Monday October 6, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

We see a lot of people paddling boards

After finishing most of my coffee I went to the office and arranged a trip to Lanai for Tuesday and a Luau on Thursday.  Except for some meals out those are the last of our planned activities.

I served lunch of pastrami sandwiches at around noon.  Afterwards Gerri and her mom went out in the sun.  I went geocaching.  I did pretty well.  Armed with hints from other cachers I took three caches off my did not find list.  Unfortunately I added another that I didn't find.

Where the sun sat

I got back to the resort at about the same time that the ladies returned to the unit.  We played a rousing game of dominoes.  I managed to go out 3 of the nine hands and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Gerri was uncatchable before we played the "0" hand.

No moon in sight

It had clouded up and there was no show at sunset.  The clouds also blocked any view of the nearly full moon.

We went to bed at 10, anticipating being up early for our boat ride to Lanai.

Sunday October 5, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

We see this species often

"Six days shall thy labor and do all thy work." - Exodus 20:9.  I'm not sure if relaxing and enjoying Hawaii is work, but we sure didn't work today.  We sure did less on Sunday than we have the past week.  I don't need any sticklers pointing out that the seventh day Exodus refers to is not Sunday.

Actually we did quite a bit today.  We got up early enough to tune into and participate in the worship services from Oakey Blvd. Church of Christ.  Jesus Perez taught an excellent lesson on living our daily lives and how to conduct lives in the church. The lesson came from the first chapter of the book of James.  Neva brought communion supplies, so we were able to participate in the Lord's Supper.

A screen shot from Skype

This was Brandon's birthday, eight years old. They called on Skype and we watch Brandon open his presents. His current passion is skateboarding so many of the gifts had that theme.

It was a rainy morning and the start of the afternoon didn't look too promising for the sun to come out for Gerri and Neva to lay out in the sun. I made pastrami sandwiches for lunch and served them with Quinoa salad.

We did roust ourselves out to the patio table for a game of Train.  I never had a chance, no one does when playing against Barnharts.  The game was decided before we played the "0" set.  We played it anyway, who knows when lightning will strike.  It didn't and Neva was the winner.  I came in last.

Later in the afternoon we got another Skype call and watched Brandon blow out the candles on his birthday cake and start eating it.  Carrying on the tradition of his father it was ice cream cake.

We tuned in to the netcast of evening services at Oakey Blvd.  Of course that was only late afternoon here.  Randy continued his series of lessons from the book of Esther.  Today Randy brought us through Chapter 7.  In these lessons from Esther were taught how to conduct ourselves according to God's will and in service to others.  We are also taught through the bad example of Hammon how not to conduct ourselves.

Watching the sunset has become a ritual and we sat out by the ocean watching the sun go down.

Tonight there was the added attraction of a nearly full moon.  The moon was high in the sky by sunset. It is still waxing full, in a couple of days it will be completely full.


We had salad with grilled chicken for supper. We finished off the night with TV, reading and computer time.

Saturday October 4, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

It was a lazy morning after riding in the car so much yesterday.  Well OK, it was an entire lazy day.  We had coffee and read most of the morning.

Ginger plants make up a lot of the landscaping here

We had the leftover quiche for lunch along with some mango and pineapple.  After lunch we went out to a table on the pool pavillion and played at dominos.  The pool outside our room is one of two on the property, both have a pavillion with tables and chairs.  They have drink vending machines and restrooms.  They are named for the islands across the channel, the one by us is Moloka'i and the other is Lana'i.  Occasionally there are activities at both.  Every morning at the Lana'i pavilion there is a presentation by Expedia experts about the activities available on Maui

I mentioned dominos.  I reluctantly report that Gerri beat Neva and me soundly at a rousing game of Train.

Most of the day was spent with reading and computer activities.  We did watch the birds around the resort.  We saw small doves and two other species we don't recognize.

There were several small sail boats that sailed from the north.  Coming through the channel between Maui and Moloka'i they had to do a lot of short tacks and on their last tack in front of our beach they turned into the channel between Lana'i and Moloka'i.  They sailed out of sight. Probably headed for Oahu.

Lana'i is behind that grey cloud

Toward sunset time all of Lana'i was shrouded in clouds and it looked like it was raining.  The clouds continued on the sea toward Moloka'i. The dark clouds were blocking the sun.  The sun did light up some of the clouds behind us.

