Sunday morning when we woke up we had plans to go to the Hana Branch Sacrament service. We were really excited to attend this meeting. We found it about 10 minutes from our cottage. We were laughing at ourselves because it was the most "done up" we had made ourselves. We looked really nice after being beach/hiker bums all week.
It was such a charming little church. The Chapel floor was all tile with chairs set up. No benches. And there were doors and along the sides that were open during the whole meeting (except during the sacrament service they shut during it and then opened them back up afterwards). There were several ceiling fans going the whole time as well. So it had this great refreshing breeze through the chapel. Very Hawaiian.
My favorite thing about the sacrament meeting was that every speaker got up and would say "Brother and Sisters. Aloha." Then the congregation would repeat back "Aloha!" It was so neat. I kinda wish Utah had something like that.
After the wonderful meeting we got to enjoy, we changed our clothes in the car and decided to go on the hunt for the Black and Red Sanded Beaches that Hana is known for. Jesse really wanted to bring some home. We have a cool jar at home that he made of some white sand he got from St Marten and some black sand from St Kitts. So this time he wants to make a jar with Black, Red and White Sand.
We found the black sand beach not far from the church. Looking at the map we could see that the Red Sand beach wasn't too far from it, so we decided to walk over there. It was more of a hike really. Which was fun.
When we came upon the Red Sand Beach it wasn't very big. But it was really cool to say the least.
We kept hiking along the coast until we couldn't go any further. We came to this cove with the waves splashing up on the lava rocks. There is something beautiful about the waves contrasting with the lava rocks. I know ideally a white sand beach is beautiful, but this too was beautiful in a different way. We hung out for a bit and decided we needed to start heading "home".
We weren't going back the way we came because we thought it would be cool to see the whole island. Plus we had read and heard that the bottom side of the island was so diverse in climates.
Along the drive home we stopped at "The Seven Sacred Pools". We ate our lunch first and then walked down the trail to check out the pools. It had a waterfall into a pool, into a waterfall and so forth. It was really pretty. And there were people there swimming in the pools. I think we would have stayed and played longer if we didn't have such a long drive ahead of us still. And besides I was feeling really tired. My feet are so sore from hiking and I didn't get a good night's rest the night before. So I was wanting to just rest in the car (I sound like an old whiny pregnant woman).
Can you spot Jesse in this picture? The shadows were hiding him so it was hard to get a good picture with him in it.
Baby Bump Waterfall Picture. 19 weeks along. It's going by way too fast. It's crazy. This baby is going to be here before we know it.
Along our drive we went from thick lush jungle green climate to this dessert dry land. Its just the craziest thing that this diverse of climate could be on the same island. What a contrast from what we came from
Also lots of lava rock on the ocean side of the road. Plus the cool little arch we saw on our drive.
Our plan wasn't to go to Haleakala on this day but the road home took us right by Haleakala Highway. By this time is was 5:30pm and Jesse really wanted to go, but I was just feeling totally pooped and wanted to go to the condo to go to bed. Haha. But he talked me into it. Which I am so glad that he did.
This 11 mile highway was super windy. Lots of switch backs. I had to keep the window rolled down a bit to avoid getting car sick. The highway took us up the mountain 10,000 feet. Crazy going from sea level to that high altitude. Again, the diverse climate changes were crazy. The dessert area was around 90 degrees. But as we were climbing up this mountain we were watching the temperature drop. Also the higher we got it became really cloudy. It was making us nervous that we wouldn't even have a good view when reached the top. Oh but we were wrong. We got so high that we were above the clouds. The skies were blue and the sun was shining so bright. Now I was feeling grateful that Jesse talked me into coming up here.
Here is the view of the Haleakala crater.
Temperatures we definitely much colder up here. Thankfully we were prepared with our sweats and socks. We decided that it was be really cool to watch the sun set while we were up there above the clouds. We had about an hour and half to kill. So we hiked/walked around a little bit.
Then we decided to go set up a spot to watch the sun go down. We wanted to be at the highest point (which we read was 10, 023 feet high). As we sat a waited/ watched the sun go down we were freezing our little buns off. We were laughing that we were wrapped in our beach towels and thinking about how we were so hot earlier on in the day. But with the wind chill I think it was about 40 degrees up there.
But it was SO worth it. I think that was the prettiest sunset I had ever seen. The pictures don't even do it justice, but the colors were fabulous. And to be up above the clouds was an experience I'll never forget. Thank you Jesse for talking me into going up there. It was worth every moment being up there.
Pretty amazing huh?
After the sunset we headed down the windy highway again. We found a pizza restaurant near the base of it and ordered calzones (best and biggest calzones we have ever had). With our full bellies and left over to take "home" we made the hour drive back to the condo and just crashed in bed.
It's kind of amazing how much we did/saw in one whole day. So much fun.
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