Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Posted at 9:52:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Yesterday we went to Cilantro in Lahaina.
L: "Is it better than Parlin?"
D: "...Can't comment."
L: "Wow. Is it better than Chipotle?"
D: "Can't comment. Let's just say it's highly premium. It's up there with the best."
Guess what we did today? Went to Cilantro again. (Oh, and no, we haven't seen any shooting stars in Lahaina. And I wonder if anyone other than AGD will get that reference.) I love Cilantro's decor, especially the chicken painting.
After Cilantro (yesterday) we went on a big road trip. Not the Road to Hana, because we are slacks (it's long!! and we're not that into waterfalls and lush vistas and all that stuff), but instead to the summit of Haleakala, Maui's big volcano. The top was 10,023 feet up, which, just for reference, is around the upper limit of how high we fly in Tango (we usually cruise at around 6,000-8,000 feet). We've never made the long drive to the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island (which is 13,796 feet high), so it was pretty neat. It was 54° at the summit (low 80s down here).
The best parts were 1) The stands of eucalyptus on the way up (the bark and that piney, slightly medicinal, spa-ish smell, mmmmm) and, 2) We could see the Big Island across the ocean from the top of Haleakala!!!! Dear old Big. We could see Kohala, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualalai. No vog blocking the view, either! :-)
From the Lelewi Lookout (crazily windy) and the Haleakala Summit (very barren, also windy, with with lots of big telescopes, but not as big as the astronomical observatories on Mauna Kea), you can also see a giant crater (the size of Manhattan) down below, which is pretty neat. Also, there were lots of good views of clouds and Maui on the twisty mountain road leading up. Maui is weird--it's two big lumps connected by a totally flat middle, and the flat part's all filled with sugar cane. All you gotta say is sug.
On the way back I heard "All Hawaii Stand Together" on the radio. Dennis Pavao! (I found out it's pronounced "Puh-vow".) We were listening to a Hawaiian music station (105.1, from Oahu--it's good!) because 104.7 didn't come in well up there.
Today I had to listen to alt radio stations again (we even managed to tune in Lava!) because most of the island randomly lost electricity and 104.7 went dead! It happened when we were at Maui Dreams dive shop, and I'm not sure how long it stayed out for (but it was at least an hour) because we went to Maui Ocean Center to hang out in the gift shop (very fun!), and they hadn't lost their power. Most of the businesses we tried to visit on the way were closed since they were without power, and the traffic lights and everything were out. [Edit: I just found this news story! Wow! We're lucky... the part of the island where we're staying didn't lose power, but everywhere else did, and some places still didn't have it back as of 5pm!]
What we found out from Maui Dreams dive shop guy: Maui is massively windy ALL the time, not just a flukey thing right now! Every afternoon, trade winds attack!!! (The Big Island is mostly safe from the evil trade winds because its big mountains protect it from most of their torture.) Ahhh! My ideal island. (NOT.) He said the only time go to shore diving without being blown away and having super-choppy water is REALLY early in the morning. We're not getting up at 5:30 to go shore diving, and we don't want to taint all our great Big Island dives with horrible Maui dives, so we decided to just quit while we're ahead. We did sign up for a night dive tomorrow, though (the winds die down by then), and we have our sharkey dive Friday morning.
We also found out that the Maui Dreams dive shop guy 1) is from Southington, Connecticut (very close to East Berlin), and 2) used to live in Manchester at Clocktower Mill at the same time we did!!! What the heck!!!
Anyway, since we can't go on any shore dives, that means we get to slack!
We had brunch (?) at Pita Paradise and it was another excellent restaurant pick on my part! The best homemade pitas! It reminded me of the souvlakis from Sammy's stand in London, Ontario! (Legendary.) I got a Fresh Catch (mahimahi) instead of lamb, though. But I want to go back and get lamb and have flashbacks!!
We also had a Lappert's caramel coconut mac ice cream (I had to run in and procure it, since parking on Front Street was nil) and it was almost as good as on Kauai. But not quite.
Speaking of parking, parking spaces in Maui are insanely SMALL!! I think I mentioned that already. It's no lie. On the other hand, it's also true that the Westin's Heavenly Spa is insanely heavenly.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Posted at 9:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We made Friday reservations for this: Shark Dive Maui! Me and Dean and one dive master will dive inside a 750,000 gallon Open Ocean exhibit tank with 22 sharks (6 species), stingrays, and thousands of fish for about 30-40 minutes. It's at the Maui Ocean Center aquarium. Weird and cool! I can't believe they had an opening.
Maui is WINDY x 1,000,000!!!! It is SO windy. The weirdest thing is, everyone just walks around, sits on the beach, etc., like they don't even notice it, and meanwhile it's blowing like a hurricane! The palm fronds just blow blow blow, and even the traffic lights and lamp posts shake. No way would I want to sit outside during that!
