Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

May the Fourth be with you! It's time for the final installment of photos from our recent trip to Maui (see here and here for the earlier posts). The "we" of the trip is the author, my husband, and our 20-year-old son. Sorry for the unmercifully long post! The primary objective of our Maui trip was a 3-night, 4-day backpacking trip into and across the Haleakala crater. Lots of people dayhike from the rim down to the crater (though we didn't see all that many--it's not a trivial hike, involving typically about 11 miles and a 1000' climb back out of the crater). A few people each night use the 3 huts scattered around the crater, allowing them to eat and sleep indoors (and to carry less gear). Those of us who don't plan 6 months out get to carry our tents and do it the hard way. We started by picking up our permit (free, but required) at the ranger station near the Park entrance, then driving all the way to the summit. That was well past our trailhead, but ...

Running a little late today!  Do you have any idea how many photos you can shoot trying to catch the crashing surf at just the right moment? Editing the photos from our trip to Maui last month has been a challenge, to say the least. I'm still working on the crater, but today we'll drive the Hana Highway... in the rain (because it is a rain forest. Which has that word "rain" in the name for a reason). For those who missed it, the first part of our trip (a day spent biking around West Maui; did I mention that we don't go on vacation to lie on the beach?) is here . The drive to Hana (and actually on beyond to the coastal part of Haleakala National Park at Kipahulu) was meant to be a recovery day. We got an early start to beat most of the traffic. The narrow, sort-of-two-lane road to Hana has become a tourist destination, which is too bad, because the road would be perfect for biking if there were no cars! We knew starting out that the day would be wet, and while that...

Leaving SF and all those clouds To arrive in Maui with all those clouds... Recently the Ninja Librarian and spouse traveled to Maui for a bit of a vacation. Being the people we are, it didn't involve a whole lot of lying around and relaxing. First thing we did on arriving was rent a pair of bikes for the next day, with a plan to ride around West Maui (58+ miles and 4400' of climbing, for those who want to know--actually a little easier than the ride we might have done had we been at home). I'm going to give a shout-out to Krank Cycles of Makawao, because we didn't really get how the whole bike rental thing works, and showed up at 4:30 Saturday afternoon, figuring it would be easy to pick up a couple of bikes and be on our way. In fact, the place was busy, and the lone salesclerk/mechanic, Josh, ended up staying about an hour and a half past closing to ready a couple of bikes for us. So they get top ratings from us. This guy was on the sidewalk in front of the bike shop....