Our Years in Maui

On the Road

2008-06-29T17:56:00.002-10:00

Okay, so we are not in Maui anymore, but we are not back in MA either. Our road trip has begun. We have been on the road for almost a week (and we are in a room with internet service) so we decided to give a quick update. We will share pictures and stories when we get home but here is a summary:

States covered: California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah

Miles traveled: about 500

Trips to Target for stuff: 1

# of Deer seen: 10 (this piece of data is for you Mom/Susan)

# of nights camping: 2

$ we won in Vegas: $7.00 - hey, at least we didn't loose!

National Parks visited: 3

Tomorrow we head to Zion National Park.

The trip is going awesome so far :)

Our Last Hawaiian Sunset

2008-06-22T23:12:00.005-10:00

Well, after two fantastic years in Maui, tonight is our last night. We had a great last day - a quick stop at the beach, then to a slack key guitar concert at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center then we had friends over for the last sunset and dinner.

We were so happy that the sunset cooperated. Yet another beautiful sunset...man are we going to miss this.

So we are off tomorrow for our cross country trip. Most of our stuff is packed, and we are about 63% sure it will all fit in the car :) We will try to post on this blog during our trip...but no promises.

We should be back sometime in mid July.

Until then, Aloha for the last time from Maui.

Up up and away

2008-06-15T15:13:00.002-10:00

We are nearing the end of our adventures here in Maui, but we wanted to go out with a splash! I organized a surprise (well, surprise for Jon) parasailing afternoon with a few friends. It was a lot of fun! The company that we went with has double parasailing which was so much more fun than going solo.

Jon and I were first. Up up and away...

That's us way up there.
The views were beautiful. We went in Ka'anapali so we could see the whole west side, into the west Maui mountains and all up and down the coast.

It was pretty cool :)

Here is a picture of Jon and Sareeka on the boat.

Honolua Bay

2008-06-03T21:31:00.004-10:00

Believe it or not, we went to a new beach last weekend! We found Honolua Bay, around the west side. We went up for the day with Chalise, Ricky and baby Tony. The beach was really pretty and the water was crystal clear! We brought all of the snorkel gear and boy am I glad we did. I think this was the best snorkeling we have done off the coast. There were tons of beautiful, colorful fish. The waves were calm, the sun was shining, it was fantastic.

Here we are at Honolua Bay.

See how clear it is? Aren't the colors beautiful!?

After we left the bay we went to Lahaina where they were hosting the annual canoe festival. Wood carvers from all around the South Pacific gather in Lahaina every year to compete in the canoe carving competition. Each team is given one log and they have 2 weeks to carve a canoe out of it. Here is one of the canoes one week into the carving. Pretty cool. A week later the canoes are all done and they have a celebration before launching them into the ocean (Jon went last year but we didn't make it this year).

This is a pretty flower - Ricky took this picture, I like the color :)

May Sunsets

2008-05-26T16:30:00.005-10:00

Ok, so I know May isn't over yet, but it has been a month of the most beautiful sunsets. I thought I would share some of the best with you.

Taken May 9th from our lanai:

Taken May 11th from our lanai:

Taken May 18th at Charlie Young beach:

Taken May 23rd from our lanai:

Wow huh? I remember one of the first nights Jon and I lived here, we watched a beautiful sunset at the beach. We wondered if over time we would lose interest in the sunset or if it would somehow lose some of its awe and beauty. We guessed that it wouldn't. I can say with certainty two years later, that the sunset last night was just as beautiful and moving as the first sunset we saw here - it doesn't get old.

Palm Springs, CA

2008-05-21T19:40:00.007-10:00

We were lucky enough to celebrate Passover in California again this year. We made it a family affair! The first night of Passover was spent at Aunt Taffy and Uncle Stu's place near LA. It was so great to see everyone again - even if was the last passover in their house :( Jon's parents flew out from Florida to spend Passover together too!

For the second night Jon, his parents and I drove out to Palm Springs, where my parents flew in, and we celebrated in the time share.

Here is a typical view (I think we took this picture from the car) of the mountains surrounding Palm Springs. The drive Palm Springs is like the drive to Las Vegas. It is not really that pretty, and you are in the middle of the desert and then, out of no where, there is this oasis of development and beauty. It was really quite a view.

Before Jon's parents left they were able to get in a round of golf with Marcia's mother and Jon. The course looked amazing. Here they are on their way to the 10th hole.
While they were golfing, Dad and I rented these cool bikes and rode around town!

Unfortunately, Jon's parents headed back to Florida mid week. We had a great time vacationing with them :)

Second half of the week, we took a ride to the top of Palm Springs on this cable car. What a view! The cable car is glass on all sides and spins, slowly, as it ascends and descends.

Here we are at the top. Yes, that is SNOW on the mountain top. We were not dressed for the temperatures up there...I think it was in the 40's and we had shorts on!

Later in the week we took a drive to Joshua Tree National Park - the beginning of our National Park tour (more to come on future blog posts...). It was unlike any other National Park I have seen.

There were tons of these cool rock formations. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.

Jon, super muscle man!!
I love the contrast of color in this picture.

Awesome vacation all around!

Crashing the Ritz

2008-04-30T20:31:00.003-10:00

What to do on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with no plans...crash the Ritz! We are trying to test out all of the fancy pools before heading back :)

Here is a view of the Ritz from the upper lanai.

This is my view, looking up from my lounge chair.

After spending the afternoon at the pool, we headed out to Kaanapali for some late afternoon swimming in the ocean, and the sunset.

The group pretending to surf as the sun sets behind us.

Ahh, another tough day in Maui.

Seriously?!

2008-04-13T13:02:00.003-10:00

This is getting ridiculous.

Highest in the nation - yeah baby!

