This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

We didn’t do the tour today. We were on the waiting list but since it was pouring down this whole morning we didn’t think snorkeling would be such a good idea so we just took the bus by ourselves to Lahaina to walk around. The tour was partly in that city too. So we would rather go by ourselves so we could put our name first on the list for the real turtle snorkeling tomorrow. It was very frustrating with the buses again. We were told that bus 20 went straight from outside the hostel to Lahaina so we sat there and waited for an hour before we realized that probably wasn’t true. So we took the normal bus to the big shopping mall and from there the 20 went. It took us three hours to get to Lahaina. So stupid!

When we came there it was really windy. But the city was so pretty! It was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii but then King Kamehameha III moved it to Honolulu in the middle of the 19^th century. We walked around, looking in souvenir shops. I bought my refrigerator magnet and I couldn’t resist buying another bracelet. It said it was Cat’s Eye Fortune Bracelet/Anklets. Each color represented different things. I chose the light blue because it was the prettiest one and it will bring me romance apperantly.

We walked along a nice beach where big houses had the beach as backyard. Those houses must cost millions of dollars! I wouldn’t mind living there! At the end of the beach were a Buddhist temple and this morning when I were waiting for the bus I read in a Maui brochure that out there was the biggest Buddah statue outside Asia. And we actually saw it and remembered the text when we saw it.

On the way back we stopped at Hard Rock Café Maui to have dinner. We got a seat right next to the glassless windows with a beautiful view over the ocean and sunset. We shared the local burger which was so good! Pineapple chunks, teriyaki sauce and pulled pork. First time I ever tried that. It was good! For dessert we stopped by a Gelato place. I had pineapple and it was really good. Tasted like real pineapple. I’ve never had that before either, so two new things I’ve tried today again. In the gift store at HRC I bought a shotglass and a t-shirt. It was expensive, but I really wanted that t-shirt. I mean, how many people in the world have a Hard Rock Café Maui t-shirt?

On the long way back to the hostel we froze. We had our towels wrapped around us and we will probably sleep with hoodies or at least an extra blanket or something. It was really cold tonight! Probably that arctic chills going over the mainland right now… So it will probably be really cold, maybe even snow, when we are doing the volcano hike at 10,000 feet height on Saturday.

When we got back to the hostel we asked one of our roomies about the trip today (we actually saw the vans in Lahaina earlier and our guide from yesterday recognized us and waved when we were crossing the street). And the wind and waves were making the water all foggy (like sand you can’t see through), so they didn’t do any snorkeling and she was disappointed. So I’m glad I didn’t go. I and Caroline had a nice time together in Lahaina without any stress on when to get to the van.

I don’t know what happened over night, if it was all the moisture that came with the rain or what (apperantly there was a big storm over the whole of Maui last night), but when I woke up I had so many mosquito bites! Especially on my legs. And one big on one of my knuckles. Mosquitos love me and I hate them! I hope they don’t carry any deceases with them.

I really hope the water has calmed down tomorrow so I can see some turtles! And I will get a tiny sleep-in because the tour doesn’t leave until 10:30 am. Awesome!

This river was completely dry yesterday! This is what a big part of Maui looks like. It’s just desolate… Is it my 10th visit maybe? 🙂