Maui - Day 2

    Our second day in paradise started much too early.  We woke up at 1:30 AM and drove to Haleakala Bike Co. where we were fitted for bikes and helmets.  Then we jumped in a van and drove up to Haleakala's summit at 10,023 feet.  The roads were steep with sharp corners.  I kept wondering how I was going to make it down on a bike, alive!

    We arrived at the peak a little over an hour before sunrise. It was dark and cold! Very cold! The temperature was around 40 degrees but with the wind chill it was almost unbearable at times.  It was all worth it though!  We didn't get to see the sun fully rise because there were so many clouds on this particular morning but the light show was unbelievable.

the start of the light show

thinking warm thoughts

view into the crater

it looks like lava!

    After watching the sun rise and freezing our butts off, we jumped back into the van and drove down to 6,5000 feet where we began our 23 mile bike ride.  Most of the ride was downhill but there were at least 6 - 8 uphills that I was not anticipating.  I even had to lift my butt from the seat to make it up a few of the hills! No worries though, those 3 spin classes I took before our vacation totally prepared me for this bike ride!  

    I was hesitant at first (aka I was scared!) whenever we came upon a sharp turn (and there were lots of them!) but after a few miles I became more comfortable on the steep slopes and sharp turns.    The only thing that did continue to freak me out a little bit was when a car drove a little to close for comfort. Hello people?! Can't you see I'm riding a bicycle down the side of a volcano?!  

    We made lots of stops for some photo ops!  Oh, side note! I somehow managed to take 736 pictures with my fancy Nikon, 45 pictures on my old smaller camera (I took this the day we were on a boat, I didn't want to risk my fancy camera getting ruined) and 29 pictures with my phone. That's 810 photos total! Craziness! I have since gone through and deleted the bad photos and duplicates and narrowed it down to 500 photos! I will not be posting them all but if you're ever in SC, come on over and I'll gladly show all of them to you!

view on our bike ride down Haleakala

our view when we stopped for lunch

I made sure to wear all bright yellow gear
so that my hubby wouldn't lose me!

we had to stop not for a photo op but because my
hubby's butt hurt, so I made my own photo op!

 
    We thoroughly enjoyed our entire 23 mile self guided bike ride.  As we started to get closer to the bike shop, I kept saying, "but I don't want it to end!"

    It was about an hour drive back to the hotel and during the daylight, there was much more to see.  We drove by this little gem...

    After all that cardio (okay so it was 98% downhill), I decided to treat myself to a slice of Hula Pie.  Prior to arriving in Maui, I had researched some restaurants for us to try.  I read that the Hula Pie from Leilani's (remember the place from my last post) was to die for.  And if you know me at all, you can imagine my excitement when I realized we were only a short walk away from this lovely treat!

a little slice of heaven

   
    We ended our night by taking a walk along the beach, enjoying the beautiful sunset and watching the Black Rock Cliff Dive ceremony.  A Hawaiian warrior runs onto Ka'anapali Beach carrying a torch.  He climbs up Black Rock and lights the torches along the way.  He offers his lei to the Hawaiian gods and dives into the ocean from the top of Black Rock.

 
    And so ends another successful day in paradise!