Though sometimes those two things do coincide. When getting up early to greet the sun at a national park here are some things to know: what time the sun rises (do not trust weather.com, it is a site full of lies), where the 24 hour coffee place is on the way to the summit, how afraid your driver is of fire.
What was that last one again? Odd but true: if your driver has a deep seeded fear of fire your entire morning may become derailed. Here is how: you are driving in the pitch black of the morning having gotten up at an ungodly hour, lets say 4am (having slept through 2 alarms completely and lied to yourself about the third). You see an interesting cloud formation in the valley. Your driver comments on how pretty it is and wonders what the glow at it's base could be. You gain higher ground and confirm that it is in fact a small fire. Your driver immediately begins to question if you should turn around and go home so that you don't get stranded on the mountain. The mountain is still 18 miles away.
Here is my general rule of thumb; I got up before Jesus today, I am going up the damn mountain.
At this point it is quite helpful to have a background in hostage negotiation or dealing with actors. The two situations are really more alike then you may think.
Step one:
Assessing level of threat/fear - joke "I had no idea you were so afraid of fire." Hope for bravado! Bravado means they don't want to admit fear and will work harder to prove lack of fear. Bravado is your friend, until it storms back into it's trailer. What do I get? Admission. Admitting fear means there is not enough reverse psychology in the world to make a person do something. Admission is NOT your friend.
Step two:
Finding out what they want. Pretty simple - to go back home. This is in direct opposition to what you want so you must press on.
Step three:
Logic. This step gets you nowhere but it has to be taken. It's like turning your computer off and then on after it eats your term paper. It isn't going to fix anything but before you throw it through the window and call the IT Crowd you have to at least try.
Step four:
Reassurance. As you have all probably guessed, this one is not my best subject. When asked to google "fire" and "Maui" I roll my eyes. It's dark but I'm pretty sure the sentiment carries the two feet across the car. I google. As we are climbing a mountain my reception is patchy. No giant headlines about Maui going up in flames. Still the fear rages unabated.
Step five:
Miraculous resolution! A car pulls up behind us to also go to the summit. This makes the world right once again! Surely if the fire were bad no one else would try to go up. The fear is quashed. We forge ahead on our merry way.
Words can't really describe how gorgeous it was at the summit. There was a throng of pajama-ed and slippered tourists wrapped in beach towels waiting at the edge when we got there. It was oddly still. As the sun climbed higher so did the chatter, but somehow it was solemn. When the orange glow cracked the clouds a park ranger did a Hawaiian chant as a welcome or thank you and officially wished us all a good day. Immediately afterward the crowd dispersed heading out to hot breakfasts or warm beds.
After getting stuck behind no fewer than five bicycling tours heading down the mountain we continued on our quest to conquer the Neighbor Islands. Makawao is a tiny town not far from the B&B we are staying in. It is full of little shops that open when they feel like it and sell the usual assortment of souvenir goods though they do so with character and on occasion panache. There are three types of business here: food service, clothes, art. The crown jewel of the morning was watching the glass-blowers work. A boy once told me I was terribly esoteric. After chatting about glass-blowing for a half hour I am beginning to think he was right. I assure you the clerk was impressed though.
The rest of the day had food and rainbows. Detours to swing by local hangouts that were closed. Finding the elusive golden sand (otherwise known as regular sand. Generic. Vanilla. Sand). Banyan trees and Edison films. As an added bonus we visited the whaling town where Herman Melville used to go whoring. And that is how you sight-see Lexi-style.
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