Upcountry, Humuhumu's, Brunch and Stuff

So, it's been a while since I last had time to get on the computer. So here's the update for the last couple of days... On Saturday, Jessi and I took a nice drive up country to the Kula lodge. It's about 1/3 of the way up the Haleakala volcano. The view from the restaurant is awesome. Here on the right you can see the West Maui Mountains in the distance. They're completely dead while the one we're on in the picture is just dormant. The lunch was awesome. Jessi had a pasta dish with pesto cream sauce and I had some ribs.

We vetoed the rest of the upcountry drive because we were kind of tired and it is just more of the same really! We stopped at the Alexander & Baldwin sugar museum on the way home and learned way more than we ever wanted to know about the manufacturing process of sugar. They told us all about why they burn the cane (to get rid of the leaves of course) and why Maui has soo much ethnic diversity (they imported labour from places like Japan, China, Fillipines, Portugal, etc, etc). We even learned that they had Cock fights (that's jessi pretending to be a chicken in a Cock fight on the left). We went swimming in the pool when we got home then we got ready for our fancy dinner at Humuhumunukunukuapua'a's.

The dinner was at a restaurant in the Grand Wailea which is one of the fanciest resorts on the Island. We had drinks in the bar and watched the sunset. We saw whales spouting (coming up for air) off on the horizon. Jessi and I shared the Kiowi which is the drink for lovers. It came in a HUGE cup and we were both quite buzzed after we finished that. We moved over to the restaurant area to have dinner. I had some ribs for an appetizer and some chicken for the main. It was fantastic! We were seronaded by some musicians who sang the Hawaiian Wedding song for Jessi and I and the Aloha (farewell) song for Laura (she's leaving today!).

Sunday we drove up to Ka'anapoli for a buffet breakfast at the Sheraton. The food was delicious and we took a strole on the beach front walk past all the hotels down to the Hyatt. Trudi and Riley came with us because they wanted to see the penguins at the Hyatt. Riley was tired by the time we got there so we rode the green trolley back to the Sheraton. Jessi and I spent the afternoon at the pool and then prepared drinks for happy hour. Our specialty drink for the night was a Banana Daquiri. It was quite a hit! Gaby made build-your-own fajitas for pupu's (appetizers). The youngun's stayed late and played cards for a while. That's jessi riding a frog statue on the beach walk. Don't ask...

This morning we went for a snorkel down at the beach but it was far to wavy so we just bobbed in the waves. Angela, Madie and Beth joined the Lundeen's for the swim. Madie was very brave and even swam by herself in the huge surf (with several anxious adults very close by!)!