She also ran the 1600 and did very well. It was a great meet for her. We ended up spectating through the rest of the meet so we could watch the 3200.
We made it it Lahaina around noon, and we parked near the outlet malls so we could check out Waikiki Brewing - since they had food. Ben and Ariel went to the Crocs store to get Jibbitz for their Crocs. (Don't ask me why this is still a thing, I still think Crocs are horrifying). The food was pretty good and the views were awesome!
We had gotten a text from Sully that he was in Maui for the day with a layover, so we agreed to head back down to the south side and picked him up at his hotel. We went over to Maui Brewing - which was the biggest brewery I had ever seen! It was crazy!! We had some beer and happy hour specials for food, which was delicious. Fun to run into someone from back home on vacation!
Once the goats came in, there was very little yoga actually happening. I was sorta trying to do the class, but the goats were also so adorable, that it was hard to pay attention. I still say it was totally worth it to do this!
Also on the property was a weird chicken that looked like he was wearing a wig.
And a peacock!
We went into town and walked along the ocean for a bit. We were trying to find shells for Ariel, but weirdly, we didn't see any on this beach...
We found a place nearby that had a second floor patio (that we would visit more than once) and got lunch. This was interestingly also the only place we visited that checked out temperature every time we came. Ariel was excited to get a mocktail.
Meanwhile, I was excited to get a beer and a giant burger with fries. I love vacation.
We were hoping to see dolphins somewhere, so we headed down to the Lava Fields, as that is where the Spinner dolphins tend to hang out. Sadly, we did not see any dolphins, but we did go for a nice walk.
It was COLD when we got to the upper parking lot. Like I was wondering if I had even brought warm enough clothes. It was like doing a 14er and realizing you are freezing to death when you get to the summit. I had told Ariel that we would not go all the way to the cabin in the bottom and that we would be doing 8 miles round trip. I had loaded the route into my watch even though everyone said the trail was really well marked. The visitor center at the top was closed and I was wondering how I would be able to find the trail head. Well, it was literally in the parking lot, so that was a relief. 
We had hoped to go to the lower visitor center, but that was also closed. (Thanks a lot COVID!)
We were all hungry, so we decided to get food on the way "home" at Lava Rock again. They have a great happy hour! Ariel and I went to check out some shops for her traditional hoodie souvenir, but we weren't really impressed with the selection. We spent some time back at the condo before walking back over to the beach to watch another sunset.
I had an epiphany that we hadn't been remembering to do our "dessert of the day" this trip, so Ariel and I walked to the gelato place on the corner and got a treat. I was able to get my favorite "old person" flavor - Butter Pecan. Yummo!
The trail was absolutely gorgeous! The reviews all indicated that this was more of a "forest" - and they were right. (The negative reviews were upset at the lack of "views.") The way the trail was set up was that all the climbing would be in the first half, so it was nice to get that out of the way in the beginning, although this was an "easy" hike/run for us, the climbs weren't bad at all.
Ariel managed to spot this cool lizard on the trail. We looked it up later, and he is a Jackson's Chameleon - not even native to Hawaii! But he moved in slow motion and was SUPER cute - looked a lot like a dinosaur.
We needed to be back in the Lahaina area for the sunset cruise that Ben had booked, so we opted to go back to Waikiki for happy hour and a late lunch. Ariel and I had to run to the Crocs store to replace one of her Jibbitz that had fallen off (eyeroll). The service at Waikiki was AWFUL this time... the server just sucked so bad. The food was good - I had a turkey BLT wrap that was delicious.
Wednesday (14,401 steps) - Work from home. Also... this was Ariel's last day (in person) as a freshman in high school! Crazy, I have no idea where the year went.
Took Pika for a long walk at lunch. Finished packing for our trip!
