Day 3 in Maui - Monday, March 17, 2008

Today was Haleakala day! Haleakala is the big volcano on Maui that everyone says you have to visit. See the picture on the sign? Take a closer look at it, and then read the story below...










The volcano of Haleakala is over 10,000 feet in the air – so high that when you get up there you are *above* the clouds!

We had to get up SO early! I'm so glad we got to bed as early as we did last night. Even though we got up at 3:30 am, we still managed to get six hours of sleep. Alberto was really stressed about making it up ot the top in time for the sunrise even thought it was so early. It made me nervous about how long the road trip was going to take – I hate long trips!

The trip was not bad, though it was a bit long. We twisted and turned up the side of the volcano, taking one hairpin turn at a time, all the way up….Most of the drive was in the dark of night so that I could not see what lay below. I am kind of glad for this! The roads are narrow and hug the edge tightly. Alberto told me of how we also needed to watch for errant cows wandering the roads. Cows? Apparently so! Thankfully, we encountered none!

We made it to the top almost exactly 2 hours after we left. Alberto had warned me it would be cold, and I had brought gloves and a fleece pullover for the occasion. However, this was not nearly sufficient for the cold we experienced. The car's temperature reading said it was in the 40's, but that is NOT what it felt like. The wind was so bitingly cold that it was almost unbearable. Alberto and I went up the stairs to the overlook and found a small crowd of people already waiting, huddled in groups of two and three.

Thank goodness Alberto had thought to bring the blanket from the condo because this was all that shielded us from the elements. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the sun to come up, so we spent the time taping our surroundings (with my cute little video recorder I got for Christmas! :) ), chatting about small things and, oh yeah, freezing to death.

About 15 minutes into the waiting I couldn't take it anymore. My gloves were useless to me – my fingers were in severe pain from the cold. We took shelter inside the glass enclosure that had been created at the site to provide a warm haven from which the sun's rises and falls could be observed.

This turned out to be no good though – all the windows were completely covered in fog and humidity from all of the warm bodies in the room:

After a few minutes of emergency triage to my fingers (step 1- remove gloves step 2 – stick fingers inside mouth step 3 – BLOW!) we bundled up again and headed back outside for the sights that was about to occur.

It was beautiful – magnificent – awe inspiring…There were a lot of clouds in the sky so we couldn't experience the 'full' glory of the moment but I think that actually made it more beautiful. The light danced off the clouds in so many different ways and in so many different hues, it was a wonder to behold. I started to really see how high up we were (somehow 10,000 feet means more when you're at the top looking down) and was treated to a vista of a sea of clouds wafting below us.

So, here's the thing about the sunrise. You think the wind is bad, and you think the dark is cold, but it's NOTHING compared to when the sun has arrived. Winds were no longer just winds – they were blasts of frigid air that penetrated us to the core. Don't believe me? I think this picture tells the story best:

The sunrise was awesome and a sight that I am so glad I got to see, but I can't effectively describe the joy I felt to get back to the car and activate the car's heated seats.

As we sat in the car, the clouds arrived at the summit of Haleakala. All around us and through the moonroof we watched billows of white cloud rushing past, as the sun pushed them further in. Alberto wanted us to see the valley landscape on the other side of the summit, but there was no way we could see it with all the clouds rushing in.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, we gave up and decided to start heading down. We stopped at the 2^nd highest point and visited the gift ship, and I got to read the story associated with Haleakala. It goes something like this:

One of Hawaii's demigods named Pele, who was young and mischievous, decided one day to do something about the lamentable fact that the sun passed over the island way too quickly. The people of the island wanted more time in the sun and Pele concurred. So he fashioned a set of nooses out of ropes and lassoed the sun's rays, anchoring it to the Haleakala volcano.

The sun begged to be set free, but Pele would only acquiesce after the sun promised to move more slowly across the earth. Pele then freed the sun, but left a couple of the roped tied to the sun as a reminder of its promise. That's why it takes so long for the sun to pass over Haleakala (the sun can have risen for several minutes on the coast of Maui before it gets to the volcano summit).

