Then we were off to find our Airbnb. We were staying further up in "mountains" in the bottom floor of a family's house. It had one bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath and laundry and was cheaper than many of the other options we looked at. Kona is more expensive during Ironman week. We crashed after being up for so long and Andrew was gone when I got up the next morning. He had gone out in search of coffee and food and came back with both. Next up was hiking Pololu Valley. Driving there we were able to drive most of the Kona bike course which goes all the way out to Hawi before they turn around. To get to Pololu, we had to go a little further, park on the side of the road and begin our descent down to the beach which wasn't too bad. The beach was a black sand beach and the area around it was so pretty and very unique. We walked along the beach and walked through the forest area, just sitting to take it in every now and then. It was a great introduction to Hawaii for Andrew.
Next we headed to Kailua Pier where the Ironman Village was set up. We ate a late lunch at Kona Brewing Company and then went to check out all the sights. We looked at some of the pros bikes that were already in their transition area. Everyone was starting to check in their bikes and we stuck around for a while watching some of the pros come in and get interviewed before the racked their bikes. It was pretty neat to get to see so many of them. And as we were leaving, Jan Frodeno was walking out too. People were getting pictures with him, so Andrew encouraged me to get one too. It isn't something I usually do, but I went for it. And then he was walking behind us as we walked up the hill to our parking lot, so I took another one.
Andrew then had a beach he wanted to check out, so we started driving that way next but it started pouring and seemed to be going in the same direction we were, so we gave up and turned around. It was dark by that point, so we found a place to eat a quick meal, a Mexican fast food restaurant. Then it was to bed early since we had an early morning to watch the race.
We were up early the next morning, found a decent parking spot in the dark and made our way to Kailua Pier and found a spot near the sea wall. It was part of a little cove where the paddle boarders were meeting up and heading out to take their spots for the race. It was an exciting atmosphere. We had to wait there for an hour and then they started with the pro men and then the pro women. We watched them all start and swim for a little bit, but then went to stake out our spot on what they call the Hot Corner of the bike route. For the first part of the bike route, they loop through town a little bit and you can see them 3 times before they head out on the Queen K highway. Again, so exciting to see it all and to try to figure out who was who. At first, they didn't have an announcer, but it was nice when they did start announcing. We watched the pro mean and women come through and stayed to watch one participant whose parents and brother were standing by us.
Next we made our way to Island Lava Java for breakfast. It was right on Ali'i Drive where they do part of the run. It was super busy, but we didn't have to wait long and got our food pretty quickly. It was good too. It was fun to see everyone sitting around talking about the race, tracking everyone on their phones and catching it on the TVs around the restaurant. And pretty much every restaurant there is open to the outside. After breakfast, we walked around a bit before heading back to our car to spend some time in the air condition and rest a bit before we caught them coming back in off their bikes. We were exhausted and it was pretty steamy. We stayed there for about an hour before we headed out again. I snuck into a bathroom at the drug store as finding bathrooms was hard. Most public places closed theirs unless it was a restaurant and you were eating there.
We staked out a spot right as they were coming in and heading into transition. It was amazing how fresh (although hot) they looked coming in from a 112 bike ride. Jan Frodeno came in first and then Tim O'Donnell. Then it was Alistair Brownlee. It was a great spot to see them come in on the bike and then head out on the run. We saw quite a few men come through and then Lucy Charles came in first for the women and was ahead of the others by quite a bit. The next women to come through were Sarah Crowley and Anne Haug followed by Heather Jackson. Daniella Ryf, the champion for the last four years and the definite pick to win it again this year, was surprisingly farther back. She has always been first to come in on the bike, so I felt bad for her. It had to be so disappointing for her. She later said she had a stomach buy she had been battling for a few days. Such bad timin.