Looking northeast at sunset

Here are more pictures from our drive to Haleakala yesterday:

Low on the mountain looking up at the fog and clouds

Looking north from the summit

Like many picturesque town in mid-America, wires often mar the scene in Makawoa

Friday October 3, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

Add caption

Today after having our coffee we set out to see Haleakala (House of the Sun) Crater.

Gerri and Neva

It was about 60 miles away.  We are on the western part of Maui.  Haleakala is on the eastern part of the Island.  We had to drive east and north back to Kapalui and then south and east to the mountain.  Not long after we turned onto the highway leading up the mountain it got steep.  It also turned into Hairpin County and Switchback City.  Not very far up the mountain we came to fog or cloud.  There was intermittent rain, ranging from a mist to light and heavy rain.  It was an 18 mile drive once we started up.  The climb was basically from sea level to 10,023 feet.  According to one sign we saw the temperature drops 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1000 feet as you go up.  We started in farmland then trees, then grassland and eventually we were above treeline.  There were only a few places to pull off for the view or pictures.  Most of the mountain was shrouded in fog or clouds but occasionally we got a view back at the isthmus and west Maui.

Typical view once we were on the mountain

We took a lot of pictures that I will probably post with later blogs.  We saw several kinds of birds, Pheasant, chukar and a turkey.  Most sightings were fleeting as the birds crossed the road.  The chukar were an exception.  We saw several in the summit parking lot.  Chukar are not native birds. They were introduced from eastern Europe and Asia in 1923.  There is another bird common to the area that we did not see.  It is a Hawaiian goose called Nene (NayNay.)

The summit of Haleakala is bare volcanic rock with sparse vegetation and a few plants like the Silver Sword have adapted and thrive.  The Silver Sword looks something like a Yucca.  While at the summit I did gather the information to claim an Earthcache.

At the summit

Silver Sword

 

Chukar on the rocks, can you spot it?

 On the way down the curves and switchback were made even more dangerous by the rain and more than a few people that wanted to go faster than we considered safe.  Gerri was driving and I'm sure some of the time it was nerve racking. The rental car is a Volkswagon Passat.  It has only two forward positions on the shift lever, D and S.  She used S most of the way down, my Jeep would have been in second and maybe a couple of times first, but it is 4 speed transmission.

Zoomed Chukar on the rocks

Downtown Makawoa

Before getting to the main highway we stopped for awhile in the old town of Makawoa. I looked for a cache there and was not able to find it,

Fish Tacos at Lailani's

Before going back to the Papakea we decided to have dinner out somewhere where we could watch the sunset.  We settled on Leilani's at Whaler's Village.  Neva and Gerri both had fish tacos and I has a flat iron steak with rice and Macaroni salad.  A time share salesman outside the restaurant had given us a coupon for a free Hula Pie dessert.  We had that, it was basically an vanilla ice cream pie with macadamia nuts, chocolate and whipped cream.

Free Hula Pie

Sunset over Lanai

We lingered over the meal long enough to see the sunset over Lanai.

Back at the Papalea we relaxed, caught up on computer stuff and read.

It had been a full day and Gerri and Neva were in bed before 11 and I read until 12.

Thursday October 2, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

Looking north from the Napili area

We were all up by 8:30 and I had the coffee made.

The morning was spent around the unit. Mostly reading.  We fixed a lunch.  A Pastrami sandwich for Neva and Braunschweiger sandwiches for Gerri and me.

A tree tunnel to the beach

In the afternoon Gerri and Neva went out to sit in the sun.  I went caching.

My caching took me north and started with a cache I hadn't found after looking twice.  Someone found it yesterday so I was determined to find it.  I did find it after considerable searching.  It was about 40' feet from the coordinates given. The next cache was another that I had looked for briefly.  This time I looked a lot longer and still didn't find it.  The next two I walked right to them and took longer to sign the logs than I did to find the caches.

Wind in the palms

On the way back I stopped at a nearby grocery store for ice and a few other items.

I got back to our unit at about the same time as the ladies came in from the beach

Gerri started dinner at about 5:30, well started the oven heating.  Tonight we were having a green salad and Lasagna.  We bought the Lasagna already prepared from Costco.  We were going to have it last night but the cooking instructions called for covering it with foil while cooking.  We didn't have any foil.  I went to the concierge's desk and ask if she had some foil.  She got me a sheet from the employees break room.  That saved us from buying a box that we would have to leave here minus one sheet.