Thursday (13,568 steps) - Up insanely early again, around 4 am, since our flight was at 7:50 am. Security line was shorter than last week, but it actually took us longer to get through. Fairly turbulent flight to LAX, at least I had Schitt's Creek to entertain me. We had a LONG layover in LA - about 4 hours. We got some food and beers before boarding our plane. A late announcement indicated that we could do some pre-arrival check in with the gate agents to speed up arrival in Hawaii. It took a bit long, but since we were just waiting around it wasn't a bit deal. As we were supposed to be pushing back, there was an announcement that they had to replace a valve (or something) and our flight would be delayed 10 minutes. This announcement happened another half dozen times - "we'll be on our way in 10-15 minutes" for over an hour. Finally on our way... Watched "The Martian" and more Schitt's Creek. We arrived a little over an hour later than planned. I'm glad we had done the pre-check as the line for people who had NOT was really long. We exited the airport and Ariel had to do another COVID test since she isn't fully vaccinated yet. We met up with the guy at the airport that was renting us a Rav-4. All in all, it was pretty easy! We headed immediately to the condo that I had rented, and we were pleased to see that it was right on the beach! We got some food at a place down the street - ah, what a reminder of how expensive food is in Hawaii! We walked over to watch the sunset before heading back to the condo
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| View from our table at dinner! |
Friday (19,224 steps) - Slept very well! We were up early so we could do our drive up north for a hike on the Waihe'e Ridge Trail. We had a bit of trouble finding a coffee shop, but we finally located one (that we would end up visiting nearly every day). They messed up our regular coffee - seriously, do you have to order coffee HOT? But I did get a delicious smoothie, so that kinda made up for it. Plus, Ben and Ariel really enjoyed the chocolate croissants they got. The drive was very pretty, and we were excited to see goats on the side of the road!
We were lucky to have left no later than we did, as we got the very last parking space in the upper lot! It wouldn't have been a HUGE deal to walk an additional .75 miles (each way), but it was much more convenient to not have to. I'm glad I had read the review that the paved part of the hike was the hardest, because holy moly, I was sweating up a storm getting up that first hill. We turned up into a pretty wooded section.
The views were incredible, even though it was pretty cloudy. We had hoped to run a bulk of this, but between the steep climbs and the soul-crushing humidity and the steep terrain, it was a power hike up.
It was CRAZY foggy when we finally got to the top. There was a small patio with a picnic table and 8-10 other people up there. We stuck around for a few minutes, hoping the fast-moving clouds would clear enough for us to get a view across the valleys. We didn't get much.
We were, however, able to jog some of the downhills. The cute ruts on the way up that had helped with footing were more obnoxious on the way down.
Ben thought it was hilarious to capture me trying to get back though the gate. This was a super bizarre way to have to get in/out of this trail!
We had decided to do the drive around to the northwest shore since we weren't planning on being in the area again, and we had time. The road was a little windy, but the views of the ocean were incredible. The water was so blue! Every time there was a turn out, we got out of the car to walk around and see what was there. We skipped the blow hole since the parking for it was a complete cluster.
After Waikiki, we headed across the street to the other local brewery - Kohtolo - that one was really good beer-wise, but since they hadn't had beer, that was why we didn't just go there in the first place.
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| This chicken was just living his best life... |
Saturday (18,311 steps) - We got to sleep in a bit since our adventure of the day started a bit later. We had hoped to check out the cinnamon roll place down the street, but the line was insane, so we went back to our other coffee place for breakfast, coffee and smoothies. Our activity of the day was GOAT YOGA!! This was one of only two things we had planned the entire trip, and it was SO AWESOME. We drove out to the "country" where the yoga place was located. Once we checked in we were told that goats eat everything, so we had to be careful what we brought in. The views were amazing, and for some reason they put the three of us right in front of the instructor, haha.
Once the class was over it was time to give the goats their treats (which was Cheerios) and play with them. Of course we wanted super cool pictures with them. Who knew that I was going to have TWO GOATS jump on my back at one point. Turns out, their little hooves scratch you pretty good!
We hit up the "mall" and went to the south Waikiki Brewery location.
Sunday (33,595 steps) - While we didn't have to get up TOO early, we did have plans to do the Sliding Sands trail in Haleakala National Park and we wanted to start around 8. Well, we first tried the cinnamon roll place - long line AGAIN, so by the time we got breakfast and coffee we were already a bit behind. The drive up was pretty neat, there were markers on the side of the road that showed you how much elevation you were at. I really had no idea we would be at around 10,000'! From sea level! Crazy!
