Day 16 - Sleeping In

I must say we all have gotten quite a bit of rays from goddess Iris over the last two weeks. Early morning rises over the past few days and moving & shaking had rewarded us with sleeping in a bit 'til 7am. No plans were made, but to try and get a bit of snorkeling and some fishing in.

As the kids awoke, we planned to back to Hookapi Beach. Knowing we only had a day left, we all wanted to take advantage of the sun and water. Instead of breakfast at a restaurant, we stop at a local speciality store in Paia and grabbed some salads, snacks and Ahi.  Food, food and more food would start the theme of the day. At the gate of Hookapi beach was a fruit vendor and Anna purchased a fresh pineapple (which the vendor cut), a coconut (also cut by the vendor) and a Soursop, a fruit I had never heard of. I for some reason did not try it, but Anna enjoyed.

Anna, LT and I all spent time snorkeling and enjoyed watching the abundant sea turtles grazing on the sea grasses. We also saw eels, crabs, slugs, a crazy amount of sea cucumbers, I am constantly amazed at the varieties of fish and diversity of sea life. What a wonderful place many people never are truly able to appreciate.

Around lunch time we headed back to Charley's, where we ate at the other day in Paia. We learned from the hostess that Willie Nelson comes to Charley's often due to the owner. They apparently have been very close friends since the '60s. Olivia had a  BBQ pork sandwich here the other day with goat cheese made by the Surfing Goat farm, that she really enjoyed. She encouraged me to have one and I did. It was quite delicious! The pounds just keep adding on and I feel we will need to ride a thousand miles just to loose the weight I put on on this vacation. Oh well - no worries for now!

The rest of the day was taken up by bumming around and giving our epidermises a rest from the sun. Olivia and I rode down to Kam III park to watch the sunset. The rest of the troop decided to stay in and chill. Everyone was a bit spent from the last several days and bedtime came pretty early for all of us.

Day 15 - Start Me Up

It was an early rise this morning as LT, Anna and I got up at 3:45am. Anna wanted to drive us to Lahaina so she could keep the car. LT and I had a reservation with Start Me Up fishing charter. Check in was at 5:15am, so we needed to get on the road as it took about an hour to get to Lahaina. 

We shoved off at 5:30am and were prepared to catch the daily limit. The trip was an eight hour charter. Our captain was Steve and first mate was Jamison. We all were jazzed up to get a couple of ono or tunas tear up some hooks, but nothing for the first five hours. 

Then the mid rigger snapped and “Fish On”! LT quickly made his way to the chair and the pole was handed to him. He started cranking away it wasn’t too much longer before we started to see some color. LT managed to reel in a wahoo of around 15 pounds. As he got it to the boat, Jamison grabbed the gaff, but the wahoo shook his head and managed to get the hook out. Jamison was unfortunately not quick enough with gaff to bring him to the boat. You could hear the air come out of all of us. 

The rest of the day was exactly like the first five hours – nothing. 

Throughout the day, we did however have great conversation with the boat crew. We learned quite a bit more about the islands. I managed to see quite a bit of pilot whales and got far more sun than expected.

 

 

Day 14 - Out with Maui Dreams (Maui Diamond Scuba Charter)

Yesterday was Daddy-Daughter day. Olivia and I went out this morning with Maui Dreams out of Lahaina Harbor. When I made the reservation, I thought the scuba trip would leave out of the boat landing near our condo – I was mistaken. Lahaina Harbor is about 30 minutes away, which would not be that big of a deal, but we had to check in this morning at 6:15am. We left the house at 5:30am and Olivia was a trooper getting up with zero complaints.

Mama drove us down to harbor and Olivia & I hopped into the general store for a quick smoothie and coffee. Strolled back to the boat and off we went. The crew on board was great. Our group was lead by Kim, a vivacious young lady who was very knowledgeable about the local aquatic life. There were six of us in her group and we were in the water first for our first dive.

It is such a great feeling to be down in the water and submersed with the marine life. The abundance of life in the coral reefs and in the ocean has always amazed me. From the largest fish to the tiniest one, to the corals and other sea creatures, there is always plenty to see. Olivia and I were the last ones back up to the boat with our dive lasting a little over 45 minutes.

On the second dive I could not get my mask cleared for the life of me, due to the mustache. I had a problem with it during the last ten minutes of the first dive. I opted after five minutes to call it quits and informed the Divemaster I was going to the surface and told her to buddy up with Olivia. Olivia ended up enjoying the dive up to the end when she got water in her eardrum and could equalize. She came up a little before the others.

We were all done somewhat tired on the way back to the harbor. Once we got back we looked for Anna, but she had not left Kihei yet, so we stop in at the harbor restaurant, Beach Bums. Not where we wanted to eat, but a good place to grab a beer. Anna came a little after and the three of us went to a restaurant called Nulas. YUMMY!!!

Got home, napped and chilled the remainder of the day. LT and I end up going out in the evening to Sanseis (sushi) and yes it was YUMMY too! Anna and Olivia went to sleep.

Scuba Diving today but had nothing but videos. I will be updating this in the upcoming days. I did manage to take one picture on the GoPro on the way out.

Day 13 - At Ho'okipa and Mama's Fish House with Anna

The kids wanted a rested, so they got one. All of us had been waking up early every morning and they simply wanted a morning in which they didn’t have to wake up before 6:30am. Anna and I opted to take the morning and head to one of the beaches we discovered the other day. We grabbed the snorkel gear and a fishing pole and off we went.

