Maui - Day 7 - Exploring the Island

We tried snorkeling in the morning, but the current was strong and it was hard to get anywhere. Plus the people who were out were oblivious. A paddle boarder almost ran into us, one woman that couldn't swim and was using a wake board to help her float while snorkeling was all over the place, etc. We did see a couple of eels and a ton of fish. Where the current was strongest it looked like a fish parking lot -- they were all hovering on the ocean floor a couple of inches away from each other.
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The first stop on our island adventure was The Maui Tropical Plantation. It was more of a tourist trap than I wished for, but it was cool to see all the different plants and the coconut husking demonstration.


We had lunch on site at a BBQ place - good food, but the chickens wandering around were a bit unnerving. The highlight of lunch was listening to a teenage girl talk about how cute the baby chicks were before ordering her chicken sandwich. We left before she got her food - I was afraid Iggy would ask her if her sandwich was also cute.


We took the train ride, but probably could've seen all the sites walking. It was fun to see the zip line stations on the plantation. They seemed positively tame compared to the zip lines we did in Jalisco, Mexico...wonder if the safety regulations are different?
A couple of shots from the plantation:






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The second stop on our island exploration was the Ali'i Kula Lavender farm. This was less tourist-y and more off the beaten path (read as the roads leading there were narrow, windy, and we were not really sure we were on the right path). I wanted to see the purple fields like you see in pictures from the French lavender fields (which we did see) but the bonus was the view. The farm is at 4000 feet and you can see the "skinny" part of Maui with ocean on both sides.












We had lavender scones at the gift shop before continuing on our adventure.
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Next was a little random driving. We stopped at a farm stand to buy bananas and a papaya for breakfast tomorrow. We drove through Paia (cute town - maybe a place to stay next time), stopped at a scenic overlook and drove a little bit of the Hana highway.





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Last stop was Mama's Fish House for dinner. It was highly recommended and lived up to the hype. It was even worth the hour drive back to the hotel. We were early and didn't really get to watch the sun set from our table, but we did have a nice beach view.


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Back at the hotel we watched the Olympics again (Michael Phelps 3-peat! Gabby wins gold!) and then the local news. Local news is an adventure regardless of where you are. There was some news on a guy who got his foot bitten by a shark while surfing (minor injuries, he'll be back out there again ASAP he says) and a beach where some palm trees were mysteriously cut down. The beach regulars blame the guy across the street and made a sign saying so. The guy across the street took the sign down and says the forest service cut down the trees. The forest service says "not us." Wheeeeee!

Location:Maui, HI