Aloha! This is the Hawaiian word used as a traditional greeting or farewell. It also means a spirit of love.
And in that spirit, what better way to start our journey than from the beginning – on the shuttle bus on our way to the airport. This is Larine, pretending that she’s really cold – it wasn’t actually that cold the day we left, but it makes for a good photo…
We left for the airport on Friday afternoon, getting into Hawaii at 7pm local time. We arrived to meet the tail end of one of the worst storms they’ve had in decades. Not only were many beaches washed full of debris during the storms, but large parts of the island were without power and water. Thankfully where we were staying had both power and water. Though the beaches just across the way from us would be closed for a few days. They did finally open in time for us to enjoy the sunshine and calm sea.
Maui has two large mountains that mean most of the island is in a valley between the two mountains. The one shown to the right has the romantic name of ‘West Maui Mountain’, and was covered with clouds most of the time we were there. The other mountain, which you’ll see later on is called Haleakala.
The weather the first day deceived us into thinking that paradise was to be found on another island. The last remnants of the storm left us with some cloud, winds and rain to deal with. We used the opportunity to explore the nearby town of Lahaina, which was on the West side of the island.
According to the guide book it was going to be bustling and full of life – so full in fact that you’d get sick of the crowding before too long. I’m not sure if this just applies to the summer, but we found that most of the places we went were pleasantly at a 3/4 capacity.
To the right that is, amazingly enough, a single tree. This is Banyan tree park in Lahaina.
On the second day of our trip we foolishly decided to leave our camera at home as we went exploring West Maui Mountain. The sun had come out, but many of the beaches near us were closed. We had a tough time finding the Olivine pools, which is a series of tidal pools that are down some fairly adventurous rocks. After two failed attempts at finding the correct pools (one gave us half a foot of water to sit in, and another we found to be unreachable after we were half way down) we finally made it, and spent a few hours enjoying the tranquil waters.
Part of our adventure in West Maui mountains included a trip to find the ‘best banana bread in the world’, which took us on a winding single road up the side of the mountain, which eventually became an even more windy dirt road. The banana bread was good, but I still think Larine makes better banana bread 
Our travel agent had told us that beaches to the north were mostly sheltered from the storm, and swimmable. Since we didn’t try other beaches that day I can’t be sure, but they didn’t seem very calm, and our price for the pleasure of our first swim in the ocean was a pretty bad pounding by the waves. We probably should’ve been weary when surfers abound…
Monday was our first chance to really snorkel. We took a trip out with the Pacific Whale Foundation, and it was remarkable! On the way to our snorkel destination we saw quite a few whales, before encountering a very large pod of spinner dolphins. More dolphins than I’d ever seen in my life. The captain said there was around 100 dolphins swimming around us. A truly amazing experience. We stuck with the dolphins for about 15 minutes before finding our first snorkel destination. There are a few pictures of a whale, and then the large pod of dolphins below.
This is our snorkel destination, where we were finally able to get into the water.
That’s us in the water – we bought a water proof housing for our digital camera so we could take pictures in the water.
Ahh yes, nothing like a good day snorkeling in the sun to make you thirsty!
This is a view of Maui from the boat, and another whale saying ‘hi’
We saw lots of turtles in Maui, on the two snorkel trips we took, as well as when we snorkeled around the rocky areas just off the beach. Since turtles are protected, we aren’t able to get too close to them, but it was fun to swim along behind them and watch them. We saw a turtle that was sleeping in a half-cave in the coral, and another that tried to, unsuccessfully, parallel park itself into a cut-out in the coral before giving up and going to sleep anyway.
Being in Hawaii, we had to attend a traditional Luau. Or, at least that’s what we were planning on. While they had some cool fire dancing, and we watched a gorgeous sunset over the sea the luau was more like a tacky Vegas show than an expression of traditional music and dance.
