Tag: hawaii

Birding the Fish

Adelle

After a brief chill on the lanai with a light breakfast our day began by going snorkelling at Makena Landing Park. To be more specific, we went snorkelling with sea scooters. Remember those scenes in James Bond films where he’s swimming under water pulled by a motor? Yeah, that! Our tour guides, Tristan and Seth with My Splash Maui, were fantastic! They were professional, considerate, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Basically a lot of fun. They got us kitted out and instructed us in how to use the equipment. Then they guided us all the way out to Turtle Town, showing and teaching us about the reefs, various sea creatures, the caves (we did not go in), the environment we were visiting, etcetera. We saw multiple varieties of fish, there was a white tipped reef shark in the caves, the guide let us handle two “fatty” starfish — one keiki (baby) and one adult, and we saw spiky sea urchins, an eel, a turtle, a puffer fish, and we heard whale song.

By the time we reached our furthest destination my body decided it was time to feed the fishes. Had I foreseen the likelihood of getting motion sick while snorkelling I would have taken Gravol before hand; alas, I did not. I mean, really, who knew sitting in the swells talking with other snorkellers between stretches of swimming would have the same effect as riding a boat in choppy waters? Clearly that was just me…

At any rate, we still had a great time and I would highly recommend taking this tour with Tristan and his team. The photos I’m attaching here from this experience were taken by Seth, who did a great job! He took loads of photos and videos, including one video that actually captured the whale song.

We returned to the condo to wash off and give my body a chance to regain its equilibrium before heading out to our next adventure. Before getting there, we stopped at Fred’s Mexican Cafe and Cantina for lunch. Why there? Why not? It was a choice we made on a whim from Googlemaps. Turned out the positive reviews on Google were absolutely correct. The place was fantastic, service was great, and the fish tacos and chicken quesadillas were perfect.

Oh, here’s Dan with the Dodge Charger I mentioned we ended up with:

Next stop was a 45-minute drive to Lahaina which turned into an hour because of construction on the highway and our Lady Sat Nav taking us to the wrong place. Googlemaps rescued us (again) and finally got us to the right place just in time for our first tour to start. As it happened Maui Dragon Fruit Farm didn’t have anyone else scheduled to join us for either of the two tours we booked, so we had the sole pleasure of our guides’ company.

The first tour was of the farm itself. Our guide (and I am so sorry, I do not remember the young lady’s name) was very pleasant and knowledgable about the farm, and provided us with a fully interactive tour. So many tropical fruits and plants are grown at this farm besides dragon fruit (which is not actually in season so we didn’t get to taste it). They have two or three different kinds of aloe plants, a curry plant, a watermelon plant, agave plants, wild bamboo, at least three different types of bananas, papaya, mango, pineapple, soursop, lilikoi, coconut… I could go on. We ended that tour with a sampling of in-season fruits: pineapple, soursop, papaya, mango, lilikoi, and two others that I can’t remember the names of.

The second tour was a stargazing tour, which did not end up in any opportunity to actually stargaze because of cloud cover, but the guide, Yi, was really interesting and informative. He showed us the three types of telescopes he uses, and then went through the different types of celestial events and constellations. So much information! Yi was very thorough. Dan might be exploring another hobby, were it not for how cold it is at home when it’s dark enough to see the stars… We exchanged numbers with Yi and promised to watch the forecast to see if we could make it back another day to do some actual stargazing with him. It turns out Yi is not only a fellow Canadian but also a neurosurgeon, which explains why he kept making analogies between how our brains and the universe work. Or something to that effect. I’m tired as I write this late at night, so I might not be saying that quite correctly.

After a long day we drove home and ordered a pizza for a late supper. Sure enough, by the time we drove into the condo parking lot the sky was clear of clouds and the stars were visible everywhere. Typical.

Adelle and Dan

More “Roosters” Than We Expected

Adelle

Not that we were actually expecting to see wild poultry, but the title here is not exactly what Dan first came up with. “Roosters” is in quotation marks because what Dan suggested — while I laughed — I thought better of posting. I’d rather not get put in FaceBook jail, thank you very much. And yes, there are roosters and hens pretty much everywhere we went today.

We woke up at our leisure this morning to a beautifully sunny day at the Days Inn. They had a small continental breakfast spread, nothing fancy, but very good and just enough for our purposes.

Check in at the condo wasn’t until 4pm, so we had the day to kill pretty much. We started off by at least finding our way to the condo to get a lay of the land, so to speak. And then we just drove randomly at first. Somehow we still ended up back in Kahului (near the airport), where we did a little clothes shopping (the shorts I brought turned out to be too big???).

