I woke up in the morning to the sound of many birds chirping outside my window. Welcome to Hawaii.
Ten years ago, when we went to Kauai, a friend gave me a great guidebook by a man named Andrew Doughty. This is a guy who visited Hawaii, fell in love with it, and moved there. He decided he didn't like any of the guidebooks he read, so he began writing his own. He now has a series of books for all the major islands. We were so impressed with his Kaui guidebook, that when we decided to come to Maui, the first thing we did was to buy and read his Maui book. If you visit Hawaii, you've got to get one of his books. Check his website at www.hawaiirevealed.com. Highly recommended. End of commercial.
Prior to our arrival, we had received an email from a hotel employee named Akesa, who said she would be our "personal concierge" during our stay, and asked us to come see her as soon as we arrived. Well, we had gotten in too late the previous evening, so I went to see her this morning, while Terry was nursing her morning coffee. She was quite friendly and helpful, going over the resort amenities, telling me about the free shuttle into town, etc. She asked if we needed her to make any reservations for us, but I said no, we had already done that.
And then I discovered that they had been somewhat disingenuous when they assured me that attending a sales presentation was not "required." No, it wasn't required - but Akesa "invited" us to a presentation, and tried really hard to talk me into it. Of course, I politely but adamantly refused.
Terry and I walked to the resort next door (that stretch of beach is lined with them) for breakfast at the Castaway restaurant:
On the walk there and back, I took some pictures of the beach:
You may have noticed, on the map of Hawaii on the previous page, that Maui is one of a group of four islands clustered closely together. The island you can see in the pictures above is Lana'i; at different locations around Maui, you can also see the islands of Moloka'i and Kaho'olawe.
The vegetaion on Maui (well, on all of Hawaii) is amazing. You want green? We got green. We got every shade of green you can imagine. We also got lots of other colors:
And here are a couple of pictures of the resort we were staying at:
The resort is a large one, spreading out over a dozen or so buildings, with several pools. The pool in the picture above is the one outside our building. We had brought our bathing suits, and always intended to go for a dip in the pool, and/or the ocean, but somehow we never got around to it. And I had bought a brand new bathing suit for the trip, too.
At the restaurant, I noticed something, that I had also remarked on at the resort, and at the airport. All three places, and many others that I noticed during our stay, had an open style of architecture, in which one or more walls are open to the air. I did a little research when I got home, and discovered this tidbit on Wikipedia: "A lanai is a type of roofed, open- sided veranda, patio or porch originating in Hawaii." Exactly. Roofed and open-sided. That describes the baggage claim area at the airport, the front lobby at the resort, and the dining area at the restaurant. It's pleasant, and also practical, in that it allows for cross breezes, which helps to keep the air cooler - air conditioning without the high electricity bills.
After breakfast, we set out on our first adventure, a drive around the west side of the island. As you can see from the map, Maui is essentially the tips of two mountain peaks sticking up out of the water, with a central valley in between. Actually, I understand that if you come back in 15,000 years or so, Maui will be two islands, and the central valley will be underwater. So don't wait too long to visit.
The western peak, Pu'u Kukui (w) , is inaccessible by road (actually, there is one road that goes partway up to the crater, but we never got there). Also, most of the interior of the western half of the island is taken up by a privately owned nature reserve. The human habitation, and the roads, are all around the perimeter. So we started from the resort and struck out clockwise, and drove all the way around, stopping at various points of interest along the way.
The first interesting point we stopped at was Dragon's Teeth, at Kapalua. This is a place where lava flow from the volcano met the ocean, and was molded into tooth-shaped formations. I reached the spot by walking across a golf course, past several signs sternly warning me not to do that. Sorry, folks, but if you're not going to put in a path, people are going to walk across your lawn.
Here are some pictures:
Driving along the road, there were a couple of places where I noticed wrecked cars by the side of the road:
...which made me remember that I'd also seen a similar wreck when we went to Kauai ten years ago. Is this a Hawaiian thing? I mean, I know we have car wrecks here, but we usually tow them away...
The next place we stopped was at Nakalele (w), where I walked a little ways off the road (very carefully - it was raining, and the ground was muddy, and I was afraid I might end up sliding down on my butt) to a point overlooking the Nakalele Blowhole. This is a place where what appears to be a solid outcropping of rock is actually a ledge, with water underneath it. When waves come in, water will occasionally blow up through a hole in the rock ledge. I stood there for a while, long enough to see several impressive jets of water.
If you look very closely at the picture (and try to ignore the blurriness from the raindrops on the lens), you can just barely make out a little bit of spray coming through the blowhole. Find the guy in the blue shirt, a little right of center, and go straight up toward the water, and just before you get to the water's edge... there it is. The Wikipedia article has better pictures.
