Aloha from Maui - Post 1

Aloha...we made it on Tuesday, August 7, about noon Hawaii time on Aloha Airlines. Once we landed at Kahului, we got our rental car and stopped at Costco on the way to the condo.

Our condo is the Valley Isle Resort, a 12-story building (10 units per floor) in Kahana, about 5 miles north of Lahaina on the west coast of Maui. We are on the second floor, looking north to Molokai and west to Lanai - about 40 feet from the ocean. The surf sound stays "on" all night! It's warm with trade winds - the condo has screens on the lanai door and the front door, and fans in the living room and bedroom, so there is always a breeze in the living room and bedroom. It is beautiful!

The first photo is a view from our deck to the north - you can see Molokai in the background.


This view is to the south from our balcony - the beach here is about half a mile long. There are condominiums and time share places all along the coast and there is another set just across the road.

This is a view from the beach toward the Valley Isle Resort. Our room is on the far end on the second floor.

We went down to Lahaina on Tuesday night for shopping and dinner. We ate at Kimo's right on the beach in downtown Lahaina - great atmosphere, great food. This picture is on Kimo's veranda right on the ocean.



The condo owners said there was wireless internet - I hooked up the laptop the first night and found a weak signal from a neighboring hotel - for $10 a day. I was going to sign up, but Linda said "did you see the notice about the internet hookup on the end table?" I hadn't, but it said that there was a phone cable hookup available for free. I found the cable, hooked it up on Wednesday morning, and voila!


On Wednesday, we left at 9 AM and rented snorkel gear at the Boss Frog shop ($9 for a week for two sets) and signed up for a 5 hour snorkel tour of Molokini (a submerged volcano crater) and Turtleland (wherever that is). Then we went looking for a snorkel beach, and finally picked Kapalua Beach and found a parking place and hiked down to the beach. We spent about an hour in the water- there were not many fish on the coral near shore, and more further out near the reef. Then it was to lunch at Dollie's (across from the condo) and back to the room. Linda went to the pool and swam and talked to folks.

UPDATE: Here are links to the other four posts:

Post 2: http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2007/08/aloha-from-maui-post-2.html

Post 3: http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2007/08/aloha-from-maui-post-3.html

Post 4: http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2007/08/aloha-from-maui-post-4.html

Post 5: http://randysbusylife.blogspot.com/2007/08/aloha-from-maui-post-5.html

Aloha from Maui - Post 2

It was a lazy summer morning on the beach outside our condo in Kahana on the West coast of Maui. We had breakfast and read our email, then got our bathing suits on and decided to go to the beach just below our condo unit. We had been in the water for about 30 minutes - nice and cool, maybe 80 F, looking for fish through our snorkel masks - there weren't many! Then we got out to rest and put on more sunscreen.

A man about my age was sitting in a lawn chair in about a foot of water, with the small waves breaking over him occasionally, and eventually he would go over backwards in the chair as the chair legs sank into the sand beneath him. He laughed, we laughed. And he did it again and again - he seemed really nice and cheerful. I was sitting in the shade about 20 feet from Linda who was in the sun, and the man was about 20 feet from Linda. They were kibitzing back and forth.

A young lady (well, younger than me!) was walking up the sand, and turned and made a beeline for me. It was Joanie, my cousin from Arizona! What a small world. She gave me a hug, then saw Linda down by the surf and snuck up behind her and said in her ear "are you flirting with that man in the water?" Linda jumped, then saw that it was Joanie, leaped up and hugged her too.

About this time the man in the water went backside over tea kettle into the water again. He came up dripping wet and Joanie introduced us to Ray. We talked for awhile, and found out that they go back on Saturday, they were going on a helicopter ride this afternoon, and had evening plans for the next two nights. They asked if we wanted to join them at the Hula Grill in Ka'anapali tonight. We said sure! We all went in for a swim and talked a lot more before they went off to their helicopter ride.

It's a real small world sometimes. They are staying at the condos across the road and just happened to be on the beach at the same time we were. Great timing!

Linda and I went to Old Town Lahaina again for a juicy bacon cheeseburger lunch at Moose McGillicuddy's, some shopping, and an ice cream before we came back to the room. Linda went to the pool, and I took a nap, read my book and suerfed the Internet.

On Thursday night, we went to the Hula Grill in Ka'anapali with Joanie and Ray and had a nice dinner. We talked a bit about our families, and about their meeting and getting together. Unfortunately, most of my pictures didn't turn out well.

Aloha from Maui -Post 3

We continue on our quest to find every snorkel beach on Maui. I look like a lobster on several body parts - especially my foot-tops and my knees. Ah, the divine misery of sunburn!

Friday morning was our big 5-hour snorkel trip on the Boss Frog boat to Molokini and Turtle Town. Molokini is a partial rim of a volcano crater that rises only about 100 feet above sea level. The crater is about 150 feet deep, but the waters are very clear and teeming with fish. The boat from Ma'alaea takes about an hour to get there, and they provide breakfast and the snorkel gear. We got suited up and went in the water and spent about an hour swimming with and watching tropical fish, looking for eels in the rocks and admiring the coral. We were pretty much the last ones out of the water.

This first picture is toward Molokini - that low half-crater in the distance, with Kahoolawae also in the picture.

