Friday, July 2, 2010

Maui, baby! part 2

Here's a simplistic map so you know where I stayed and where some of the places I went to. This time I'll focus on Hana and Fresh Mint.


I can't imagine a guide or article that talks about Hana not going on and on about the road to Hana. Yeah, it was twisty turny, but not life threatening like they say (I didn't go all around the island on the road. Just to Hana, then turned around). As long as you know how to yield for the 1 lane bridges, you're good. Oh, and don't hold up locals or other people by going too slow w/ your looky loo touristy ways. Again, common sense. If you're in the lead and have more than 5 cars stacked up behind you, then pull over and let them pass. The road is really LONG and if you get carsick, you'll love the twistyness of it all. Plan ahead before you go because there are a ton of places to stop and check things out, but almost all of them unmarked and chances are you won't know that you're missing a hike or whatever. Here are some pics taken from the car. As you can tell, I'm more of a let's get there already types vs. let's take out sweet time and stop a bajillion times.



At Hana, we went to the Hana bay black sand beach. Not really that exciting. blabbity blab meander around for a bit. Then went to the Wai'Anapanapa State Park. The views were incredible. In the pic below, you can see a black sand beach. We went swimming there, but for only about 1/2 hour because the surf was pretty rough.

This is a panoramic view of the park. Off to the right, there are lots of lava rock that you can climb around on and get blasted by ocean spray. To the right of that tree, there is a rock island w/ what looks like rabbit ears on it.

Just outside of Hana (maybe mile 29?) sits Coconut Glen's Big Dumb Coconut Stand. Translation - vegan coconut ice cream that is really awesome. Way better than anything I've ever had before.
My 2 flavors: toffee coffee & spicy something. And the "spoon" is a hunk of coconut husk.


On the way back to Napili, we stopped off in Paia to eat dinner at Fresh Mint, an all vegan place. You gotta eat here if you visit Maui. If you go early enough, you can get in some grocery shopping at Mana Foods down the road.

The pics below are of 2 visits to Fresh Mint for 3 people.

Fresh Rolls Fresh Mint Salad
Spicy Lemongrass Soup - oddly there wasn't any lemon flavor until I squeezed in the lemon juice. Lemongrass Not, but still good. Soy Fish in a Clay Pot. I love this dish. gingerific.
I can't remember what these were called, but they tasted great. basically tofu wrapped in yuba & nori.Banana Fritters floating on a sea of tapioca pudding. dessert, mmm...
Also, no clue what this was :).
Kung Pao in bad lighting. ~~~~~
Here's Chippy doing some detective work. If you think for even a second that your cats don't invade your privacy -- think again. Oh, that's not a delicious chocolate shake, that's some Vega; which Chippy is not interested in.