Maui – February 25 – March 3, 2009

Last updated: March 9, 2009

We went to Maui for the fun of it. Specifically, to snorkel and see whales. We were partly successful.

The weather wasn’t great: mostly some combination of windy, cloudy and wet, and cool by Hawaiian standards, mostly in the 70s during the day, still 20 degrees warmer than here. Because of the wind, sometimes it would be sunny and rainy at the same time.

Thurs Feb 26: Humpback whale tail

Whale watching in Hawaii during the winter is easy. We saw many from our hotel room balcony. The trick is to get close enough, and lucky enough, to get a good picture or two.

Tuesday, Feb 24

We usually fly American, but it would have been three stops between San Jose and Maui, so we flew United direct from San Francisco to Maui. With no air miles, we flew coach.

Since it was an early flight, we tried the room and shuttle deal that many hotels there offer. We drove up to Millbrae and stayed over at the Best Western El Rancho. Not knowing the area restaurants, we had dinner at the hotel, surprisingly good. Their only claim to fame is the downstairs bar, with windows to the pool, used in the “Top Gun” movie that I never saw.

Tues Feb 24: El Rancho bar

If you live far from San Francisco, this hotel and shuttle arrangement probably makes sense, but we’re never going to do it again.

Wednesday, Feb 25

We arrived in Maui in the afternoon, rented a gray Chevy Impala, and checked into the Hyatt Regency on Kaanapali beach.

Hyatt front

This is a very nice hotel. I took pictures over several days, but I’ll bunch them up here.

Hyatt courtyard

Our room was in the main (of three) buildings, on the seventh of eleven floors.

Hyatt: View from our balcony

We had a good view of the next Hawaiian island west, Lanai.

Hyatt: Lanai from our balcony (Wed)

Hyatt: Lanai from our balcony (Sun)

Lanai usually had a cloud over it; it’s big enough to make its own weather.

The Hyatt has lots of Thai and Cambodian art. Here’s Mischel with an elephant:

Hyatt art

Here’s a sort of mermaid by the elevators:

Hyatt art

Here’s a collection of porcelain figures:

Hyatt art

Here’s a lion by a walkway:

Hyatt art

Here’s a boat in the courtyard:

Hyatt art

There are only a couple of non-Asian pieces. Here’s John with a pair of athletes… that’s a total of three two:

Hyatt art

They also have swans (black and white), flamingos, penguins, parrots and coi fish.

Hyatt: Swan and friend

Here’s a crane outside:

Hyatt: African crowned crane

Here’s a parrot in the courtyard:

Hyatt: Parrot

Hyatt: Flamingos and black swans

Here’s where we had buffet breakfast; sometimes you’d see white swans on the water:

Hyatt: Open-air restaurant

The Hyatt has two other restaurants, off the courtyard. One is closed, with no “remodeling” sign or anything, I guess reflecting the economy. Tourism is down 20%; someone said the Hyatt was 75% full.

Anyway, back to the timeline: we unpacked and ate the sandwiches we bought in SF for the flight.

Thursday, Feb 26

We took a whale watching boat out of Lahaina, with Maui Adventure Cruises.

Lahaina harbor

Mischel, whale watching

This is as close as we ever got to a whale:

Whale fin watchers

Whale watching is easy, because at any time there are 1000 or more around the Hawaiian islands during the winter, and they have to come up for air at least two or three times an hour.

Golden Princess at anchor off Lahaina

Whale back

Whale tail

Then we ran into some spinner dolphins.

Spinner dolphin

The “Trilogy V” is the catamaran we didn’t take snorkeling, twice:

Spinner dolphins

Whale back

LOOK! DOLPHIN BEHIND YOU!

Almost back to the Lahaina harbor, we ran across a turtle, about three or four feet long:

Inquisitive turtle

Intending to go to the Maui Ocean Center aquarium, we drove through the Maalaea harbor looking for a place for lunch. We didn’t find one, and got back on the road.

After driving to the north side of the island (across the narrow part) and around the twin towns of Kahului and Wailuku, an hour later we found the aquarium, on the stretch of main road we had skipped by driving through the harbor.

There’s a shopping center attached, and we had lunch there, then did the aquarium. Pretty good.

Aquarium coral and fish

The aquarium has interesting local fish, including a kind of "harem" fish, which can easily change sex. The "harem" has one male. When he dies, the dominant female changes sex to male. No need for dating, valentines, and all that.

Whale tail, John

Dinner was at Roy’s.

Friday, Feb 27

We drove north, probably to Honolua Bay, where we could see Molokai island to the north-west.

Molokai, from the north shore of Maui

We were driving around because our snorkeling trip had been cancelled because of high winds.

Then we went back to Napili to see the Ritz Carlton hotel. It’s nice and all, but too formal, and mostly in the business of selling timeshares.

