Up Country

Today I decided to go higher up on the volcano side to what the locals call Up Country.  The higher altitude is much cooler and usually comes with a nice breeze.  The bad news is that the closer to the sun you are, the more you burn!!  In as little as 30 minutes taking surfing pictures, I was toast.

This is a freshly planted sugar cane field.  When I was here in years past, the main crop was pineapple.  Over the years, the big companies and more money producing crops of sugar cane have taken over.  This building below was the company owned store.  If you worked for the "Company", you lived in company housing, bought your supplies at the company store, including meat from the company meat market.  The old song "I owe my soul to the company store" was true here.  The prices were always higher than the wages you were paid.  That insured you would never leave your job.  This building has been restored by Chef Bev Gannon and her family and is now an excellent restaurant.  You can even purchase her cookbook of recipes she serves here.

Across the street from the store are the old horse/mule barns.  They were the "mechanized equipment" used to harvest crops in the old days.

Yes this was the burning spot!!  Surfing obviously is big here in Maui ... and they teach them very young, as you can see above.  Dad and his two boys caught several waves, the boys standing while dad paddled.

Then it was off to Macawao town ... actually the cowboy town of Maui.  They have a huge rodeo here every year.  Stores line both sides of the main street, maybe one whole block long.  Mostly art galleries and clothing/craft stores.

One of my favorite places is an old bakery that makes donut sticks.  Yummy yummy!!!  Not something you see on the mainland.  I ate the whole thing!!!

Lastly, I found these baskets for sale in one of the clothing stores, and had to take a picture for my friend Patty.  She collects baskets from all over .. this one just caught my eye.   They are inexpensive and made by local artists from materials found on the island.  The proprietor of the store said the artist gathers the materials for the tops of these baskets from her front yard.  

I'm going to find out how they are made.  How fun would it be to gather materials from trips to different locations and make a basket as a reminder of where I was.  That's it for today ... Aloe Vera here I come!!