Hawaii, Day Five, Black Sand Beach and Haleakala Crater

Warning!  This post will be long!  We saw some amazing sights yesterday that I can't tell you about in just a few words. 

The day began back over on a beach in Lahaina, where several from the group went parasailing.  Since I am a big chicken and afraid of heights to boot,  I sat on the beach and watched.  A played in the water and got enough sand in her bathing suit to build a deluxe castle.  At one point we saw a seal swimming near the shore.  Since I have a love of animals, marine animals in particular, I was very excited and ran down the beach to try and get a good picture.  I only managed to get a shot of his back as he dove back down in the waves.  How cool to have seen a seal in its natural habitat though!

After a picnic lunch, we set out to find a black sand beach.  We drove through some beautiful areas in Wailea and Makena before coming to Makena State Park.  After bumping down a dirt path that passed for the road we came to the beach.  It was worth the bumpy ride.  The black sand was beautiful.  It's fiiner than white sand and brushes off your feet very easily.  It was very soft to walk on.  We didn't go in the water since the surf was rough, but we were able to wade in the edge. 

The next part of our day was a drive up to the summit of Haleakala Crater, a dormant volcano with an elevation of 10,000 feet.  We wanted to reach the summit in time to see the sunset.   The drive itself was amazing and harrowing all at the same time.  Rembember, I'm a chicken, so the drive up that twisting , narrow road had me white knuckling it the higher we climbed.  It was strange driving up through the clouds and there were some amazing views.  After an hour or so we finally reached the summit.  The temperature was in the low fifties and the sun was setting as we got out of the car.  It was one of the most amazingly beautiful sights I've ever seen.  It felt almost spirtual up there above the clouds.  In fact, A was waving to the angels.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I've never seen anything like it before.  It was like what I imagine heaven must be like.  So peaceful and beautiful and bathed in light.  I'm so thankful I got the chance to see it and that the kids got the chance to see it.