a blog with relatively few words, particularly for a girl who speaks many...

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

City Living

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Day 10: Haleakala

Holding for post!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Day 9: Snorkeling, Whales, Sea Turtles…Oh My!

The sun was up and shining first thing, and we were delighted! The 5-hour snorkeling/whale watching ‘tour’ was everything we’d hoped for and more. First, I carefully chose the tour that best mapped to our personalities – a smaller catamaran that holds just 38 guests, whereas most of the tours hold 100. It also visited Turtle Point instead of Molokai Island, so instead of 10 boats with 100 people (re:1000 snorkeling neighbors), we had our boat, which today only had about 25 people aboard. The boat departed at 8 a.m.

We headed out and saw humpback whales within minutes – about 5-6 of them in this particular group. Throughout the day, there were more and more – some breaching 100% (that’s whale-speak for Shamu-like-up-outta-da-water jumping!). We saw a calf who was just a couple weeks old and still very translucent gray hopping in and out of the water. They are majestic creatures and it was amazing to be so close!

Once we reached Turtle Point, we were in the water within 10 minutes and as soon as our masks hit the water, the show was spectacular! The coral alone was worth the trip, but add in the copious species of fish, and of course, the green sea turtles (who were HUGE!) and we were feeling true bang for our buck. After about an hour, we went in and had a nice buffet lunch, and then jumped back in for one more whirl before heading back. More and more whales on the way home…

The crew was so nice, the food was good, the other passengers (the biggest variable in these things, imho), were really cool people. We had fun, and mostly kept to ourselves because there was plenty of room to do so.

After we hit the pool and enjoyed the sunshine since we seem to never know what tomorrow will bring!

Tomorrow we are debating the ridiculously early rise of 3 a.m. to head out to see the sunrise over Haleakala, a must-see as told by oh, almost everyone I know whose done it. We may save it for next time…or not. Tomorrow night is our last big fancy dinner out to celebrate Jill’s approaching birthday at Mama’s Fish House, lauded as the best seafood restaurant on the island, and by some accounts, in all of Hawaii. Should be a lovely last day!

We ended today with another sushi dinner with Todd & Tanya, great, amazing fish here! YUM!











Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Day 8: The Fairmont!

Today was pretty basic, chill day for us. We switched hotels early and were set up poolside at the Fairmont by 11 a.m. It was overcast but kinda nice to not squint the whole time.

The hotel is lovely and has many pools and amenities. Our suite is very nice, ocean view and quite spacious. Due to my 2-month+ residence at the Fairmont Acapulco for yoga training, we are fancy-pants Platinum club members so we got a killer welcome basket to boot! ☺

We both had noted many, many children tossing footballs around with one another while by the pool. More than is normal. There were no Frisbees, or other balls – just footballs. And then there were many, many large, barrel-chested men. And lots of sportswear, Nike, etc. Turns out, there is a NFLPA convention here – NFL Players Association – and aside from a few biggies I wouldn’t know who was who, but if you happen to be an NFL fan, this would’ve been a good week to be at this hotel.

Otherwise, this was a relaxation day with mediocre weather. We pooled, napped, ate, napped, ate, walked around the property, etc. and then hit the hay early for our 6 a.m. alarm for snorkeling and whale watching tomorrow morning!





Monday, March 16, 2009

Day 7: Wow – The West Maui Loop

This was my most favorite day here so far. In fact, it was probably one of my most favorite days I’ve ever spent with Jill. We drove the 60-mile loop around West Maui, enjoying some amazing sites, hikes and food along the way.

Though we took off around 8:30 a.m. and really got going by around 9 a.m. after stopping to see some birds at the wildlife refuge along the roadside, and grabbing gas. Because we’d just visited Lahaina the night before, we were able to drive past it and onto the vast Ka’anapali beach area along the far west side of this section of the island. The beaches here are similar to the Wailea beaches, gigantic, golden sand and sunshine!

We determined quickly that this area would not be our first choice for lodging. Unlike our ‘hood, it really seemed to just be condo after condo – they all kinda looked the same. If I had kids, this would be perfect – as most are right on the water and it’d be easy to transport you/your stuff without dealing with loading/unloading a car.

We walked a beach path down to a snorkel area and watched a zillion folks in the water around Black Rock, a rock that separates the two major beaches in this area. On our way back to the car, we wandered through The Whaler Village shopping mall where there was a Coach, Louis Vuitton and a bunch of little shops. We just picked up a few trinkets at the ABC and then moved on.

We hit a fabulous little farmer’s market/grocery and got food for a picnic lunch (turns out, my sister and her husband visited this shop daily on their trip here a year ago for his 40th bday!). The store had a ton of homemade goodies and Jill got pineapple bread that was to die for! We also got a few spreads and dips and fruit for lunch. We then blew past a ton of beaches, since we’ve seen plenty of sandy beaches, and got to the rougher part of the coastline.