Just past the little town - very little - of Kahakuloa, we stopped at a roadside stand called Julia's:
...and bought a loaf of what the guidebook assured us was The Best Banana Bread On The Planet. Of course, "best" is a purely subjective judgement. I don't know about Best On The Planet, but it was Quite Good. We then backtracked a little bit, and went to Lillian's, another roadside stand, for some shave ice (w). That's a Hawaiian treat that's like a snow cone, except better.
A little further along the road, I passed some giraffes:
Okay, sculptures of giraffes. They were out in front of an art gallery, Turnbull Studios. Apparently, they also have a sculpture garden, but we didn't stop to visit. Maybe next time.
Going around the northeast side, the road narrows down to one lane, and also gets VERY twisty. At one point, there's a switchback so steep that the upper part of the road is right on top of the lower part. And on a road like that it's extremely challenging when two cars approach from opposite directions. According to the guidebook, the rule of thumb is that the driver going uphill has to back up. Fortunately, every time I met a car going the other way, there was just enough room for us to squeeze past. Thank God for compact cars.
This picture will give you an idea:
Truly, an Almy road. My family has a long and colorful history of driving on roads like this.
As I've already mentioned, it was raining on and off all day, which acounted for some adventures along the way. At one point, the road was flooded. A small stream, swollen to a torrent by the rain, had the road under a couple of feet of water. If it had been any deeper, I would have had to turn back. As it was, I drove across very carefully.
At another point, I tried to pull off onto the shoulder - I don't remember why, maybe to look at something in the guidebook, or take a picture. But the shoulder was muddy, and when I applied the brake, the car slowed down, but didn't stop. So I tried to steer back onto the road, and the left side tires went into a ditch between the road and shoulder. Fortunately, I didn't panic, and I was able to coax the car back onto the road, with no harm done, except to my nerves.
Of course, mountains + water = waterfalls, and mountains + water + rain = lots of waterfalls. Here's one we passed:
Not a very good picture, I'm afraid. Actually, this one was more of a cascade than a waterfall. There'll be more waterfalls later - stay tuned.
At one point, I was rather surprised to see a large number of chickens and cats along the side of the road:
And at another point, I was amused to see a street with the rather colorful name Go For Broke Road.
Here's a map of the day's wanderings, with points of interest highlighted:
The drive down through the central valley, around the south side, and back to the resort, while pleasant enough, was not as picturesque as the drive around the north side. But it had its moments, including some lovely beaches, great views of Kaho'olawe, and a stretch of road with large shady trees lining both side, which I dubbed the "tree tunnel:"
After going back to the resort and resting for a bit, we went out for an evening at Warren and Annabelle's, a dinner theater and magic show. This show was highly recommended by the guidebook, and we heartily concur with their recommendation. If you visit Maui, you've got to see this show.
At first, guests are ushered a few at a time into a small room - when we went in, it was us and one other couple. The room has four doors, labelled Destiny, Enlightenment, Passage and Prosperity. There's also a bookcase on one wall. One of the guests is given a lei (made of shells, not flowers), with a large old-fashioned key hanging from it.
After the door closed behind us, the voice of Annabelle - the resident ghost - challenged us to find the correct door that would let us out of the room, and into the main parlor. Well, of course, there was a trick to it, and I'm not going to reveal the trick. But I'm proud to say that I was the first one to figure it out!
Once in the parlor, we had dinner - actually, an appetizer combo platter, large enough to serve as dinner - and drinks. This stretched out for a couple of hours, while each group of guests made their way through the mystery room (some of them took longer than others to figure out the trick). And then one of the waitresses announced that "Annabelle" had entered the room, and would entertain us on the piano. Sure enough, invisible hands began playing the piano, and responding to requests shouted out by the audience.
And then we went into a small theater, where we were entertained by the comedy and magic of Warren Gibson, the owner of the theater. His act was both amazing and hilarious. Four couples had the dubious honor of sitting right up front, where he could use them as "volunteers" for some of his routines. In the course of the show, he nicknamed each of the four men with names from the Andy Griffith show - Gomer, Goober, Opie and... I can't remember the fourth. He also nicknamed another audience member Floyd.
At one point, he borrowed wedding rings from three men in the audience, and proceeded to link them together, and then separate them. That one I was able to figure out - he must have palmed the audience member's rings, and substituted linked rings. From a distance, and in dim lighting, one men's wedding band looks much like another. I noticed that when he was asking for rings to borrow, he specified that they had to be plain bands, with no stones.
Later, he borrowed a $100 bill from "Floyd," put the bill in an envelope, and burned up the envelope! Later, he produced a lemon, and had one of the women in the front row cut open the lemon - the $100 bill, soggy but intact, was inside the lemon! That one still has me wondering.
Mr. Gibson, by the way, is originally from South Carolina. His catch phrase (which you can buy on a T-shirt) is "Aloha, Y'all!"