Fun on Maui
Hawaii Golf / Beach Trip -- January 8-15, 2001
(Latest update: January 26, 2001 © Herbert E. Lindberg)


Most of our week was spent just having fun on Maui. On the evening of our first full day, Morrie Brown from LWW Travel put together a pleasant hosted cocktail and pu pu party at his unit overlooking the ocean. Here are Mary and me being relaxed and happy after a glass of wine (Mary) and a gin and tonic (me):
 
Herb and Mary on Morrie's deck.


Here's the obligatory shot of Mary on the beach reading a book the next morning (Wednesday). I've taken this shot on every beach vacation since we were married, and she's still got great legs! No tan this time, but our next visit will be for two weeks and those white legs will be brown.
Mary and ever-present book on Elua Village beach.

Proof: we saw whales.

After a brief two hours on the beach we drove up to Ma'alaea Harbor to take a two-hour cruise on a powered catamaran to watch whales. This was especially fun because the weather was calm and clear, and there were only seven tourists with a crew of four on a boat designed to carry 50 to 100 tourists. We all got to know one another and the naturalist, who explained each group of whales as we spotted them and hovered nearby (300 yards minimum, by law). We saw at least three or four (I wasn't counting) groups of whales, usually accompanied by dolphins playing with the pup whale. We stayed near a mother and pup for some time with a hydrophone in the water to listen to their chatter. Off in the distance was another group of whales who attracted the attention of the group near us by one of them repeatedly breaking water and slapping his or her tail against the water surface. Then sure enough, the last we saw of the mother and pup the mother was breaching the water in a direction to swim toward the slapping noise.

There was so much whale activity that it was difficult to go below to make sandwiches (very good) and grab a beer or mai tai, or both during the two hours. We also saw many sea turtles on our trip back to the harbor. And did I mention that the naturalist was a lovely blonde lady in her 50's (she told me as we chatted about her research over the years, or I wouldn't have guessed) but who looked 30 and in the cast of Baywatch!

After whale watching we drove up to the Maui Tropical Plantation to tour through their fields of tropical flowers and orchards of fruit and nut trees on a Disney-style tram. I found it interesting but the tour lady had a sing-song schpiel that sounded like Lawrence Welk on drugs. This soon had Mary nodding off with closed eyes. Most interesting facts for me: macadamia nuts have been cultivated only since my father was born, and the key to their success was a machine designed to crack open their very thick, strong shells without pulverizing the nut. With their shells the nuts are a one-inch diameter sphere. Hawaiian kids have ready-made sling shot ammunition!
 
Big beach, away from the resort crowds.


Friday we decided to explore the Wailea area. The beach above is well south of Wailea, away from the crowds. Then we did the access path walk from the Grand Wailea Resort up past the Elua Village to the Renaissance Resort Hotel. This was the Stauffer Hotel when we stayed there with Ken and Jackie Coyne last time we were in Hawaii. Below is the Elua Village taken from the beach access path.
The Elua Village, where Andy, Barbara, and girls stayed
and we plan to stay next year.


Saturday we spent another morning at the Wailea beach via the Outrigger and then drove to Lahaina for lunch and to tour historical sights. Among them was the famous one-square-block banyan tree, a small corner of which I photographed:
A small portion of the huge banyan tree in Lahaina.


We had such a big lunch that at dinner time we just had mai tais at a restaurant on the ocean. These looked so typically Hawaiian that I snapped a picture:
Mai tai in Lahaina.

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