At the Molokini crater, a number of boats are anchored as people suit up and go into the water.

After we got out of the water, one of our colleagues took this picture of us in the seating area of the boat.

Then it was on to Turtle Town which is off the resort town of Wailea. We got back in the water (they have a ladder down into the water - you go down the ladder, put on your fins and swim off) and went searching for turtles. The water was not as clear, and I saw a few turtles on the bottom, and then headed back. About halfway back to the boat, I saw a turtle, maybe 3 feet long, on the surface right in front of me, so I stopped, swam parallel to it and watched it dive down. Pretty cool. When we got back on the boat, we had a hamburger lunch and headed back to the dock.

We knew that Joanie and Ray were going to the luau at the Hyatt Regency in Ka'anapali, so we called them to see if they minded if we joined them. They had VIP seats because it was Joanie's ?0th birthday but we decided to go anyway. We called and got reservations, got dressed and headed down there about 4 PM. I found Joanie and Ray in the VIP line, figured out where they were going to sit, and when we got into the seating area, we got a table about 50 feet from them. We were seated next to a nice family from Long Island and enjoyed talking to them. It was a nice dinner - roasted pig, teriyaki steak, veggies, rice, salad, fresh fruit, etc. The luau show was wonderful - Linda thought it was the best we've ever seen (I frankly don't remember much about the others - except when I had to go onstage and act foolishly). The climax was a fire dance that was exceptional.

We met Joanie and Ray afterwards, but they wanted to walk on the beach and we needed to go back to our condo. We'll see them again on Saturday evening for dinner.

Aloha from Maui - Post 4

The last two days have been pretty restful here at our retirement (oops, cat out of the bag?) condo on the beach. Our days have been mostly sleep-eat-drive-snorkel-drive-eat-shop-drive-nap-pool-blog-drive-eat-drive-sleep. Recycle again tomorrow.

We spent Saturday morning relaxing at the condo - Linda slept in, I surfed the Internet, watched TV and read my book. We went to Whaler's Village in Ka'anapali for lunch at the Food Court (big spender, eh?) and Linda went shopping, while I visited the Whaler's Museum - a free museum with interesting history, pictures and stories, then we had an ice cream and went back to the condo.

Saturday was Joanie and Ray's last day, but their plane didn't leave until midnight, so they came to our condo and changed their clothes, and then we shared a dinner at the Sands of Kahana restaurant near our condo. We talked a bit more about how they met, Ray's ancestry and all of our life experiences. We really enjoyed seeing them and sharing meals and stories with them.

On Sunday, Linda and I went snorkeling in the morning down at Kahikeli Beach, near the Whalers Village in Ka'anapali. The beach had shade trees and a fairly easy access to the water. We snorkeled for awhile then sat in the shade and watched people on the sand and in the water. Then we went to the Rusty Harpoon for lunch, stopped by the Haagen Daz store for an ice cream cone, did a little shopping, and headed back to the condo for our naps and pool time.
That evening, we decided to go back to Whalers Village and eat at Leilani's on the Beach. Afterward, we watched the sun go down, but the distant clouds didn't create the desired "fantastic" Hawaii sunset that you see on postcards (that hasn't happened in 5 sunsets yet on this trip).

Here is Linda outside of Leilani's - we ate on the second floor with a view of the beach and the walkway along the beach.



This is the best sunset picture I have - that is Molokai in the background to the right, and Lanai to the left, of the setting sun. We saw no green flashes!




On the way back to the car, I spotted an "old map" store. I figured it would have just Hawaii maps, but it turned out that it had prints on canvas from public domain historical maps, like those found in the Library of Congress collection. They had several large prints of maps of San Diego and San Francisco, so we bought several to put a finishing touch on our newly painted walls at home (we have a "San Francisco room" and a "San Diego room" in our house now).

Aloha from Maui - Post 5

On Monday, we had a leisurely morning, then went out driving to the Iao Valley near Wailuku on Maui. This is essentially in a rain forest, with tall and steep mountains, fresh water streams, lots of flowers and trees, etc. There is a bridge over the stream in the park and 4 guys were jumping off the bridge into the pool about 30 feet below - for money. We stopped at the nature center for a few minutes.

This view shows the bridge and the valley above the bridge.




The second picture shows the valley below and downstream of the bridge.

The third photo shows one of the jumpers in action. Linda is on the bridge watching.

Then we went to lunch at Ruby's Diner in Wailuku, and headed back to the condo for naps, Linda's pool time, and my blogging time.

On Monday night and Tuesday morning, the wave action outside the condo strengthened due to the approach of Hurricane Flossie about 500 miles to the southeast. The calm small waves on our beach became 2-foot breakers with a lot more action.

We do have more photos in the underwater camera and I may post some after we get them developed.

We awoke Tuesday morning and packed up for our 2 PM flight back to San Diego. We had to return the snorkel gear and gas up the car, and get it back to the rental agency in Kahului before 11:30. We had to wait in long lines for boarding passes and airport security, then had lunch at the airport sandwich counter before going to the gate. The flight was late arriving due to headwinds, and we left about 30 minutes late. Our seats were an aisle (Linda) and center (Randy) in row 13 so it was not a comfortable flight for us. Fortunately, there were tail winds and we arrived in San Diego on time.