Well here we are, first day in Maui.  The weather is beautiful -- around 80 degrees.  We rented a jeep for the first few days here, so we took off all the windows and traveled in style!  We thought that while we had the jeep, we would go all the places that it will be tougher to get to in a smaller vehicle.  So today, we decided to go into the main city, get some food and some cash, and then head toward Lahaina and travel around the northern peninsula of the island.  We stopped in Lahaina and rented snorkeling gear and a boogy board for a pretty good price (and Perry got Rx googles so he can actually SEE underwater!  Yay!).  We headed north on the hiway, and with our handy "Maui Revealed" book, looked for a great beach.  Well we stopped at a place called "Dragon's Teeth" which is where the waves somehow formed the lava into an upthrust, so it looks like viscious sharp teeth poking out of the ground.  It ended up being all blocked off, but we got close enough to see it and take a picture anyway.  There was a beach right there, so we decided to get out of the car and hit the waves (considering it was 2:30 and we hadn't really DONE anything yet!).  So with boogy board attached to wrist, we ventured into the pounding surf...  at first, it was quite fun (although we had just eaten so it made me [Laverne] feel a little sick).  The waves were huge and even when we weren't very far out, they could knock you over backwards.  But we didn't really think they were THAT bad... until a few of them rolled over us and pounded us into the sand.  Then a few more.  Then Perry got bashed in the head with his bogey board, and decided to quit.   So I decided to do it again.  I was out there and rolled over a couple big waves until a HUGE one came in.  I was laying on the board, looking behind me thinking "oh crap".  It was HUGE.  It hit me just as it crested, and instead of riding the wave all the way into the sand, the way I had planned, I was litterally crushed under the wave - it pounded me into the sand tipped me over backwards, almost ripped my bikini top off, and kept going.  I finally popped above the water, but trying to stay under enough to fix my bathing suit, when another wave hit, and then a couple more.  Help!  Finally I got close enough to shore, and Perry (who came out to rescue me) took the bogey board, and I fixed my bathing suit.  Then we left.  That was enough for one day.  Or one lifetime.  :)  As we're driving down the highway, I read my other trusty book, "Hidden Maui", and saw the following about the beach we were at: "...the (beach) is plagued by rough and dangerous surf during the winter.  Use caution!"  Great.  Guess I should have read that before almost drowning!

We continued north and saw some incredibly magnificent scenery from above the ocean.  The surf was just amazing.  We stopped at Nakalele Blowhole (see the cool photo!), which was really cool.  Continuing on, the road becomes a one-lane road.  Note, it's still a TWO-WAY road, it's just one LANE.  So etiquette is that the uphill car backs up to a passing spot if another car comes along.  We were both thinking it would be this way for a few hundred meters or so.  We were amazed when, EIGHT MILES LATER, it became two lane again.  So that was a really unique and fun experience.  And the scenery along this road was utterly beautiful.  Pounding blue ocean surf on one side (down steep hills and cliffs bordering the road), and luscious rain forest, and green flora-covered lava hills on the other side.  There were a couple of little villages nestled in the inward bays of this road that we just had to take pictures of.