Trip Details:
Hawaii, Dec. 2006
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| Monday, Dec. 4 | Friday, Dec. 8 |
| Tuesday, Dec. 5 | Saturday, Dec. 9 |
| Wednesday, Dec. 6 | Sunday, Dec. 10 |
| Thursday, Dec. 7 | Monday, Dec. 11 |
Monday, Dec. 4
A travel day
Neither of us has had enough sleep. We’ve both been up since about 2:30 a.m. (Mountain time) and it shows. The commuter flight to Salt Lake was cramped and the four-hour layover kind of dragged on, although we were aware that we were far more comfortable in the Crown Room than we would have been sitting in the terminal all that time.
It was only when we boarded the big jet that it really hit us that we were going on vacation, our first together in nearly four years. Still, it was a really long flight, and by the time we got the car, got both signatures on the contract (a bit of a movie) and got to the hotel, it was 6:30 Hawaii time, 16 hours since we’d left the house.
Lovely Maui Prince
On previous trips to Maui, we’ve stayed in this town named Kihei on the southern shore of the eastern part of the island. This trip, we’re a few miles south, near the end of the driveable road, in Makena.
I remember going to the beach here years ago and thinking it was lovely. It’s a beautiful place, a little more high-end with great beaches and a lot of golf courses and nice little shops in one shopping area. (It’s not anywhere near as congested nor commercial as, say, Lahaina, or even Kihei.)
The hotel is beautiful, the lobby open on the inside to a large, beautifully-landscaped courtyard with waterfalls, a big koi pond, beautiful flowers, and trees and plants that must have had about a million birds in them. (We got there just around dusk and they all seemed to be singing—maybe celebrating our arrival?—at the same time!)
The service is friendly and cruise-ship attentive. They’ve got free valet parking, a fridge with bottles of water restocked every day, feather pillows, a DVD player in the room and a nice, large layout in the room. There’s an inner door with slats and if you open the doors to the patio (lanai) and close the screens, you get a nice ocean breeze through the room. And the views, which we really couldn’t see well until the following morning, are spectacular.
Non-smoking Hawaii
This is very cool. About three weeks ago, a law went into effect that prohibits cigarette smoke pretty much everywhere here. Our first meal was down in the hotel lounge—We each had a burger, Jerry’s made of Taro, the same stuff they use to make poi and, in burger form, very tasty!—and there wasn’t a whiff of smoke anywhere!
Not only are the hotel rooms non-smoking, but even the lanai has a non-smoking sign on the table!
An early night
Trying to watch a little TV and wind down after a long day, I could not keep my eyes open. We were both asleep by 9:30.
Tuesday, Dec. 5
Welcome to Hawaii
We awoke about ten hours later to this view, a delicious tropical breeze, and more birds all singing at once. And, we were hungry as all get out, which was convenient...
Not your usual breakfast buffet
I’m not generally impressed by breakfast buffets but this one is exceptional. Starting with the fresh guava juice and winding up with a couple mini waffles with macadamia nuts, toasted coconut, strawberries and coconut syrup (with whipped cream, of course), this is the kind of eating you have to save for vacations.
They also had an omelet bar, loads of breads and danish and streudels and cakes, meats, hash browns with parmesan, blintzes with vanilla cream, fresh fruit, cereals, a bunch of Japanese stuff, and other things I didn’t even see until we were ready to leave (and way too full anyhow).
We’re eating in this open-air restaurant and there are several different kinds of birds flying around, landing on the backs of chairs, unoccupied tables, even on abandoned plates in the bus trays! There was this one little guy, a gorgeous cardinal who swiped a banana chip off the granola bar! I got a picture of him eating it on the seat of one of the chairs. (He even looks like he’s got a bandit mask!)
And I must say that eating breakfast under swaying palm trees and listening to “Let it Snow” and other Christmas-time music is a lot of fun, if not a bit disorienting!
We spent the next hour or so exploring the grounds of the hotel, looking at the beautiful plants and flowers. 
I’m always blown away by the variety of living things on these islands, and got some nice shots (finally figured out the macro setting on my little Nikon S4—not bad for a point-and-shoot). I think the flowers above are anthuriums. I’ll check when I get back online. (I signed up for ethernet service, not realizing that it was an additional fee to get on with wireless.)
Don’t leave stuff on the plane...
This only seems to happen when I haven’t had enough sleep. I discovered Monday night that I had left my knitting on the plane. We checked the seat backs and overhead bins two or three times but neglected to scan the floor. (Evidently the plastic bag this scarf was in got kicked far enough forward that we simply didn’t notice, and frankly, I didn’t even realize I had left it behind until I went for it when Heroes came on.)
