Danny's Maui visit - week 2

More fun with Danny!  We were lucky with super weather all week, so we took advantage of it to see more things we hadn't seen yet.

[Many photos courtesy of Danny - thank you Danny!]

My first visit to the Lavender Farm (after passing by it several times on the way up to Polipoli) - lovely outdoor walkways, beautiful flowers and plants, and a nice set of deck chairs:

Fun pose under an archway:

One of many fascinating flowers on the property:

We followed up our stroll with drinks and scones (all lavender-based) at the cafe, delicious.

Quick stop at the Surfing Goat Dairy on the way down the hill:

Danny noticed this funny sign:

Baby goats!  We just missed getting a picture of a goat actually climbing on a surfboard, so close.

Danny treated us to a wonderful show called 'Ulalena, with the history of Hawai'i detailed in native songs and dancing.  The cast is highly talented and we really enjoyed the emotion and entertainment.

Afterward we happened to catch our favorite hula troupe performing outside, fun!

Danny took a day to drive the road to Hana (and all the way around east Maui!).  Highlights included oodles of beautiful waterfalls:

And lunch at a roadside stand that sounds amazing:

All-natural plate, leaf lining, and chopsticks, and Danny tells us the food was delicious too, very cool!

We finally made it to the top of Haleakala, finding an afternoon of decent weather to drive up there for sunset.  Yay, it worked!  And it was worth it!

Brrr, rather chilly on top, but very happy to be there:

I was rooting for the sun - go, go, go (down) - so we could run back to the car and warm up  :)

Danny met up with some friends for a surfing class and did really well, go Danny!

On the weekend we headed to Little Beach and continued past it to find a fun snorkel spot:

Monday afternoon, Danny's last day :(   but with a really fun outing to cap off the visit - whale watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation.

The whales are still here!  We saw several sets of moms and babies, including one baby who swam right toward us briefly.  One big breach, a few fin slaps, lots of blows and gentle swimming with mom and child together, and 3 beautiful, slow fluke-up dives that made us all "ooh" and "aah."

I mostly just watched and enjoyed, but got a couple photos to share:

Lovely, thank you whale!

A special treat!  They lowered a microphone into the water so we could listen to whale songs, so cool!  They told us we were hearing whales from further away, deep down in the water and possibly up to 2 miles away.

A video with the whale songs playing while we watched a mom and baby:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUKReVJx4FM

And a whale tail!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Fp8sAtchU

Thank you for a wonderful visit, Danny, we so enjoyed it!