We got a few souvenirs while we were in the gift shop and then headed back to the car. After one more fruitless attempt to see the valley from an outlook further down the volcano, we finally gave up and decided to find breakfast. As we winded down the mountain, we saw many bicyclers biking downhill. In fact, we'd seen several of them get ready to go from their launchpoint just outside the borders of the U.S. national park. I admired their drive to do something so strenuous, but I couldn't help thinking that I didn't see any biking groups heading up the mountain…

Based on another recommendation by Eric K., we searched for and found the Kula Lodge, about halfway down the volcano and in the little town of Kula. Kula is really cute. The roadsides are filled with little B&B's, flower shops, fruit stands and general stores. The Kula Lodge was just as picturesque. I expected it to be very touristy and for the staff to be a bit stuckup, but I was very mistaken. The restaurant has a little sitting area where people can warm their bones in front of a beautiful stone fireplace while waiting for a table. Our table was right at the back of the restaurant, in front of the floor-to-ceiling window that framed the breathtaking landscape below.

Our waitress was very pleasant and helpful and the food was delicious. Alberto had something called the Moco Loco, which the menu said was a local favorite. It featured a sausage patty covered with sticky white rice, smothered in brown gravy and topped with a fried egg. Sound gross? It was Yummy. Our toast was also served with two jars of freshly made jam, one being pineapple-mango and the other being a mixed berry variety. Once again, YUM. This is a great place to eat!

After breakfast we headed outside to enjoy the beautiful landscaping that had been done around the property. There were so many different trees and bushes of different variety and texture, and they all had some sort of beautiful flowering bloom spread across the branches. The hill looked a lot like what I envisioned for my own hill. They even had some of the same stuff that I have, or in some instances, had before it died. I loved it. It was like a mini-paradise inside of paradise.

Back in the car, we called Liz to wish her happy birthday (she turned 22) and got caught up on what she had done over the weekend. Afterward, I couldn't help but settle deep into my chair for a nap. Alberto needed sleep too, so when we got back to the condo we decided to nap for a few hours. Have I mentioned yet how wonderful it is to sleep to the sound of the crashing waves? We were asleep almost instantaneously.

A few hours and a refreshing beer later, we decided to go to Black Rock to snorkel for the afternoon. Black Rock is Alberto's favorite place to go on the whole island, and we thought that would be a great thing for us to do together before he headed back to work the next day. Black Rock is reputed to be one of the best places to snorkel or dive on Maui. (Here's a link to another blogger page about this beach: http://www.threebestbeaches.com/2006/05/kaanapali-beach-maui-hawaii.html)

However, the gods must have felt otherwise. Just as we were packing up our bag to head out to the car, it started to rain. Not to worry, Alberto said, the rain will be finished by the time we get to Ka'anapali, just 10 minutes down the road. So we pressed on, got to Ka'anapali, parked and headed into a small outdoor shopping center called "Whaler's Village", which is next to Black Rock. It was still raining. We did a little window shopping and looked at some pearl jewelry. It was still raining. Alberto introduced me to the super-cool and very useful ABC Store, which is kind of like an upscale convenience store. It was *still* raining!

So, with a look of regret on his face, Alberto made the decision for us to give up on snorkeling for the afternoon. We still had to buy something at the shopping center in order for our parking to be validated, so I asked to go into the Borders bookstore just upstairs from where we were. I was still mad at myself that I hadn't remembered to by a Frommer's or Rick Steve's book on Maui before I had gotten on the plane the day before! So we went into Borders and I found this GREAT book called Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty. It is published by Wizard Publications. There was a similar book for almost every island of the Hawaiian chain. A brief glance through it told me it not necessarily a big listing of all the restaurants, hotels or nightclubs you could go to with corresponding costs (which so many guide books are), but more of a real book on Maui with tips on all sorts of really cool places to go, complete with a bit of a story to make it more meaningful. $16.95 later, we were headed back to the car.