Now the airport on Maui is a small one but getting ahold of anyone who might have been able to help me ended up being an increasingly aggravating circus. It was only on my third trip there that I actually got to speak to anyone who might have known if the bag had been found. (It hadn’t.)
Evidently, there are two different lost and founds (one for the airport where I was sent back to the airline counter) and one for Delta, plus the counter itself (which didn’t open until 6 pm, although no one in Atlanta seemed to know that) where the bag could’ve gone, and that is IF it didn’t get thrown out, stolen or sent on to the next destination.
So I filled out some paperwork and let it go. (I have only lost a couple of things on flights in all these years of flying but I have never had any success getting them back, even when they had my name and phone number on them.) I went to Ben Franklin, the only place on the island, as far as I can tell, that carries this sort of thing, and replaced the needles and got a little more yarn. (I was told that people don’t come to Hawaii to knit, which I thought was a little presumptuous, frankly. But we decided to not do our usual running around this time, and knitting is just what this body and mind need right now!)
King Kamehameha Golf Club, Frank Lloyd Wright style
Jerry had done some research and discovered that there is a building on Maui that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Since we had to keep going back to the airport, we decided to visit this building, which took a bit of searching. (Apparently people don’t come to Hawaii to look at Frank Lloyd Wright buildings either, as it was hard to find people, even at the excursion desks, who were familiar with this place!)
We’ve certainly seen enough of his architecture to recognize the building (which isn’t exactly typical Hawaiian) on sight, and to find familiar elements in the lines, glass, and various details. It was a wonderful building and we seemed to be the only ones there except for a few workers. (Even though it is a members-only golf club, no one questioned our being there, and we felt welcome to explore and photograph the place.) A really nice diversion and something we’d never done before.
The rest of the day
We drove up past Kaanapali, not all the way to the end of the driveable road, but well past the point where the houses and hotels thinned out considerably. The road narrowed and started feeling very similar to the road to Hana. We turned around after a while and stopped in Lahaina for a bit before returning to the airport again.
We ended up hanging out in Borders in Kahului for a bit, which is where I left Jerry when I made my final run to the airport, and then headed back down to Kihei for some Thai food for dinner. (We ended up back at a place we’d been to on previous trips and had another fantastic meal.)
Came back to the hotel and went to watch a little TV but once again, by 9:30, we were both out!
Wednesday, Dec. 6
Just hanging out
It’s entirely possible that the remainder of this blog will be something like “ate, slept, swam, ate, knitted, ate... whatever” as we’re really fairly set on doing as little as possible this trip. Jerry and I have done a lot of the Maui “things” like whale watching, the submarine ride, biking down Haleakala at sunrise (Jerry rode, I drove), driving the road to Hana (actually I did this with Laura when she and I were here in 2003; Jerry has never expressed an interest in this drive) and visits to many of the shops and towns around the island.
I think what we both need is some beach time and some rest and we seem to be in the perfect place for both.
Floating away...
We spent the afternoon on the beach, either in the water or in the cabana we rented to hang out in. It ended up getting a bit cloudy and windy so we didn’t actually need the shelter as much as I anticipated. Still, it was a nice place to just hang out with a book once I was ready to dry off, and watch Jerry looking for fish for the next hour or so.
I spent a little time at the pool before coming back up to the room. We’re both out on the lanai now, quiet, watching the wind on the water and in the palm trees. There is a couple getting married down on the beach (right by the rocks in the 2nd picture on this page) and the birds are being their usual raucous selves!
Thursday, Dec. 7
Charley’s for breakfast
There’s this town we like to visit on the north shore of Maui called Paia. A few months ago, we saw a show on the food network that featured a restaurant, Charley’s, that served these enormous whole wheat macadamia nut pancakes, so we decided to head up to Paia to check it out. (Charley’s was named for the owners Great Dane. Evidently there have been several since the original.)
The food was great and two or three bites of the pancake (which is about 3/4" thick and actually hangs over the full-size plate) was plenty, especially after a great veggie scramble. (They were really light on the nuts but big on flavor, as pancakes generally go, with a good bit of cinnamon, almost like a big, soft cookie!)
We walked around town for a while in this strange, misty rain, stopped in a few shops, and decided to go a little farther down the road to Ho’okepa Lookout, this beach that’s popular and nearly always bustling with surfers. By the time we got up there, there were only two people in the water (a little to the left of these rocks).
