Trip Diary - Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th

Here's the thing about leaving Hawaii.

All the departing flights start departing at something like 9:00 PM.  This actually makes sense when you realize that they're flying you to the West Coast-ish over night.  So, we took off from the Maui airport at 10:30 PM, and with the time change, landed at about 7:00 AM in Phoenix.

I'm lying.  I think it was 7:00.  I was out of my mind and had no idea what time it was.  But, boy, did being back at Sky Harbor remind me how much Sky Harbor sucks.

The point is, we checked out of our hotel at 10:00 AM and had half-a-day to kill in Maui before being on an aeroplane over the sea.

Since we'd survived the winding, one-lane road of Jamie's Island Adventure earlier in the week, suddenly the oft-whispered "Road to Hana" didn't seem like such a big deal as that road has two whole lanes in many parts.  Plus, Jamie wanted to go chasing waterfalls.*

So, Jamie took the wheel and we were off to Hana.

People just sort of stop and park and take photos.  Doesn't really matter if it makes sense or if its safe.  Here's us doing same.

Jamie wonders where our common sense went in the face of all this majestic jungleness

The roads are windy and curvy, and it's hard to explain because I wasn't going to take any pictures while Jamie drove as they'd all just look like masses of green with some sky popping up once in a while, but it's a big ol' Jurassic Park-type area full of bamboo, all sorts of plant life, gigantic trees and a million ways to kill you.

Over the years I'd sort of noticed this micro-trend of people dying while hiking around in Hawaii, such as the guy started the COPS television show.  Now that I've been to Hawaii, yeah, this place has sheer, sudden surprise drop-offs and slots of slippery edges.  That anyone survived here before gravel is a @#$%ing miracle.

Here's a lovely creek thing.

Here we are at the convenient way-station on the Road to Hana.

Our destination - as far as I was willing to go lest we court disaster and miss our flight, was the Upper Waikanki Falls.  They were majestic and all that.

Jamie has found and conquered the falls.

Of course then there's a lengthy drive back.  We ate lunch in a small surfer town and then drove into the bigger town where the airport is located.

We had ample time so I drove over to Maui Comics and Collectibles, as I always like to see what's going on locally.  This store opened fairly recently and they're the first comic shop in Maui in 7 years, so they've got a great opportunity there.  They didn't have much in the way of Silver or Bronze Age Superman, so I was a bit out of luck, but it was great to see a store that has so much potential and is ready to do some good.

Long story short, we finally made it to the airport.  It's open air in most places, which is interesting or a US airport.

We did grab the Wonder Woman '77 comic for airplane reading.

In the airport restaurant, Batman toasted us farewell.

And then Wonder Woman came on afterwards, and all was right with the world.

Still, I did not want to go.  Also, I felt sweaty and gross.

But you can't really afford to live in Hawaii on my salary, and, besides, I keep all my stuff in Texas, so off I went once again.

I mostly slept between Hawaii and Phoenix, and completely slept between Phoenix and Austin.

Back in Austin, I was treated to an excellent Mother's Day favor when The KareBear and Admiral came to pick us up at the airport and then we all had lunch at Kerbey Lane.  But, yeah, it's weird when your days sort of bleed together via travel.  I don't know how people who do this for a living do it.

I'm tired, but I think I'll be back on schedule sooner than I'd figured.  Taking Monday off to get myself sorted.

So, that's it.  Probably one more post on the trip as I think of things to say, but it was a good one.



*oh, Left-Eye, I've never fogotten