The Daily Drivel

Suffering from vacation photo  overdose by now? Well the pain is not over yet folks. Many of you asked me to post what I do during the day, so ya'll getting a good dose of it now! 

Sunday morning "church". ................

How much more connected could you be to your religion than to contemplate the natural vast world around you. The vastness and mystery of the ocean, the gentleness vs power of the winds, the life giving warmth and light of the sun, the beauty of the vista. By the way, the island in the distance is Lana'i as seen from Lahaina, Maui. 

The Hawaiian shallow water is a beautiful turquoise color. Such a difference to what I was use to on the Eastcoast. The island in the distance to the left is Molokai'. 

We headed for the end of the slack key festival being held up in the big hotel resort area. Free to the public. Local craft vendors, the poster said. The advertising looked inviting. What they forgot to mention was that the parking started at $10. Oooo. I'm too cheap to spend $10+ just to browse a few vendor tents and listen to the no-name leftover slack key players. I'm still smarting from those $100 per person dinners from last night. 

So we go to explore a few new back roads, then shoot down the coast to the aquarium. We passed some actvely occurring wind devastation along the coast on the way. Beach goers hanging onto possessions, retrieving broken canopies and tents from beaches and in the ocean. One wham banging wind kicked up, covering the ocean in white caps. 

Palm trees whipping! 

Hubby being wind whipped too. He kept the sign post between him and the cliff....just in case a wind gust tried to knock him over. 

Impressive wind lasted for only a few hours, but the streets were littered with leaves and small branches. 

The Daily Drivel

Brace yourself.....warning.....more travel photos ahead! 

Back at the inn, a light lunch, and some time to waste before meeting our friends. I eyed up the pool, wishing I had remembered to bring a bathing suit. Hubby opted for a different past time......

Ah-ha, my turn to sneak a photo and post it on the Internet. Payback time! 

Time to head out for our rendezvous. As pre-arranged we wait along the sea wall in Lahaina. The scenery is great.  As you can see by the palm trees, a brisk wind is keeping the hot sun at bay. I do believe we have picked up a bit of a light sunburn already. 

Our friends successfully found us thumbing a ride, picked us up, then headed for Mama's Fish House. Even though we've come to Maui numerous times, we've never made it to this restaurant before. So this is going to be a treat......and a little bit of a surprise. First of all, the coast scenery is great. So many spots along Maui's coastline are simply lovely.

Getting into Mama's was a bit of a challenge.......that apparently didn't have to be since we found out later that there was a back entrance far more disability friendly. But here we are slowly, ever so carefully backing down a fairly steep hill with hubby acting as back up brake control while hamming it up for the camera. (Jerry needed to use the wheelchair too for his own stability, otherwise  hubby would have been doing the steering.) While most employees were extremely helpful, Mama's needs to inform their entrance staff to offer the safer access for people with obvious mobility problems. But happily Shirley and Jerry made it down safely under control without the wheelchair running over Jerry and hubby.

Now how's this for a cool walkway! Paving blocks shaped like geckos. I like it! My mind started spinning its gears and thinking about how to make a mold. Going to have to ask my artist friend about it when I get back home. 

Tropical flowers adorned the place. This is just one of many bouquets around the place. Color and more vibrant color.

I have to admit that Mama's thus far has the best food we've had on Maui. But ticket shock comes along as a side dish. If you plan on dining here, anticipate $100 per person for the experience. And skip the after dinner coffee. The coffee in Ka'u is far, far, far better. Guess I'm just spoiled, drinking Ka'u coffee all the time. The Maui coffee was disappointing. 

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More vacation pictures ....... Egads! 

..........Breakfast

..........Breakfast Eaten.             :)

Sweet, creamy, gooey, incredible French toast. Guaranteed to cause a heart attack if eaten daily. Good thing we don't come to Maui too often. 