In the course of our wanderings we had passed by this place called Momona a few times. It wasn’t until the third time that we realized it was a bakery and cafe, so since it seemed to be beckoning us anyway we stopped for lunch. It’s a delightful place, bright and airy, and the building must have been a bank in its former life because they had converted the safe into a private dining area and kept the vault door and bars. Dan confirmed the windowless room was walled in concrete. They have a sign on the door telling people not to close it — I imagine they likely don’t have the key or combination to it, lol! The sandwiches were perfect, and even the hot chocolate I had was decent (you all know by now how picky I am about that). Five out of five stars, highly recommended! And yes, I will be posting a review on Google to that effect.

A little grocery shopping, WalMart gold in the clothing department (I know, WalMart?! Really?), and then we were able to access the condo. Our friends Mark and Linda have this place (which I believe they might be trying to sell, if anyone’s interested) at Wailea Ekahi. It’s actually pretty perfect for us. Well laid out, full kitchen, dining room, lanai, living room, huge bedroom, two bathrooms, all appliances. There’s a pool, pavilion, pickleball court, and fitness room (oh! That’s what I forgot to go look for today…). The vacation property managers (Coldwell Banker Island Vacations) have been really good with staying in touch with us by text and email from the get-go, and they have an online portal that’s pretty easy to navigate. Definite thumbs up so far.

After settling in and unpacking, and taking a little rest, we made our way back to the Kahului Shopping Centre to visit the Maui Sunday Market. We thought it was a FARMERS market because I found it by searching for “Maui Sunday Farmers Market”), so our thinking was to get fresh bread, preserves, and fruit there (rather than from Safeway where we were earlier). But it wasn’t a farmers market, it was a vendors market with what must have been a dozen food trucks and live music. It was actually pretty cool, although we didn’t buy anything except supper. It was not easy to choose between the food trucks, but we ended up going with Al’s BBQ Pit. They had an adobe rice with chicken dish and a teriyaki mahi dish that were both pretty awesome. We ate in the dark (for some reason they didn’t have lighting at the picnic tables), with what I’ll call “mood lighting” from my cell phone.

A good first day all around, I would say. Time to wind it down. Tomorrow we hit the water in the morning and stargazing in the evening.

Adelle and Dan

Aloha ahiahi!

Adelle

I realize it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything travel related, and I do have a previous trip to add in that occurred before this one that I just haven’t gotten around to. In case the title phrase isn’t enough of a hint, though, I’m saying good evening to you in Hawaiian because we arrived in Maui at 11:00 p.m. Hawaiian time. Yes, that’s right, Maui. Not our typical type of adventure, but it’s been 38 years since I was here as a teenager and Dan has never been here. I knew there were adventures to have that I wanted Dan to experience. When Dan ended up with an unexpected three weeks off in January I suggested we go to Hawaii. He wasn’t sold on it at first, saying he didn’t really want to go anywhere hot. I reminded him that Hawaii in January is not exactly hot. Certainly better than home! But not hot. It wasn’t until his brother John talked up Maui to him that he agreed to go. I grabbed onto that and refused to let go, so here we are!

11 Jan 2025 – Travel Day

Our Westjet flight was scheduled to leave Yellowknife at 7:00 this morning (it of course didn’t leave until well after that, what with de-icing and such), which is an ugly time given we had to be at the airport two hours early. But we napped on the flight, and other than meeting three separate sets of friends (two with completely different destinations and one with exactly the same destination), the flight was uneventful. Even, dare I say, peaceful?

We had about a three-hour layover in Calgary where I took advantage of the time to get more than half of my steps in and do a round of stretching at the so-called yoga room. I say so-called because for what’s supposed to be a relaxing exercise space it’s full of an awful lot of chairs and assorted seating and not a lot of space to actually exercise. Regardless, I claimed a rectangular area and just went ahead and did what I wanted.

The next leg was an hour and 45 minute flight to Vancouver, followed by a 3.5 hour layover plus another 0.5 hours, and then a 5.5 hour flight to Kahului Airport. This entire period was incredibly uneventful, although the in-flight meal I purchased was absolutely wonderful! Mushroom risotto with steamed peas, greek salad, a warmed bun, and berry cheesecake. And served with real cutlery, too! Wow, right?

Our flight landed at about 10: 30 p.m. or so, our luggage took almost half an hour to reach the carousel, and then we took the lovely tram from the terminal to the rental car building. It must have been about 11:15 or so by the time we got there. We waited in line to get our car. They tried to give us a Chevy Malibu, but when I couldn’t get my knees under the steering wheel I ask for something else. Ended up getting a Dodge Charger. Yes, that’s what I said, a Dodge Charger. And it’s even red! It was nearly Midnight by then and the lot staff had to nudge us to get out of the lot so they could go home.

It was nearly 1:00 a.m. local time by the time we got to our hotel, the Days Inn by Wyndham Maui Oceanfront. It really was a lovely hotel, super clean, and very friendly staff, but as with pretty much everything in Maui it was way more expensive than you would think it should be for a Days Inn. At any rate, we had a really good sleep.