Blogs from Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 3

I still love luaus. I know it's kind of corny and very touristy, but I always want to go to one. A few days ago, Jan and Jackie wanted to check out a couple of the local luaus. After checking out the Hyatt's location, they booked us into the Drums of the Pacific Luau at the Hyatt Kaanapali Resort for Tuesday night. We had a wonderful time. The drinks and food were very good. The entertainment was outstanding. I couldn't talk Jan and Jackie into going up for the hula lesson, though. They had about five hunky Hawaiian kanes and six lovely wahines. They did traditional dances from Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa and Raratonga, telling stories of how those people came to Hawaii. It was a great show. ... read more

We arrived at our resort, the Aston Kaanapoli Shores around 9:30 Hawaiian Time, 1:30 AM Central. It sure is a long day of travel from Chicago to paradise, but it is worth it. I swear that years ago, United flew directly from Chicago to Maui. Maybe I'm nuts, but no airline does it anymore, so it's 9 hours to Honolulu, an hour wait and a half hour flight to Kahului, Maui, followed by a 45 drive to Lahaina/Kaanapoli Beach. We're in a suite right on the ocean and there's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing. As usual, the forecast is 79-82 and sunny every day for the next five days. Can that get boring?? After hanging around the pool in the morning, we headed into the town of Lahaina for lunch. ... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677Today we visit Maui. The second-largest of the islands, Maui boasts 32 miles of beaches that are ideal for swimming, snorkeling, sea kayaking and sunning. Most ships call on Kahului, but ours docks at Lahaina, which offers splendid views of the island of Lanai. In the 1800s, Lahaina was fought over by whalers and missionaries, who were constantly battling over the lax morals of the whaling outposts and raucous taverns that were scattered along the port. Front Street was home to these outposts.Today, Front Street remains the main thoroughfare for Lahaina, although looking quite differently than back in its whaling days. Instead of raucous taverns and whaling outposts, the streets are lined with great restaurants, shopping, art galleries and plenty of sight seeing and people watching.We have no plans for today's port. Instead, we ... read more

We heard the island of Maui is beautiful but we weren’t on it long enough to determine that. As soon as we were tendered to the pier, we boarded a catamaran and sailed away to a snorkeling spot. Was lucky enough to spot three smaller turtles and get photos. As we were leaving that area, we noticed a very large turtle swimming by. We had lunch on the catamaran and spent leisurely time aboard. Upon our return to Lahaina, we walked into town and bought some T-shirts and then met some friends at the local bar. Took the last tender back to the boat at 4:30. Needless to say, we didn’t have much time to explore Maui. Maybe the next time…... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677Times are not as they used to be. We are a crew of middle-aged traveller/tourists who like to believe we are as we were in our twenties. The Internet described our proposed hike as needing 'legs of steel' but, alas, our knees were made of pretzels or something equally unstable. We are a colony of hurtin' knees and feet. We set out on the Lahaina Pali Trail following the gradual incline along a desert-like landscape. The hot sun bore down on us as we walked along with a spring in our step until....we looked above with trepidation at the steepness ahead. In no time our pleasant gradient turned into a 400 meter vertical climb. Given that my theme for 2015 is 'graceful pacing', instead of trying to keep up with the group, I listened ... read more