Day 3 February 17, A Trip "Up Country"

Aloha landlubbers!
Today we all woke up with a great breakfast of bananas, pineapple, papaya and bagels w/cream cheese.... Yum. Beautiful breeze and a little bit chillier than it has been.
Then we drove to Paia, where there is a little shopping center where Tom is selling his beautiful watercolors in a gallery there. It took a little time to get everything just right (he had to have certificates, and sku's and stuff), but it was really fun for us...
Then we drove up to Hookipa Beach where the big surf is.. 

This is Tom, Anne, Jim and me...We went into a really fantastic hippie-type grocery (Mana Grocery) and bought fruit. All kinds of really neat things there. Just our type of place. Unfamiliar veggies and fruits and every kind of health food you'd ever want.

Then we drove to Hookipa beach, where all the professionals surf big waves.  It was really, really windy and the lifeguards had the red flags out, so no surfers. Tom said it's usually a really a cool place to see them, but, alas, too much wind....We'll try to go back....
But here is a video and a few pix that don't do the huge waves and wind justice:
Here are some dumb people waiting to get swept away by a rogue wave (no kidding, it was that big!)

I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but here's a video of the surf that day.....
http://www.vimeo.com/9543789

Then we went up country (up towards the mountains) to Makawao which has a lot of little shops. Very artsy.... Lots of galleries of all types. My favorite was Sherry Reeve gallery. Beautiful... I want to go back. Lots of restaurants and eateries, some really $$$$, some not so much. It's up above the sugar cane fields (which we saw lots of).
It started to sprinkle a little, but all in all a wonderful time.

A bunch of hippie art nuts and surf nuts with no where to go because the government  said they couldnt surf because it was too big.   came back after eating some food, coffee, and getting a look at the island because we were high up.  Zillions of art and crap to buy but shops sort of junky looking but inside reallly fnACY AND expensive junk to buy to bring back to the schlubs stuck in winter.  Today we exchange cars and taqke tomand Anne to airport then buy food and do some fun beach, at least run, set up for whale watching tour, snorkle tour of molikini, and find out what to do at the whale festival that is on and especially this sat.  Other thaN MY  shitty sunburn, the bulfrog was NOT WATERPROOF.   iT is good and we'll be alone and all of the wone, nene, ieki, names and curvy roads we could get a lot of problems that would entertain all.