Camping on Lana'i

2008-03-30T11:07:00.005-10:00

So where do you go when you need to "get away" from all the hustle and bustle when you live on Maui? Well, following the recommendation of an Oral Surgeon and his wife here on the island, the answer was: Go camping on Lana'i. For those who don't know, Lana'i is known as "the Pineapple Island" and is part of Maui County. It is where Bill Gates got married, has a population of only about 3,000 people, and has only one town - Lana'i City. It's only industries are pineapples and tourism (two 5-star resorts) It is a great place to "get away"...

So how do you "get away" on a low budget on Lana'i? You go camping! And how do you go camping when you don't have any camping gear? You borrow stuff from your friends : ) The 9-mile ferry ride leaves from Lahaina (Maui) and takes about an hour. Along the way we were able to see whales and dolphins. Very cool. The ferry arrives in Manele Harbor on Lanai, where you unpack your stuff and walk about a half-mile to the beach/campground.

We got started setting up our borrowed tent...

and hit the beach! The beach is a beautiful crescent shaped bay with lots of sea life - great for snorkeling.

In the background you can see one of the resorts - the Four Seasons... In the foreground you can see Jon enjoying a nice glass of Riesling...

Here's Jon enjoying an absolutely amazing sunset...

And here's the "now completely de-stressed" happy couple. Why would we ever leave Hawaii??

Oahu Group Comes to Visit

2008-03-16T20:16:00.005-10:00

There are a group of residents from this year and last year that live on Oahu (in Honolulu). Eight of them came to Maui, some of them for their first visit. No, they didn't all stay with us, they split up between our place and one other place. We joined them in their adventures around Maui while they were trying to see as many things as possible in the short time they were here. We had a blast! Here is a snapshot of our weekend.
Friday night - Dinner and dancing at Jaques in Paia (no pictures). Saturday, also no pictures, the gang went to Hana. Jon and I decided to skip out and we went to the Whale Day Festival here in Kihei. We all met up for dinner that night at Lulu's, just around the corner from us. Early to bed because Saturday was jam packed.
We stared with sunrise at Haleakala. We have been a few times now but each time is really beautiful. I guess it is like the sunset, you can watch it night after night and it is never really the same, and you never get tired of watching.

After the sunrise we hung around for a while, did a little walking around and just enjoying the morning.
From there we drove to the Lavender Garden. It was a little foggy but the gardens are just so beautiful that the fog added an element of mystique. We walked around for a bit and then had breakfast of scones and tea :)

Some protea at the lavendar garden.

After breakfast we headed further south and visited the Maui Winery. I know that sounds like a strange activity for the morning, but yes, they were wine-tasting on a Sunday morning. We tasted a few, bought a few bottles and enjoyed the live Bluegrass music on the lawn. Here is a picture of the winery.

From there we drove directly into town to watch one of our friends compete in the Little Miss Maui beauty pageant. The age group for this pageant was under-25 so she just squeezed in. The whole event was really something - think Little Miss Sunshine. Our friend won one of the Little Miss Scarlet crowns!
The rest of Saturday was chill with take-in pizza and taboo.
Sunday we decided to have a beach day to recoup after all of the events of the day before. We brought all the beach toys and spent the day snorkeling, boogie boarding and just having a good time.

Mom and Dad's Second Visit

2008-03-02T19:44:00.006-10:00

In late January Mom and Dad (Nadler) come back for another visit to Maui - they just couldn't resist another week here! This week was much more relaxed than their first trip last March. Much of the time was unplanned - soaking up the sun and relaxing.

We did go on a few adventures between sunbathing and napping.

Mom, Dad and Marcia went to the Garden of Eden along the road to Hana.

These are possibly the coolest trees ever. They are right along the road. We pulled over to get a closer view. They are called rainbow eucalyptis, and up close, you can see why.

This is a picture of Mom and Dad in the Garden of Eden. The colors there are so vibrant!

There were peacocks roaming around the gardens, this one gave us a show!

Mom, Dad and Marcia also made a stop at Twin Falls on the way back from the gardens. The three of us all made it to the first falls, with a little encouraging. Unfortunately Mom didn't quite make it over a "bridge" in the path to the second falls so we took a short walk ahead without her to see the waterfall.

Later on in the week, the four of us ventured out on a Pacific Whale Foundation cruise to the Lanai'i coast to snorkel. We saw some amazing fish and even a bunch of whales! No dolphins the day we went out, but we looked for them.

Nice goggles Jon :)

The majority of the rest of the week was filled with good fun, good company, good food and good relaxation!

Dune Buggy Madness

2008-01-06T19:58:00.000-10:00

Yee Haw!! This was a Dukes of Hazzard lovers dream come true. Okay, so it wasn't the General Lee, but it was even better - Dune Buggies. Time to get down and dirty with these wicked awesome ATV's.

Our tour started in Kaanapali where about 11 or 12 of us squeezed into a van that brought us up into the West Maui Mountains. There we sat through a brief safety and intro course, got our helmets, goggles, and bandanas, and got to pile into our very own buggy. And we were off! Insert music for car chase on Dukes of Hazzard...

Our tour started nice and easy - getting the feel for the buggy. As we traveled up the mountain, the air got cooler and the views got more and more amazing. The paths got more and more country-esque, and when we got to our destination we got to enjoy some fresh fruit and some amazing views. There we also learned about the Lahainaluna High School "L" as well as some hawaiian folklore. Ok, break's over. Now for the way down - and time to get dirrrrty. Our nice clean dune buggy (and clothes) soon met their demise. We drove right through some HUGE puddles of mud at full speed and it was all over. What's the point of an ATV tour if you aren't willing to get a little dirty, right??

