osodecanela | Meeting for Worship and the road to Hana......

What do a couple of Quaker Bears do on First Day morning while in Paradice? Meeting for Worship, of course!

LJ and I met almost 27 years ago at SF Friends Meeting. It was in the old Lake Street Meetinghouse and I remember it as if it were yesterday. He was seated in the west Meeting room, near the divider separating it from the east Meeting room. His back was to the plate glass window, affording me a dazzling view, not only of the man I would come to share my life with, but of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge behind him.

I'd called the contact for the Maui Worship Group on Friday afternoon, and was told there were two separate locations for worship, one of them being very near to us, in Kihei. We arrived at the appointed location, an assisted living complex just off of Kameole II Park, on Sunday morning, 10 minutes before the start of Meeting. We went inside, took the elevator to the 3rd floor meetingroom and settled in, centering down to meditate and seek the Divine. Unfortunately, we were the only two Friends in attendance. Actually, the only two people in attendance as well. I knew the Maui WG was small, but had not realized quite how small. After 1/2 an hour in worship, I reached over and shook my husband's hand and off we went in search of brunch. I'm sure there were some Friends in worship on the island; the man on the phone told me he attends the WG's other location, which I think he said, was upcountry. We now know to head upcountry next time.

We stopped at the Kihei Cafe on S. Kihei Rd, where we had eaten earlier in the week, consuming more calories than either of us really needed, while tanking up on caffiene, while enjoying the balmy weather and the view of the beach. The food at least was tasty. While eating we decided to head around to the windward side of the island to Hana.

Hana is 55 miles from the airport in Kahului, but road winds and is just two lanes, with what felt like hundreds of one lane segments crossing narrow bridges. The trip is almost 3 hours long, and that's if you make the drive non-stop. Maui Revealed made the trip sound absolutely idyllic; per their recommendation, as well those of Dave and Deb's, we made preparations to spend the night in Hana, rather than turn around and drive back in a single day.

The road does pass thru some incredibly lush landscape; the views of the North coast of Eastern Maui were often sublime. Unfortunately, much of what I'd wanted to see on the trip was disappointing. The waterfalls of eastern Maui are supposed to be legend, but they've been experiencing what constitutes for this part of the tropics drought conditions. As a result some of the waterfalls we'd hoped to see were less than impressive. Some, were not falling at all.

Three Bears Falls is right on the Hana Hwy at the side of the road. No hiking into nature; just pull over to the side of the road, and you're there. It's one of a dozen or so falls right along the roadway; during dryer spells, there are three separate gentle falls, as opposed to a raging single torrent, seen during heavier rains.

We'd planned to stop at the famous Blue Pool; this I must say was one of my major disappointments of the trip. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand just a few miles shy of the turn off. Over banana bread, the propriatress sadly informed us that the falls weren't falling. Had been that way for a couple of weeks due to dry weather. I was so bummed. One of the feeder streams for the Blue Pool Falls was(or should have been) right across from her stand. It was indeed dry. She was rather annoyed with the whole situation herself. It's far from good for her business. She aluded to water diversion that's going on up the mountain, to increase the supply of drinking water on the island, needed due to Maui's increasing population and all the building that's going on. Saddened, we chose to bipass the Blue Pool, in hopes of seeing it on another trip. Below, a stock photo from the net of the Blue Pool in moister times. Imaging swimming in these waters!

We pressed onward to Honokalani Black Sand Beach in the Wai'anapanapa State Park, a couple of miles north of Hana. Quite the sight! It's one of two black sand beaches on Maui. Calling it 'sand' however is a bit of a misnomer. Pea gravel is a better descriptor, though that just doesn't have the same tourist-attracting ring of 'sand'! While lovely to look at, don't think of walking on it, at least not barefoot. Underfoot, dry black 'sand', when in direct sun gets blazingly hot. At least the stuff that's wet pretty much is the same temperature as the ocean water. Further, the size of the 'sand' is really hard on bare skin, at least it was on this bear's bare feet! Surf/water shoes are a must. We did hit the water for a bit, then went back up the hill to the car and headed on to Hana. I would've liked to explore the park some more, but the 'sand' had done such a number on my feet, I wasn't up for walking any further than I had to, at that point.

Hana is rustic. The bay is lovely, but within minutes of our arrival, they skies turned grey and began to rain. The restaurants were all closed, with the exception of the Hana Ranch Resort's place and neither of us were able to pass their dress code with what we on, and had with us. We nosed around a bit for a place for the night, something that wouldn't cost and arm or leg. While there were places to stay, I was not interested in something that would not afford us some reasonable privacy. A shared bath down the hall, with 6 screaming island kids in the next room, plus thin plywood walls was not for me, even at $50 a night, so while it was still daylight out, we turned around and headed west for 'home' in Kihei. Like the Blue Pool, the 7 Sacred Pools at O'heo Gulch south of Hana, would wait for another trip.

At least we did get a chance to see some views before nightfall, such as these views of the town of Keanae, taken from the Hwy above, this wild passionflower vine (which if you look very closely is bearing fruit) and this tree with strikingly pretty orange/salmon colored blossoms which were all over the eastern side of Maui.