HAWAII SPRING 2009

4 April 2009
Our Hawaiian Adventure
Early in 2009, friends Marie Hoemoeller and Clay Haller suggested that it might be fun to travel to Maui, Hawaii with them where they have a time share condo. We didn’t have to think about it very long after Marie announced that as a retired United Airlines employee she could arrange low cost stand-by air fares for us. Marie also knew of a nice condo that she had used in the past that would probably be available.
We checked on the availability of the Condo a the Kahana Reef and when we found it available when we wanted to go we sent a deposit and started dreaming of blue skies, warm sunshine, sparkling seas and a chance to turn off the rest of the world for a week and lay back and enjoy..
On Friday March 27 we picked up Marie before sun-up and headed for the San Francisco Airport. Clay had business to attend to and followed us to Maui the next day. We unloaded our suitcases on the sidewalk where Marie was greeted by skycaps as one of their own. She then took our car to park for free in the employee parking lot as we made our way through the usual stuff you need to to do to get to your intended gate. Marie caught up with us and we checked in at the gate as “stand-bys” and waited for assurance that there would be space for us on the flight. We got word that we could board and then an announcement was made that the flight crew found the plane unsuitable and another plane would need to be brought to the gate. Our original flight was scheduled for 9:20 AM, our replacement flight 11:45 AM. We were airborne about two hours later than we had planned but our “stand-by” status was working.
An uneventful, but sleepfull for Bill, flight took us to Kahului Airport on Maui and we were soon in our rented car heading for our condo at Kahana Reef. The community of Kahana marks about a mile of beach frontage with Kaanapali on the South end and Napili on the North; all connected by Honoapiilani Road. While these exotic names are accepted for directions, the State of Maui and the U.S. Post Office consider these communities a part of the city of Lahaina which is about eight miles away.
Once settled in, we joined Marie at the Sands of Kahana, her time share, where we enjoyed $3.00 “happy hour” Mai Tais before a light dinner of fish and chips. The long day we had spent getting to Maui easily convinced us that an early bedtime was in order and we all crashed. Marie spent the evening with us in our condo because her time share wasn’t to be ready until the following day.
On Saturday, we all drove back to the Kahului Airport, about 33 miles, and picked up Clay. On our return from Kahului we stopped for an early dinner at Buzz’s Wharf, a well known eatery at Ma’alaea Harbor abut half way between Kahului and Lahaina. We decided that the reputation of Buzz’s Wharf had been well earned as we enjoyed some delightful seafood.
Sunday found us on the road for the day with our first stop at a beautiful small Catholic Church on the crest of a hill overlooking the little town of Pukalani. After service, we continued on along a winding Hwy 37 in search of the little town of Ulupalakua and the Tedeschi Winery. The winery is a part of one of Hawaii’s old estates that has remained very much as it was in the 19th Century when a sea captain purchased a tract of land covering 6,500 acres. The land has had six owners over the years and each owner has tried to improve the quality of the ranch and its profits. A wide range of farm products have been developed over the years but sugar cane and beef have been the major crops. The winery claimed to be “famous” for its pineapple wine that sells like hot cakes to tourists. Our dry red wine tastes didn’t match the sweet pineapple wine so we passed on buying a bottle to take home. Our tasting covered a few other samples of the winery’s products but none seemed ready to compete in the world wine market.
A small museum featured pictures and stories about past owners and their families. It was interesting to note that the Hawaiian cowboys from the ranch have fared well in Rodeo competition on the main land. One hand from the ranch was actually the top cattle roper in US competition in the early part of the 20th Century. The stories of owner families told about many of the heirs who gave up their Hawaiian roots in favor of living out the second half of their lives in California.
We walked across the highway to a family owned pupu (snacks) and sandwich shop to buy our lunch which we ate at one of the several picnic tables nearby. We sat near a man who occasionally snapped a bull whip for the fascination of children who were picnicking with their families. We talked with the man who was weaving a lariat from rawhide. He described the rawhide lariat as a favorite for cowboys around the world. He told us that synthetic fabric lariats were available and used but they tended to be stiffer and much heavier than the preferred rawhide lariat like the one he was making. He didn’t look like a cowboy or an Hawaiian but we enjoyed meeting and talking with him.
