Hawaii: Iao and a Chicken Dinner (10.26.25)

We arrived in Maui on October 24, 2025.  The most iconic site on Maui is the mountain obelisk at Iao State Park.  Iao includes a canyon where King Kamehameha fought one of the bloodiest and most important battles in his quest to unify Hawaii.  Today it is popular place to wander.

A pickup truck pulled up next to us in the Iao State Park parking lot.  Two strapping Polynesian teenagers rode in the back of the truck.  They went for a swim in the waterfalls of the park.  When this young guy saw me taking a picture, he flexed his muscles for my benefit!

This seemed to me to be the park's highest and best use--for the island's teenagers to climb, swim, and lounge about in.

For dinner, I looked up a highly rated restaurant on Google Maps. I didn't realize it was a food truck until we got there!

The food truck offered a wide selection of Hawaiian "plates", with entrees ranging from Spam to coconut fried shrimp (my choice)

The plate included turmeric rice, purple yam salad, and a green salad.  And, of course, the omnipresent "POG", a passion fruit, guava, and orange juice blend.  The ambience wasn't great, since we sat at a plastic table on gravel, but the food was delicious!

Chickens wandered around our feet and even jumped up on the table!