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T10:51:00.000-10:00

Happy 2008!
Hope everyone had fun ringing in the New Year last night! We had Chalise, Ricky and baby Tony over for dinner and fun.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2008 :)

When it rains it pours

2007-12-29T10:11:00.000-10:00

I am a little late in posting this but I thought I would share nontheless. A few weeks ago we had unbelievable rain storms, they say the worst we have had in 26 years! It was a Kona storm which means that the storm comes from the south side and slams the side of the island that is not used to getting rain - mainly Kihei.
We were at work when the rains started. Immediately flash flood warnings were issued and people started to flip out. Now being from New England, I was thinking, calm down everyone, this is just rain! Well I guess I didn't understand the impact that this could have on an area that is not used to having so much rain. The college that I work at closed, seriously, it closed because of the rain! Jon lost power at the clinic which as you can imagine is not a good situation for a dental office. Everyone was sent home. The school cleared out, the clinic cleared out and we were on our way home. We decided to take the back way home to avoid some traffic. The rain was coming down but the roads were mostly fine until we hit Kihei. The traffic came to a dead halt. Slowly one car at a time was passing us in the other direction. It took about 15 minutes for us to get close enough to the front of the line to see what was going on. The road was completely flooded and everyone, one by one, was turning around and heading back the other way. For those of you who have been here, you will understand this, we were in Kihei already but had to turn around, go back to Kahului and then come back down the other road to Kihei! There are no alternatives, there are no other roads that cut through! In the end, it took us about an hour and a half to get home. Safe and sound in our apartment, we assessed the damage. Slight water in our apartment, no big deal but the park across the street and the street out side were completely flooded! There was a huge tree that fell down, crushing a car (we know how much that stinks!) and we had no electricity. The rain came down in buckets for almost 5 days! We were without power for 2 days. It was quite and adventure! Deb and Aaron where here on their vacation during the storms. They were troopers about the whole thing! Luckily they got a few days of sun at the very beginning and very end.
Here are some pictures from the storm:

This is the street in front of our apartment.

Jon, clearly not happy with the rain :(

This boat was washed up on the rocks. The funny thing is, I cant figure out where it would have come from. The boat ramp is a few miles down the road!

It looks like chocolate not the normal blue water. This took a few days after the storms were done to get back to normal.

Sunrise, Sunset

2007-12-29T10:04:00.000-10:00

So it wasn't exactly sunrise, but when i woke up, on Christmas Eve, the moon was still out in full force, I had to grab the camera. It was beautiful!

Then...the sunset that same night was equally as gorgeous! What a day!

Camping in Haleakala National Park

2007-12-03T18:01:00.000-10:00

What a weekend we had! Jon, Deborah, Aaron and I spent this past weekend hiking and camping in Haleakala National Park. Deborah and Aaron were troopers, being that they landed in Maui on Thursday and we left for this adventure on Friday morning. We started early Monday morning, driving up to the summit to begin our hike. The drive up was dark and dreary. We drove in and out of clouds and it rained about three quarters of the ride to the top. Typical to the drive up to the top, all of the sudden, we popped out of the clouds (I guess we actually drove above the clouds) and it was beautiful and sunny. We left one car at Hosmer Grove and all piled into the other car and drove to the summit to begin our hike. From here we loaded on our packs and began our 8.5 mile hike to Holua Cabin. It was awesome. The weather cooperated, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. Through the hike, we passed through all different types of terrain. At points it looked like we were on the moon, or at least what I envision the moon looking like. It was a great hike. We arrived at the cabin around 4:00 giving us time to drop our stuff, get acclimated, and do a little exploring before sunset. We had been told that there was a lava tube near our cabin so we headed off to find it. The directions to the lava tube were something like this - "cross a dried up revene, find a rock that looks like a thumb and look around, you will find an entrance to a lava tube." Believe it or not, we found it. It was huge, amazing and totally natural! We got some cool shots from inside the lava tube. We made it back to the cabin in time for the sunset and the beginning of the stars. As it got later, the number of stars in the sky multiplied until it looked like there were at least a million stars! We spent a long time stargazing, picking out constellations and planets. We took a brief nap and woke up in time for the moon rise, napped again, and watched the sunrise. Beautiful, beautiful and beautiful.
On the second day, we began our 6 mile hike out of park. It was also a great hike, again covering a variety of different terrain. For a while, it felt like we were walking in a prairie land. We were on the floor of the crater. For the next 3 miles or so, we climbed the crater ridge by way of a ton of switchbacks. Each switchback provided a view just a little better than the one before until we had reached the top of the crater. From there, just a few miles down to the car at Hosmer Grove.
We made it to the end with a few sore muscles but an amazing weekend!! Here are some highlights (in no particular order).

A view of Haleakala near the beginning of our hike.
King of the World!

Jon and Marcia at the first cinder cone.

Aaron, you look like a professional with those hiking poles :)

Deborah and Marcia in the lava tube.

A distant view of Holua Cabin -our cabin for the night.

Funny picture. Ready to start day 2.

Holua Cabin up close.

Jon inside the lava tube.

Standing in front of the mustang, ready to begin our two day hike!

Jon feeding the nene birds outside our cabin.

Nice picture of Deb and Aaron on the slopes of Haleakala.

A silver sword growing on in the red dirt.

A view of part of the trail.

The four of us along the trail.

Jon and Aaron outside our cabin.

Ahhh, fantastic.

Pool Party Baby Shower

2007-10-27T09:14:00.000-10:00

A week ago or so, we had a baby shower for Chalise, one of the current residents. Joanne hosted it at the pool at her apartment. We had a pot-luck with a few games and good 'ole fun in the pool. Really, the setting couldn't have been much better.

This is Joanne organizing one of the "baby games"

Jon and Marcia concentrating very hard on one of the baby games.

