Today Laverne and I drove the wild and crazy Hana Highway -- 40 miles of crazily twisty one and a half lane road full of two way traffic!  The flora and waterfalls were fantastic, and we didn't crash.  All in all, a fun day!  (Very fun driving the twisty turny road in the Mustang!)

The most interesting sights were the two quite unique volcanic stone beaches.  One was pretty well pitch black, and one was a nice mixture of red and black volcanic sand/gravel (from a distance, it looked completely red).  Due to the high tide and surf, we couldn't snorkel at either one, and swimming at the second was only possible due to a hedge of volcanic stone which broke the surf (mostly).  We were able to swim at the red beach, and it was sort of like swimming in a washing machine or toilet -- huge waves of broken surf would sweep over the lava breakwater, and swirl you around.  Laverne went in a big circle, and almost got rubbed against the lava one time.  The red beach was pretty well hidden -- you had to go around a big point that pushed out into the ocean and it was a bit treacherous in places.  But well worth it.  Almost no one was there (except for a few families and a naked guy laying on the beach), and it was quite beautiful.

We went to the "Seven Sacred Pools".  Not seven.  Not sacred.  And not very much fun, truth be told.  But, good marketing!  They were somewhat pretty, but the multitude of free waterfalls along the highway were prettier.

The trip back was exciting.  I was quite tired by the time we left at about 5, so I had a cup of Kona coffee, and was humming along quite well a few minutes later.   When the sun went down at 6 pm, we were following a good driver in a jeep.  We (and the car behind us) followed him the entire 40 miles in the dark, and it was a hoot!

(Pictures will be coming tomorrow, and if anyone wants to see all of our pictures so far, you can see them here:  http://gallery.sunflowergraphics.ca -- we've been uploading them every night).