Hit the road to do the tourist thing today. Of course.....a stop at Starbucks for a latte and check my email. Hubby sneaked a picture of me, the rascal. 

A delightful discovery -- there's a ho'olaule'a and plant market over at Haiku today. We're in luck. Perhaps I can find some new taro varieties to take home. 

On the way we pass the sugar cane fields. Yes, sugar cane still is farmed in Hawaii. I think this is the last commercial farm in the entire state. Today they are burning off a field as part of the harvesting process. The canes will then be cut, trucked to the mill about a mile away, and processed into various grades of sugar and molasses. Most of the sugar gets shipped to California for further processing. You ever buy C&H sugar at the supermarket? Ever wonder what the C and the H stood for? ....... California and Hawaii !!! How about that. 

We made it to the festival and were surprised to find that it's quite a popular event. Lots of displays, vendors, and music.  

Kids were flocking to the pony pen, brushing and petting the miniature horses. Kids and ponies go together, especially in Hawaii. 

Someone had set up some demo compost bins made from wood pallets. Nice demo, but these boxes need better covering in order to retain moisture. The organic material in them is far too dry to compost down. 

Out of the dozens of vendors and plant sellers I only found one person selling taro. Would you believe that? So I bought two of the bun long variety. 

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More travel pictures....ha! 

Lahaina.....it's nice to be back. Wouldn't want to live here, but it's nice to visit. First a quick trip to Barnes & Noble, then off to drop our stuff at the hotel. We always stay at the Plantation Inn. First time around it was just a case of picking a place that got a decent review in Maui Revealed, but once we found it, the Plantation Inn has been "home" ever since. Good location, pleasant, quiet at night (get a room on the back street), with a nice private pool and very good breakfast. 

Car and bags stashed at the inn, we're off to town. By dumb luck we came on a weekend when there was a kite festival at the Chinese museum. Dozens a cool modern kites and plenty of old Chinese kites. Plus historical films showing Hawaii of 1898. I'm a bit of a nut about history. You'd never guess that I almost flunked history in school. First subject I ever got a "D" in......all A's and one D. Never could memorize dates and names. But I really love the stories. 

This is the Chinese museum cook house complete with old kitchen, gigantic woks and all. 

Modern kite.

Gotta smile at the panda kite.

Sort of like a tropic bird. 

Old Chinese kites were in the cookhouse and museum house.

Now I wouldn't call what this man was doing was dancing, but it looked like a cross between a stylized dance and Tai-chi. The first round was using a hand fan as a focal prop. The second time around he used a Chinese broad sword. Almost looked like he was worshipping or communicating with the sword. Quite an art form. 

Time was short so we couldn't hang around for the Chinese musical instruments. We're headed for the best magic show in Hawaii! Warren and Annabelle's. 

A couple of drinks ..... virgin piña colada please.....and a dinner with the friends we came over to meet here. Boy, it was good to see Jerry and Shirley again. Catching up on the news. Sharing stories. Reconnecting. At our age, it's good, real good. So good that it borders on being a frantic need. Gosh, am I that old? Humph, I must be, darn. Well, get over it and move on, I say. 

I guess this was the fourth, maybe fifth time we've seen Warren perform. I enjoy his show more than ever. He combines magic, illusion, comedy, and toying with his audience all in one. And boy is he good at it! 2 hours of laughter and amazement. 

Warren has several other magicians that perform at this venue, but it's Warren that we come to see. He's great. 

If you ever come to Maui, I'd highly recommend seeing the Warren & Annabelle show with Warren performing. If you plan to do it, just be sure to book your reservation before you leave home. The show is typically booked full a week or two in advance. 

The Daily Drivel

Ok you daily drivelers, brace yourself for a feast. It's overdose time! 

After much rushing about with last minute tweaking, we're finally off to Maui. I'm a difficult one to pop off my homestead, but once I'm out, I'm ready for a good trip. Off to the airport, of course with a side trip to Starbucks for lattes. I don't mean this as blatant advertising, but Starbucks has a good latte. Every trip to town includes at least one Starbucks stop. 