After we watched a few more pros come in, we made our way for lunch at Fish Hopper that look right out over Ali'i Drive too. It was nice to sit down and rest in the shade as it was super hot out. We were tired and we had just been standing around spectating. Again, lots of buzz at the restaurants. And after we ate, we staked out a spot along the finishing chute to watch them all come in. But, my choice of chicken alfredo for lunch came back to haunt me and I wasn't feeling the best. Still excited, but snuck into the bathroom at Fish Hopper a couple of times. The announcer said the Jan was getting close and to start cheering him on because he could hear us at this point. And then two guys dressed up in native Hawaiian garb carrying conch shells and torches ran down the chute ahead of him. I thought it was kind of funny that they were playing Thunderstruck. That song never gives up. I was so pumped that the guy I got a picture with ended up winning the whole thing. And he set a new course record. Next was Tim O'Donnell. He is one of the older ones and this was his best finish yet so I was very happy for him. And Sebastian Kienle came in third. He was the champion several years ago, but struggled a bit the last few years. So again, so exciting for him. Then Ben Hoffman was super pumped to come in fourth. He had a huge smile on his face.
After the surprise of Daniella having a bad day, the second surprise is that Lucy Charles lost it on the run. She was so dominate on the swim and bike, but Anne Haug had a great marathon and passed her on the run. Sarah Crowley passed her too, but Lucy fought back and passed her back to come in second. Anne was third last year and no one really expected her to win it, so that was great for her. And it was fun to see how excited and relieved Lucy ended up being when coming in for second. She was determined to get first originally, but then second was treasured too. And Sarah Crowley came in third. We didn't stick around for the rest of it since I really wasn't feeling well at this point and bathroom access was so limited. So we headed back to the house and I was done for the day. I had hoped to go back and see some of the last age-groupers finish as they say that is a neat experience, but whatever made me sick, just took it out of me. I do have to say I would love to watch it all again. It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad I got to go. They are such amazing athletes. And Andrew even got into it...and just put up with a bit of my fan girl :-).
The next morning we made a point to get to at least one beach before we had to fly out. We were only able to stay about an hour or so, but it was a nice chance to just relax. Andrew explored for a little bit, but it was a small beach. I spent some time reading. Then it was back to the house to pack up and head to the airport. Since we were on a commuter flight, we had to wait at a little "terminal" away from the main one. I worked on replying to emails, paying bills, all that fun stuff I'd been ignoring for a few days. We also read up on some of the reactions to the race. Then we boarded our tiny plane to fly to Maui. They warned us the wind would buffet us around a bit and it sure did. But we were down in Maui less than an hour later.
We got our luggage and our car, a Jeep, and started making the trek to our condo. The lush mountainsides of Maui and just so pretty. We stopped in Lahaina to get some groceries and were shocked by the prices even though we'd be warned. Then our next stop was our condo. It was further north than the main Kaanapali resorts, but still within walking distance to a lot of stuff. Our condo gave us a beautiful view of the ocean, so we just enjoyed it for a while. We walked over the Duke's at the resort next to us and enjoyed a dinner overlooking the ocean. We were still pretty wiped out from the days before (and still trying to adjust to the time zone change) so we called it an early night. Plus we were getting up early the next morning to head out on the road to Hana.
We were up and on the road by around 5:30 the next morning. As we got to the start of the Road to Hana many of the first stops weren't open yet. We still enjoyed taking in the scenery and were able to stop at several sights before getting to Hana. We also stopped for some food-banana bread, a smoothie and some coffee. I'm thankful Andrew was driving because I would have been a nervous wreck. He was pretty confident with all of it. We just took in some sights, hiked through some,took pictures and went on past Hana to go to the Seven Sacred Pools and hike to the Waimoku Falls. The hike to the falls was around 4 miles there and back. It had a variety of terrain and the bamboo forests were neat, especially when the wind would blow through them. It kind of reminded me of the sound of the smoke monster on Lost. It was a good hike and we concluded it by hiking down to the Seven Sacred Pools. I thought it would be refreshing to cool off, but it was COLD. I got in a little above my waist, but couldn't force myself to go in further. Andrew got all the way in and swam around...and was disappointed I didn't do the same. You had to climb over all these rocks to get in. A few got in and swam around but most people were just hanging out on the rocks.
