Blogs from Maui, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 5

We finally had a day to sleep in and to wake up when our bodies told us that it was time to rise and shine. Outside our balcony view of the Pacific waters between Maui and Molokai the Pacific is a scant two hundred feet deep, a depth that is favorable to the humpback whale during their mating season. The waters are warm and here they have no predators. The orcas favor deeper waters, so when it is time for them to migrate back to Alaskan waters for feeding; then, they will face perils. That is one of the reasons the “escorts” who accompany a mother and calf are important. We were told that the escort is seldom the father. This morning we both were able to spot humpbacks breaching in the distance, making wide unmistakable ... read more

When we competed our reservation for Tuesday Evening, for dinner and a show, we don’t recall the concierge having offered any other Haleakala tours other than the bus ride up and biking down the mountain. Not quite our cup of tea. We told him that our plans including driving up Haleakala, although we might not have said that we planned to do it to see the sunrise. A new policy is now in effect for this National Park: Anybody wishing to park in the parking lot between 3AM and 7AM MUST have a reservation! Lucky us, this policy went into effect just last month. The concierge might have been distracted by my hat: Yes, Erin, the Red Hat! He kept glancing at it and I guess I didn’t quite look like someone on the Summit Team ... read more

Our plan for a trouble-free shuttle to the airport paid off. We boarded three minutes early and we were on our way to the airport with one other lady bound for Canada. So many things could have gone wrong with Economy Rentals. After getting our boarding pass and luggage tags from a machine that had us weigh our own bags, we put the tags on the luggage, and then simply gave them to a guy who put them on a conveyer. There was a lady was making sure that only those with the TSA-preCheck went into that line. We got to our gate. I went and got a croissant egg sandwich at a Burger King airport vendor; and, then waited in an interminable line to get Sharon a chocolate chip muffin. When I got close enough ... read more

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 went whale watching today on the Hawaiian Ocean Project boat and were very lucky. We had two whales playing going back and forth under the boat. Jan and I have done several of these whale watching cruises and I guess we've always been lucky because we've always had whales close to the boats. Today was no exception. I'll let the pictures and video tell the story. ... read more