The beach we went to was a hidden spot known only to the locals. There were a couple of cars there when we got there. I attempted to go out and snorkel, but the water was very rough, so it churned up the sand to make visibility pretty bad. We packed up our things and head over to Ho’okipa Beach.

For some reason when we were at Ho’okipa Beach early last week, we never realized that the beach had a resting zone for turtles. Anna and I parked our beach chair right next to the zone and watched the turtles sleep away their morning. About every fifteen minutes another turtle would slowly roll in on a water and crawl up the sandy beach to join the group. The place was an attraction spot to say the least.

The main attraction were the surfers and windsurfers. Young and old, they all went out to brave the waves. The current was very strong here and there wasn’t any good easy spot to get in the water. Rocks and lava formations were all over the place and took up most of the beach entry in the better part of the where we were sitting.

Anna made a reservation at Mama’s Fish House, a local have-to-go-eat-at restaurant where we tried to go to a few days back. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a reservation then, but Mama managed to make one early today. We left the beach around 11:15am and headed down the road ready to see what all the fuss was about.

We got their a little early, but they were nice enough to get us situated right away. We were greated by our server, Lacey, who was outstanding. She gave us a quick rundown of the history and menu and away we went. The menu had an appetizer sashimi that screamed my name. The oysters screamed at Anna. I have eaten quite a bit of sushi in my lifetime, but this platter was by far the best and unique prepared sashimi I have ever had. Maybe it was the location and company, but I think the chef gets a five star for this one.

Mama’s Fish House, as the name states, specializes in fish. So, what better way to celebrate that then to have a nice stuffed lobster and crab Dorado. I know – sounds good right? Anna couldn’t decide, so she went surf and turf with Vension and a lobster tail – I KNOW – that sounds amazing as well, right? And yes – it WAS!!! We finished off the meal with a Kona coffee and a Macadamia Nut pie!

After our mouths finished their culinary orgasims, we headed back to the condo to see what the kids were up to.

Day 12 - Makawao Parade

Makawao is located in the Upcountry and is a town made up of ranchers. This weekend they are having their annual 4^th parade and rodeo. We heard about the parade several days ago and decided what better way to spend the morning than to see a parade. The parade was at 9am this morning and they were shutting down the street at 8am, so we had to make our way up much earlier as we had no idea where it was or where to park.

As usual, we had no problem. Got into the town around 7:15am and parked our butts at Cassanova’s, a local bar. It seemed that we chose the right spot, because it was right at the heart of the parade – Schiffers’ luck. The restaurant was at the intersection where the parade made the turn onto the main street and where the announcer introduced all the participants.

After the parade, we stopped at one of the beaches a lady Anna met - Kay. It was a very secluded beach and one we will come back to for some snorkeling and fishing.

Day 11 - Did that boy eat Skittles?

On the  drive back Anna turned at one point and literally screamed with excitement. We were about to experience our first full out Hawaiian rainbow. This thing was colorful!!!

Day 11 - Surfing Goats - Not Really!

Hiking and the thin air caused all of us to gain a deep hunger. It took us quite a bit of time to get down from the summit, so we had plenty of time to look up where we wanted to eat. After a little research, we all agreed on the Kula Lodge. It had a great mountain view overlooking the ocean villages. The grounds of the place were sprawled with a plethora of tropical flowers and bushes. Far better than the lavender farms flora we saw the other day.

The restaurant had outside seating that was somewhat unique. They had seven round tables, with covered gazebos stacking differently along one of their floral paths. Topping the path, was a brick fire oven where they cooked the pizzas. They had me at the fire oven, so LT and I ordered one of their pizzas. Olivia got a Maui Onion Soup, along with a salad and Anna did the same minus the soup.

When in Kula – order a lime pie! I think that is a saying – anyway if not, it was this afternoon. The pie was yummy! Once we shoved the pie in our pie holes, we hopped across the parking lot to their general store where we picked up a few things.

Back on the road and off we went to go watch Surfing Goats - not really! But we did go visit the Surfing Goats Dairy farm. We didn’t need to drive far as it was only around 6 miles away. We attempted to go to the place on the 4th, but they ended up being closed for the holiday. Today, however, they were opened.

We opted for the 3:30pm tour, otherwise known as the “Goat Milking Tour”. Everyone had a ball! The highlight was – you guessed it – milking the goats. Each of us spent a couple of moments pulling on the tit! Did a little taste testing and then we were off to the races – feeding time – another highlight! We had a great time at the farm!

Day 11 - Haleakala National Park & Crater

Finally, today was crater day. I had benn looking forward to going up to seeing Haleakala park for the past several days. They say it is a religious experience seeing the sunrise from on top of the summit. Unfortunately, you need reservations and they were booked out for weeks in advance. The space is very limited at the summit, so they only allow 20 vehicles up each day for the sunrise and they suggest going up around 3:30am.

We decided to wait and go a little after the park opened. The drive up was absolutely beautiful as we drove through four distinct eco systems. Crazy to think we climbed over 10,000 feet within less than 36 miles from sea level. They say it is the only such place in the US, maybe even the world.

Along the drive it had parking lookouts for the scenic views about every 1000 feet of climbing. Needless to say we took advantage of each and dear old dad got out and took some pictures and videos. Not only did we climb up in altitude, but dropped in temperature. Thankfully, we all brought jackets as it got a bit chilly, but truly windy the closer we got to the summit.

Mind blowing view at the summit. The colors, landscape and sheer size of it all was magnificent. You almost felt as if you could be on Mars. After viewing most of the pictures, they simply do not portray the landscape properly as the colors do not pop in the pictures.

All of us walked a few of the trails throughout the park and finally headed back down as the bellies starting growling.