Chalise, mommy-to-be

Trip Back To MA

2007-10-20T19:08:00.000-10:00

Our first trip back together! We left Maui for just about two weeks for a trip back to MA - the main reason being Jenny and Josh's wedding. We had a fantastic time, and were able to see lots of people! Jon played more golf than he has in the last 6 months here! It was awesome.
The trip home started with dinner with both sets of parents and Jenny. It was a fun welcome home. On they way back to Westboro from dinner we had our first adventure of the week - being pulled over by the state police! To the police officer's benefit, we were wrong. We made a u turn through the toll booth on the pike (not sure yet how this is going to appear on the easy pass). BUT, Jon showed him his Hawaii licence and told him that we were visiting...and he let us go! He told us that here in MA, we dont do U turns through the toll booths. How was someone from Maui supposed to know that, we dont even have toll booths :)
The next night we celebrated Jenny and Josh with their bachelorette and bachelor parties, seperately, not together. I won't get into any of the details, but everyone had a good time.
The following night, Kishi and Misti were kind enough to host a get together at their house. We had a great time hanging out with some friends. Unfortunately, I didnt get many pictures (my camera ran out of juice) and I am pretty sure the only pictures we took on Amy's camera are of Amy and me.
The remainder of the week was dedicated to doing whatever Jenny needed for her wedding. I tied a lot of bows, ran errands, packed gift bags, went to the florist, made deliveries...anything she needed done and I was happy to help! Jon also helped out by running various errands and stuffing bags.
The wedding weekend started on Friday night with dinner at my parents house and the aufruf at the temple. It was a crazy life cycle event service! There was a baby-naming, fist grade consecration, a bar mitzvah and the aufruf! Yikes! On Saturday Jon and I went to Sarah and Brian's wedding ceremony in the morning which was wonderful, but unseasonabily HOT in the church. We then hurried back to Westboro for the rehersal for Jenny and Josh which went well. It was a small wedding party so it was easy. Jon and I then changed and ran out to Sarah and Brian's reception which was a lot of fun. Finally i have pictures of something!
Unfortunatley my picture with Sarah didn't come out so well. Sarah looks great, it is me that is the problem. Oh well.
Sunday was Jenny and Josh's big day. They had a wonderful wedding! The ceremony was warm and loving and the reception was beautiful and fun. We danced the night away! We dont have any of the professional pictures back yet, but here is a sample from my camera:
Dad and Jonathan

Jenny and Josh seeing each other for the first time

Jon before the ceremony, holding my flowers

Mom and Jonathan

Jonathan, Me and Jenny

Jenny practicing before the ceremony

What a night!!
The following day we helped bring everything back to Westboro got all of our stuff together and flew back to Maui the following morning.
It was a fantastic trip back! Call us crazy but this trip back reminded us just how much we love New England and being around family and friends :)

Pretty Flowers

2007-09-26T05:26:00.000-10:00

Not much to explain here, i just thought these flowers were really pretty.

Cave Hiking

2007-09-22T15:49:00.000-10:00

A few weekends ago, Jon and Chalise (one of the current residents) worked out in Hana on a Saturday. That left Ricki (Chalise's boyfriend) and me with the day to explore more in Hana. We did some of the typical things, drove around, went to the beach, then we decided to check out the Hana Lava Tube. We were very surprised - it was awesome! Some of it was difficult to capture on the camera. Basicly, it was a huge tunnel, i think we walked about half a mile. It was cool and dark inside. They gave us flashlights but still, you can see, it was rather dark. Here is the best I could do with the pictures.
This is the enterance to the lava tube:

This is a rock that came ploughing through the lava tube when it was still being formed, it got jammed here. We had to crawn under it.

I know, this looks kind of gross. It was dry, even though it looks like it was wet. One of the walls, just after that big rock in the last picture, was covered with this form of lava.

This is looking down the cave. Cool huh?

Labor Day in Ke'anae

2007-09-11T21:35:00.000-10:00

Flower picking, fruit picking, BBQ, swimming...all part of the Labor Day picnic we went to in Ke'anae. We lucked out with a beautiful day and not a drop of rain, which is odd for that part of the island. Here are a few pictures from the day.
Ricki cutting off a beautiful flower:

Jon found a bunch of bananas. Unfortunately they weren't ripe yet.

Spencer, from the clinic, enjoying a cup cake.

Our Anniversary weekend in Hana

2007-08-14T20:42:00.000-10:00

Wow, 4 years! We started off our anniversry weekend having dinner at Cafe O' Lei, a nice restaurant in Kihei we've been wanting to try. The meal was delicious! Saturday morning we headed out to Hana for the weekend. First stop was work related - Jon stopped in at the clinic that he is going to work at next weekend. We decided to get the business out of the way first. On Saturday afternoon we went to Wai'anapanapa State park and the black sand beach and walked around - it is really beautiful there!

Wow, our 4th anniversary! We started the weekend by having dinner
After that we relaxed at Hamoa beach, a salt and peper sand beach. The waves were pretty big there and some of the local kids were really good on their boogie boards! After that we headed to the cabin that we were staying in for the night. We lit the BBQ and cooked up dinner. Yum.

On Sunday, we decided to do some hiking. We drove south of Hana to the other end of Haleakala National Park. We have been here before, this is where the 7 Sacred Pools are. Luckily we didn't go to swim in the pools because they were closed for the day due to high water levels. Instead we went to hike the Pipiwai Trail. This trail follows the stream that feeds the 7 pools. As you hike further in, you come across several incredible natural wonders: waterfalls, an infinity pool, a never-ending fairy-tale-esque bamBOO forest - and finally ending at the mother of all waterfalls - Waimoku Falls.

Amy and Pete in Maui!

2007-08-03T21:01:00.000-10:00

Amy and Pete's vacation to Maui couldn't have come at a better time...for Jon. He had the whole week off from work and got to play with them all day long. Marcia had to work, boo hoo. It worked out great. I got to meet up with everyone in the evening, and we had the whole weekend for adventures.
Amy and Pete were troopers when they got here. We took them straight to Freds and they managed to stay awake, which I must say was very impressive! The rest of the week included adventures from hiking Swinging Bridges, snorkeling, golf, beach, dinner in Lahaina, drinks at the Four Seasons, Haleakala, watching the sunset, road to Hana...it was a great week! Here are some highlights from the week:

Here comes Pete across the bridge

Jon jumping in

Amy and her new favorite drink, the Lava Flow

Nice swing Pete

The view from golf in Kaanapali

The 7 Sacred Pools in Hana - we spent a long time here. Beleive it or not, the pools are pretty deep and you could jump off of the high rocks into the water!

Black sand beack - in Hana

Sunset on the rocks outsind our place

We had a blast. It was so great spending the week with you!

