It was rough waking up at 2:30 am. We showered and got the car packed up and hit the road for 3:10. I thought I was nervous driving up last time but Devon had me beat which in turn made me even more nervous. She was gasping and cursing at the turns while we were still in the lower section with the guard rails which I thought wasn't a good sign. We did 15 mph and hugged the center line while pulling over to let others pass and eventually made it all the way up! Sunrise was a half hour earlier than I expected but we still got there with 10 minutes or so to spare. I let the wife have my gloves that I brought because she was shivering. I'm used to working out in the elements so it didn't bother me quite as much (but it was still cold). We got some great pictures and she said the drive up was worth it :) I even took a picture of Devon taking a picture, lol.
Picked up a couple T-shirts, a Christmas ornament for our tree & then headed back down. Had breakfast at Kula Lodge, gassed up in Paia, and then hit the RTH! We shed the winter clothes, put the top down, applied sunscreen amd caught our 2nd wind. DW loved the RTH and who doesn't? We didn't stop at twin falls because we had a lot of luggage in the car but we did do Garden of Eden & Wai'napanapanapanapa state park which were both gorgeous! We also stopped at a few nice photo op spots and took pics even though we got rained on a little. Devon looks super cute with wet hair.
At first we were going to stay at the same cheaper room I stayed at when I came but we up graded amd I'm so glad we did because the view was breathtaking. We walked the black sand / lava rock beach behind the hotel to kill some time before dinner.
We got dressed up and had dinner at the Hana Ranch Restsurant. I had a Mai Tai & she had a lava flow which have come to be our normal dinner drinks. When our food came the flies swarmed us so we moved inside and it didn't help so we asked for go boxes and took our food back to the hotel which kinda sucked but oh well, what can you do. We ate and then went to bed early. It was a long but really fun & memorable day. :)
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