The last few days

These pictures don't really have much rhyme or reason to them, but they are chronological. That's the only excuse I have for this otherwise completely random post.

The other day, we took the drive to Hana, around the bottom of Haleakala, enjoying the sites along the way.

On the desert side, we crossed this lovely bridge. We just had to take a picture:
Since it was still National Parks week, we stopped at the bottom section of Haleakala National Park. Most people have heard of this as the Seven Sacred Pools, but apparently that's not actually true. There are pools, and there are more or less seven of them, but I guess they were never considered sacred, except to the marketing teams in the 1950s or whenever.

But they're gorgeous pools:
The water was too high for us to safely go play in them, so we just enjoyed our walk. If you turn and face the other way, this is the view. And since Penny had her sweatshirt on, she was the one of us who didn't get sunburned.
Further along the drive, there is a beautiful black-sand beach. The waves were pretty big, and Penny wasn't quite sure about this whole ocean thing.
But she liked it a little better from afar:
Now don't tell the rental car folks, but we may have let an unregistered driver drive our car.

Kevin's mom's favorite thing about Hawaii is all the fancy hotels. We went out for brunch (doesn't that sound posh!) at one of them, and Penny really felt like she was in the lap of luxury. It doesn't get much better than this!
(Hmm... this post is turning out to be just a Penny log. But what else is new?!)

Penny's doll wants to be like her when she grows up:
And back at the Baby Beach, Penny enjoyed herself, getting a few freckles and a nice mustache while she was at it.
Last night, Penny was super cranky from a shortened nap, and so A-Gong and A-Ma graciously took her out on the porch to enjoy the view. The furthest bit of land you can see is the island of Lanai. Then Penny's pointing to the road to Lahaina. And right in her armpit is Kihei, where we go to the baby beach.
A-Ma showed Penny all the birdies in the trees. Penny loves the birdies (xiao niao)!
Today we drove out to Makena, where there's this big ol' lava flow. Kevin especially loved the poky rocks, and I loved how the black lava suddenly left off to bright teal ocean.