4th of July - Makawao style

2007-07-24T18:55:00.000-10:00

The 4th of July in Makawao (upcountry) is celebrated cowboy style. The day started with a parade - with everything from about 100 old fashon and souped-up cars to Irish bag pipes (in flip flops) to horses decked out in leis. It really was quite entertaining.

After the parade, we, along with 2 friends from Marcia's work headed out to get some local grinds before the annual Fourth of July Makawao Rodeo. Yup, rodeo. The food was OK, but the rodeo was a lot more fun than we had expected. This was, no kidding around, cowboy land. There were cowboy hats, big belt buckles, lassos, tastles, Levi's, boots, the whole deal. Some of the kids were super cute all decked out! The rodeo included all sorts of "normal" rodeo activities: barrel racing, steer roping, three legged steer tying, horse undecorating, etc ... oh, it was exciting! The final event was bull riding. We were so into the rodeo that we fogot to take pictures of anything except the bull riding, but here are some pictures of the that.

We'll chalk this up to another adventure in Maui!

Polo anyone?

2007-06-16T12:35:00.000-10:00

Yes, there is polo on Maui and we went to see one of their matches. When I think of polo I generally think: British, big flower hats, fancy snacks and champaign. Now think Maui polo and you have: folding chairs, lots of dirt, manual score board and hawaian versions of just about every song you can think of (no joke!). Althought it sounds like I am complaining, I'm not, it was a lot of fun. When we arrived we were met by a cowboy who welcomed us and told us where we could park - anywhere around the field. Then you pull your car up to the side of the polo field, people with pick up trucks backed in. We sat on the hood of the car, those with trucks set up with beack chairs in the back of the trucks. There were two polo matches the day we went. Pretty cool. Here are some pictures:

Swinging Bridges Trail

2007-06-04T17:47:00.000-10:00

A new adventure! On Saturday Jon and I were determined to find a new trail to hike. We consulted our trusty book and Jon asked Spencer (the Director at his clinic) and we came to a decision. We hiked Swinging Bridges in Waihee, in the valley of the West Maui Mountains.
The trail, true to its name, had two swinging bridges. I have to admit, they were a little scary. The bottom of the bridge is pieces of wood nailed together and the railings are cable wires - didn't look, or feel, all that sturdy. The hike itself was about 2.5 miles each way on a trail the follows some of the old irrigation systems that were built into the valley. It was very different hiking in the valley vs. hiking on the top of the mountians looking into the valley.
Cool to get a different perspective. I also really enjoyed looking at the bamboo that was all over the place. Not sure what it is, but there is something very relaxing about bamboo.
At the end of the trail there was a large swimming pool with a waterfall. The water was cold, but fresh!

Great hike, we will definitely do it again!

Four days later...Ameet's in da house!

2007-05-13T17:28:00.000-10:00

So, on the total opposite end of the spectrum, Ameet arrived in Maui with no plan whatsoever. His idea was to "fly by the seat of his pants" and "play it by ear". This was not going to sit well with the Mrs...

But alas, everything worked out great and all is well that ends well. Ameet ended up having a blast and we really enjoyed having him here. Ameet decided that he would have no problem dropping us off and picking us up from work as needed, in return for having the use of our car while we were at work. A daunting task indeed as we need to be at work by 7:45 a.m. and are done by 4:15-ish p.m. Having heard wind of the excel spreadsheet extravaganza of our previous guests, Ameet decided to step it up later in the week. With a few last min. calls and some internet help, Ameet was able to rent a car, and book zipline and snorkel adventures for the last few days of his visit...

Ameet hikes the Waihee Ridge Trail (what a handsome guy):

We all hike the Makena lava fields only to find random fishing poles stuck in the rock:

At the Old Lahaina Luau:

A day of surfing at the beach (holy cow those surfboards are HUGE!):

Ameet and Jon enjoy a day of golf at the Kaanapali Kai Course:

Nice, fruity drink, bro...:

Car breaks down (for the third time) on Front St., Lahaina. (The entire Providence AAA office now knows about the Hawaiians with the 2002 Jeep Wrangler):

Ameet tackles Haleakala and the Zipline:

This was just a taste of Ameet's adventures. After having a fantastic week, we were sad to see him go. With no visitors until July, this means dinners in, excercising, chores, paying bills, etc....

Jody and Kristen's week of activities

2007-05-13T16:38:00.000-10:00

Ok, ok, I know, Jody and Kristen came to visit like a month ago but we have been so busy having fun that we haven't had time to catch up here on the blog.
So. Jody, Kristen and Marcia opperate the same on a planning front. They purchased their tickets way in advance, they had plans made and reservations booked before they got here...the even had a spreadsheet! For the most part, they stuck to the spreadsheet of activites with a few minor variations along the way. They were super busy and they did a ton of stuff, and even had time for the beach (don't worry, it was scheduled on the spreadsheet). Their vacation started with the weekend on the Big Island (see previous post). The rest of the week they were on their own during the day and then we met up at night. Their week here included:
Old Lahaina Luau, and the blow hole in the West Maui Mountains

Snorkeling - ask Kristen to tell you about her adventures!

Picnic dinner watching the sunset

Hiking the Lahaina Pali Trail (near the windmills)

Zipline Tour and a drive to the top of Haleakala

Last dinner out at Maelea Grill

And the things i don't have pictures of: Surfing, Goat Dairy Farm, Road to Hana, Surfing lessons.
Wow, what a week, you guys sure did pack it all in! It was great having you here and seeing you have so much fun!

Lava = Really BIG Adventure

2007-05-03T16:37:00.000-10:00

The first weekend Jody and Kristen were here, we all flew over to the Big Island to see Volcano National Park and the active lava flows. We only had two days so we had to make the most of the time there. When we arrived in Hilo, we rented a car and headed straight for Volcano National Park. Our first stop was the ranger information station to get some, well information and to make a plan. We were off! Volcano National Park has an 11 mile drive around the crater of the volcano. You can stop along the way for scenic picture spots and hikes. We decided on a hike that took us around part of the edge of the crater and then down into the crater. We walked for like a mile straight through the middle of the crater! It was so cool and so different looking. Jody was in awe!

