Hawaii Trip 2014 - Maui Day 1 & 2

August 29, 2014 (Friday)

View from the room

Maui bound! We had an early morning flight to Maui, with a layover in Phoenix. As normal, the car rental line was thirty plus minutes long. The airport (OGG) was about 45 minutes from where we were staying in Lahaina. The place we stayed, Aston Kaanapali Shores, was really nice and we even had an ocean view.

After settling in, we headed across the street for something to eat. We decided to try L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. I had the Kalua Pork (shredded smoke flavored pork with cabbage) and absolutely loved it! Mike had the Chicken Katsu (breaded deep-fried chicken) and thought it was pretty excellent also. Portions were very large so there was leftovers for the next day.

Sunrise over Haleakala National Park

August 30, 2014 (Saturday)

The time change, 6 hours, was a bit hard to adjust to. We were up at 3:30am, which worked out well since we had a bit of a drive to get to Haleakala National Park. We just missed the 6:00 sunrise, which I guess we did not miss much anyways – apparently it is very difficult to get photos due to clouds. The sunrise colors on the drive up the summit were very pretty.

Cinder Cones at Kalahaku Overlook -
Haleakala National Park

We checked out the short walk to the Lelewi Overlook (supposedly great for sunsets). We then continued to the visitor center, where there were a few displays. There were a few trailheads around the visitor center. We hiked the White Sands trail and then drove up to the summit (elevation 10,023 feet). Returning down, we stopped at the Kalahaku Overlook, where we were welcomed by great views of cinder cones and an awesome cloud display. We also visited the Hosmer Grove nature trail – not that great of a hike, but it did smell nice.  Our last stop was the Halemau’u Trail to get a view of the rim. We left the park at about 10am. There were some other trails that looked interesting, but I was not too excited to walk around in the blaring sunshine to do the longer hikes.

'Iao Valley State Park

After picking up sandwiches at Safeway, we headed to ‘Iao Valley State Park. It was $5 to get in and parking was tough to get (the lot was way too small). The cost and wait for parking was definitely worth it. There were lots of beautiful flowers and waterfalls. We spent about an hour at the park – mostly because we hiked on part twice because it smelled so great (thanks to the smashed passion fruit).

4th of July Weekend 2014 - "Up North"

Mackinaw Bridge

Typically, we just stay home for the holiday since places are usually packed. With the 4^th being on a Friday, this year we just could not resist – we headed to northern Michigan. We had not been “up north” in quite a few years. We camped at Wilderness State Park, which we had not stayed at before. The park was nice, but there were a lot of mosquitos. It seems that there are a lot of mosquitos everywhere this year so it was not a big surprise.

We spent the 4^th checking out the campground (lots of trails) in the morning and then headed to Mackinaw City in the afternoon. Mackinaw City was not overly busy, which was a bit surprising. We walked around at the park near the Mackinaw Bridge and lighthouse and snapped some pictures. Fort Mackinaw is near the park, but we had visited the fort last time we were in that area so we skipped it this trip.

After the park , we headed to the downtown area. We bought some fudge and ice cream and then headed to the McGulpin Point Lighthouse. This lighthouse opened for tours in recent years. There was no fee, but they do ask for donations. There is a lovely wood chipped trail down to the lake. Once to the lake there is a nice view of the Mackinaw Bridge.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

As we headed back to the campground we checked out some of the day use parks along the lake – they were a little bit busy but parking was easy to find. We rounded out the day with a campfire.

On Saturday, we were up early to get a head start on the day. The plan for the day was to head to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which was about a three hour drive from Wilderness State Park.  The drive did not have much traffic. We stopped at a few places once we got over the bridge to take some photos along the US-2 lakeshore.

Sable Falls -
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

We attacked Pictured Rocks from east to west, with our first stop being Sable Falls near Grand Marais. Sable Falls was a nice view, there was a staircase that provided a viewing platform. The falls are said to be about 75 feet tall. The mosquitos were really bad, so we did not stick around too long.

The next stop was the Sable Falls Visitor Center where we were able to pick up the Park pamphlet and get some passport book stamps. The guide recommended stopping just up the road at Log Jam. The site provided a great view of the sand dunes.

