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.