The waves were a good 10 to 15 feet high, and there was a strong wind and really big swells. One guy we met said he had planned to go out after work but the surf was “too messy.” We stayed and watched the waves for about a half hour. Hard to believe that it’s the same ocean that’s so flat and calm, relatively speaking, here in Makena where we’re staying, on the south side of the island.
There’s another site of big waves on the north shore, even more treacherous, called “Jaws.” We wanted to check it out but couldn’t find the turnoff. Still, it gave us a chance to explore a bit more of the infamous Road to Hana (though it’s still relative wide and fast—25 to 30 mph—at this point) before we turned around and headed back to Paia.
Hanging Loose
We noticed a strange thing whenever we were driving and we 
let someone cut in front of us. It looked like people were sticking their little finger out at us until we realized that they were making the sign for “hang loose” in surfer-speak. Evidently it also passes for “thank you,” at least in traffic. (The Aloha Insider Web site advises: “Don’t be shocked if someone flips you the “Hang Loose” sign. It is a friendly gesture.”) And on the street as well, as demonstrated by a couple of kids in Paia who agreed to have their picture taken (to eventually be included in my pre-seminar slide show).
Aloha Beads
A few years ago, Jerry bought a Red Dirt tee shirt he’s pretty much worn out. (It has a neat map of Hawaii on it, and was dyed a rust-brown in the local red dirt. Over the years, it has really faded). He wanted to check out a store that had these shirts for sale which just happened to be right next to a bead store which just happened to have the best selection of pearls I’ve ever seen (which just happened to be 30% off). 
The beads pictured are about 25% of what they had on display.
The store was small, crowded and busy and the person there just handed me a step-stool and a bunch of bags and let me have at it. Luckily, I know my way around a bead store and had a good time putting my (relatively restrained) order together. I know the salesperson was happy I didn’t need much help. She offered to take my picture as we were leaving, so I have an extra souvenir from the place.
Evening approaches
It’s 4:00 and I’m back up on the lanai. Jerry decided to go down for a swim. In about an hour, the crazy-loud bird chorus begins. The birds, I found out, are mynah birds. They gather in the courtyard of this hotel at dusk and in the morning as well and make tons of noise! If you want to read more about them, I found a blog by someone named Kris who lives in Kona and is awakened every day by these birds squawking or walking around on her metal roof. She’s also got a picture of a mynah bird on her page, though it takes a while for the page to load.
So that’s about it for today. We’ll probably have our leftover Thai for dinner and maybe watch some TV. More tomorrow.
Friday, Dec. 8
Waffles in Paradise
Since these waffles have been a big part of the first couple days of our trip, I thought I’d share a photo. Amazing as these are, after a couple days, I’m starting to yearn for the simplicity of a bowl of Special K. Even the miso soup is starting to look good. Maybe tomorrow...
Surf’s Up
REALLY up! We ended up hanging out in the room and on the lanai for a bit today and didn’t get down to the beach until the afternoon. By then, the winds had picked up and the surf was really rough. I spent most of the time on the beach under a towel and aloha shirt thinking back on the days when I couldn’t get enough sun on my skin, or when 4 - 5' waves didn’t seem quite so intimidating. Feeling kind of old.
It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the waves were coming in fast and hard. Going out past the breakers was a bit of a challenge, and kind of fun, but the undertow was really strong and staying away from the rocks (to the left of this photo) took a lot of work. Coming back in was a bitch, and getting knocked ass-over-teakettle (three times!) by these big waves, one on top of the last, was kind of a pain. (We’re both a bit sore tonight from the workout!)
Jerry wanted to go out again, so I stayed just to keep an eye on him. There are no lifeguards on this beach and there very few people around at this point who might notice or help if he got in trouble. Every time he’d bounce up with a swell, the current would pull him about 5 feet closer to those rocks!
When I got his attention, I waved him up the beach a bit, but at this point it was hard even staying out beyond the breakers and when he tried coming in, didn’t have much better luck than I. (I’d see a wave, then a foot, then a head, then another wave, a leg, a shoulder... until the ocean finally spit him up on shore, sort of like my own fun-house ride.)
The water felt so good, it was hard to resist, but I think I’ll wait for the ocean to present a more user-friendly interface before going in again.
Wildlife update: While I was sitting on the beach, I noticed these little bug-like things scurrying across the sand, something I’ve never seen here before. Turns out they were these little crabs, and they were really fast. Nonetheless, Jerry managed to get this picture!
Winding down at the end of a nice day
My one complaint about my camera (Nikon Coolpix S4) is that it lacks a viewfinder. (I didn’t realize this until I started using it.) The selling point was the big view screen which really works well in certain light but is completely useless in others. If I manage a decent shot on a bright, sunny day outside, it’s almost always by accident.
