Maui Vacation 2011

On Thursday we had decided not to camp out in Hana since we couldn’t swim anywhere due to weather so we found ourselves Friday with no particular plan.  We decided to head back ‘Up Country’ to the historic Ulupalakua Ranch which is now owned and operated as a Cattle/Elk Farm as well as a Maui’s only Vineyard.  The vineyard is fun.  They have a museum explaining the happenings on the ranch over time, a fun tasting room where you can also get spice rubs, lotions, etc and they do daily tours of the facilities at no charge.

Here you can see a ceremonial cannon that was used by General James Makee (original owner / builder of the ranch) to fire salutes to ships docked in La Perouse Bay.  He also fired a 21 gun salute to King Kalakaua during one of the King’s visits to the property.

The wines we tasted were all very good.  We elected to buy a bottle of their Pineapple wine as well as the limited run Plantation Red.  Susanne tried to get one more taste on our way out of the tasting room…

Here you can see the vineyards fertility goddess (left) which was placed there by Chinese workers long before the ranch was a vineyard.  They keep here dressed in fresh Lais in hopes of good harvests.  You can also see a demonstration rack (right) of how the vineyard used to settle yeast into the neck of the bottles after carbonating.  They now use a machine which cuts the time by 75%.

This vineyard has less than 30 acres of grapes and they produce about 1/4 per acre by comparison to some of the Californian vineyards.  So everything they do is done with great care and the results speak for themselves in the wines.  Here is where they vat all the wines.

After our wine tour we headed in to Whalers Village for dinner and an amazing sunset.  See my previous post ‘Friday Night Sunset‘ for details and a lovely photo of the sunset!

On Thursday we took The Road to Hana for some sight seeing and beautiful beaches.  Along the way there are many beautiful sights to see and places to pull off the road and see them.

We stopped at Waianapanapa State Park to check out the lava flow formations, lava tubes and black sand beaches.  This is a really cool spot.  It can be treacherous at times so take care if you decided to go exploring here.

We also stopped in at Koki Beach Park which is a really nice beach with beautiful sandstone faces and a great view of Alau Island.  Asau Island is said to be where the Demigod Maui stood in the ocean and caled up the Hawaiian Islands.

Our next stop was Kipahulu (Part of Haliakala National Park) This is where the Seven Sacred Pools (and waterfalls) are.  Unfortunately, they had closed down the pools due to all the rain the area had recently gotten.  The scenery here, however, is dramatic and beautiful.

During our stay the ocean decided to awaken, producing the largest waves since 2005.  It was neat seeing the water crash against the rocks.

The drive around the lower (south) side of the island from Hana isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be; you just need to take it slow.  If you do choose to go back this way you are rewarded with some amazing views.

So we’ve got a lot of photos and updates coming but we’ve been slacking on the blog in favor of sleep and too darn much fun.  In the meantime here is a photo from yesterday’s beautiful Sunset taken from just outside the Hula Grill in Whalers Village.  Cool restaurant too, by the way.  They have a barefoot bar that has a sand floor and little lizards running around.  It’s Orange!

Yesterday wasn’t filled with all kinds of adventures but that was a good thing for us.  We went and sampled breakfast at The Northshore Cafe which was tasty, very affordable and right here in our own back yard (Haiku).  After noshing some Ono Grinds we came back to the house to finish laundry and promptly fell asleep for a nice long nap.

When we woke up we got our gear ready and headed into Paia to pickup some food to take with us to visit our friends Darren and Merideth.  We drove on out to Darren’s place in Makawao which is not only a nice drive from Paia but it’s also a cute little town.  He has a cool little house there and we sat listening to music and playing cards (a variation on the game 13) most the night before coming home.

Today we’re headed out on the road to Hana and beyond to see the Seven Sacred Pools and the beautiful beaches.  We’re going to camp out overnight so we’ll be back Friday evening sometime.

Mahalo!

Tonight we tossed and turned about what to do, go out, dine in, skip it all and go to bed.  We finally decided to cook a meal at home and then head to the movies later in the night.

Tonight’s Menu:

• Wagu Top Serloin Steak w/ Maui Steak Seasoning
• Butter Braised Green Beans (Finished with leftover steak drippings)
• Sweet Corn on the Cobb w/ Coarse Black Pepper
• Kraken Rum & Coke

Yeah, it goes without saying, it was Da Bomb.

Well we woke up this morning early so we could head out to “some amazing snorkeling” at La Perouse Bay which is at the very end of Makena road on an old lava flow (1790).  As we were getting ready we were greeted by a visitor…

After we were done being grossed out about that we got our gear together and hit the road.  It’s a nice drive, a bit sketchy in places but totally do-able.  When we arrived in the “parking area” We walked onto the lava flow towards a nice little bay area, ignoring the beach closed signs (we were told by a local it was fine) and entered the water.    While I can absolutely see the potential for this spot to be great snorkeling it had recently rained and thus the water was very cloudy and had limited visibility.  Too bad as I hear there are often dolphins and turtles in the morning times.  At any rate, we floated around for a little while, seeing what we could and then got out of the water.

The sand in this area (what little of it there is) is quite nice.  It’s a chunkier sand with all kinds of interesting bits in it.

Just had breakfast at LuLu’s.  We opted for the Loco Moco which is kind of an island version of country fried streak… Fried rice topped with a beef patty, then eggs and topped with brown gravy.  It was heavy and more than we could finish but it sure was tasty!

Saturday morning we got up and decided to head in to Kihei.  The drive to Kihei is kind of weird for  any type of tourist attractions like shopping and eating as most of the places along the road are little strip malls.  We weren’t seeing much for food along the way so Susanne busted out some of the awesome banana bread we got the day before.

