Our fourth day in Hawai’i saw us make landfall on our fourth island, Maui. Our cruise ship had dropped anchor just before 8:00 am and we were all queued up to board the tender for the short ride to the dock at Lahaina. Our day’s excursion would take us to the Haleakla crater.
Weather at the crater prevented us from seeing much of anything more than 100 feet away, but the experience was exhilarating. At over 9,700 feet above sea level, the summit was cold, windy and cloudy. Like a blizzard. Back down the mountain to a fantastic lunch, after which the bus took us back to Lahaina for some shopping before we returned to the ship.
We wandered around the town square, trying to decide if there was a unique souvenir or anything in the little grocery store we needed that we couldn’t get on the ship. After bumping into too many people (Lahaina was packed with tourists as we were one of two cruise ships just off the coast), we decided to say goodbye to Hawai’i and just head back to the ship.
Avoiding the crowd, we walked down an empty back alley and passed this plumeria tree. It seemed to me the white and yellow flowers was Hawai’i’s way of saying “come back soon.” Turning toward the pier, I said to myself, “can’t wait.”
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The View From Here 