Saturday July 24th, 2010

Waking up at 2:00 a.m. is not something I want to repeat in the near future but to experience what we did this morning made it all worth it!

We got picked up at 2:20 in the morning from our hotel and headed toward the biking company building while picking up a fully loaded van of people. Once we got to the building we were served muffins and coffee, fitted with helmets, and headed up to the top of Haleakala to see the sun rise.

(It was 46 degrees up there and the wind chill made it even more freezing! Thank goodness Maui Downhill provided us with windbreakers!)

(The pictures above not only show the crater on top of Haleakala, the clouds surrounding the mountain, but the varying degrees of the sun rising)

(The Haleakala Silversword - Only found in Maui on top of Haleakala and nowhere else in the world!)

(At the observatory on top of the mountain)

After watching the sun rise and looking around the summit we FINALLY got to ride our bikes down the mountain! It was a blast! Unfortunately a few people in our group were scared on the way down and slowed us down! Cam talked to the tour group leader and asked him if we could quicken the pace. I'm glad he did! After a stop for breakfast he moved the slower people to the back of the group and we flew down the rest of the mountain! It was exhilarating!

(A couple pics on the bikes)

On the way down the mountain we had a few chances to stop and look at some of the flora! Maui has so many beautiful and exotic plant species!

(Incredible plants right!?)

(Our last picture before the bicycle tour down the mountain ended)

We were dropped back off at the hotel around 11:30 a.m. and were zonked! Both Cam and I took a LONG nap before heading down to Lahaina for dinner. Here's a cute little visitor we found in our room!

(This was the tiniest little gecko, or any other lizard for that matter, that we've ever seen!)

(Dinner at Aloha Mixed Plate)

(Still tired)

(We both got the Hawaiian mixed plate which came with pulled pork and cabbage, rice, macaroni salad, poi, a salmon salsa garnish, and haupia - a stiff coconut pudding)

One of the most fun parts of the trip has been walking down by the harbor to look in all the shops and taste all the foods in Lahaina. Today we were drawn into the pearl shop where we got to crack open an oyster to reveal a beautiful pearl.

(The lady had Cam move it to the plate where we would break it open)

(She told Cam to tap the shell three times, ring the bell in the window and shout, "Aloha!" for good luck)

(Wa-la!)

(A gorgeous and perfect pearl in the shade of "cream" which means "happiness." I think it's right! We have never been happier!)

(These shops get you with the cost of putting the pearl in a setting. We settled for a much cheaper silver ring setting instead of the gold ones the lady was trying to get us to buy :)

(Ending the day with a gorgeous sunset! We got to see the sun rise and set in one day! Pretty neat!)

Cam and I sat on a bench enjoying some delicious gelato as the sun set down at the Lahaina bay. As we were enjoying the view a most adorable older couple sat down beside us to take a break. Turns out they were from Australia and were here on vacation. We sat and talked to them for about a half an hour and they were just so adorable! The best part of our conversation was when we told them about our wedding and they both gasped and started shaking our hands and congratulating us! They were truly and genuinely happy for us, two people they had never seen before! They both wanted to know all about my dress so we showed them pictures from the wedding. They looked through almost all of the pictures we had on our phones. Before we parted they told us that they would be married 50 years next year and wished us all the happiness they have had married to one another. Cam and I agree that meeting and talking to those two sweet people was the best part of the day! We only regret not getting a picture to remember them by. We still have 4 days left so, who knows, maybe we'll run into them again :)

We have no plans for tomorrow but I'm sure we'll find something fun to do :)