Haleakala Sunrise (I Missed You Again)

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When we competed our reservation for Tuesday Evening, for dinner and a show, we don’t recall the concierge having offered any other Haleakala tours other than the bus ride up and biking down the mountain. Not quite our cup of tea. We told him that our plans including driving up Haleakala, although we might not have said that we planned to do it to see the sunrise. A new policy is now in effect for this National Park: Anybody wishing to park in the parking lot between 3AM and 7AM MUST have a reservation! Lucky us, this policy went into effect just last month. The concierge might have been distracted by my hat: Yes, Erin, the Red Hat! He kept glancing at it and I guess I didn’t quite look like someone on the Summit Team for an Everest Expedition. He finally said, skeptically, “Everest… is that the Mount Everest?” I think he was relieved that it was just for a ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. Nonetheless, he didn’t warn us that we would need a reservation and may not have even known. It wasn’t until we were about six miles from our destination that a roadside portable light sign: “Reservations Required – Sunrise Parking – 3AM to 7AM”. A frantic attempt to logon the reservation site only reported that none were available. We drove on to where a second roadside sign had a big U-turn Arrow and the words “NO RESERVATION – TURN AROUND HERE”. A check of future days we might try to come up showed that those days are sold out; so, if you come here and plan to drive up to see Haleakala at sunrise, you will need to make a reservation BEFORE you get to Hawaii!

My first and only other trip to Maui was almost 40 years ago; and, our group made the drive up Haleakala only to find the entire mountain shrouded in fog. It did little to comfort us that we’d arrived on one of the six days each year that viewing the sunrise from atop Haleakala isn’t absolutely gorgeous. It was like winning the lottery in reverse. Well, now I’m oh-for-two! Sharon did a Map search on her phone for the nearest IHOP and I only hoped it was on this island. We were in luck, not too far from where our journey up the mountain started, over near the airport. The waitress was very apologetic about our ordeal, and acknowledged that they haven’t done a good job publicizing this change, and I gather, we weren’t the first weary morning travelers to arrive at one of her tables with this tale of woe. When we got back to the car we both noticed a couple of black marks on the left rear panel of our rental, and I could see that this day is just getting better and better. We don’t remember them being there; but, there were not dents, so it’s possible we just missed them.

We drove back to Lahaina so Sharon could go to mass; while, I opted to stay in the car (and have some privacy while I do my daily Sudoku challenge without a stylus). The mass was almost ninety-minutes, and the church doesn’t have air-conditioning. Though it does have open windows to let in the air and ceiling fans so wasn’t too bad at 8:30 mass. Sure glad we didn’t go at 5:00 last night after our whale watch though. I had been parked in the shade of a tree, but the rising sun shifted and I needed to move to another spot to avoid roasting. I had to beep the horn a couple times to catch Sharon’s attention when she finally did emerge from the church.

We drove back to the timeshare to relax and re-plan our day. We chose to skip lunch and go out for an early dinner in Lahaina. We stopped by the concierge to let him know our misfortune at the top of Haleakala; but, this was evidently his day off. A gloomy haze overhung the Maui shore all day, and we can only hope that it would have ruined our sunrise viewing atop Haleakala. The haze in fact is volcanic ash from the Big Island. Sharon did some internet research and found out that the National Park System is now limiting sunrise viewing atop Haleakala to 150 vehicles. They’re addressing a problem whereby larger numbers sometimes would seek parking in dangerous places, and in the pre-dawn darkness people would wander into trouble. There were too many injuries of stupid people doing stupid things and over-stressing emergency response units to come up and help them.

We went out around 3PM. We decided to go shopping for Hawaiian Shirts and Mumu’s. Sharon had a particular store picked out for us to head for; but, when that turned into a lengthy trek we chose another store. We both found two items, including a matching shirt for me and Mumu for her. We went to dinner at the Pioneer Inn Grill & Bar. It took a while for us to be seated because the host/hostess was nowhere to be found. Someone did come to help us find a table; but, he looked more like someone who worked in the kitchen rather than the official host. I ordered the coconut crusted grilled shrimp. There were just 3 shrimp, but the appetizer was reasonable priced under $10. The combination coleslaw-like greens were not to be missed either. Sharon ordered the Prime Rib Sandwich with fries and liked both (but it was too much for her to eat). The sandwich was under $20. I ordered the fish plate dinner was offered for $30 featuring the catch of the day and served with tropical salsa (or Cajun) with coconut rice (or mashed potatoes) and steamed vegetables (today carrots and broccoli). This meal was priced at $30 and today featured Mahi Mahi. I figured, you don’t come to Hawaii to order Cajun food, and I was glad I ordered the tropical salsa, served hot, because it was wonderful with the fish.



We stopped at the Safeway on the way back and got some snacks for Sharon to eat tonight and tomorrow on our bus trip to Hana. We settled in for the evening and Sharon was somewhat chagrined that I tuned into “Pawn Stars” on the History Channel. Thanks to a number of interruptions, Sharon claims, I was able to salvage my second win so far on this vacation in our Sudoku Challenges; but, I think she might be protesting this one!

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