The second Island we visited was Maui. In Maui we started with the Road to Hana. We made multiple stops including the Garden of Eden, Ke’anae including Aunt Sandy’s Banana Bread, Pua’a Kaa State Wayside Park, Coconut Glen’s Ice Cream, and Kahuna Gardens. We ended the day at Wai’anapanapa State Park and it’s black “sand” beach. The girls loved the park and the waves here. We then drove the less than 40 miles back to our town which of course takes about 2 hours.

Day 2 on Maui we explored Haleakalā National Park. Emery did the junior ranger program. The crater is amazingly colorful. It was also cool to see some of the Silversword plants in bloom. Apparently they can live for about 50 years but only bloom once.

Day 3 we visited Twin Falls which is at the very beginning of the Road to Hana. It is a nice hike with three waterfalls all of which have a pool below that you can swim in. In the afternoon we went snorkeling at Kahekili Beach Park. At the end of the day we went to Ho’opika Beach Park to see the turtles. There were about 30 turtles snoozing on the beach just before sunset.

Day 4 involved driving the Road to Hana again to see the sights beyond or last stop. We stopped at Wailua Falls which is a pretty and fairly large roadside waterfall. We then continued on to the other portion of Haleakalā National Park which includes the seven sacred pools. We did a nice hike here that went through a bamboo forest and ended up at another tall waterfall. We finished up the day with our favorite shaved ice, Ulalani’s Shaved Ice.