I’m still committed to bonding with this camera and am more comfortable with it all the time. (It really does take great, sharp photos most of the time.) But it’s hard to compose a good shot when you can’t see what the camera is actually looking at. A really big design flaw, unless I’m just missing something. In the meantime, here’s what I got when I pointed the camera down the other (south-western) side of this cove, a few minutes after the sun went down behind one of the other islands.
Dinner and DVDs
For a change of pace, we ate at the Japanese restaurant here at the hotel. Elegant setting, very good food. (The Maui onion salad was the highlight of my meal.) To wind down at the end of the day, we watch a bit of TV, lately catching up on the 2nd season of Six Feet Under, taking advantage of the DVD player in the room.
By the way, I just got an email from a friend who said he couldn’t get on this page. We’ve upgraded our service and I’m wondering if some of the files ended up being moved, although it seems to be more of a permissions problem, which makes even less sense. I’ll check on it tomorrow but if you’ve been able to get to this page, do let me know.
Saturday, Dec. 9
Season’s Eatings
No breakfast today. Jerry took a long walk and spent the entire morning in the water. I joined him on the beach, went in for a bit and spent the rest of the time reading and relaxing.
We started getting hungry later in the day and went up the road about 3 miles to Longhi’s, this restaurant in Wailea we’d been to several times on previous trips. They have fantastic breakfasts, but we were up for lunch this time. We split one of the best salads I’ve ever had: mixed Maui greens in a honey-mint-scallion dressing (a sweet dressing with a hint of sesame oil) topped with caramelized macadamia nuts.
Those of you who know my penchant for texture will understand that it was more than just having crunchy bits in this delicious mix. Even my chicken marsala sandwich offered texture in addition to taste—a crunchy outside to the chicken I couldn’t quite figure out (it wasn’t breaded), tender inside, and somehow the marsala sauce (with slices of fresh mushrooms) didn’t destroy the crust of the baguette. It was awesome!
Jerry had the manicotti covered in Bechamel and Pomodoro sauces. Along with the best bread that came at the beginning of the meal (covered in tomato sauce, chopped green chili and cheese), it was a fantastic lunch and held us for the rest of the day.
Mele Kalikimaka
That, my friends, is how one says Merry Christmas in Hawaiian! As beautiful as this place is, you wouldn’t think that further decorations would be necessary. But they really do this place up for Christmas. 
There’s a hotel up the road, the Grand Wailea Resort, I believe, that has about two dozen big trees along the drive in from the road. Each of these trees has its trunk and branches covered in lights, almost to the top! Driving past, it looks like an enchanted forest. I stopped by last night just after sunset to try to get a picture. Obviously, this would look better later in the evening, but without a tripod, even this shot was hard to get! Take my word for it. It really is amazing. (If anyone wants a larger shot of these photos, let me know. I can either send a copy or link these thumbnails to larger pictures.)
The wreath on the right was hanging on the door to one of the restaurants in Wailea. It includes local flowers (hibiscus and anthurium are the only two whose names I know) and was one of the prettiest and most uniquely tropical decoration I saw. There are lights everywhere (although I saw more electric palm trees in Virginia last month than I have here) and Christmas in the islands is a very big deal indeed.
The rest of the day
We drove around a bit after lunch. Our hotel is the last one on 
the road that ends at a lava flow (from the late 18th century, we were told) a few miles down. We decided to see where it went. Along the way, we visited a beautiful state park, Big Beach, where I finally got a good shot of a mynah bird! (These are the noisy critters that flock in the trees and bushes, and along the roof ledges of the hotel, at dusk and dawn.)
The road gets very narrow, just one lane in places and barely two in most others, and runs along a rocky shore. We were amazed to see houses (many with Polynesian-style roof lines) scattered along the road. Although hardly the most remote place to live on the island, it really is a hike from most of the businesses and towns.
I spent some time exploring the shops nearby and taking a few more pictures. (I got a cute shot of a Hawaiian kid, maybe about 9 or 10, wearing a Steeler’s cap. He was so excited to hear that we used to live in Pittsburgh!)
It’s really hard to believe that after tonight, we only have one more night at this hotel. It seems we just got here...
Sunday, Dec. 10
Good Morning!
I just woke up and am out on the lanai watching a bunch of tourists out in a couple of outrigger canoes. I love the view and the sound of the waves breaking on the shore below. What a wonderful way to start a day.
Goin’ Upcountry...