We went out for the sunset as usual.    After the sunset we saw a small radio controlled aircraft flying along the beach. Someone said it was a drone with a video camera.  I talked with a retired fireman from the Seattle area until it got dark. The R/C airplane was still flying along the beach.

The lasagna supper was very good.  After dinner we relaxed some more (can't get enough of that.)

We read, watched t.v. and visited until calling it a night at about 10.

The Tiki torches are lit every night

Tomorrow we plan to drive to the Haleakala Volcano National Park and see the sights,

Spy in the sky

Wednesday October 1, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

This crab almost actual size

We got up about 8:30. Since there are 3 of us now, I made a full 12 cup pot of coffee.  We lingered over the coffee, reading and talking. The morning passed quickly.

I made lunch of Pastrami sandwiches.

In the mid afternoon Gerri and Neva went out by by the ocean and I went geocaching.

Cruise ship at Lahaina

Looking west from Dislocation point above Launuipaka Beash

I found the first one after wandering around a mesquite thicket about 1500' from the car.  The next closest was to the west across the highway and up toward the mountains.  I got within 300' on a cul d'sac but there were keep out signs and ones that said no parking on the street or grass.  I drove around and found a paved trail off the road. My iPhone showed the cache .2 miles in the direction the trail went and there was a small park but the no parking signs were present.  I passed on going for that and another nearby cache.  The next cache I looked for was a steep climb up a hill and I didn't find it.  The first picture is of a crab that I thought was watching me hunt.  But he was quite dead and desiccated.  The next is looking pack toward Lahaina from the area of the cache I found.  The third is looking west from the area atop the hill where I didn't find the cache.

Maui birds

Gerri and Neva had relaxed and enjoyed the sun and ocean.  They saw many of these small red headed birds around the lawn.

When I got back to the resort we all went out to enjoy the sunset.  There was a small crowd lined up along the sea wall for the same reason.

After dark we returned to our unit.  Gerri prepared a Broccoli Quiche with a salad for dinner.  Everyone went to bed at a reasonable time .  Except me I read until 12:30.

 Day is done, Gone the sun

Tuesday September 30, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

Since the maid was scheduled to come this morning at 9, we were not only up before then but we were dressed.

We lounged around most of the morning.  A couple of days a go a small bug got under the protective plastic cover on my iPhone screen.  It was in the way of almost everything I tried to type.  This morning I finally figured out how to take the case off the phone, got the screen clean and even managed to get the case back together properly.  Hey, I know it doesn't sound like much, but small accomplishments are important too.

At 1:20 we headed to the airport to pick up Gerri's mother who is joining us for the next two weeks. We stopped at Costco for a "few things."  While we were shopping Neva called as she was boarding the airplane in Honolulu.  So we knew we had about an hour to get to the airport.  $250 later we were on the way a few blocks to the airport.

I tried to wait at the curb while Gerri went into the baggage pickup area but I was waved away by airport employees.  I circled twice and then went to the cell phone waiting lot.  I called Geri and she said they were at the curb and she had tried to call twice.  I had had the phone in my hand all the time and I checked and the ring volume was on.  I was back and we were loaded with Neva's bags and quickly on our way.

Neva's first stop on Maui

Gerri wanted to make a stop for coconut on the way back to the resort.  There was a stand where we turned on to the highway to Lahaina. We stopped but they only had the green coconut.  We prefer older coconut meat that is dryer.  It seems that both here and in Mexico the locals like it be able to eat it with a spoon. We passed on buying any.

The stand is at the entrance to a plantation and they have some old equipment on display.

Neva and Gerri with an old hay rake and Ford panel delivery 

Put da lime in da coconut, well chop it open first

Since our mission was still to buy some coconut we went on along the highway to a fruit stand that we knew had what we wanted.  The guy there chopped one open but the juice was starting to ferment.  He opened another one that was just right.  They chop an end off first so you can drink the juice and then they split the coconut in half, leaving the husk on.  It is up to you to get the meat out.  I did that later at the resort.

Ladies at sunset

After we got the baggage and groceries into our unit we relaxed for awhile.  We went out by the sea to watch the sunset.  There were a lot of people with the same idea, the seawall was pretty much lined with other sunset watchers.

It had been a long day for Neva.  We were all in bed by 10:30.






















Goodbye to September and 3/4 of 2014.