The girls last day

Today was the last full day the girls were gonna be here with us in Hawaii. They all had lame reasons calling them back to the mainland. So, we decided to do another drive. A little geography on the island might help. Maui is shaped like a bowling pin, the road to Hana takes you about half way around the big half of the bowling pin, and today we drove the whole way around the small half. Now, I gotta say, in the guide book there is all this bla bla bla about how curvy and narrow the road to hana was... No no no. That road was a straight four lane highway compared to this one. There were many areas where only one car could pass (and just barely) and if you came around the corner and there was a car, one of you would have to back all the way up (which was kinda scary if you had to back around some of those spots). I think the book didn't really talk much about it to try and keep traffic down or something, who knows. Anyway, it was B - E - A - UTIFUL. The whole trip was constant neck strain to try and see everything! There was quite a lot of "JESSE WATCH THE ROAD!!!", but, hey, i wanted to see it too :) Our first stop was a little hike down am amazing lookout. We were going to hike down to the bottom where there are some tide pools that were supposed to be really cool,,, unfortunately there was a high surf advisory and it way too high, the water was totally covering them and it would have been a wee bit hazardous to go down there. After that we drove to the Blowhole. This is where the real adventure happened. For a while we just watched the hole spouting 60-100 ft high and the enormous spray from when the 10-15 ft surf crashed into the sea wall, then, we decided to get a little closer,,, oops. When we first got down to the spot we did what all boys like to do, played on the rocks and in the spray. Then we did what only stupid boys do when there are other stupid boys around to egg each other on,,, get really close to a razor sharp lava rock sea wall with giant man eating waves of death are crashing into/over it. There was a bit of a lull so we got up on the top part of the rocks. It was just some smaller swells sending spray over us, so we got a bit closer all the time laughing and having a good time taking pics and stuff like that. The power of the ocean was awesome. A few waves had even poured so far over the edge that we had to grab on to the rocks to balance when it was flowing back into the sea, but nothing we couldn't handle, still just good ol times. You know, the first time i went surfing, Cody, being the sensitive instructor that he was, told me to 'NEVER turn my back on the ocean, or else...', I should have remembered that, especially since i was the closest to it. We were all talking when we turned back toward the sea and all saw it. A massive freakin wave just about to hit the wall. There was a collective "OH SHIT" and that was all the time we had before it hit. We were completely engulfed in the spray, and then the overflow hit us. I had a pretty solid footing, but i felt my feet slipping away from me as the water flowed above my knees. I had no choice but dive out for a hand hold... on the razor sharp rocks! I got a solid grip, and rode out the storm. As the water drained and we mist cleared enough that we could see each other and we realized we were all there, we decided to get the freak out of there. There was some serious glory yells coming from us though, we were STOKED! What a rush,,, sure, it could have ended quite a bit worse, but it didn't, we survived, and now we have a rad story for the parents :) My hands however, suffered multiple boo boos cause those lava rocks took chuncks of skin as payment for my life saving hold. My hands hurt, but it was totally worth it! Well, fortunately for us (and my mom's nerves as she reads this) the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We ate lunch at a little park and did some snorkeling. We finished up the day in a little town for dinner. It was alot like Laguna in CA, small, clean, artsy, and fun. There was a tree there that took up an entire park! It had branches and roots raining down into the ground everwhere. I had a little staring contest with one of the locals,,, he won. The day even ended with a rainbow. Adventure, blowholes, beautiful beaches, some snorkeling, good food, and great company... What a day!