We decided to head back to Downtown Lahaina, that cute little coastal setting with the big Banyan tree in the middle. We got there a little before sunset and I enjoyed strolling among the shops and picking up a few souvenirs along the way. As it got dark, we found ourselves surrounded by young revelers – it was Spring Break after all, and St. Patrick's Day to boot. After spending another hour or so walking around we went home to take refuel from the crowds.


Today was a beautiful day. I hope I can find ways to fill my days with things just as fun and exciting as Alberto was able to show me. Hopefully, my book will be the guide I need to making it happen!

Day 2 in Maui – Sunday, March 16, 2008

Sunday night sunset, around 6:30 pm

After staying up until 1 am the night before, it was hard to accept that we had to get up early (5:45) to be out of the condo and on the road in time to meet up with a boat from Boss Frog's called "Quicksilver" to do some Sunday morning snorkeling. Our excursion included a snorkeling trip to Molokini, a visit to a place in the water called "Turtle Town" and a BBQ lunch.

It was undoubtedly worth the trouble of getting up as early as we did.

Molokini is a little half moon piece of land that is actually the only part of an ancient volcanic crater that is sticking up out of the water. The trip was about a 30 minute cruise into the Pacific to reach Molokini, and along the way we got to see a group of humpback whales in competition for a female whale's affection. The male whales were trying to outdo each other in impressing the female, which the captain said is very common at this time of year.

Once we arrived, the crew gave us all a face mask, snorkel and fins and had us either jump off or push off the back of the boat into the water. The water was a cross between aqua and seafoam green, and you could see all the way down, 170 feet to the coral-encrusted sea floor. It was really lovely, and it didn't take long to get almost all the way up to the edge of the crater. After getting acclimated to my mask and snorkel, I took a couple of dives down into the water to get closer to the sea life.

There were so many kinds of fish down there! I saw coronetfish and butterfly fish and a little puffer fish too. Some beautiful fat iridescent blue fish, and some little tiny yellow fish also were not scared of me at all. In fact, it was obvious they've been fed by humans for a long time. They all kind of hovered around me expectantly, as if I was going to magically produce some yummy fish food from the insides of my swimsuit.

I also saw a slinky moray eel on the bottom, weaving his body in and out between rocks. He wasn't very interested in me, which I was glad for. Also there, but I did not see it (thank goodness!) was a baby white tip shark swimming around and observing the action. I don't think I would have been able to handle that one very well!

We snorkeled for about 45 minutes and it was awesome to paddle around in the water. I was so sure the water was going to be cold - undoubtedly the people on the boat wanted us all to think that because they made plenty of announcements along the way how their wetsuits were available for rental. I found, though, that the water was perfectly sublime. A little cold upon entry, but in no time your body has adjusted perfectly to the temperature and I found the whole experience to be wonderful. After dealing with such cold temperatures in San Diego for the last 6 years, I was ecstatic to be able to enjoy the water while still having feeling in my toes!

After some time passed, we were called back to the Quicksilver to head to our next stop - Turtle Town. Turtle Town is just another area off of the coast, not far from the Molokini crater, but it is known to be a favorite spot for turtles to hang out, and sleep at.

I went out with a group following a videographer (John), while Alberto stayed behind and swam closer to the boat. About 100 yards from the boat, John stopped and asked us to stay put for a moment. He dove down into the water below, and when he came back he brought a funny looking specimen from the sea floor to share with us. This was a pencil urchin, and they look like this:

He laid the urchin in each of our hands, and you could feel its tiny little scrabbly hooks trying to find a way to latch onto our skin. The pipes protruding from the body were dark red, and John told us that in the more primitive days of Hawaiian times, the Hawaiian women would rub the red off of the pipes and use the coloring as rouge coloring for their cheeks. I thought that was very creative.

