Hawaii Adventures #2

Hawaii is an amazing place. People are much more laid back and friendly than on the mainland. No rush or road rage here. Hang loose and Aloha are the main themes. And weather has been good with not too many people. I think the economy has hit the tourist business pretty hard here.

When we were on Lanai some Maui FD fire fighters came down to the beach. They went running and swimming on the beach. Then they took out their rescue surf board and did some practice. I noticed there are surf boards on the top of all the fire trucks here in Maui. Tough training day for these guys. We took a bunch of pictures because the secretary at Goni's school loves firemen. We e-mailed the pictures to her and boy did she go nuts! I am sure Shayne and Chris must do something similar when they do training.

We have been traveling around the island a bit and seeing a few of the sites. Since our trip to Lanai we have been to Wailea and up to Honolua Bay. Wailea is where all the rich people must go when they come to Maui. Definitely a different place than Lahaina. We ate at a Cheeseburger in Paradise place at Wailea and the food was good and not too bad for price. Goni enjoyed a virgin fruity drink with an umbrella in it.

Up around Honolua we stopped at a beach and watched some boys practicing the surfing skills in the surf.

Golf courses are everywhere here in Maui. Lanai, which has only 4,000 residents, has two big fancy resort style courses. Since we don't golf it is not a big deal to us but to some it is all they do when they come here. On Maui the locals enjoy going down to the water and swimming or surfing after work. Lots of little parks along the ocean where you will find people visiting with a cold beer and playing in the water with the kids.

There is a bar called Moose McGillicuddy's in Lahaina that is famous for great drink prices during happy hour. So being the big drinkers that we are we went down on Wednesday and each had a Mai Tai. Then we walked around the shops downtown. Got some pictures of Goni on the town with some new friends.

We went snorkeling at Black Rock Beach on Friday but it wasn't as good as Manele Bay on Lanai. There were lots of interesting fish to see and a sea turtle. Goni is fascinated by the sea turtles (called Honu here on the isles). You can see them on the rock beach at the condo. They stick their heads out of the water for a moment to breath and once in a while they will roll over. Took some pictures but the turtles are hard to see so I did not include them.

Hawaii Adventures #1

We arrived in Maui on Saturday afternoon and headed over to Costco to get supplies for our two week visit. The place was a real zoo but then it was Saturday so guess we should have expected that. Drove over the Lahaina where our condo is located. It is on the west coast of Maui. You can see Lanai and Molokai from here.

Our condo is just north of Lahaina on the west side of Maui. It is right on the water and is beautiful and very quiet. You hardly ever hear a car go by during the night, just the ocean lapping on the rocks.

View of our condo from the swimming pool.

On Sunday we drove up the Hana Highway. Thirty miles of curves and slow traffic on a road that is barely one lane wide in places. Goni was not thrilled by the road but she toughed it out. According to her there is no reason to ever drive this road again.

We found out that Charles Lindbergh is buried up at the end of the road so we visited there. The gravesite is very simple next to an old church. Apparently he lived on Maui when he died and wanted to be buried in this particular spot. So as a fellow aviator I had to visit the site.Monday we messed around in Lahaina and did some shopping. Went to Snorkel Bob's to get some gear for snorkeling. Goni almost got eaten by a shark but the shark spit her out. My plans of returning to the mainland with a hula girl were dashed.

We took the ferry to Mandele Bay up on Lanai Tuesday and snorkeled around a bit. It was a great day but we were tired when we got back to the condo. But not too tired to get some sunset pictures from the swimming pool area. If you look closely you can see Goni in the pool.
I've been messing around with Picasa so I might have a link to more pictures with my next post.

Hawaii here we come

We are headed to Maui for a couple of weeks. We leave Saturday, August 22 and come back on Labor Day. We are looking forward to seeing the sites and relaxing around the pool of our condo in Lahaina. Taking along the laptop so we can post updates while there. While the weather forecast is not excellent we are sure to have a little good weather. Aloha!