The arduous journey to Maui was worth it!
The sun is shining, the air is warm & smells of tuberous … I’m slathered with sunscreen … and there’s sand in my shoes.
In a word: Paradise.
It’s currently Saturday … and, to be honest, we haven’t been all that adventurous so far this trip. Sleeping in late, taking a siesta in the afternoon, etc.
Sunday morning we went to the Five Palms restaurant (down the street) for a very tasty breakfast. After which we went for a longish drive, which is usual for our trips here. Just to get our bearings again. We also stopped by the Safeway in Kihei to stock up on groceries & such. After which we headed back to the condo and watched the waves, whales, and relaxed. Took some pictures of the sunset and cooked dinner in.
Monday was more of the same … went for a drive looking for surfing beaches to see if there was any interesting pictures to be taken. Didn’t find any surfers. I did try to get a panoramic shot, but discovered that it’s hard to stitch together images when there are waves happening. We had dinner at a new place (for us at least) called ‘Cuatro‘. Even though we didn’t have reservations, they were able to seat us outside. The food was very good. I highly recommend it. But make reservations.
Tuesday we went on a snorkel cruise through the Pacific Whale Foundation … it was OK, but not great. The boat was almost full … more than 120 people, which made for long waits for most things. Also, the mens head malfunctioned so everyone had to use the the womens head. As this was a snorkel cruise and not a whale watch, they didn’t go out of their way to find whales. I got a few nice shot though. The blogs new header image is the result of one of them.
Wednesday we went on another drive … the other way around … I wanted to check out the big surfing beach to see if anything interesting was happening there. Again, nothing. The surf was active, but really messy. Nobody was in the water.
Thursday we went snorkeling at Ahihi Bay … it’s a nice calm location for snorkeling with a fairly easy entry by the boat ramp.
Friday we headed into Lahaina to be tourists. Browsed the shops, ate some food, people watched, etc. There’s a street corner on Front Street, near the banyan tree, that used to have a crazy old street preacher … I heard he passed a way a few years ago … but I think that corner attracts street preachers, because there was a new guy there. I suspect he should be institutionalized, but he doesn’t seem harmful. I’m sure he’s the only one who can hear the voices.
For dinner we went back to the Five Palms … the food was quite good although the service was a bit slow.
Today we tried to connect up with some twitter friends at the Whale Day festival … which partially succeeded. We were supposed to meet at a Starbucks on S. Kihei Rd and watch the festival parade to by … but it turns out the parade ended a block before the Starbucks. We hung out at the Starbucks for a while and then Liza came and found us. We met a few of the local twitter folks and travelers.
Tonight we’re cooking in again … steak maybe. Not sure yet. It’s getting a little late, so we might even order in instead.
Tomorrow we’re on a whale watch cruise … again with Pacific Whale Foundation. In the afternoon we’re thinking of driving up to the summit of Haleakala … to watch the sunset and get some photos.
Monday we will probably drive out to Hana and do some hiking.