Another dive down brought another surprise - this time John brought us a collector urchin, which looks like this:

It was much smaller and was black with very sharp hard little spikes. This one was even more aggressive about trying to find a way to latch on to us, and it was a little disconcerting to be holding it in my hand!

Show and Tell concluded with a brief swim further away from the boat and one more dive down into the water by John. This time, he was looking for turtles.

He went straight to a little shelf underneath the water that turtles are known to nap in, and sure enough, there was a big turtle, estimated by John to be around 60 years old, taking a morning snooze. It wasn't long though, before our presence woke him up, and he swam out from under the shelf straight toward us! He was headed to the surface for a breath of air, but I think he was curious about us and decided to survey us all on his way up. He made a couple of turns on his way up to the top, and at one point was coming straight at me and was so close that I had to back up a bit to get out of his way!

He was dark green with all the distinctive patterns on his skin. He had lots of marks on his shell - he had clearly been around for a while. His back fins were flat and wide and he had a sharply pointed tail that jutted out from the back of his shell.

After swimming over the top of some reef and taking in a few more breaths of air, he passed over to the the other side of the reef and let his momentum glide him down once again to the bottom of the ocean. A few minutes later, you could hardly see him, and the sand moving on the bottom of the ocean had already partially covered his body.

The group started heading back to the Quicksilver, and I lagged behind the group a little bit, hesitant to leave the water again. I made a couple of more dives down into the water and heard the most amazing sound - whale song! You can hear the whales singing in the ocean when you submerge. I guess the sound waves carry along the water. It is the most peaceful and tranquil experience I've ever had.

I *really* didn't want to get out of the water after that, but I was ready to get back to Alberto and share with him everything I saw. Back on the boat, the Quicksilver crew was busy barbecuing chicken and hot dogs for everyone. While we were waiting, the bar opened and the alcohol started flowing! A superb rum/pineapple juice drink later, I was gnoshing on a delicious grilled chicken sandwich with different salad greens, onion and tomato, with pasta salad on the side. Snorkeling makes you tired! It was also great to get some nourishment after taking in a few swigs of salt water during the morning's adventure.

Once people got to finishing up their plates, the crew came around with plates of delicious homemade cookies. Mmmmm, they were yummy.

On the ride back to the island, we saw a few more great things! Another set of competition whales were making a beeline toward Molokini, and they were going so fast that we had to stop the boat so we wouldn't be right in their path. They were really active, with lots of tail slapping and fin slapping causing small explosions in the water.

After starting up our journey again, we saw a couple of dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the boat. They were showing off their acrobatics and enjoying the water current being generated by the boat's engine. A little later, we came upon a sea turtle near the surface, the curved surface of his shell popping out from the top of the water. We slowed the boat again, and let a few minutes pass where the turtle bobbed along the surface next to us, picking up his head from time to time to take in his store of air. He looked at us curiously as we floated next to him, and then headed back down into the depths again.

Much closer to land, we saw one more interesting sight. A mother whale was with her calf in the water, and it appeared that she was trying to teach him how to do some acrobatics. We first saw them from a distance because the calf had just successfully breached the water! As we got closer, he was much more focused on trying to splay his tail wide out of the water. The mother did it as a demonstration, and then the calf tried repeatedly to copy her. But either he was just too young or just not strong enough because he would start off well, arching his back and heading downward into the deep, but when his back end would start to come out of the water it would just flop clumsily over to one side. Try as he might, he just couldn't get it! The mother demonstrated it once more, and then they swam out of sight a minute or so later. My guess is that he was ready for a feeding and a nap!

All in all, our Molokini snorkeling adventure was top notch from start to finish, and we bought a souvenir video from John to commemorate this most unique of experiences.

As awesome as all of this was, it had still only taken half of our day! We got back on land around 12:30. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the condo and taking in the beautiful sights of the ocean at the end of our building. The photos of Alberto and me in this post are from the sunset that night.

