A Day of Shopping in Lahaina

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Geo: 20.8775, -156.677

Today 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 will have a relaxing day with no deadlines. Just wandering around the streets while Mom checks out the shops. My only mission today is to find a WiFi location where I can download my pictures to the blog and then send them out. The ship's Internet service has been out for most of our trip and, while restored just two days ago, is very slow. I had opportunity in Hilo to catch up up a little so today it is my mission to get these blogs out.

The first tenders leave the ship around 7am but we savor our breakfast and wander down for our tender tickets about 9:30. Our thinking was that anyone wanting to go ashore would have already done so. We were wrong. The line was long and we didn't leave the ship until 10:30am. Once in town, we picked up a cork puller to open our wine with and some bandaids for Mom. We find "The Birdman" and Mom gets her picture taken holding a bunch of colorful parrots. He mails the picture so we won't have it for the blog until we return home. I find the Internet cafe, pay $3 for half hour of service and get quite a few days sent out. I'll load pictures for the next batch and send those out from Honolulu. After that, I'll be stuck with the ship's service. I tried a video but it takes too long to load. Mom buys a sandwich and a smoothie too. It's very good. We take some photos of the Banyan Tree in the center of town. It's huge! Here's some info on it....

In the heart of Lahaina – on 2/3 of an acre – stands the Banyan tree, though at first glance, many think it's a small forest. It is, in fact, one tree that stands 50 feet tall, is nearly a quarter of a mile around and has over than 10 trunks that anchor it into the ground.That's big news for a tree that was only 8 feet tall when it was brought from India and first planted by the courthouse in 1873 by the sheriff of Old Lahaina Town, William Owen Smith. Its original purpose was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Lahaina's first Christian Mission. Today it provides the shade for the celebration of life in Lahaina. Beneath it you'll find craft shows, music events, meetings and those who are just in search of a nice place to sit and rest.The very nature of the Banyan tree is what makes it so magnificent. The tree grows by the roots that hang from its branches. These roots are like soil-seeking missiles, and when enough of them reach the soil, they thicken and provide another trunk to support the tree's mass. Essentially, it grows upwards and outwards. Of course, the tree is now such a beloved part of the community that it receives a bit of man-made help with posts to keep the old tree standing.

We head back to the ship at 3pm, 2 1/2 hours early and head straight for the pool with our free glasses of wine. Using our new opener, Mom tries her red Moscato. In the pool, we meet some CC members from Belgium and have a nice visit in the pool. It's been warm today, 87F. Later, we hang out at the Sailaway Party on the aft deck, finishing our wine. skipping the dining room today, we settle for the buffet followed by comedian Gabe Abelson in the theater. He's pretty good. I need to catch up on the blog so I'm writing this tonight.

Now I need to load pictures from 3 different camera sources to the IPad and then to the Travelpod site for the last five days so I can post them when we arrive in Honolulu Sunday. I'm sure I can find a WiFi spot somewhere.

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Photos

Hand Carved Tikis from China. All Exactly the Same
No laser machine here. This guy is good!

Comments

[Boomer]

I like palm tree carvings.

[boomer&min]

Pancake would love this!

[boom&min]

Very nice pic of you two!