Day Three: Holy Haleakala!

It’s vacation, but we are up at 3:00 a.m. Ahh, the glamorous life of a photographers wife…..For those of you that know me well, you know that I am not a morning person. However, my husband is. As a consequence, I have committed myself to, at a minimum, not be cranky in the morning. I am working towards downright cheerfulness, but often fall short. Yesterday was NOT one of the days that I was lacking. I was actually up and ready to go with the very best bright-eyed optimist demeanor I could muster.

Carl had all of his gear packed, we bundled up (we were heavily warned by all the travel books that it is very cold at the summit of Haleakala), when I say “bundled up” the extent of bundling was a pair of sweats, a hoodie, tennis shoes and my ever trusty pashmina. We were also advised to get to the summit at least an hour before sunrise or you might not find a parking spot and would need to instead park at the upper visitors center parking lot. We called the night before and found out sunrise was at 6:13 a.m. so we planned to leave at 3:30 and get their by 5:00 - MORE than an hour before sunrise. Now, remember people, this was also our first year anniversary (yesterday the 10th).

We pulled out right on time at 3:30 (I think it shocked both of us) and away we went. It is a long drive, but the stars were amazing, however, the STARbucks was not open….pooh. We get to the National Park, pay our entrance fee and head up to the summit. On the way, we passed the upper visitors center but proceeded on up to the summit parking area only to find THERE ARE NO PARKING SPOTS! It is 5:00 a.m.!

Now is the tricky part because it looked to be at least a mile from the visitor center parking lot up to the summit, and we have all this photography equipment (tripod, camera, video camera, extra batteries, etc.). There was only one choice in my mind. I knew Carl needed to get his equipment set up and find a good shooting location, so, on my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, I volunteered to drop him and the equipment at the summit, drive down to the visitor parking area and hike back up. Did I tell you it is 10,023 feet elevation? I didn’t? Well it is. And. Pitch. Black.

I head off to the parking, Carl heads to the viewing area and I tell him I will find him when I get back. I found parking easy enough, but the minute I stepped out of the Jeep I realized I didn’t get the flashlight from Carl. So, now I am walking a mile, uphill at 10,023 feet elevation in the pitch dark. Good Lord. I was so determined to make this a good morning that I set off at a brisk pace, I decided this would be my workout for the day, and wasn’t I fortunate to be outdoors hiking instead of on a treadmill?

It really didn’t seem to take long at all and before I knew it, I had found Carl at the viewing area, but he was inside the structure. I knew immediately something was seriously wrong. Carl doesn’t shoot behind glass unless he absolutely has to (like in a helicopter). I walk up to him gasping for air and he just shakes his head and says “you wont’ believe what I did”. “What?” (I’m kind of freaking out at this point - but maybe it is just the altitude). “I brought the wrong camera body”. Ok, photography terminology - the camera body is the camera itself and we had brought two of them. Carl’s original 5D Canon (which we had brought for me to use and start learning photography) and his new Canon 1DS Mark 3 - the “Big Kahuna” of digital cameras. Unfortunately the day before the 5D stopped working. We aren’t sure if moisture got in or what, but we couldn’t get it to work. But better that one than the 1DS Mark 3 - right? Except he brought the 5D to Haleakala, not the 1DS. We have the broken camera. And all the lenses. And the Tripod. And the backup Batteries. For the camera that doesn’t work.

Crushing. So, in keeping in the spirit of making it a good adventure regardless, Carl took pictures with the small backup to the backup digital camera, we watched an amazing sunrise and decided it really wasn’t as spectacular as others we’ve seen - like the Grand Canyon and Patagonia. But, we had a wonderful morning and drive. We were together and we laughed our “Lahaini’s” off!

Best laid plans my friends…..

Also - we posted a Luau video for your enjoyment in the previous post.