Aloha, and welcome from Hawaii! As usual, I completely packed everything I could in and neglected my blog for a couple of days-- but I'll catch up now! My body clock is off, and I've been waking up at 4 or so given the three hour time difference. Eek!
Left Phoenix at 8 am and did a quick stop in Honolulu, Oahu, before landing in Maui. Very bumpy landing, though Lorrayne said her flight actually did a 'touch and go' where the pilot tried to land, and had to pick up and circle the airport before trying again. We landed within minutes of each other and were greeted by Drake with a gorgeous bright purple and white lei. We got our bags and we were off! Tried to talk the car rental guy into an upgrade, and apparently I'm losing my touch. Dang. But the car is a little white subaru and good enough.
It was a 45 minute drive to Lahaina, where we are staying. It was a really nice drive winding along the ocean, but a surprise in that the island, at least this side, is much dryer than either of us expected. There are a lot of brown mountains and fields. But the drive did circle the ocean and we were teased with glimpses of the shoreline. The Royal Lahaina was renovated within the last few years and the tower rooms are nice. Not easy to find, and we drive past twice before we were able to find it! We have a partial ocean view and can see it from the balcony. They also have cottage rooms, and what I read suggested not staying in them as they haven't been renovated for a bit. This is one of the oldest hotels in the area.
We're right on the beach, which is great! We checked in and after a delay trying to get into our room (the first two room keys didn't work!) we got in, unpacked quickly, changed, and headed down to grab a bite as it was late afternoon and neither of us had eaten since breakfast. We got a shrimp appetizer and ahi tuna tacos, which were both great, along with mai tais. Yum! Then we decided to explore and walked a good bit on the beach to get our orientation and walk off the apps. We had expected to be closer to places to go, but did hit several hotels and a really upscale shopping area during our walk. Nothing appealed to us to dinner, and everything is really expensive! So we headed back to the hotel and got two different ahi tuna sandwiches. Looks like we'll be enjoying a lot of ahi here! And why not? It's fresh and good.
Early to bed and horrifyingly early to rise, we were up and ready to start our day by 5 am! What a great way to wake up for my *birthday*! I digress for a moment-- but wow, huh? 40. Certainly not a bad place to enjoy it! Lorrayne jumped up and gave me what she brought: a hilarious card (which for those of you who know me well, you know that I LOVE spending time reading shoebox greeting cards and laugh my tail off, so I really appreciated it!) She also got me a beautiful necklace from a cute shop in Seattle.
We headed downstairs for the orientation from the travel organizer that we used, and got both an island orientation and review of the tours available. We decided to sign up for three: a rainforest hike, a snorkel trip and a dinner/show.. also a luau. They had a raffle and drew names, and I won a dinner show!! So we changed the show we were going to see-- yay! What a great birthday present!
We headed out to safeway where we bought water, breakfast stuff and coffee, and a couple of toiletries. Somehow a bag that I had disappeared, so I needed a couple of things. Then we headed off to the Maui Tropical Plantation. It was gorgeous! There was a 15 minute 'train' ride to orient us, and to show us everything grown there. We passed large fields of taro, a staple crop here, and sugar cane. We could see the sugar cane mill in the distance belching smoke-- the only one on the island now. There are zip lines running through the plantation, offering amazing views. We also saw ti leaf plants used for red dye, and the leaves are used for wrapping fish and cooking, pineapple, starfruit and jackfruit trees, coffee. The guide did a coconut demo, and shelled a coconut and showed us that the thick fibers in the casing were used for ropes and netting. She then cut into the coconut, showing us that the 'water' inside should be clear (otherwise a bug likely got in!) and let us try some. Yum, and very different than what I've had before.
We then saw flowers that make leis, papayas, bananas with the large purple 'flower' hanging from the top, avocado trees, mango, guava (with 5x more vitamin C than oranges) Rambutan, like lychee, macadamia trees brought from Australia, red, pink and blue ginger. The flowers there were lush and gorgeous! There is a gazebo where they do weddings, with beautiful flowers draped all around.
We got off the tram and walked around the fields, by the ducks and the pond and through an area marked 'river garden' with more gorgeous flowers. Unfortunately my allergies are pretty bad here, and worse with all the flowers, so it was time to head off! Before we left, we walked through the gift shop and were drawn by an amazing smell that turned out to be a guava. Yum! We packed up a bag with a couple of guava, rambutan (why not?) and apple bananas. Lorrayne got a coconut coffee, which was amazing, and I got some pineapple ice cream as I've never heard of it before. Yum!
We headed out towards the Iao Valley State Park and the drive in was gorgeous. The landscape was rippling green mountains shrouded in mist, as the cloud cover was low. Intensely beautiful, it reminded me of the mountains in Peru around Macchi Picchu (though not nearly as high!) We hiked off through the woods on well-worm paths and meandered through the woods for an hour or so. The views were gorgeous of the forest and the needle. Unfortunately I'm on an ipad and getting used to it, so opening a window to do my research isn't happening now. There was a battle here with King Maha-something, and the top of the needle, a green-covered spire, was where the battle was won and the land claimed. You want to look it up now, don't you? :o)
There was an area that was well irrigated and different plans laid down including water taro, which we heard about at the plantation (where the dry taro was planted.) We decided to drive back to the hotel and I tried to lay down for a power nap, but phone calls kept waking me so I gave up and we dressed for dinner.
The package we got had dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse, which was wonderful. I get one or two steaks a year, and this was it! Neither of our steaks ended up medium rare, but they were very flavorful and tasty. My desert came with a candle and I made my birthday wish (and no, I won't tell you!!) The show, Ulalena was very good and beautifully done. It was about the story of Hawaii's people. The chanting, dancing and music were really beautiful. We headed back to the hotel.
Up again well before 5, we made a pot of coffee and opened the slider to enjoy the ocean breeze and birds singing. We're going hiking today in the rain forest to waterfalls. I unfortunately didn't bring my keen water shoes, which would have been perfect for this hike. Will be interesting to see just how wet my hiking shoes get! Looking out from the balcony I see the beautiful green canopy of plants and trees-- everything here is so lush and green by the water, though inland is very arid. I am looking forward to seeing with leeward side of the island to see what it's like, and expect it will look more like I expected of Maui.
Have a great day! I'll write again soon! And yes, it was a wonderful birthday full of beauty and fun, and I wouldn't trade a thing!
Sam
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