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| Did you know that a). The Nene is a goose and that b). It's the Hawaii state bird? |
I knew that the entire way out was going to be downhill and the way back would be uphill. I knew all these things. We all kept our layers on as we headed down. We had started early enough that we really didn't see that many people on our way down.
We were able to run a lot of the upper section as it was packed and not technical at all. Wheeee!
Ben and I joked that we were going to end up with hundreds of nearly identical pictures, just from different places on the trail. I don't think he was wrong. I had never seen anything quite like it, and knowing that we had just come up from a green and lush jungle made it surreal. It was like running on Mars! (Although I said that to Ariel and she said there is no way Mars looks like this - eyeroll).
It began to warm up, so I took off my R1, although I still left my thin long sleeve top on.
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| This may be my favorite picture from the day - but undecided |
It was so cool to see the craters pop up when we turned a corner. It was also interesting to see that it was actually green in the bottom in some sections. So many vibrant and different colors.
We got maybe 2.5-3 miles down before the trail became a bit more technical. The route had a lot of loose rocks and we were no longer running as much.
We dropped into the final descent and we figured that the 4 mile mark before the turnaround would be the trail junction. We sat there for a few minutes and I managed to convince Ariel that I wanted to go up to the closest crater to see what it looked like inside. According to Google maps, it was only about a mile away, but that meant we would be closer to 10 miles. That did not make Ariel happy, but she grudgingly agreed to do it.
We found some rocks and sat and ate our sandwiches and the beef jerky that I had brought before heading back out. Unfortunately, there was NOT a super cool view into the crater, which was disappointing, but I don't regret heading out for it!
We had a bit of downhill heading back to the trail junction, where we briefly stopped to dump the sand out of our shoes. Ariel finally ditched her R1, and we began the climb out. I think the temperature immediately rose about 30 degrees. It was NOT fun doing the climb back out.
The higher we got, the more people we saw coming down. Unfortunately for the people who thought that starting at noon was a great idea, the clouds rolled in and the whole crater was covered in a blanket of fog by the time we got about a mile away from the summit.
Once we finally got to the car, Ben and I had a beer, and the car next to us had a bunch of extra snacks and drinks (their last day on the island and they were trying to get rid of stuff before going to the airport), so Ariel was able to get some lemonaid.
Monday (23,796 steps) - We were able to sleep in a bit again, as our only goal today was a run/hike that we didn't think was going to be too crowded. Ben had woken up ridiculously early again, so he actually went and got our coffee/breakfast/smoothies. The regular place didn't have my traditional smoothie flavor, but the new one was good too. We arrived at the Kahakapao Loop around 10:30. I opted to skip using the port-o-potty at the start because it was super gross and there was no toilet paper. I had loaded the route into my watcha gain, and estimated it would be between 6-7 miles. We had a bit of a hard time finding the actual route to begin with, but only because there were trails that were bike only. Once we got to the map, it was easier to figure out.
There were barely any people on the trail until we got a few miles in - then of course when we were trying to get pictures of this area with all the ferns, it seemed like there were tons of people. It was still humid in the trees, but the lack of any real sun made it fairly bearable.
The trails were so buffed and nice that we jogged most of the way down. Ben's knee was bothering him a bit, so we did walk in some spots, but overall, this was a great trail.
We drove up to the Westin and had to find parking. We found the group pretty easily for the boat. We managed to end up with a group of 20-something "woo girls" that were super obnoxious. One of them got drunk enough we were expecting her to fall off the boat or throw up. Neither happened...
The funniest part of the evening was after we were getting off the boat and the drunk girl stopped suddenly in front of Ariel and then said "Sorry, I'm just trying to live my best life." So clearly she could tell that we thought she was ridiculous, lol. It was a late night for us and we decided we needed to head back closer to the condo before we got any more food, as it was already dark and we had a decently long drive. We picked up a pizza on the way home, which seemed easier than going out yet again.
Stats:
- 139,542 steps
- 21.09 miles run
- 0 minutes cardio
- 38 minutes strength training
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