On our drive to Haleakala National Park and its volcano on Thursday, we stopped at Mama’s Fish House for which I had a $25 gift certificate from my time share. Its name is folksy; we found out the restaurant is not!

The restaurant is elegant, and the fish is local. The menu detailed where the fish for each entree was caught around Maui as well as the first and last names of the fishermen. It was just…wonderful. When we got back in the car, Laurel said, “Did you think anyone in there looked happy?” “No, I don’t think I saw anyone smile,” I said. Laurel said she saw a 60-year-old couple sharing chocolate cake. She said the woman took a bite and made a face like, “Meh.” “It must suck to be rich,” Laurel said. “Rich people don’t appreciate anything.”
Then we drove another hour and a half or so up 10,000 feet to the Haleakala crater. It was otherworldly. Once again the photos don’t do it justice.

Then, unfortunately, it was time to drive back to Kihei and return the rental car and get a ride to the airport in their van to Kahului for our overnight flight. We had some extra time on the way to Kihei and thought we’d tour the Sugar Museum, but it was closed. Fields of sugar cane are a common sight on Maui. The rental car van driver told us the day we arrived that the sugar is burned in the fields to burn off pesticides and crystalize the sugar. I read online that the burning takes place to burn off the leaves so the trucks don’t have to carry so much useless weight to the processing plant. One of the only non-Hawaiian road names we saw was Firebreak Road which runs between two fields of sugar cane.

I really hope we can go back to Hawaii some day. I can’t imagine any other place measuring up.