Day 6

We got up and went to 9:00 church at the Kihei ward. It was really nice to not be in Primary for a week. It's my month for Sharing Time, so the break was a welcome one. Luckily I have an awesome presidency who can pick up my slack when I go on vacation! Thanks ladies!

After Sacrament meeting we went for some breakfast at Mickey-D's, and then headed out to the pool for a while. The weather is absolutely perfect. We lie there for about 30 minutes, until we are literally dripping with sweat, then hop into the deep blue mild pool for a cool off, and repeat about 5 times. I laid out without sunscreen trying to get a little more color the day before the last day.

At 1:00 we decided to take off for the Ioa rain forest. It only took a short drive to get there, and we hiked around for a bit. We were told to expect a 30 minute hike, but couldn't figure out how to take that long after we got to the top of the "trail" in about 5 minutes. We also saw a sign that said "Now Entering Paid Parking" that we walked past after parking on the road, and we still had to pay for parking. It was an interesting experience. The paths are short, but the scenery is definitely beautiful!

On our way out we saw the beginnings of a natural cock fight. I had just been saying how I wanted a good picture of a rooster, which are all over the place, and this is what we saw not 1 minute later.

We headed back toward Wailea after the rain forest, and it was getting close to 5:00. I had heard from my brother last year when we were here that there is a beach close to the resort that had a drum circle and fire dancing on Sunday evening around sunset. Andy and I dropped his parents off at the hotel (they were not too interested) and we headed to "Little Beach" for some entertainment. Well, we were definitely entertained! This is the only nude beach on Maui, and it was full of hippies and drums and hula hoops and pot. It was interesting, to say the least. Andy and I watched the drum circle and hippie dancers for a while, watched the beautiful sunset, and then the fire dancing started. I loved it! I had such a great time there! The only thing that would have made it better would have been is everyone had their clothes on...most people did, but a few did not. Regardless, the fire dancing and drumming were very cool. This was an opportunity I'm glad we did not miss this year. Last year when my brother told us about it, we were not here over a Sunday evening and didn't get to experience it.

After the sun went down we headed back to the resort for Andy's parents so we could get some dinner. We had some delicious pizza at a little restaurant up the road. The restaurants here are so unique. They all have open patios that let the fresh air flow through. It's refreshing. I'm not looking forward to going home and having to cook all of my meals again. I'm not going to like anything. The meals we have had here have all been so good!

I have started to miss the kids quite a bit. I think about them more and am excited to see them in a couple more days!