There were spots along the bottom floor of the crater where the heat was escaping still; you could see the steam and feel the hot air! It was a good hike, about 5 miles. The end of the trail ended at the beginning of another trail down to a natural lava tube so, of course we headed on down! It was dark and wet, but when you think that this huge tube was formed by the cooling of the flowing lava, wow, really cool. It was great having Jody around to explain all of this! Back in the car. We finished the rest of the 11 mile loop stopping along the way at anything that looked interesting.
It this point it was probably about 1pm: We had already accomplished a lot! We decided to go check into the hotel and rest up for our evening adventure of seeing the active lava flow at night! We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the hotel.
They had overbooked for the night and had upgrade us to…Pele's Plantation, a vacation cottage! It was awesome, three bedrooms, two bath, fireplace, living room and kitchen (not that we ate much the whole time we were there!), and a hot tub outside! Awesome, and the best deal around! We, of course jumped right in! After a few hours at the house, we met up with a friend from Hilo, Chris, and then began our night adventure. At this point we didn’t realize just how big an adventure we were in for!
The goal was to hike across the lava in the daylight, reach the lava flow, stay for sunset, see the lava glowing in the dark and then walk back. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong. The adventure begins. The sign at the beginning of the trail says that it takes about 5 hours from start to finish. We somehow had it in our heads that we would be able to do the hike in like 3 hours. Lets just say the sign is pretty accurate. It is hard to explain what it looked like (and we unfortunately lost some of the pictures from this hike) but it was unreal. There was no trail, just lava in front of you for as far as you can see; the ocean to the right and the mountain to left. The lava was all different shapes, some like bubbles, some like rope, some as if someone had combed it with a big rake and some huge cracks in the lava that you had to step over because you could easily land in the crack if you weren’t paying attention. Needless to say, it was very uneven! So with no trail you just walk and walk and walk.

Every half mile there is a flashing light. This goes on for 3 miles, which is slow going on such uneven ground. Needless to say, and jumping ahead, we did not make it there in the daylight. It turned out to be a more difficult hike than any of us had thought. Jody and Kristen stopped just short of the lava flow but Jon, Chris and I made it to the end. At this point it was dark and it was amazing. We were sitting facing the ocean and you could see two places where the lava was flowing, glowing bright red, down the side of the land and into the ocean. As soon as it got close to the ocean, the glow from the lava would illuminate the ocean waves which you could then see roll in and extinguish the lava, there was a sizzling sound from the waves extinguishing the lava and a poof of smoke. This just went on and on. It was an unbelievable sight! Chris, Jon and I sat for a while, mesmerized by this natural phenomenon. Knowing what laid ahead, we decided to start back. I was nervous about finding Jody and Kristen since it was so dark, but luckily it was easy, phew. At this point it was pitch black and we had 3 miles to walk along the lava that was difficult to walk on during the daylight! With our flashlights we started the long journey back. To make a long story, and a long hike, shorter we encountered: darkness, endless amounts of lava, a girl with a broken foot (Chris was a hero for walking back the entire way with her!), numerous people with broken flashlights, a guy with GPS that we stuck with for a while, a girl walking back all alone (that is wicked scary!), another person’s fall that resulted in the use of a first aid kit, and the most rain I have ever been caught in! It was a long, wet walk back. I like to think of it as quite an adventure. If I were to do it again I would 1) have more than apples and granola bars in my stomach 2) bring snacks 3) have a head lamp and a hand flash light 4) bring rain gear 5) arrive earlier so we could make it there in the daylight. Would I do it again…I think so, it was so cool!
After that hike, we all need a little r&r. We slept late, had a good breakfast and decided to have a low key day. We drove around the south east area of the Big Island and jumped out of the car when ever we felt like it. Some of the highlights included – natural lava saunas, huge waves crashing into a cliff and a black sand beach that turned out to be a nude beach with tons of hippies (we decided that we would stick out like a sour thumb so no, we didn’t spend any time there!).

That night we had a great dinner with Chris at one of his favorite restaurants in Hilo.
The next morning we headed back to Maui, back to work for Jon and me and onto more adventures for Jody and Kristen.

We go on vacation...to CA

2007-04-17T20:18:00.000-10:00

So if you live in Maui, where do you go on vacation? We headed to California. Ok, so the purpose of the trip really wasn't vacation, we wanted to be with family for Passover. Our trip started in San Francisco and ended in LA with a bunch of stops in the middle.
We flew into San Fran late on Sunday night and it was freezing!! I don't think that the temperature was actually freezing, it was just that we were not very prepared and we were wearing shorts! Our first day in San Fran we spent exploring the city. We hit the Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park.
We then met Lisa Neilson, a friend from Dental School, for lunch. It was great catching up with her! After lunch we went to Giradelli Square and beach with the Golden Gate bridge in the back ground. That night we went to Susan and Gordon's (Marcia's cousins) house for the first night of Passover. It was wonderful being with family and being at their house in California :)

The following day we met Danielle Brandman for breakfast at a cute little breakfast joint called Mama's. Even on a Tuesday morning there was a line out the door! It was well worth it, though, the breakfast was great and it was nice catching up with Danielle!
After breakfast we drove from San Francisco to Sonoma, wine country. It is a really nice drive north, over the bridge and around the bay. We had an outstanding day, enjoying the views and scenery, tasting wines and touring vinyards.

That night we had dinner with Danielle and Ed, who had been so generous to let us sleep at their place all three nights in San Francisco! On our way to dinner, we passed the famous Painted Ladies with a great sunset in the background - we just had to snap a picture.
The next day we left San Francisco and started our journey down to the LA/San Diego area. We decided to take two days to do the trip, and take the famous (and more scenic) Route 1. It was quite a drive, beautiful views, coastline drives. We stopped along the way at anything that looked interesting. Here are some of the highlights: pretty views of bridges, hundreds of elephant seals, a gossip bench in Solvang, and Santa Barbara.

