January 8-9 Arrival

We've got a little bit of wifi ...

... along with our coffee.  Gotta be one of the prettiest places to put a McD's.

     David and his girlfriend Sam made us enchiladas at David's place.  Foolishly forgot to take a photo.  Food photos are so nice!

     David dropped us off at Sacramento airport at 5 am ...

... and we touched down to a welcoming committee, sans leis.

There are probably more wild chickens than people here

      We arrived with no place booked for the night, always a good idea when traveling to a new place.  The first campground we checked was full, so we drove all the way across Maui (a tiring 9 miles) and luckily got the last spot in a small private campground.

      Besides chickens, Maui welcomed us with warm, sunny weather, lots of people on the roads, and a warning from a guy at Walmart (had to buy a cheap cooler and propane tank for our little stove) to avoid certain places for camping because the locals carouse there.  Amazingly like the attitude taken by people in New Zealand about their Polynesian people.

We shared a great Hawaiian mixed plate dinner:  meat and salted butterfish
wrapped in taro and ti leaves,  kalua pig, lomilomi salmon, poi (steamed mashed
taro), haupia (coconut pudding), two scoops of rice, and macaroni salad.  Also had
salad with fiddlehead fern, bits of salmon, grape tomatoes.  All washed down with
Big Swell IPA from the Maui brewery.

I don't plan to have a photo of everything we eat, but I thought the Hawaiian
breakfast special deserved mention.  Evidently rice is eaten with everything,
and Hawaii consumes something like 559 times as much Spam per person
as any other state ... or something like that.  Anyways, it was tasty.

Kelly asked me to post something warm/green.  This is on the approach to the Kahului airport.

     We're heading up to Haleakala for a few days of backpacking in the crater, so we'll be out of touch for awhile.