The highlight of our day on the northwest end of the island was yet to come. The winery announced its schedule of activities, to bring people to taste their wine, which included a “Polo Match” featuring ranch hands doing their polo thing. Since we were there and the time was right, we walked down the road a quarter of a mile and 150 yards across a pasture to a seat on a felled tree overlooking a remarkably tailored polo field. In due time, the polo ponies and their riders took the field and gave the 25 or 30 polo fans on the hillside, the four of us included, a wonderful display of polo play or whatever it’s called. We sat on our tree with aching behinds through the first seven minute quarter during which one team scored a goal much to the concern of the other team. We duly applauded the fete and collectively decided that we had seen more polo than we needed for the day and motored back to our respective homes for the week.
By the end of third day in our island paradise, we took stock of what we had found to date. Our condo was beautiful in every way. Our fourth (top) floor balcony faced directly onto the sea where Molokai stood prominently in front of us. Only we rarely saw the island because it was covered by winter clouds. Several towering coconut palms swayed wonderfully in our view except that the high winds of our first few days moved them so briskly the flapping of the fronds drowned out the gentle lapping of the waves on the sea wall thirty feet in front of our room. The swimming pool below us featured dozens of lounges for sun bathing except that the high winds discouraged only the hardiest and most determined from gaining their Hawaiian tans. Being in Hawaii with our friends made up for these few wintertime shortcomings and we knew early on that our Maui get-away would be memorable.
Monday we spent most of the day enjoying Lahaina and its myriad of tourist oriented shops. We avoided buying tee shirts with slogans such as “How many times must I tell you I’m not stupid” and “Buy me another drink ‘cause you’re still ugly” and “Spooning often leads to Forking”. Ugh!! We found several art galleries that displayed dozens of art works featuring sunsets, whales and beautiful Hawaiian girls. Our tour wound its way to Bubba Gumps restaurant where we managed another round of Fish and Chips, this time made with Mahi Mahi. It was great. In the evening we searched for and found a nice restaurant at Napili Bay, The Sea House. The dining area opened onto the bay and featured a Guitar/Ukele playing singer that provided a wonderfully romantic ambience. We knew we had found the right spot when the performer sang the arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” that was played at our December 20 Family Wedding. We thanked him on our way out and stayed a while longer to dance to his music on a postage stamp sized dance floor.
Tuesday we drove to the opposite side of the island to drop Marie and Clay off at the Waiehu Municipal Golf Course where they played a round of golf in near gale wind conditions. While they were battling the greens, we headed out on our exploration of that part of the island. Our first stop was at the Iao Valley State Park and the Iao Needle. We knew we must be in an important place because several tour bus loads from the cruise ship anchored in Lahaina Harbor had already deposited their tourists at the site. We walked through most of the beautiful park, took a few pictures to remind us how lucky we were to be at such a special place and enjoyed the marvelous scenery. Dottie waited below while Bill climbed the 144 steps for a better view of the Iao Needle with a back drop of the nearby ocean.
A short ride from the Iao Needle we found Kapaniwai Heritage Gardens that displayed several gardens designed to celebrate the various nationalities that have immigrated to Hawaii in the past. At each garden a plaque told the histories of the immigrant groups that included Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese and, much to our surprise, Puerto Ricans. We wandered through the various gardens taking exception to a family that we watched who were netting Coi out of a pond in front of a large sign that told visitors not to remove fish or plants from ponds.
We found a place called “Maui Plantation” where we knew we could find a restaurant. We arrived a few minutes before 2:00 PM and were told by the greeter that the lunch service usually ended at 2 but we could make it if we hurried. We did and were pleased that we did. The lunch room was one that looked as though it could serve a half dozen tour busses at once. Obviously, the purpose of the business was to cater to cruise ship tourists in large numbers. As we ate near a window overlooking a beautifully landscaped area, an elephant train loaded with tourists passed by. We were certain that the guide/driver was pointing us out to the attentive tourists as some form of life unique to the region. We later took the train ride and found that there were actually some unique flora near our window that caused the gawking in our direction. The ride took us through the plantation where quarter acre plots featured all of the fruits and flowers associated with the South Seas. We saw Bananas, Guavas, Avacados, Papayas, Mangos, Coconuts, sugar cane and several varieties of orchids and tropical flowers. We almost missed the ride because everyone else had purchased tickets at a ticket booth two hundred yards away. As I started to run for the tickets, the young greeter spotted us and gave the guide the high sign to allow us to ride sans tickets as his personal guests. We figured he must be a real Hawaiian.