Au Sable Light Station -
 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

The Au Sable Light Station was next on the docket. Parking was available at the Hurricane River Campground and there was about a 1.5 mile hike to the lighthouse. There were lots of mosquitos and flies along the hike – yuck! For a portion of the trail, the water is far enough back from the woods that walking on the beach is an option. There are a few shipwreck remains that dot the shore near – with a majority being near the lighthouse. Lighthouse tours are only offered a few days a week and cost $3/person. The tour was interesting and if you are luck and have a clear day you can see a large portion of the rock reef that extends a mile into the lake.

Continuing west, we arrived at Miners Castle Information Station. There was a passport stamp available, as well as some rock cliff overlooks. There is also a waterfall nearby – just down the road. Miners Falls is about a 1.2 mile hike round-trip. The falls are about 50 feet tall. There are two overlooks, the one down the stairs being far superior.  The falls and information station area were both VERY busy.

Miners Castle -
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Nearing the west end of the park, we stopped at the Munising Falls Visitor Center. We had been to this Visitor Center on our last trip up north. After obtaining yet another passport stamp, we hiked out to look at the Munising Falls. Munising Falls is about 50 feet tall. There were a couple of viewing platforms with the best being the one up stairs on the right. The lower platform is quite good also. Definitely skip the upper left platform.

The last visitor center that we visited – Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore/Hiawatha National Forest/Interagency Visitor Center - is the only one that is open year-round. There was not a lot to see there, so we got the passport stamps and headed out of town. There is a very popular boat trip in Munising that takes you around to see the neat rock formations along the lake, but since we had done that last trip we skipped it.

Just south of Munising, there are a few other waterfalls that we visited. Wagner Falls is a State Park and located near the MI-28/MI-94 junction. It is a short walk to the falls and a nice view of the 20 foot tall falls. Right at the intersection there is another waterfall called Alger Falls.

Wagner Falls

Our drive back to the campsite was uneventful and we stopped at a turnout along US 2 to take a few more lake photos.

That pretty much sums up our quick trip up north. Until next time…happy trails!

West Virginia Day 3 and 4

May 25, 2014 

Gauley Bridge Waterfall

Off to an early start yet again. The adventure that awaited us was water rafting with the River Expeditions Company. We rafted the Upper New River, which is class I-III rapids. Our guide, Kim, was great. I was kind of surprised on how little paddling was actually involved – only between 2 to 5 strokes at once and only a handful of times. Breakfast provided before the trip, lunch provided riverside, and drinks provided when we returned.

We searched long and hard for an ice cream place (other than Dairy Queen) near the rafting location and luckily were able to find a place that recently opened called “The Stache”.  There were many hard serve flavors to choose from. The place also had all sorts of candy and toys.

After dinner at camp, we ventured out to find a waterfall that we passed on the way into WV. We found the huge gorgeous waterfall on the side of the road in Gauley Bridge. We had a ton of fun traversing the rocks to get the best views of the falls.

A view from Hawks Nest State Park

Heading back to camp for the night, we stopped to check out the overlooks at Hawks Nest State Park. It was a short walk with rewarding views.

WV Capitol - Charleston

May 26, 2014 

Since there was a long drive ahead of us we packed up and left camp around 8am. Traffic was not too bad at all. We stopped by the capitol in Charleston – luckily it was an easy on and off of the freeway. I had hoped to stop by the capitol in Columbus also, but traffic always seems to be heavy in the area so we skipped it. 

West Virginia Day 2

May 24, 2014 

Babcock State Park Grist Mill

There was a big list of places to visit today. The first stop was Babcock State Park. Babcock State Park is one of the oldest in West Virginia and is located in the New River Gorge National River area. There is a very popular grist mill at the park that people from all over take photographs of. The water was not yet running in the wheel when we were there and we did not get a chance to go later in the day.

Our next destination was the New River Gorge Sandstone Visitor Center. This visitor center had lots of informative displays and a 12-minute video. There were not any views from the site.

So close, yet so far was the Sandstone Falls. The falls are only about 3.5 miles from the visitor center if you were a bird, but since we are not it took about 20 miles to get the falls. The parking area was packed. Many of the people visiting were fishing. We were able to snag a picnic table and enjoy our lunch at the falls.

