Frozen at 10,000 Feet

Now I knew we were going to see a sunrise on top of a volcano. But the one volcano I have climbed, was not very high. And it is difficult to make out how tall the volcanoes are on Maui, and I was driving in pitch black, and let's face it, it was 3 AM in the MORNING! So I don't think I was properly prepared for what I saw. It was BREATHTAKING. This is a must do, if you visit Maui. You get to see the sunrise over the volcano crater, which is surrounded by clouds, because you are 10,023 feet above sea level. It is awesome!... but bring a sweater, because it is really really cold. I ended up using my hotel towel as a makeshift hood.

We took tons of pictures, got to see plants in bloom that only bloom once in their 50 year lifespan, and got to take a hike down into the first part of the crater. We couldn't go any further because some idiot forgot to bring his shoes and wore sandals instead. It's really hard to hike uphill in sand in sandals. It was also cool to see the observatory, the fourth highest in the world. You can't go inside because I guess it's run by the DoD, but it's still cool to see. My favorite part was getting to see planes flying lower than us.

When we got back down, Gerg was Zombie Gerg. So we did some shopping and hung out at our resort for a little while to recover. This is when I got my real Hawaiian shirt! The rest of the night was uneventful, mostly Gerg trying not to fall asleep on his feet.