8:00 AM. Rain! Not like other days, many of which started with showers and then stopped, revealing sunshine and warmth, almost as if the island was cleansing away the tourist from the day before for a start of a brand new day. Somehow, however, this seemed different … heavily overcast … rain, not showers. And lots of thunder! Our goal today was to go to the beach first then head to the top of Haleakala Crater, but it won’t be worthwhile if we’re in a cloud! So, we wait.
9:00 AM … rain … for the first time, we eat breakfast under cover and watch the rain continue to fall. We do some laundry (yeah, laundry on vacation….). We work on the many pictures four people can take (it’s a lot!) and the blog.
11:00 AM … we think “maybe it’s clearing over Topton” (family members will understand) and we should get in the car anyway and head toward the crater The phone rings in our room. It’s housekeeping wanting to know if they can make up our rooms. Must be a sign. So we hop in the car and plan to go to the Tedeschi Winery and find some food to continue to let the rain clear up.
Noon … on the road in the rain. As we start to climb toward the “high country”, things get darker. We head into the clouds. As we get within five miles of the winery, the fog becomes thicker and thicker. The road becomes uneasily similar to the Road to Hana (curving, narrow, sickening).
Funny … curves aren’t shown on any of our maps. Hmmmm…. As the driver, I notice there aren’t a lot of places to turn around, and we can’t be certain we haven’t passed the winery since we can barely see the signs along the side of the road.
Just as we’re thinking this is crazy and we need to turn around, we see a building to our left with a paved surface in front big enough to safely turn around! Yay! We pull in and then see we’re at the admin building for “the ranch”. The map says the winery should be just ahead, so we decide to chance it and keep going. As we’re pulling out of the parking lot, we see a sign for winery parking lot just 50 feet further. (Talk about “just ahead”!!) Safe! We don’t need to go any further in the fog!
9:00 AM … rain … for the first time, we eat breakfast under cover and watch the rain continue to fall. We do some laundry (yeah, laundry on vacation….). We work on the many pictures four people can take (it’s a lot!) and the blog.
11:00 AM … we think “maybe it’s clearing over Topton” (family members will understand) and we should get in the car anyway and head toward the crater The phone rings in our room. It’s housekeeping wanting to know if they can make up our rooms. Must be a sign. So we hop in the car and plan to go to the Tedeschi Winery and find some food to continue to let the rain clear up.
Noon … on the road in the rain. As we start to climb toward the “high country”, things get darker. We head into the clouds. As we get within five miles of the winery, the fog becomes thicker and thicker. The road becomes uneasily similar to the Road to Hana (curving, narrow, sickening).
Funny … curves aren’t shown on any of our maps. Hmmmm…. As the driver, I notice there aren’t a lot of places to turn around, and we can’t be certain we haven’t passed the winery since we can barely see the signs along the side of the road.
Just as we’re thinking this is crazy and we need to turn around, we see a building to our left with a paved surface in front big enough to safely turn around! Yay! We pull in and then see we’re at the admin building for “the ranch”. The map says the winery should be just ahead, so we decide to chance it and keep going. As we’re pulling out of the parking lot, we see a sign for winery parking lot just 50 feet further. (Talk about “just ahead”!!) Safe! We don’t need to go any further in the fog! 
We read of the history of the ranch and the people who’d run it since the 1800s and of the current owner who bought it to turn it into a winery. (That answered the question of the ranch and winery being so close.)
We did a tasting of four of their wines, including two made from pineapple. Not bad. Not fine wine but good stuff anyway. We bought two bottles for the road. Sorry, we can’t ship wine to PA to share with friends. Silly State Store system!Now the rain is pouring down … decide the crater will be out for today, but we need to find some lunch. The map says “Grandma’s Coffee House” exists just up the road. The p
erson at the winery says we can get lunch across the street at the Ranch Store (but it’s a deli without seating). When we ask about “Grandma’s”, she wrinkles up her nose and says it’s 5 miles up the road, but it’s a local place … not fancy. (hmmmmm).
But, we hop in the car for the ride to Grandma’s. We spot it … looks like a dive … small … somewhat run down … you know…..hole in the wall. But, there’s no more food for miles, and the place is “on the map”. How bad can it be? We run through the pouring rain to the door (hmmm … wooden screen door only … no inside door …)
Inside … table tops seemingly made of slabs of wood glued on legs. Some seats are benches attached to the wall. There’s a counter where you order your food and a big window through the wall, looking into the kitchen. (Maybe we don’t want to see?)
There, behind the counter, and below the white board with the menu hand-printed on it, is … NOT Grandma. One of us said something about being hungry. The woman behind the counter thought we asked about the “I’m Hungry” on the menu … turkey, ham, cheese, sprouts, tomato
… and more. We decide to stay, ordered veggie burgers (for those who wanted to be sure to get something hot … and presumed safer) and BLTs for others. Food was great. Story of the place was great. Coffee was great. Desserts were GREAT.We ate and drank as a a horrendous thunderstorm poured down around us. (Since the rest rooms were “in the park out back”, we decided we could go a bit further up the road before worrying about that.)
We piled back in the car, drove back to Lahaina, ate at the “Cool Cat Bar & Café” (wouldn’t recommend it … liked Grandma’s better), and did some “window shopping” in the jewelry and other types of stores along the shore. Maybe we’ll try for the crater again tomorrow, after Pam and Tom have had their zipline adventure.
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