A few days later our southern California adventure began. We met up with Chet and Julia and thier daughter Ava near La Jolla. Isn't Ava just adorable! We enjoyed an authentic Mexican dinner and catching up with them. It was great to see you guys :)
The next day we met up with Chris Oswald (aka Ozzy), another friend from Dental school, for lunch. He brought with him Vin, also from Tufts, and Fong from work. Great to see you guys, too!
Last but certainly not least, was our stop at Aunt Taffy and Uncle Stu's in Orange County. This was our chance to see the California side of the family (Jon's side) for a Passover seder on Saturday night. We even got to meet the newest members of the family: Jack and Cooper. The seder was a blast and the accomodations were 5-star! We were particularly impressed with the customized Haggadas and guest room number 7. It was really great seeing everyone and catching up :)

Jonathan's week of adventures

2007-03-27T20:19:00.000-10:00

We had quite a week with Jonathan! Before he came out he said that he wanted hiking and water sports, so, that is what he got. Here is a run down of the week.

Monday:
Marcia took the day off to play. We started with surfing lessons at the beach across the street. We both did pretty good. The water was a little shallow (i guess the tide was out) which made the falling a little more painful. I fell right onto a rock and got a nice scrape on my leg. All in all it was fun and we both got up on the surf boards, which is a good thing.
In the afternoon we went down to Makena and did some hiking. It was very cool. I hadn't been there before so it was an adventure for both of us!
We made it back in time for sushi at Sansai. Yum.

Tusday:
Marcia took the day off again to do some hiking with Jonathan. We started by heading to Twin Falls on the road to Hana (aka the road Tahana according to Jonathan). We hiked around for a bit and found a few waterfalls. There were these two crazy local kids who jumped from the top of the waterfall, it was crazy! We also found a crazy big plant.
After Twin Falls and a quick stop for lunch with Jon we headed to the West Maui Mountains to hike the Ridge Trail. It started out nice and clear but got a little coudy by the time we got to the top. Great hike though. We ended a solid day with "Kiss my Taco Tuesday" at Freds.

Wednesday:
So up and out early for the boys on this day. The GP: take the jeep for some off-roading on the poli-poli trail. On the way up, the clouds were looking a little ominous. But we were determined. This determination was quickly dissipated when we soon reached the road block, preventing us from getting anywhere close to Poli-poli. As we started back down the road, we noticed and stopped to watch some hang-gliders take off - wow, what a view! We thought about taking a tandem jump, but then thought again. With our new-found enthusiasm we made a game-time decision to head up to Haleakala to the Sliding Sands trail. As we started making our way up, and through the clouds, we were wondering at what point we were going to give in and put the windows on the jeep to avoid the frost-bite. But, being men, we toughed it out and once we reached the summit (10,000 ft) we were well above the clouds and the sun felt good. I could try to describe what it looked like, but it would be futile. For dinner we went to the highly recommended Paia fishmarket. Outstanding.

Thursday:
Another day off for Jon - WooHoo! This time, the Jons decided to tackle the Lahaina Pali trail. This required Marcia's help. Let me explain: The trail is 60 miles long. Oops, I mean 6. But it isn't a loop. So this meant waking up early (of course) so that Marcia could drop us off before going to work. We dropped off the rental car at the end of the trail so that it would be there waiting for us when we finished (no turning back!). The trail was pretty steep at the start but quickly became worth it with the magnificent views of the Maui Valley, Maalaea Harbor, and Haleakala. When we reached the apex of our ascent (4,000 ft) near the windmills, we could see over to the other side giving way to magnificent views of the ocean, Lanai, and Kaoowale (sp?). Very awesome. After working up quite an appetite, we headed to Lahaina Town for shopping, Banyan tree viewing, and lunch. [note to travelers: Kimo's rips you off with their sodas. They charge an initial $2.75 and don't tell you that each refill will cost you another $.75.] Jonathan finally got some nice R&R in the afternoon relaxing and napping at the HoffDome.

Friday:
Bright and early again for the Jons. This time for SCUBA! Diving is totally awesome. The deal is you hook up with a dive instructor who goes over equipment, air spaces, safety precautions, and general game plan. This is first done out of the water, and then you gear up (the stuff is really heavy outside of the water) and head into the water and go over safety stuff in about 10 feet of water. Then we're off! Jonathan is obviously a natural, and Jon had done this once before so was pretty much an old pro by this point. We saw some really spectacular fish and turtles and got to about 40 ft. deep before needing to turn back. Jonathan almost swam right into a turtle at one point by accident! Our instructor, Charley, was a little slow but ended up being great guy. Sorry, no pictures from scuba diving : (

Saturday:
The three of us went out early for a kayak/snorkel tour down in Makena. The tour was awesome, and it was much more that we bargained for! We started by kayaking out away from the shore. When we got out far enough, we stopped and waited to see if we could find any whales in the distance. Well, we saw a whale alright, but it was not in the distance, it was super close!! It was amazing. This huge whale came up to the surface about 50 feet away. You don't realize how huge they are until you are that close to them. Amazing. Usually you can hear the whales singing when you are under water but we were so close to them that we could hear them singing from in our kayaks. We hung around for a little while longer, and...a mother whale and her calf came! Again they came up to the surface, showed their backs and then dove down, flipping their tails. It was soo cool. After that we kayaked over to a good snorkeling spot, jumped out of the kayaks and went snorkeling with some fun fish and a bunch of sea turtles. What a morning!

After a picnic lunch we sadly had to bring Jonathan to the airport :(
What a week!

Kishi and Misti

2007-03-19T15:03:00.000-10:00

Kishi and Misti came out to Maui last week to visit. They had a very relaxing vacation, chilling (chillaxing) during the day and then out to dinner and catching up in the evening. It was so nice to see you guys!!