Lunch at Longhi’s

After stopping at the Hyatt, we drove south to exchange Mischel’s pendant at the aquarium, but there was a traffic jam through Lahaina. What should have taken a half hour took an hour and a half. The aquarium had closed.

We continued south through Kihei to Wailea and the Grand Wailea hotel. It’s grand, all right.

Grand Wailea lobby art

There was a matching set of male hula dancers, but who cares.

We had drinks in the lobby bar, with a woman singer/guitarist, then went to Lahaina for dinner.

Saturday, Feb 28

We went to the Maalaea harbor for a 6:30 am Trilogy V snorkeling trip to Molokini, but they weren’t going there, because of the winds, so we opted for postponement to Monday.

Instead, looking for big waves and surfers, we drove north through Kahului and east past Paia.

Maui, north coast

Driving back, we stopped at the Maui Tropical Plantation, and took the “train” ride.

Plantation train

Everything was carefully labeled for the tourists.

Other plants and trees labeled: avocado, banana, bougainvillaea (sic), Malabar chestnut, guava, Macadamia nut, mango, orchid, papaya, and taro.

Plantation: Coffee

Plantation: Sugarcane

We stopped while the tour director / train driver demonstrated getting milk out of a coconut:

Plantation: Coconut husking

It’s a pretty environment:

Plantation: Palm-lined road

Plantation: Hibiscus

Then we drove back to Lahaina and had lunch at the Mai-Tai Lounge.

Mai-Tai Mischel

We walked around Lahaina and checked out the art fair being held under the banyan tree. This one banyan tree covers half a city block and is the second-largest in the world, the largest being in India.

Lahaina banyan tree

That evening we saw the musical “Ulalena” at the Lahaina Theater.

It’s a factual/allegorical telling of Hawaiian history, made palatable by good music and Cirque du Soleil effects, including movable stage elements and two acrobats.

Mischel got us a package with good seats and a Q&A session afterwards with the dozen or so performers, when I got these photos:

Ulalena: MC, stilt tree actor, stilts

Ulalena: Acrobat & MC

We had never heard of “Ulalena” before going to Maui, but they’ve been doing four performances a week for ten years, in a theater that could hold 500 people.

Mischel; Ulalena fish props

Afterwards, we had dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse (strange punctuation).

Dinner was good, but a drunk at the next table caused enough trouble that Mischel complained to the manager on our way out and we got a comp dinner, which we used Monday night.

Sunday, March 1

The winds hadn’t let up, so we cancelled the Monday Trilogy V snorkeling trip to Molokini.

We walked up Kaanapali beach to see the other hotels. We didn’t actually walk on the sand: there’s a walkway that goes near the beach almost all the way.

We checked out the Whalers Village Museum.

The whaling bark Sunbeam model

We took the pathway to the end, then headed back to the Hyatt.

Kaanapali beach

Later we went into Lahaina for dinner. The Holland America Zaandam was at anchor.

Lahaina: Holland America ship

We dined at the Lahaina Grill. The wine is Neal.

Lahaina Grill: Mischel

Monday, March 2

From our balcony we saw a nice catamaran, and signed up for an afternoon whale watch.

Hula Girl

After breakfast we went back to the aquarium gift shop and exchanged Mischel’s pendant.

Then we drove down the coast beyond the Grand Wailea. The hotel at the end of the road is closed. We stopped at a church:

Church graveyard

Nearby is a cove (Oneuli Beach or Oneloa Beach, maybe) where many people were snorkeling. We’ll check it out next time.

Wailea cove

About 4 pm or so, the Hula Girl and two other catamarans loaded up on the beach at the south end of the Hyatt grounds. The deal was to be shuttled to the boat on these little Zodiaks:

Zodiak shuttle

While getting on, our Zodiak was hit by a wave, and Mischel got soaked. Returning, I lost my balance and went down on all fours in the water. Fortunately, my new camera stayed dry.

Rainbow

Us; my Humuhumunukunukuapua’a hat

A humuhumunukunukuapua’a is a local fish.

The Hula Girl is a dandy boat, something like 65 feet long and 35 feet wide. Here we are watching a whale video on TV:

Hula Girl: lounge

Hula Girl: bar

The galley is below the lounge, in the right pontoon. The left pontoon has restrooms.

Hula Girl: galley

We had drinks from the bar, with quesadillas.

Oh yes, and we watched whales:

Whale back (in the water)

Whale tail

On this trip we saw some whales, but no dolphins or turtles.

Dinner was at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.

Tuesday, March 3

After breakfast we packed, checked out, and drove to the sugarcane mill and museum, then to Marco’s for lunch, again.

Sugarcane mill

The museum is across the street, in an old house, with photos and artifacts and stuff.

Us; Cleveland Model J36 tractor

We dropped the rental car at the airport, then United, shuttle to El Rancho, and drove home.

SF Airport police vehicle