Our next adventure was the fabled ‘road to Hana’ – one of the most beautiful drives in the world, that makes you gasp in awe at the wonder of nature. Or at least the guidebook said something along those lines. We found that most of the places mentioned in the guidebook had been fenced up, with large ‘no trespassing’ signs posted. Not too welcoming.
We were eventually able to find a waterfall, and were somewhat disappointed at it’s less than forcefully flowing water…
Though further along the trip we found a more noteworthy water attraction that made this portion of the trip seem somewhat worthwhile.
Unable to find scenic beauty on the road so far, we thought that a visit to a 1200 year old temple would help instill some wonder and awe.
The majesty of the temple was somewhat exaggerated, as you can see above. That didn’t stop us from trying to capture the spirit of natives from a millennia ago
Very much the highlight on our drive to Hana was finding a black sand beach. The sand is formed from lava that flowed into the sea, and crashed against both the sea and itself, over time being worn down to fine sand.
We took a small trail down to a fresh water cave, where Larine was attacked by a vicious spider (okay, it landed on her and she quickly brushed it off with a rather excited cry of surprise), but that cut our visit to the jungle cave short. Further along just past Hana we found a very small red sand beach. It wasn’t worth the mountaineering to actually stand on the beach, so we took a picture from afar.
Rather oddly, we found a number of burnt out cars, like this one, on the side of the road while driving around Maui. I’m not quiet sure why that is, but it made a stark contrast to the lush greenery and stunning ocean vistas.
Our next adventure woke us up at 3am in an attempt to see the sun rise at the top of Haleakala. We drove 2 hours in the dark to arrive at early at the summit. We arrived there in good time for the sunrise (as it would’ve been a shame to wake up early and then miss it all). However the mountain top was cloudy and absolutely freezing. The only time I’ve ever been colder is when I was foolish enough to jump out of a plane at 10’000 ft in the middle of winter. We were not prepared for how cold it was, despite taking all the warm clothes we had with us on the trip, we still spent a good hour waiting for the sun to rise, freezing just about every body part off. In the end we didn’t get to see the sun rise because of the clouds, but did get to see the first rays bathing the clouds with dramatic colors from below. I’m pretty sure this would have been spectacular, were it not for the clouds and the freezing wind and rain at the summit.
Almost as if in penance for trying to freeze us off the mountain, we were presented with a beautiful double rainbow on the drive down.
We spent the rest of our vacation enjoying the great sunshine, warm water, calm sea and clear snorkeling conditions, charging up our ‘sun batteries’ for the Seattle winter.
After 12 hours of waiting in airports or on the plane, we made it home safely, and somewhat tired. Larine was greeted by her three favorite animals (manatee, umsebe and batwom). As you can see from the smile on her face – even though Maui was wonderful, warm and sunny, there’s no place like home.
I recently discovered a website (www.kiva.org) that gives micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. The neat thing is that they allow you to sign up and give a loan to someone as well. Starting from as little as $25. So far they have a 100% repayment rate.
Below is a picture of Elisapeta, who I just lent $25 so she can start a small business selling sandwiches.
It’s amazing to me how little it takes to give hope to someone.
Larine and I just got back from a week’s vacation in sunny Flordia (photos). It was a great time away from the rain (and a day of snow!) in Seattle.
We had the dubious pleasure of taking the red eye out with a connection in Atlanta, and got to Orlando airport dead tired. We’d splurged and rented a convertable, which was great for the times we spent cruising in the sunshine – truth be told though, the car spent most of the time parked in the garage while we were on the beach.
Being the adventerous sort (entirely since we couldn’t checkin before 4pm) we went off to Cocoa beach, which is about an hour’s drive from where we were staying in Daytonna Beach. After munching some food, and cruising around for a beach we found the perfect spot and crashed in the sunshine for much needed shut eye. Our hotel turned out to be totally swanky – not too bad for a free vacation, hey? They finally let us into our room (4pm checkin time and then making us wait some more!)
