stores along the Hana coast. The nice lady at Alamo told us to stop in the small town of Paia for the best fried chicken on the island. Fried chicken, just what we wanted for our picnic. After a quick stop at K-Mart for water, Maui style chips (made by Frito-Lay), cooler, ice, and our stop at Paia’s Mini Mart for chicken we were set for the 60 mile drive.
Never in my life have I driven 60 miles filled with 600 curves and 59 one lane bridges (those numbers are correct according to AAA). The Hana coast sways in and out along the shore. Many parts of the road narrow to one lane and all bridges are one lane where you yield for any traffic coming across. The speed limit for most of the road is 15 mph. Almost everyone traveling along the coast are tourists in their rented Jeeps, convertibles, or vans if it’s a family. We stopped for lunch about half way along the trip at a place overlooking the coast and ocean.
About ten miles after this spot, I got to see my first black sand beach. As I said, the black sand is crushed lava rock. There was black sand mixed in with a lot of smooth lava rocks at the edge of the beach where the waves break, rubbed smooth by the crashing waves. The sound of the water hitting the rocks and rolling back into the ocean was like nothing we’d ever heard before – all of the rocks would smack together, and you could hear them settling back down after the water drained out of them. Amazing. At this location we also saw a blowhole – a natural formation where water is pushed upward through the rocks, looking like the blowhole of a whale. After our stop here we drove the rest of the trip to Hana and beyond to the 7 pools, making many stops for pictures. Just before the 7 pools, we saw the most amazing waterfall we’d seen yet – probably 20-30 feet tall. The Hana coast truly is a chunk of paradise. 
The roundtrip drive down and back the Road to Hana took us about 8 hours to complete. We re-embarked the ship about 7PM. After quickly cleaning up we headed to the Aloha Café for a buffet dinner. Tonight we tried the salad, pizza, carved ham, polish sausage, and entire assortment of desserts.
We turned in early tonight. We will be up at 2:30AM to board a bus viewing the sunrise… yeap Jarrett up at 2:30AM to watch the sunrise, which it does everyday 365 days a year. We will be traveling to the summit of Haleakala volcano (not active) for an incredible view of the sunrise.
It has become very clear that pictures cannot capture the vast beauty of these islands. Thanks to digital photography when I take a picture I can immediately view it and I think to myself that is not nearly as pretty as what I’m looking at. This is truly you a place you have to experience first hand to fully appreciate.
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