Sunday evening sunset, 6:30 pm

NOTE: I'm sorry that I do not have photos of this day. We were concerned about bringing all of our digital equipment onto the boat - since we weren't going to be able to take them into the water it didn't make much sense to leave them unattended for anyone with sticky fingers. We did take some underwater photos that have yet to be developed! I will come back and post some underwater photos of the things I've described here if any of them look good!

Day 1 in Maui – Saturday March 15, 2008

First day in paradise, and it started off with the 6 hour flight from San Diego to Maui-Kahului airport. The flight was long but exceedlingly bearable thanks to 2 very friendly ladies sitting next to me, traveling to Maui with a group of women all going to one of their teach colleague's wedding. That coupled with the warm chocolate chip cookie and milk served during hour 5 of the flight made it overall a very pleasant experience!

Alberto and I stopped at costco on the way back to West Maui and I got us some of the delicious "Aloha Maid" fruit drinks I'd discovered on the plane. My favorite: passion-orange. Yum.

Then it was a driving tour with alberto as the guide all the way over to Lahaina. He showed me Haleakala, which we were going to visit on Monday for the sunrise, Ma'alea Harbor where we were going in the morning for snorkeling, and Ka'anapali, a resort area that has awesome snorkeling. He also pulled over at a vista outlook over the ocean to show me my first glimpse of whales in the water. Sure enough, just out to sea I could see a whale swimming in the distance, blowing water out of his blowhole as he went. How cool is it, to be able to just pull over on the side of the road and see whales in the water??

Alberto has lots of things planned for us while we are here. He has got all the bases covered between now and when he goes back to work on Tuesday. We are going to go on a snorkeling trip, we're going to do a little sightseeing, we're going to see the sunrise at Haleakala, and on Tuesday night we are going to a luau. I can't wait!

Since we couldn't enter my condo until 3:00, we had some time to kill – about 2 hours. Alberto walked me through Downtown Lahaina, which truly is a little whaling/boating establishment right on the water. There was a crafts fair going on underneath the massive Banyan tree in the central square, and I thought of my old coworker Rik Nieves and the gourd art he makes. I was hoping to see him there, but of course I did not.

Right around then, I realized how HUNGRY I was! Cheeseburger in Paradise (recommendation from Eric Klauss) was just up the street, but we opted to hit the Cool Cat Café, just across the street and overlooking the activities beneath the Banyan tree. I'm so glad we did! Their Mai Tai's are AWFUL but I had a very refreshing pineapple and rum drink and their burgers were super good. I had the Marilyn Monroe and actually ate every single bite of it!

After we were stuffed and happy, we headed to the condo at Maui Sands. I had no idea what to expect and was prepared to be a little disappointed – it was the cheapest option I was able to find and the pictures made it look a little run down. It turns out that this place is great! It's cute, it's functional, and it's obviously maintained with love by its owners. The roar of the ocean waves is very strong and, true to the photo online, I can sit out on my lanai (balcony) and watch the waves crash in. It short, it's perfect J

That night Alberto treated me to a night out dancing at the very post Spat's, at nightclub inside the Hyatt Regency in Ka'anapali. Cover charges apply and dress code is strictly enforced! Here we are, we paused to take a photo before heading over there:

The place was very nice, but I was surprised to see that my beer was served in a can. The bartender said that guys tend to want to use bottles as clubs, so only cans are allowed. There's nothing like being dressed to impress and sporting an aluminum can of beer. :P Crazy Hawaiians!
The dance floor was nice, and I was tickled to see that every song played was accompanied by its music video being played on several big screen tv's mounted on the wall. I got to catch up on some of what I've been missing! J

Alberto remarked that the crowd that had filled up the place was a lot different than what he'd seen before – where there had been a majority of tourists, it was clear that the crowd had a much more local element that night. It's so odd for me to see the locals – I know it's generalizing, but my distinct impression of the local population is that they are pretty much all short and fat – with the exception of the occasional gigantic fat people I see. Nobody seems to smile very much.

