The Iao Valley

From Karin:

If you stand on our front porch and look west, you can see the West Maui Mountains.  They are the first thing we see every morning and where we see the sun set each evening.  There are two main mountains with a sizable and visible valley between them, called the Iao Valley.  Iao means "Supreme Light" and this valley glows every morning as it catches the sun coming up in the east.  The whole area is incredibly lush and green, with a nearby area getting about 400 inches of rain per year.  Once a sacred place taken over by King Kamehameha in 1790 in his push to conquer Maui, it is now a state park with paved walking trails, lots of great vantage points for pictures, a stream with accessible swimming holes and mountains looming on both sides that absolutely dwarf you. This was the destination of a recent day trip for the four of us.  We had fun walking the trails, climbing all of the steps to the upper observation pavilion, oohed and aahed at the height and steepness of the mountains above us and then had a picnic lunch.  It was a great day followed by a night out for Peter and I without the kiddos since Kristine and Tag offered to babysit.  Two days later, we traded kids in the other direction and I had a taste of life with 4 kids under 4.  A lovely evening, truly very fun, but not a lifestyle I could maintain.  Not with my sanity in tact, at least. 

Down in the valley, they've recreated what parts of the village used to look like by planting small plots of taro, the main crop grown back in the day.

The Iao River.  On this day, the term river seemed a bit ambitious.

Looking up at the south side of the valley from a traditional shelter.

I didn't really know what to do with this piece of information.  Um...OK...thanks for the warning?

Exploring down by the river.  He was our "leader in the jungle in case there were lions."

Testing the temperature of the river (and hoping for no flash floods!)

Dinner at Mama's Fish House.  THE place everyone told us we HAD to go to despite the outlandish prices.  They were all right...about both parts.  Amazing food (yum!), amazing prices (gulp!).  Ahi sashimi that had been swimming that morning, tomatoes grown in Haiku, wasabi crusted calamari, macadamia nut crusted stuffed mahimahi with pineapple buerre blanc, local coffee, not local chocolate pie.....