After our Maui Plantation visit we sought out the Maui Historical Society Museum at Wailuku. The museum was housed in a residence that once was home to an early Mormon settler who seemed to include everything and anything in his resume. He formed a school for girls on the site while he managed a sugar cane mill, farmed, served as mayor and wrote books on the side. One of his sons is listed among Hawaii’s most notable early artists. The one remaining building from the girls’ school is now used as a gift shop where visitors can purchase some really nice things to take home and forget about.
Since we still had some time before we believed Clay and Marie would be finished with their round of golf, we set out to find a yardage shop where we could buy some Hawaiian looking print material to replace the table cloth and bench covers on the Lanai at home. We received some mixed directions from several sources that set us off across Wailuku in search of the local mall that we were told had a yardage shop. We found the mall and were looking for a parking spot when Marie called to say that they were looking for a ride home. When we arrived at the golf course the wind was at its full strength making it difficult to open the car doors and, once outside, to stand up without hanging on to something solid. Marie and Clay were happy as clams with their day chasing the little white ball and seemed to hardly notice the breeze.
The next several days were spent 1) trying to find a spot out of the wind to enjoy the warm sunshine, 2) revisiting Lahaina to continue our shop explorations and 3) enjoying several more of the outstanding restaurants in the area. We had a great lunch at the old Pioneer Inn next to the Banyan Tree in Lahaina and enjoyed reading about the history of the Inn. The account we read said that an English immigrant to Canada went to work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This “giant of a man” who was unusually tall and weighed more than 300 pounds was sent to Hawaii in 1901 to arrest a suspected criminal who had fled Canada to avoid prosecution. No one knows what really happened but the RCMP didn’t catch his man and he resigned his post and stayed in Hawaii. During his first year on Maui he sold $50 shares to build a hotel. With the $7500 he raised, he built the Pioneer Inn and repaid his investors within two years. He operated the Inn successfully for over thirty years. One of his sons moved toTahiti where he spent a half dozen years. He returned to Maui, minus his French Polynesian wife, and worked to take over the management of the Inn. For the next dozen years or so the son successfully managed the business adding to the original holdings and establishing a liquor distributorship on Maui, all the while spending most of his days imbibing freely under the Banyan tree across the street. It is said that he spent so much time under the tree that he had his mail delivered to his bench under the tree where he spent most of his days and managed his various businesses. The original Pioneer Inn stands today as one of the most popular tourist attractions in Lahaina.
We enjoyed a Hawaiian breakfast with two friends who just happened to be vacationing on the Kaanapali coast while we were there. We drove into Lahaina with Joy and Paul Scribner for breakfast at one of the many nice places to eat on Front Street. It was a first meeting with Paul for Bill but Dottie and Joy had known one another for many years. Joy works with Dorri in the same dentist’s office where she is a Dental Hygienist. She knows more about Dottie’s teeth than anyone else but she wouldn’t tell me a thing pleading professional confidentiality. Joy and Paul enjoy traveling and we had a grand time hearing of their most recent travel adventures.
A search through local phone books led to the discovery of a large yardage shop at Kahalui and a GPS aided search ensued leading us the to shop we needed. With so many Hawaiian prints in stock, it became a challenge to select just the perfect match for our Lanai. Once found, it didn’t seem right to only buy one of the lovely prints so an additional five yards of fabric was added to the bill and we left for our ocean front home with thirty more pounds to be added to our homeward bound luggage.
On Friday, Clay left for home early and was greeted with the stand-byers constant hope….first class seating all the way home. Marie, Dottie and Bill followed the next morning to find their favored 11:45 AM flight sold out. Settling down for the next flight at 8:45 PM with fingers crossed hoping that room for these happy but pooped travelers would be available, or maybe the next flight…or the next flight.
Our love to all, as always….
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
PS: We finally made it onto an eleven o’clock flight that only had two seats for these three weary “stand-bys”. Seasoned stand-byer Marie volunteered to wait for the next flight that would probably not have any seats until Monday after the Sunday rush to go home. Thank you Marie. Thanks again to Marie and Clay for inviting us to join them on our wonderful stay on Maui. And thank you Clay for making sure we got home after we arrived in San Francisco.