After that we turned around and started the trek back. We used a GPS app that guided us and it told some Hawaiian history as we made our way back that Andrew and I both found really interesting and it made the trip back more bearable. We got back to our condo about 13 hours after leaving. We stopped in Lahaina on our way back and grabbed some burgers at a small restaurant there. We were a sweaty mess, so we wanted to keep it low key :-). The next day I was looking forward to sleeping in, but Andrew wanted to do some exploring. So he took off in search of secluded, unique beaches he wanted to visit and I slept, did some laundry and went for a run to the Whaler's Village that was 2 miles away to get some souvenirs for the kids. After I was done shopping, he picked me up. We ate some lunch at the condo and then he drove me back to some of his beaches. The first one was a black sand beach that was empty, but the water was really rough and it was super windy. He pointed out a cinder cone he wanted to hike that didn't look like fun at all. We hit a different beach, Makena Beach, and it was pretty. But again, the water was pretty rough and the wind was blowing around so much sometimes it would blow the sand at you. We stuck it out for a while. But it was also raining a bit off and on, so we gave up. He was so frustrated as he pointed out the some of the cactus around indicating that this was supposed to be the dry area of the island :-).
That evening, we ate dinner at a restaurant in Whaler's Village and then got some gelato. The next morning we headed back over to Paia to start our downhill biking adventure. We went with a group called Maui Sunriders. They suited us up with a downhill helmet and some rain gear. Then we joined others to drive up the volcano, Haleakala. We were supposed to go up to the entrance of the national park, but I think they stopped earlier as there was cloud cover. They pointed out some stops we could make on the way down and once they dropped us off, we could go down at our own speed. It was a bit frustrating at first as the bikes were just one speed and you couldn't do much to go faster and pass people except to lay off the brakes. We hardly ever pedaled and only exerted much energy while going up a couple smaller hills. We started in cooler, cloudy weather with a little bit of rain every now and then, but it was warm and sunny by a third of the way down. We didn't stop anywhere except in Makawao where we got some lunch. There was lots to see on the way down, but one of the neatest things were the smells. I wish I could bottled some of it up. I was surprised when we got to Paia so quickly. We stopped for about a 1/2 hour or a little longer for lunch, so including that it took us about 1 hour 45 minutes to complete it (probably a little less). They were surprised to see us at the shop when we showed up. I would like to do it again sometime and maybe stop a little more along the way. We did enjoy just cruising down though.
We made our way back to the condo after that and I was going to start getting us packed up to leave the next day. Andrew was determined to hike the cinder cone, so he headed out to do that. I spent some lovely time reading on the balcony too. That evening we walked over to another restaurant at a resort near us. It was just a little bar restaurant, but it was all open air and on the beach, so it worked for us. The next morning, we tried to hit another beach before leaving. Again, we had issues with it raining a little bit, but is was still a pretty beach to relax on before having to fly home.
I tried to get some laundry done before we left, but the maid was there to try to kick us out at 10:30, even though we had until 11. I tried to convince her to let us just hang out on the balcony while we waited for the clothes to finish drying, but she wasn't having it. So we laid the cloths out in the car that were still a little wet. We drove to a lookout point/beach near Paia and watched the wind surfers, kite surfers and surfers on the big waves there. There were also a big group of sea turtles hanging out on the part of the beach that they had roped off.
And out last event for the trip was to eat lunch at Mama's Fish House. It was a beautiful setting and delicious meal to end the trip with. Then it was off to the airport. Thankfully our flights home went smoothly and we made it home in good time, but exhausted. We got back to Kirksville around 12:30 Friday afternoon and had to just keep moving. The football team had senior night that night and then Ellie had her conference cross country meet the next morning in Moberly.
It was a wonderful trip and I'm so thankful we were able to go. Andrew never really wanted to go to Hawaii, but he really enjoyed it too. And we were so, so grateful that my parents and Molly took care of the kids so that we were able to go. I know it isn't an easy task. They made sure they got to all of their activities from football, cross country and soccer practices, to soccer games to cross country meets, fed them well (Jackson said they ate like kings :-)), loved on them and we even came home to pretty much all of the laundry clean. It was also Homecoming Week and they got them to where they needed to be at the parade and watched some of the game in the freezing cold. We definitely couldn't have done it without them.
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