That’s our swanky hotel in the background
Sun, sun sun! More time on the beach!
Here’s another view of the beach front
Seagulls following Larine… (not really, but looks like it, huh?)
Our first touristy thing was a visit to the Kennedy Space Center. In the photos you’ll see the space shuttle Atlantis in the background – they made a big deal about how we could only see the fuel tanks because it was covered to protect it from weather damage. Lo and behold they had a 5 min hailstorm later in the week, and the space shuttle was damaged – go figure.
Space shuttle Atlantis (the fuel tanks, at least)
That’s me!
Inside one of the buildings at the kennedy space center
Larine at zero G!
I got to meet an astronaut! (or at least some guy dressing in an astronaut suit…)
Spend a few days in the spacious cockpit of a shuttle? no thanks. That even makes coach seating look expansive.
Apart from lots of sun time on the beach, we went to Seaworld, saw a couple really good shows, and of course, Shamu. We went to a pirate themed dinner, which turned out to be very similar to the medievil themed one we went to in Las Vegas (audience each has a pirate they root for, lotsa audience participation, corny jokes, and so on). Was fun though.
Larine’s new favorite animal – Manatees – they’re endangered animals that look sortof like a hippo (most closely related to an elephant, I’m led to believe). You can find them in rivers in Florida, and of course, Seaworld…
This week it’s back to work, I’m feeling rested now – lets see if that can last the rest of the week
Tags: Daytonna Beach, Florida
Snow in Portland over the week makes for some, uhh, hazardous conditions. Watch home video of 15 different car collisions. The first one is unbelievable – the guy hits just about every car in sight.
and getting rained on in Oregon.
We joined Dale and Christina on Mt. Hood this last weekend, and didn’t have as much luck staying on our snowboards as we might have hoped. You can find some more pictures here.
We drove out on Saturday afternoon, and we experienced the wonder and joy of putting on snow chains for the first time. Actually it was more like painful cold and inconvenience, but it kept us from sliding off the road (which I suppose was a good thing). We managed to break off part of the chain on the way up, and lost one of our chains in the parking lot of the Mt. Hood Inn. We found it, and managed to reattach it to the tire – only to have the snow melt on the roads the next day and have to remove the chains. Well, it was fun anyway
Getting ready to snowboard – yeah!
Icicle fight!
On the way down Skibowl we got a bit lost (well, we were trying to find the easiest way down) – and ended up having to hike a mile through the snow to get back to the lodge. Soggy and wet, we decided to call it a day, and left for overcast and rainy Seattle.
Okay, so I’m a little late blogging about our 2nd snowboarding trip (where Matt was smart enough to bring a camera – yah!). More photos here
Larine, Matt and I enjoyed a great day of snowboarding on Steven’s Pass. The weather was clear and crisp, and we made it down a few times without too much pain.
On the 2nd run down Larine fell on her wrist, and spent some time with the medical folks – who not only gave her cookies, but also a free lift ticket and snowboarding lesson next time she came by.
Matt went off to a lesson, while I sped down the hill and landed on my head. Quite literally, actually – and it was fairly painful.
Matt and Larine
Larine, carving up the snow!
Tags: Snow, snowboarding
Snow has come to Seattle! A natural consequence of which is that everything in the city has pretty much shut down. It took me 3 hours to get home last night as Seattle drivers bravely navigated the vast amounts (a few inches) of snow on their way home.
As you may be able to tell, I’m none too pleased about the long commute, but I suppose the snow day today makes up for it
Larine as the snow was starting
and that’s me
While I was stuck in traffic, Larine was able to enjoy the snow
Here’s the snow girl Larine made
Of course, we need a picture with Larine too…
And her cuteness is unsurpassed
These pictures were taken last night, just after I got back from work. This morning was bright and sunny, but the 20 degree weather had frozen last night’s slush to the roads.
Tags: Snow
