Sunrise on Haleakalā - Day 3

As you might have noticed from our entry from the day before, Luke is waking up really early.  So we thought "Why not go see the sunrise on Haleakalā?  We're up anyway!"  You see, to see the sunrise on the top of Maui's dead volcano, you have to wake up pretty early - like 3 or 4am early.  Good thing we were already getting up around then anyways!

So when Luke slept in until the late hour of 4:10am, you can imagine the debate we had on whether it was too late.  We decided to risk it, and by 4:30am we were off for a 7am-ish sunrise.  Even driving as fast as we could, we were still climbing the volcano when the sky started lighting up.  However, once we got to the top, we were actually kind of glad that we didn't need to wait a long time - because it was COLD!  The air temperature was around 47 degrees, but with the windchill we were glad to have grabbed the blankets from the hotel to wrapped up in.

But Luke, in true toddler fashion, put all of us to shame.  While Amit and I were huddling for warmth, enjoying the pretty colors the sky was turning, Luke was running around like a crazy boy through the rocks (which he wasn't suppose to be in...), showing us again that if you REALLY care about something (like rocks!) then a little chilly air is nothing!

Luke having a blast in the 'forbidden zone' where no one was supposed to be to preserve some insects and plants.
Hawaii may be super small compared to the rest of the U.S.,
but it holds 75% of all animal and plant species in our country!

Proof that we were all there 

Then finally, the moment came - and it was AMAZING!  We can't emphasize enough how incredible it was.  Marinda thought it was just going to be a general brightening of the sky with some cool colors, but the sunrise is an actual event!  There is an actual moment when you see the sun break over the horizon and the world becomes a billion times brighter and warmer.  What made it even cooler was that native park workers started singing/chanting a native song that we could only guess is some sort of prayer or ceremony for the beginning of the day.  Then the worker shouted out the date, and that today was the first day of the rest of our lives.  That this was OUR sunrise!  For some reason, hearing those words we've heard a thousand times before meant something very different when your actually there, seeing the moment the day began.

The sun came up!

This is the shadow case by Hale Akala - only visible from this high up

After the sun was up and the crowds started dispersing, we decided to hick up to the actual top of where we were parked.  Marinda should get some credit for not passing out on those steep stairs, and Amit should get credit for making sure Luke didn't hurt himself attempting to fly up them.  The view from the top was SO worth it!

We're on top of the world!

He kind of looks like he's planning world domination

We're pretty sure that's the Big Island in the distance, with the two mountains being Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

Those are observatories in the background,
had to get this picture with our new Asto Doctorate!

After such an early morning, we decided to find ourselves a good, hearty breakfast.  After some looking on yelp on the way down the volcano (plenty of time) we decided to try the local favorite Kula ristro.  Parking was interesting, but the food was sooooo good!  Luke got one buttermilk pancake (which was bigger than his face) while Amit and I split three white chocolate and macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup and a frittata.  We couldn't finish it, these pancakes were so huge and soooooooooooo good!  Did we mention that the food here was really good?

Next on our agenda, because we were already in Kula, was to see something on Marinda's bucket list - the Kula Botanical Gardens.  It's a beautiful, family owned garden spreading up a hill.  We were a little worried about how Luke would handle it and were scared that he would kill off some rare, exotic plant, but he did great!  We were the first to admit that six months ago this trip would have been a disaster, but he stayed on the trails, looked at the flowers we pointed out (sort of) and the only thing he got super excited about and would run up and touch were the watering hoses.

What made this trip extra cool for him was the koi pond, because the lady a the entrance gave us some fish food!  We also discovered on this trip that Luke does NOT like tiki men.  There were a couple throughout the garden, and whenever we passed one it took a ton of persuasion to get Luke to finally run by it.  Why was he so scared of them?  We have no idea.

This picture is inspired by grandma. Should be zoomed in more though

Luke looooooved feeding the fish

We found another gazebo!  What made this one cool was that it had three stools, one for each of us!

We tried showing him that Tiki men were harmless by brushing their teeth, but he would have nothing of it.

It was finally time to head back to our hotel for lunch and nap time, and we got a neat treat while driving back.  We were listening to the radio, and Luke actually started singing along!  He's never sung along before, so this was really cute.  It was to Jason Gray's Christmas is Coming, and he had fun singing to along with the "Ohh" during the chorus.

Nap turned out to be a no fly - to everyone's great dismay (crazy boy) so after we finally decided to give up we headed out to the beach again, this time trying out Baby Beach just ten minutes down the highway.

This experiences was much different than our beach experience yesterday.  The sun was out, the waves broke way out so the water was calm and fun to play in, and Marinda finally got to realize her fantasy.  You see, during those last few super-stressful weeks building up to Amit's defense, when she would start feeling down, she would imagine sitting on the beach, warm and happy, with Luke and Amit playing in the sand and water.  And like a dream come true, that afternoon was pretty much exactly that.  It was a perfect Hawaiian beach afternoon.  :)

We had gotten a recommendation for the best shave ice in the area in downtown Lahaina, but parking was such a mess and it was so close to dinner time that we decided to head home.  Marinda was a little disappointed (she has a shaved ice addiction), so when Amit came back from the grocery store with a shaved ice from the shop across the street, she was more than a little ecstatic.  Best husband ever!  It may not have been the best in the area, but it was still really yummy!

After such a long day of hiking and playing, we called it an early day and crashed.