Carpe Diem

We had quite a day yesterday!  I started the day by sneaking out alone to watch the sunrise on a black sand beach down the hill from our house in Hana. It was beautiful. 



I got back to two wide awake boys who were ready to explore!  So the three of us decided to go find coffee and breakfast and let Ted sleep a bit longer.  Before we arrived to the breakfast place my phone buzzed with an emergency alert.  Unexpected and yet not.  Since we arrived in Hawaii the state has started tests of the air raid sirens.  Neighborhoods have meetings on what to do if North Korea fires a ballistic missile at us.  So I was hit with dread and told the boys we had to go back to the house, that I had forgotten something.  Ted was awake and aware of the alert.  We decided quietly that there was nothing to do but wait.  We texted with Brandi on Oahu and confirmed that they received it and that this was the real deal.  I can’t explain how terrifying those minutes were and how helpless we felt but we were together and that was all that mattered.  The kids played unaware of what was happening. Then all of a sudden people on Twitter are tweeting thar it was a false alarm, a mistake.  What?!?!  Someone pushed the wrong button?!  How does this happen?!  As our hearts started leaving our throats we headed to breakfast and were determined to go have a helluva a day and that we did!


The first alert.  


Oh our bad we were just kidding....38 minutes later!!


The surfing Burro did not disappoint for breakfast  and coffee!  A shot of something in my coffee might have helped the nerves but I had to make do with coconut milk lol!

On our way to Hana the day before we passed a stand that sold what our app claimed was amazing coconut candy but it was closed.  So our first stop was to get some candy and it did not disappoint!  Stop #2 that we missed the day before was Wai’anapanapa Park.  The black sand beach and all of the lava formations were spectacular.  We even climbed out to the ocean through a lava tube!!


Sand Angel!




The green and black contrast was so pretty!


Water spraying up and over a 20 foot lava wall 


The lava arch 


Lava tube



Next stop on our Hāna journey was to Red Samd Beach.  This may be one of those most spectacular places I have ever been!


A little rope swing on our hike to the beach. 




The crumbly wall lined most of the trail. 


And then out of nowhere this was our view!


Red sand angel!


Ted and the boys found jump rock!


G!


Finnegan


One last peek as we were leaving. We could have stayed there all day. So beautiful and the water was so refreshing!



Off to Kihei via the back side of Haleakala.  People will say that you can’t go this way and that you have to  go back on the road to Hana but that is just a myth.  And skipping this you would miss watching the rain forest vanish and turn into a crazy dry dessert and then back to a different but still as green landscape.  The first hour of driving was a little sketchy with a crappy old road but then you get to a smooth, paved highway. 




Not terrible lol!


Nice guard rail. 




We stopped to take pictures and suddenly could hear a donkey lol!  Found him staring at us. 






Jeep commercial for the day!






And back to the green!


You can see Kihei and Wailea in the distance. 

We finally made it to Kihei, checked in and headed over to Wailea to catch up with friends and see the end of the Pats game.  Ted’s friend Steve from medical school is here with his family for the week. The boys had fun hanging with their kids and swimming at the pool and beach by their condo.  

We are having a lazy morning today so far.  A little breakfast in town and hanging on the lanai now. Headed up to Haleakala in a bit to check out the crater and get another sunset and Milky Way siting.  




Thank you to all who checked in yesterday. We had terrible service all day so I’m sorry if my texts weren’t coming through.  

I’ll close out with a meme a friend shared. It’s funny now that it’s over 😳

If you can’t laugh what can you do?!?

Aloha!









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