Volcanoes, Valleys, Lana'i, and the great bagel search

Our next day in Maui, we went to Haleakala.  Apparently, many people get up early (or don't go to bed???) and leave in the middle of the night to watch the sun rise over Haleakala.  Although, I'm sure that is lovely, I was on vacation and the thought of getting up obnoxiously early did NOT make me happy so we decided to do Haleakala at a more reasonable hour.  If (no,WHEN) we go back to Maui, we may stay for a whole week and do the sunrise tour--have to save something for a future trip, right?  ;-)  Anyway, we did enjoy Haleakala.  Great views and I became rather fascinated by a plant called silversword.

  Turn your head sideways for this one because it won't let me rotate it.  Oops

This was also the only time in Hawaii I wore a sweatshirt as it was a little chilly up top.

After Haleakala and a lunch stop (delicious eggplant panini), we went to the Iao Valley, which also had some nice views and pretty vegetation.

Later that afternoon, we went to happy hour at a place in Lahaina and tried the famous hula pie.  It was delicious, but too big.  I don't think I finished it.

The next day (our last day in Hawaii, waaahhh), we had to check out of our hotel by 11 or 12, but our flight wasn't until around 10 that night so we were on the hunt for a full day trip of sorts.  We decided to do the day trip to Lana'i.  The boat picked us up around 9 or 10, they fed us delicious cinnamon rolls, a light lunch, and then we had several hours to enjoy the island of Lana'i.  My husband went snorkeling, but I just enjoyed the beach instead. Later I did the island tour, then we met up for an early dinner (included with our tour), and soon it was time to get back on the boat for dessert and a drink.  We spotted quite a few dolphins on the ride back to Maui, that was pretty cool.  After that we pretty much just hung out in the hotel lobby area until our shuttle came to take us to the airport. The airport is quite busy at that hour, but the staff there are pretty nice.  The flight itself wasn't bad, but I couldn't sleep well so when we landed in L.A. for our connecting fight, I was exhausted and I really wanted a bagel.  Such a weird thing to crave after flying all night, but that's what I wanted.  You'd think at 6 a.m. it'd be easy to find a bagel, but NO.  I walked and walked and walked and finally found one then tried to stay awake while we waited to board our connecting flight.    And then it was off to  Las Vegas for a couple of days before we headed home.