Honeymoon: Day 7

On our first full day in Maui, we decided to drive the road to Hana.  Anyone ever done this?  Let's put it this way, they have t-shirts in Maui that say, "I survived the road to Hana!"  Ha!  It was a 3 hour drive there....and back.  The longest road trip ever.  It goes to the complete other side of the island and it is the curviest road!  And there are curves that are literally one lane so you have to make sure no one is coming from the other direction!  But it was a beautiful drive!  And I can imagine that it is even more beautiful during the rainy season!  

There is a look-out along the way so we stopped to get some pictures.  The waves were pretty big here so there were quite a few surfers out there!  I just couldn't get over how gorgeous the weather was while we were there!

 The handsome hubby :)

 There was another honeymooning couple at the stop and so we took a picture of them and they took a picture of us!  Teamwork! :)

 We drove another hour or so and made a pitstop at a restroom along the way.  (Totally disgusting by the way...and there were roosters, chickens, and wild cats roaming all around...)  But the view was beautiful!  You could see how the island curved and the water was just as blue here!

 The water is so clear!  This was looking straight down from the rest-stop.

 One of the waterfalls we saw along the way.  We were in Hawaii towards the end of the dry season so the falls weren't as bountiful as they should be!  I can only imagine how beautiful they are when the water is freely flowing!

 There is only one place to eat in Hana, and once we got there we were starving!  As was everyone else who drove the road to Hana that day, ha!  But we threw up the shaka sign to show we were going with the flow!

 David throwing up the shaka sign!

 On our way back, we found a place off the main road called Pa'iloa Black Sand Beach at Wai'anapanapa State Park and decided to check it out.  And I am so glad we did.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  The plants were so green and the rock structures were so black.

 And we made our way down to the black sand beach and that's exactly what it was!  Black sand beaches form when lava flows out under the water and hardens, and over time gets beaten down by the water and waves and creates these black sand beaches.  They don't stick around for long (I think a couple hundred years?) but they are beautiful!

 At the tall point to the left of my head, there were campers who were swimming out to this structure, climbing all the way up and jumping off.  Oh my gosh, I was sure they were going to smack into the rocks, but they didn't!  It was fun to watch!  We started our long trek back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.  Dinner that night was at a sushi restaurant called Sansei and it was delicious!  We were so exhausted we forgot to take dinner pictures before so we took them after dinner and this is what we got:

 Hahaha :)

So our final picture was of us cracking up.  We were delirious, haha!  Unfortunately we didn't buy the shirt that says, "I survived the Road to Hana" and now I'm kicking myself for not getting it!  Oh well, I guess that just means I'll have to go back! :)