After dancing until about 12:15 we headed home for bed. I was seriously jetlagged (my body thought it was past 3 am), and I wanted to make sure I was going to be my best for our snorkeling excursion in the morning!

Jury’s over and we are back from Maui!

I didn't realize till Erik pointed it out, but I forgot to update my blog after Jury Duty was over. It lasted for a week, including deliberations which took a whole day. At the end, we were able to come to a unanimous decision about each of the six charges that had been brought against the defendant, and the trial was successfully concluded.

Then I had one tiny week to get caught up on all of my work before flying out to join Alberto in Maui! He was there for a total of six weeks – Feb 8 to March 22. My plan was to join him the last week of his stay, from March 15 to March 22. We had lots of things planned, and I was ecstatic about taking some much needed time off!

I am going to start posting excerpts from my journal for each of the days that I was in Maui. About one a day, and it will include photos, since we took almost 400!!

Maui was awesome and I am elated to be able to share some our experiences with you here. Stay tuned…

Papa Loves Mama

well, the jury drags on and I am getting frustrated by the pace of things. we are going through a series of direct, cross examination, then redirect, then recross, and even once so far we had a re-re-direct....still interesting though and I am in it for the long haul.

This weekend Liz and I let down our hair with Tan. On Saturday, we had Tan over for dinner and beer, and after dinner was done we decided to randomly try a new place in Oceanside.

We ended up at a bar that overlooks the Oceanside Harbor called the Jolly Roger. Yes, Tan and I seem to have a thing for piratey places :)

We walked into the Jolly Roger at close to 10 pm, and found a small group of what were clearly bar regulars, all of which were directing their rapt attention to one corner of the bar where a karaoke setup was loudly playing a country song. After ordering a pint at the bar, I got Liz to agree that if I went up and did karaoke, she would too. It took a little bit of coercing, but finally we shook on it, and started poring through the massive books of songs and artists that were floating around the bar.

It was a great time! I can't say that I was any good whatsoever, but my goal was to get Liz on stage. She has a great voice and only lets her own shyness get in the way of letting it shine. She got up on stage first and belted out a beautiful rendition of Alicia Keys' "Fallin'". Remember that song? It's the one that made her famous thanks to the vocal range and acrobatics the song features. Liz did not disappoint and Tan agreed that the performance was quite impressive.

Then it was my turn. I decided to do something that had absolutely nothing to do with my voice range or singing style, instead opting for a song that I've had in my mind for a few weeks and just wanted to hear again. I selected Garth Brooks' "Papa Loves Mama".

What a hoot! I made sure to tell the lady working the karaoke equipment that this was my first time, hoping to ensure a forgiving attitude after my performance.

It was hard! No matter how well you know a song, you have to really keep your wits about you to know when to sing and when to wait. It's just not the same as hearing it on the stereo.

Sure enough, as soon as I was done, the lady encouraged everyone in the bar to give me a hand as this was my first time (Phew! what a relief!), and I made my way back to the bar, high-fiving Tan as I went.

After another beer, we convinced Liz to go up there once more and sing a Frank Sinatra number that someone else (a handsome boy around her age) had just sung and which she had expressed surprise and disappointment - apparently it was the same song as she had originally intended to sing, but she had changed her mind.

After about 20 minutes (yes, there was a waiting list!) she made it back up on stage and sang again. We had the unfortunate timing that the cute boy ended up leaving with his family at the same time, so the impact of singing the same song was a little lost on him, but she did great anyway.

Afterward, we were ready to pack up and move on.

The lady behind the bar said that a bar called "The Beach Club" was a likely happening place in Oceanside, so we decided to find it. It turned out to be the bar right across the street from the Beach Breaker Cafe! Small world.

It was kind of ghetto. I wasn't too impressed, and I think Liz and Tan felt the same.

It wasn't long after that when we headed home, and gobbled the rest of the pad thai that Tan had brought over earlier that night.

It was a fun time and I was glad to be able to relax and take my mind off business for a while!