We tried Roselani ice cream (mac nut flav, of course). It's the Maui equivalent of Tropical Dreams and Lappert's. It was good but not as good as Tropical Dreams or Lappert's. (Much better than Big Island brand, though.)
I also got a "Kona coffee" (so the sign claimed) at the Aloha Scam Kafe. When I looked at the label on the carafe, the fine print detailed that it was a blend of Kona, Costa Rica, Uganda and Ethiopia! What the heck. And no, it did not taste like Kona coffee.
We checked out the supposedly incredibly weird town of Pa`ia and it was slightly offbeat at most. We only saw one genuinely unequivocally weird person (he was using a large chain as a sling). Then I drew a good picture of Dean in the style of the artist hanging all over the walls of Cafe Mambo. It includes many extra eyeballs and random sea creatures, as per Ray Masters' technique! (We don't have a scanner here, so I will have to wait 'til I get home to show it off.)
Oh, the picture above was from a game I made Dean play at Iki on Saturday. (He made me play a game that involved throwing pebbles and trying to hit the Lone Palm, then calculating two standard deviations or something like that.) We had to name stuff and each draw it and then compare the pictures. His sharkey picture was my favorite. The tail is the best part!! I hurt myself laughing.
Posted at 12:31:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I forgot to mention, on the way to the airport yesterday, we stopped at Uncle Herb's malasada tent on the side of Queen K highway!! We've seen it there a million times but 1) were scared, and/or 2) it's never there when when we actually want malasadas. Well, it was and we did it and it was good! They fry them up right there. Dean declared, "these are the best malasadas ever." We ate them outside at one of the little tables in front of Kona Mountain Coffee. One plain sugar and one cinnamon-and-sugar. Fat and puffy and dense and fluffy. Dean thought they were even better than Daylight Donuts'! I'm not quite sure if I'd go that far.
The pictures are of: 1) me with my crazy (but good) hair and fav new shirt from the Hawaiian consignment store, 2) Dean drinking our coconut from the Keauhou Farmers' Market on Saturday! I like its tail.
I also forgot to mention, on the topic of Things About Maui: 1) an insane amount of whitecaps on the ocean and, 2) all the other islands you can see while driving, which is pretty cool. You can see the Molokini crater sticking up, and Kaho`olawe, Lana`i, and Moloka`i. They're all super-close. From our place here we can see both Lana`i and Moloka`i at the same time, just across the sea.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Posted at 11:09:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Impressions of Maui so far:
Flight here from the Big Island was SO EASY!!
The Maui airport is tons bigger and fancier than the Big Island one. An actual jetway between the plane and the terminal (instead of a mobile staircase to the ground outside) and at least two Starbucks in the airport! (Yes, that's pretty standard in most airports, but this is Hawaii we're talking about.) It's still open-air, though, which is cool.
We got a premium ride! And I found a good radio station right away: FM 104.7. They played "Don't Worry Baby" right after I turned it on! Lots more variety than Lava 105, so far.
Maui has: a blue sky, pretty Kauai-like mountains (two big ones; flat in the middle), wind, lots and lots of stores, and lots and lots of people! Also, insanely small parking spaces. We had dinner at the Westin's supposedly fine restaurant, Tropica, and it was no Pahu. So far, Maui's pretty but it's no Big.
Posted at 1:00:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Made our last visit to the Farmers' Market Saturday. The lulo guy was back, and he called us his "favorite regular customers." I gave him my lulo recipes and he tried to give me free lulos but I told him I wouldn't have a chance to use them. He seemed bummed to hear we're leaving. He's making a lulo cookbook and said he'd put my recipe in it and asked for my e-mail address. I wonder if he'll leave it so silly if he really does use it?? We also said goodbye to our other fav stands (tart lady, etc.) I gave the tart lady back all the rest of my empty jam jars and she was very pleased. We also had a great lilokoi juice and drank another coconut. I asked the machete guy if he's ever cut his hand doing that. Answer: a couple of times.
Then we made the Long Hot Walk to Iki for our last real day on the Big Island. We sat under the Lone Palm on our lava chairs, and the sun made the line of the horizon shine silver. I was sad. I love it here. It's hard to say goodbye. The sky up north was so much clearer, and the mountains and barren lava were so crisp and beautiful. I finally saw the top of Mauna Kea again, the telescopes gleaming. No snow up there anymore. Queen K's so dark at night, it's like flying in Tango.
Today I felt better. Getting ready to go, packing, bringing stuff to our Na Hale o Storage. One last Kona Mountain Coffee, one last Oshima, one last Kenichi (delicious octopus, shrimp, cod, uni!). All set to leave the Big Island tomorrow. We're going to visit Maui for a week, then home.
I have one more Big Island entry to post, about Makole`a black sand beach. It's written, but I have so many good photos (underwater and above) I need to use a bunch of them to illustate. Will post soon. Better go to bed now.
