Hawaii 2010 - Mini Road to Hana and Paia

One of my favorite experiences on my first trip to Maui was spending a day on the "Road to Hana," which is the drive east along the coast from Central Maui to the small town of Hana. The main part of the road starts east of Paia and is only 36 miles, but on average, it takes about 3 hours to make the trip. Narrow, winding roads, single lane bridges, and gorgeous scenery - it's definitely something to behold, but not exactly a fun drive to undertake with a toddler (especially when you consider that you also have to drive back).

I wanted Robert and my parents to see at least part of the drive, so we woke up bright and early (check out that bedhead!) to get on the road.

There are lots of spots to stop and explore, but we had reservations for lunch and didn't want to upset Claire with getting in and our of the car too frequently. One stop we did make was at Twin Falls. The path to the falls was lush, and we enjoyed the walk even more than the falls, which were not running to strongly due to the lack of recent rains. We took our time examining the scenery and finished our stop with a fresh smoothie and banana bread from the juice stand at the head of the trail.

We continued on to a wayside park at about mile marker 12 to get to an overlook that I remembered. After taking in the view, we headed back to Paia for lunch at Mama's Fish House. Mama's is a famous restaurant in Maui - excellent seafood with even better views. We had a tasty lunch and walked out on the beach to watch the windsurfers. Claire's comfort level with the beach was slowly increasing - on the first day she didn't want to touch the sand, but this time she was comfortable walking on it. Maybe wearing shoes made the difference - who knows!

We took some time to explore Paia - I loved it. Quaint, with a fabulous gelato shop! My favorite was the lilikoi quark, which was passion fruit with goat's milk quark (a kind of goat cheese) from a nearby dairy. It sounds strange, but it was so good - creamy and tangy. Claire's favorite was any she could get on her spoon. She sampled everyone's choices multiple times. We also really enjoyed checking out Konrad's Ship Gallery and seriously considered walking away with a piece from the gallery. I told Robert that on a future trip, we'd definitely need to stay in Paia for a couple of days.

Dinner that night was pizza from a local joint recommended by the checkout guy at the grocery store (Shaka Pizza) - it was a good recommendation. Since Claire was getting more comfortable with the beach, we walked across the street to stroll the beach and take in the sunset. Claire had a blast wading in the water - look at those grins!