Our first amazing stop (there were 3) was a lava formation called Dragon’s Teeth. We walked a little bit along the edge of a golf course and came to this lava-made rocky area right on the ocean. The waves were incredible, the water was so blue…and we saw a bunch of whales. We couldn’t believe how amazing this place was just a hidden little stroll from a parking area.

Next we stopped roadside at an overlook hanging over the last sandy beach on this side of the island. We had a gorgeous view, situated our beach towel and ate our goodies before driving on the mile or so, parking and hiking down to the beach. We had it completely to ourselves and hung out a little bit there. The beach had a lot of rocks, and within the water were HUGE boulders that we had seen from above but they looked so different from the same level.

Our second killer stop was the Nakalele Blowhole. The hike down among a lot of lava rocks, many of which were really dry and sharp, was a good workout. The return trip was too! The blowhole itself was a little lazy and though we saw it perform, it wasn’t anything really exciting. But, the view was amazing! And again, the waves crashing along the shore made the trip worth it, along with the various species of little fish and crabs moving about.

The most stunning of all our stops were the Olivine Pools a couple miles down the road. This was by far the most treacherous hike in, not far but steep, again among sharp, dry lava rocks. When we got to the bottom, we were again alone – this time amongst pools formed by ocean waves crashing up and over the rocks behind them.

Some of the pools were shallow and quite warm, but the best one was cool, blue and deep enough you could cannonball into it! We didn’t though, because you could also see the many species of tropical fish swimming about. They didn’t seem to mind us being there...they’d just swim around you like you weren’t even there. It was like snorkeling without ever going under water! Departure was difficult as the wall of lava rocks looked all the same, but after a few roadblocks, we found enough of a path to get us out.

The rest of the drive was a lovely, winding road through green lush hills. It reminded us a lot of the drive to Hana, but was way more accessible. We both agreed that Hana was cool, and we’re glad we did it – but don’t really feel like we need to do it again. The West Maui loop, though, we figure on doing every time we come here. Great return on investment! We were gone about 8 hours, and were probably only in the car for 2 hours, tops – we got the most sun of any day here because we were in it for 5 hours! We both tend to get a little bored after a couple hours of lying around by the pool or at the beach – we had a blast being active, seeing some of beautiful Maui, and getting sun!

The day wrapped up with sushi with Todd & Tanya, and way, way too much to drink for me. Oy! We won’t go into that, though.

Tomorrow we move to the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea, about 5 miles down the street. Should be fun to be in a fancy hotel for a few nights before heading home!
















Sunday, March 15, 2009

Day 6: Rain, then no rain...

We woke up this morning to the clunk of our outdoor swin-suit drying ‘coat rack’ tipping over on our lanai at 6:30 a.m. It was the craziest rain we’d seen yet. It looked a bit like those hurricane shots on the Weather Channel.

To compensate for my sadness about the rain, I got up and made us a kick-ass breakfast, figuring if we were stuck inside for a while we might as well enjoy it. So, I made breakfast potatoes out of Big Island yams and Maui onions, fried an egg, and then cut up pineapple to round out the local-food meal. We also finished off our Kona coffee. Yum!

At this point, we were both pretty disappointed in the weather – not that it can be controlled, of course, but still…so we decided to go to a movie at 11 a.m. and saw The Reader. Not exactly an easy breezy vacation film, but it was very well done and we both enjoyed it.

Better though was emerging to blue skies and sunshine! It was a little bit cloudy, but no rain = fun! We got beached out and headed to the Four Seasons to sit by the pool with Todd & Tanya, turned out though Todd was napping so Tanya kicked it with us for a little bit.

From there, it was only 5 p.m. so we decided to drive to lovely Lahaina. This cute seaside town is riddled with shops and restaurants, and we hit it right at sundown. It was so pretty. We walked through and saw the Banyan Tree Park that features a single tree that covers an entire block. We strolled along the boardwalk as the sun set, shot a few photos and then grabbed dinner at Kahuna Kabobs – the Ono fish kabob came on top of rice and veggies. It was tasty, though the young bucks working there did overcook the fish a tad.

From there, we headed back to Kihei and hoped for sun tomorrow!


The Four Seasons Pool; drive and then shots of Lahaina, including the huge Banyan Tree Park.







Interlude: Jill's Hana Highway Photos

Jill took a slew of fabulous photos on our Hana Highway trip - and so I thought I'd share them with you here. Enjoy!

On the black sand beach: Some fun photos, abandoned shoes, and me just after being unexpectedly smashed by a wave. Look at that fat lip! :( The rest are shots along the way, including the carcass we had to climb around to get to our first waterfall. Ew!