We opted to take the little Mokulele computer over to Kapalui airport. These little planes are so much more enjoyable to fly than the standard airlines. Only have to check in 30 minutes in advance, no lines,  no TSA, no X-ray strip search, less than a dozen passengers, and they fly low enough that you can get some nice photos. I highly recommend them. 

Our little plane that we flew on.

Ready for take off!

Up, up, and away!

Goodbye Big Island. See ya again in a few days. 

In the matter of minutes Maui looms into view, here's Haleakala. 

As we got closer it was neat to see that the cloud layer completely encircled the peak of Haleakala. 

I was impressed to see the dry side is green. A green desert today! They must be getting a lot of the winter storms this year. Good for them! 

This string of windmills runs eight up the side of the mountain. Each windmill is somewhere around 300 feet tall. 

Up the coast, heading for Lahaina. I've never seen these hills green before. 

Our destination. Lahaina. 

Past the old, no longer in use, pineapple fields. 

New use for the old farms .... Coffee. 

We landed in one tiny airport. Cool. Headed right for the nearest bookstore, Barnes & Nobles, to get our long awaited magazine fix. Boy, I do indeed miss Borders. 

The Daily Drivel

End of the day. I slowly sit down on the sofa, sinking sweetly into the cushions. Aahh. Boy, I'm bushed. It's been one of those whirlwind days. Getting ready for a trip, taking care of usual chores, and dealing with a few unexpected events. Rush, rush. I didn't have much time to stop for a breather. Ever have a day like that? Gee, I thought I left those days behind. 

So here I sit, almost too spent to think. I'm pretty much ready for the trip. Just need to throw some clothes into a bag. But if I wake up early, I'd like to take water down to the seed farm first thing. Not a necessity, but it would make me feel better about leaving knowing that everything is taken care of. 

The morning went along fairly well. Got most the usual farm chores done, nice and smooth. Got a phone call from a community group that I volunteer for about picking up lunches for some school kids and delivering them. Ok. At 10:30 I dropped everything, cleaned up, headed for town. I was heading to pick up almost two dozen lunches at the restaurant in town with plans to deliver them to a school group down at the county park at Honu'apo. Almost got there when I got a phone call saying that my services weren't needed, someone else was picking up the lunches. Turn around. Head back home. Whew. With spirits rising and a smile on my face, I thought that this was cool. Now I'd be ahead of schedule. But the gods yanked the carpet out from under my feet. Hadn't gone more than three miles when the phone rang again. A friend's dog had attempted to escape the bedroom and broke a window. There was blood everywhere, apparently from an actively bleeding cut. The closest open vet was 1 1/2 hours away. Could I come take a look and help? 

Now how could I say no? A quick stop at home to pick up supplies and off to the rescue. Patch up dog, then back home again. My own lunch? Forget it for today. I'm now behind schedule. 

The rest of the day was a blur. Load feeders. Set up extra water buckets. Put extra litter in the chicken pen. The house sitter showed up and needed the grand tour and review of instructions. Finished everything up just in time for hubby to arrive home. And it's time to call it a day. Geez, I do believe I've earned a few days off! 

Livingroom Update

Ta-da! The door from the livingroom to the hallway is now in. This new door lets lots of light in plus gives the visual effect of openness. The cats and dogs hate it! No pet door like they are use to. Oh well. Such is life. 

This door is not a pre-hung door, so it's way beyond my capabilities. David to the rescue. That man is a wizard with doors. He can custom make any door and hang it so that it's perfect. I admire that talent. It's something I'll never acquire in my lifetime.  

If you noticed, there are now corner shelves beside the door. Before leaving to go care for my mother today I mentioned to David that I thought corner shelves would be a nice effect, since otherwise that corner would be wasted space. I returned to find completed shelves ready for use. What a nifty surprise.