Jerry headed to the beach and I decided to go visit a friend I haven’t seen in a lot of years. Eve and her husband, Steve, run Makena Coast Dive Charters (including an intro to scuba that I’ve been wanting to do for years). They recently opened the Sacred Garden, 
which includes a greenhouse with orchids and other tropical plants, meditation areas and a garden labyrinth which Eve and I walked (with the help of a most snuggly and wonderful black lab, Po).
It was a great place to clear my head (which this week has already pretty-well cleared) before heading back home. (And the 
“fur fix” was really good for my soul!) I bought a few gifts and a couple things for my office and meditation center, and I promised to add a link to my site (beside the one on this page) to let people know about this place. If you know anyone heading out this way, this place needs to be on their must-see list.
Packing up
It’s just past sunset and Jerry is just back from one last trip to the beach. He’s been enjoying the water and the sun more than ever. I started throwing things in the duffle bag, an extra bag I brought to accommodate the stuff I knew we’d be getting here. (I’m just blown away by how quickly this week has gone by. It really feels as if we just got here!)
We don’t leave until tomorrow night, and from Honolulu no less. We’ll wrap up here in the morning and head out to the airport after lunch. We fly to Honolulu at 3:00 and then have a car for a few hours. We plan to head into Waikiki to visit a few places we like, including this particular Thai restaurant for dinner. (Does it sound like all we’ve done here is EAT? It sort of feels that way at times! Well, it certainly has been a big part of a trip that intentionally did not involve a lot of activity or running around.)
Unless I add something else later tonight, I probably won’t have internet access until I get home, so I’ll add a few last thoughts on the plane (or, more likely, at the airport) and upload it all when I get home.
In the meantime, I really appreciate those of you who made an effort to read this blog, stay in touch and share this week with us. Mahalo!
Monday, Dec. 11
At the airport
In Kahului, Maui, an hour before our flight leaves. It’s really hot here today, 86° and no tropical breeze, at least not here. We still have 9 1/2 hours before our flight home out of Honolulu tonight and the thought of getting another rental car so we could cruise Waikiki and having to check back in later suddenly doesn’t sound like quite as much fun as it did when we were planning this trip. (We can’t actually do anything with our bags until 4 hours before the flight, which is a long way off.) I can’t get a wireless signal here so basically, I’m just killing time...
Wandering around Waikiki
Familiar territory. I’ve never been to Hawaii that I didn’t spend some time around here. After finally finding our bags and getting to the rental car and sitting in rush hour traffic for close to an hour, we managed to find a parking lot and ditched the car just in time to catch a Waikiki sunset. I love this, not just for the extraordinary beauty of watching the sun go down over the ocean, but for the fact that around this time of day, people gather on the beach just to share this experience, applauding when the last visible bit of the sun sinks below the horizon. (Note: Growing up on the east coast, the whole idea of the sun setting behind the ocean, something I didn’t see until I was into my twenties, is still a little bit disorienting!)
We walked around a bit, enjoying the extensive and unique Christmas decorations (including this wreath on the Outrigger hotel, and things like light displays on screens and vehicles in other parts of town), the far-more-urban setting and the cultural mix, which is much more international than what we found on Maui.
There’s this big market place, built around the biggest banyan tree I think I’ve ever seen—stretches between a couple big streets—that we enjoy 
and where, this time, Jerry found a couple braided leather bracelets he’d been looking for. Another favorite for us, and one we can’t seem to find anywhere besides Oahu, is a Dole whip. (Imagine a Dairy Queen or Carvel, but made from fruit juice instead of dairy. It’s light, low cal, low fat and refreshing!) We always seem to remember how to find the place that sells these things in the maze of carts and stands and stores.
Off to dinner, most of which we took home with us, and then back to the airport. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon but frankly, a lot of work and hassle going back and forth to the airport and dealing with luggage, rental cars, and traffic for so short a time. I think next time, we’ll just stay on Maui and if we can’t catch a flight home from there, will make a later connection or come in a couple days early instead.
So it’s now the wee hours of Wednesday morning. My sleep is off and I feel about as jet lagged as I do coming home from Europe. We both slept on the plane (with a bit of a pharmaceutical assist or that never would’ve happened) but were dopey all day. I fell asleep around 11 this evening but was up two hours later so decided to finish up this blog until I got tired again.
I’ve got some work commitments tomorrow and plan to spend the rest of the day unpacking, sorting laundry and opening mail. And with Christmas less than two weeks away (!), I guess it’s time to shift into holiday-at-home gears! Yikes.
So all in all, a lovely break for us both. Yet so good to be home! Thanks again to everyone who has shared this journey with us.
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Last updated on
June 5, 2007 8:56 AM