Sandstone Falls

Before hitting our next major location, we made a quick stop to check out the Bluestone National Scenic River at the dam. There is not a visitor center for the Bluestone. To reach the water the best option is Pipestem Resort State Park, which was pretty far out of our way.

Thurmond Depot

Onward we went…next on the docket was the Grandview area of the New River Gorge.  The Grandview visitor center was not open there, but we did checkout the overlooks.

The last stop of the day was the Thurmond Depot area of the New River Gorge.  The town of Thurmond is an old ghost town. During the beginning of the 20^th century, Thurmond was the commercial center for the region. There is a visitor center with a few displays and well as the remaining structures that still exist to check out.

West Virginia Day 1

May 23, 2014 

New River Gorge Bridge

Yahoo!  Another adventure and three more NP stamps down! This trip was about an eight-hour drive to our base camp in Hico, WV. We camped at a place called Ray’s Campground. It had really good reviews on trip advisor. The campground was nice and had really clean bathrooms. Camp was pretty loud the first night and got quieter as the days progressed.

We left at a decent time and were able to set up camp and visit the New River Gorge Canyon Rim Visitor Center before it closed.  We checked out the overviews of the New River Gorge Bridge from the visitor center. We then drove the scenic Fayette Station Road. The visitor center has a CD that you can listen to while you are driving the route.

Gauley River

After a quick dinner at camp, we headed to Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park. We visited this site since it was supposed to offer the best views of the Gauley River. The drive to the state park had overlooks of the dam. The Gauley River National Recreation Area is 25 miles long, but does not have a visitor center. The river is a world class whitewater rafting location in the fall months.

We also pulled over to check out Summersville Lake - so pretty!

Later in the evening we were joined by our friends from Ohio – Pete, Suzanne and Tommy.

Summersville Lake

April 26, 2014 Las Vegas

Carroll Shelby Heritage Center - Las Vegas

We had to pack up and head to the airport, but we did have time to visit one last place – the Carroll Shelby Heritage Center, which was very close to the airport.  Tours are offered, but we were worried that it might make it tight on time to catch our flight so we just walked through the museum area. There were a lot of neat cars to check out and a huge gift shop area. 

We had lunch at the Burke in the Box in the airport – it was okay. We mostly picked that place since it was the only place with a TV playing the Red Wings game. J

The flight home was uneventful for the most part, except for the kid two rows ahead of us that threw up all over the place.  Luckily, it was after the plane landed so we did not have to deal with the smell for too long.

April 25, 2014 Las Vegas

Botanical Cactus Garden at Ethel M Chocolate

We visited the Ethel M Chocolate shop, which opened early and was right on the way to our planned destination.  It really was not much of a tour, just walk though and look at some signs and check out the factory behind large windows and then receive a sample of chocolate. The chocolate was okay. 

We then headed to the Lake Mead Alan Bible Visitor Center. The visitor center is quite new and had some really nice displays. We then drove towards the Hoover Dam, but decided that we did not want to pay $10 to park the car thus we headed back towards Las Vegas, visiting  a majority of the pull offs on the portion of Lakeshore Drive that we did not drive the prior day.  Lakeshore Drive between the Visitor Center and Las Vegas Bay is much nicer than the portion to the north.

Lake Mead 

The afternoon was spent visiting miscellaneous places around Las Vegas. Some places we visited included:

We drove by Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, as featured on Pawn Stars.  There was a huge line out front. Needless to say we did not visit the shop.

Counts Customs, also seen on TV, was neat place with a quite a few cars on display. We got to see some of the guys from the TV show since we were there around lunch time.

Counts Customs

So-Cal Speed Shop had a couple of cars in the shop. Mike got a tee-shirt and some stickers for the garage cabinets.

We also walked the strip. We had a list of “free” things to see at the hotels so we checked some out some of the things we did not see in the past including:

A live act at Circus Circus – kind of neat.

The wild life habitat at the Flamingo – lame.

What we think was the World’s Largest Chandelier at the Cosmopolitan – okay I suppose.

Las Vegas Strip

We had dinner at Holsteins, a burger place, inside of Cosmopolitan. It was tasty. We also stopped by The Cheesecake Factory for a slice of Carrot Cake Cheesecake!

Originally, hitting the downtown area was the plan, but we were just too tired to stay up and check out Freemont Street.