As we continued south, however, we did find a really cool area which I believe is actually Kihei proper.  There are three big public beaches in a row surrounded by all kinds of island vendors, bars and restaurants.  We parked and got out to explore.  First we found awesome new underwear at The Love Shack

Afterwards we headed right next door to a place called The South Shore Tiki Lounge which served up tasty concoctions at reasonable prices. We also tried their happy hour special; a bean and bacon tostada, which was quite good.

We tooled around the little shops and things that were there, checked out a tattoo shop and had a stroll down S Kihei Rd before returning to where we parked.  The tostada hadn’t filled us up so we decided to share some lunch from Fat Daddy’s BBQ which is apparently “Maui’s Only True BBQ.”  I can’t tell you if their claims are true but I can tell you the food was good.  Delicious pulled pork, creamy slaw and rich mac-n-cheese.

We also spotted an interesting little vehicle in the parking lot.  I might just have to check this out because it looks too fun to be true.

We had made plans to meet our friend Darren Elske to meet some of his crew, watch the Seahawks game and chat about activities but by the time we had finished lunch we were still a ways out from our arranged meeting time so we continued heading South to checkout The Shops at Waileah.  This was a strange experience.  The shops are actually set in among what seemed like several golf courses and fancy housing developments.  Not really our style of shopping but we went in anyhow.  We took a stroll through the various courtyards and stopped in at places such as Tiffany & Co.  and Rolex, you know, just to see what the rich folks were up to…

By this time it was time to go meetup with Darren & Co.  We had arranged to meet at Oceans Bar but when we got there Darren was nowhere to be found.  We texted him and it turns out that there was a UFC fight about to go start and Oceans was charging a cover so they chanced venues to Life’s A Beach.  We arrived and got to catch up with Darren and meet his friends Dianne, Becky and ???.  It seemed the girls were quickly bored with Life’s A Beach so we changed venues once again to LuLu’s just down the street.  This place was great.  They had $3 happy hour Mai-Tai and Margarita, food, the football game and a killer atmosphere.  The bar is a nice open-air setting, shady and lots of ceiling fans.  It’s also right across the street from a crazy ever-breaking wave pool thing which was fun to watch.  The kids that play there are masters of surfing in-place.  I found out later this is called a wave machine (http://youtu.be/sGDg0yDkMCI).

We eventually got tired of watching the Seahawks loose so we made plans for dinner.  Susanne and I wanted to get in a swim so we left Darren and the crew to go have a dip and meet up with them later on for dinner.  I’m pretty sure the beach we swam at was Kamaole Beach Park II.  It’s a cool little beach, wasn’t too crowded.  There is also bathroom/changing room and outdoor shower here which is great.  We bobbed around for an hour or so then got ourselves ready for dinner.  The outdoor shower proved very handy for getting sand off our feet.  We put on new outfits we had bought earlier in the morning and headed back towards dinner.

Dinner was at a little spot called the 808 Bistro.  This place is now officially on our Maui recommended list.  The food was amazing and the restaurant itself is quaint and offers a great open-air dining experience.  Susanne had a lovely take on Pork and Beans while I opted for the Maui Cordon Bleu.  Both were delicious and it was nice to share the meal in the company of friends new and old.  This is also where we learned about one of Maui’s best rules ever.  Basically, if a food establishment does not have a liquor license, you can BYOB!  We had several lovely bottles of wine with dinner, all of which we got at the grocery store for a fraction of the price and there is no corkage fee!!!

All in all it was another lovely day on Maui where we set out with no particular plans but ended up having an action-packed day full of fun and friends.  We’re doin’ it right.

…They apparently make your snorkel mask leak.  So, this morning I made my upper lip remove his protective warm armor.

You can also spy the new earrings I got in Paia, HI.  They dangle a bit more than I’m used to but I really like ’em.

… A phrase I’ve heard many times from my dear friend Holly Hinman.   Yet somehow when we left on our trip to stay at Kitty’s place I thought to myself “of course she has a coffee maker” and of course, I was wrong.  I suffered through the first day but this morning I was bound and determined so I hacked together a coffee maker.

Yes, you are seeing that correctly.
Parts List:

• (1) Colander
• (1) Bleached Commercial Paper Towel
• (1) 1-Quart Pyrex Measuring Cup

I laid the paper towel (filter) into the colander and placed the colander on top of the measuring cup.  Then, just pour water into the top and you get drip coffee out the other side.

Although my initial expectations were quite low, this method produced a remarkably good Cup-O-Joe!  I used some Ethiopian coffee we bought on our trip to Mana Foods.  It’s organic and fair-trade and a delicious dark roast that isn’t too bitter.  Very yummy but also very HOT.

So at the advice of practically everyone we talked to we stopped in at Mana Foods in Paia, HI to get some groceries. Now our little home is stocked with all kinds of yummy organic foods.

http://www.manafoodsmaui.com/

Not sure what’s next for us tonight, probably just a cool rinse off and lounging around.

Here is our landing in Maui.  Coincidentally, also my first ever YouTube upload.

So we got on the plane this morning

Took off and waved goodbye to Seattle

5.5 hours later we were arriving in Maui.  At first glance it doesn’t look that much different from home, except all those volcanic mountains…

Getting off the plane, we had to use the rest rooms.  Even the signage wears Hawaiian shirts!

Yep, we opted for the Lei Greeting.

After telling the cab driver he went too far and him assuring us he didn’t then finally conceding and turning around, we arrived at our home for the trip!  It’s PERFECT.

And there are many interesting looking spiders… Susanne is THRILLED about that.

We made it.  Our plane just hit the ground and we are moving toward the terminal.  Aloha Maui!