They also came the week of my Hula performance. I have been taking hula lessons for 6 weeks and we had our big show, called a uniki during the week that Kishi and Misti were here. I won't say we were good, but it was fun. Here is one picture from the evening.

Mom, Dad, Jenny and Josh come to Hawaii

2007-03-06T19:46:00.000-10:00

Let's see, where to start. Mom, Dad, Jenny and Josh came to visit a week ago and it was so good to see everyone. We had a lot of fun just chillin' with the family as well as doing some site seeing and some adventures.

Here is the best of list from the week:
Best Dinner: Mama' Fish House - This was DELICIOUS! It is known to be the best restaurant on Maui and it certainly lived up to its name. We ate and drank like it was our last meal. Marcia got shoulder pains from eating so much! The restaurant grounds were also amazing. It was nighttime when we went, so not too many pictures. You will just have to come and check it out for your self :)

Best Sunset: Top of Haleakala: We decided to go to the top of Haleakala for sunset instead of sunrise. As always, it was beautiful.

We even got a little bit of a feel for the hiking before the sunset.

Longest Drive: Around the West side of the island. We spent one afternoon traveling around the West side of the island exploring the sights. Dad did an amazing job navigating the skinny, one lane, windy roads!

Best Deal: Golf for 4 at the Ka'anapali Golf Course. Mixing afternoon golfing and resident deals and help from the conceirge, we manganged to get a great deal on an afternoon of golf. The course was difficult but really pretty. Jon will give it another shot when Ameet is here. Good luck boys!

Biggest Tree: We stoped at the Banyon Tree in Lahaina to check out this magnificent tree. The biggest tree I have ever seen.

Best Adventure of the whole week: The zipline halfway up Haleakala. This was soooo cool. We signed on to do a zipline course made up of 5 zip lines and one suspended bridge. All of us did it! I think it is fair to say that Mom was a little more than nervous, but she did awesome...as did the whole group. We had really fun guides and just had a ton of fun doing this. We took a bunch of pics, and one short movie, but here are the best pictures.

It was so nice to see everyone during the week, can't wait for your next visit ;)

More pictures from Erin and Adam's visit

2007-03-04T18:37:00.000-10:00

Ok, better late than never. Here are some more pictures from Erin and Adam's trip to Hawaii (thanks guys for sending these!).

Beach Day::

Clearly the guys had a blast with the boogie board!

Erin and Adam do sunrise at Haleakala, Jon and Marcia go to work. Bummer.

Night at Fred's for "Kiss my Taco Tuesday"

Oahu!

2007-02-04T17:45:00.000-10:00

Gesundheit! No, it's not a sneeze, Oahu is the Hawaiian island where the capital, Honolulu is located as well as the famous Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, and home to the gigantic waves of the North Shore. It was also the site of the Hawaiian Dental Convention. We spent a total of 5 days there:

Day One:
Arrive at the bustling Honolulu International Airport. We were met by Dr. Ishimura, the regional coordinator for Jon's residency program as well as Chris, the Dental Resident from the Big Island. Ishimura drove us to our hotel in the Waikiki Beach area and after we got ourselves checked in and settled, Chris, Marcia, and Jon went to explore the beach!

That same night all of the residents (and significnant others) had dinner together. What a bunch of characters!

After dinner, Tim, Howard, Jacob, Rachel, Tabitha, Ildi, Keith, Jon, and Marcia all went out for a night out on the town. Good times!

Day Two:
Jon spent the day "getting his learn on" at the Convention, while Marcia spent the day basking in the sun at the beach and frolicking around at the Ala Moana Mall. The evening was spent checking out the night scene at Waikiki Beach - shops, vendors, food, and street performers.

Day Three:

Jon spent the morning with more convention time, but had had it by the early afternoon. So what to do?? Check out the north shore with Tabitha and Rachel at the beach! Then we had some amazing Thai food followed by our new favorite dessert: Mochi Ice Cream! Incidentlally, the name of the Mochi place is Bubbies. How awesome is that?!

Day Four:
After a slight hassle with the rental car (don't ask!), we were on our way to explore on our own. Our first stop was the Bishop Museum. This museum highlights Hawaiian culture and heritage. We got a good background on the different islands in the Pacific and a great history on the Hawaiian Kings, including Kamahamaha (who's statue we went to visit on day 5). It was really interesting and we both felt like we learned a lot.
Next we drove north east from the city towards the Valley of the Temples to see the Byodo-In Temple. This temple is in a huge memorial park (aka: cemetary). The temple was built in honor of the first Japanese immigrants in Hawaii. Some cool facts about the temple: it was built without any nails, it is an exact, but smaller, version of a temple in Japan. The grounds were very peaceful and just really beautiful. We think that there might have been a wedding at the temple right before we got there and we were lucky enough to see some people in full traditional Japanese dress.

Next we decided to drive around the east side of the island. The water was really beautiful on this side of the island. Although we didnt stop to swim, we did stop to take a picture.

Spitting Cove was our next stop. The different layers represent different volcanic explosions. It was very cool looking, really different. It is amazing to think that the volcano exploded this many times!

Off to Diamond Head for the hike that every tourist does. We started a bit late in the afternoon which turned out to be the best thing we could have done. The sun was behind the mountian the majority of the hike up so we were never in the full sun. The trail has been completely "built" into the side of the mountain. Some of the trail is paved, some is stairs and there is even a tunel. Unfortunately our camera was not working when we got to the top of Diamond Head so we have no pictures but the view was great. You really get a good feel for how big the city of Honolulu is.

What a day! We grabed dinner, met up with Rachel for more Mochi and hit the sack.

Day 5:
We had heard that the surf on the north side of the island was huge so that was the destination. Rumer had it that the waves were like 50 feet at Pipeline! That is HUGE. We drove up there and found the beach with no problem. The waves however, were not 50 feet. They were big and the sufters were fun to watch but it wasnt the huge waves we were hoping for. Oh well.
We stoped for lunch at a "famous" Giovani's Shrimp Truck. The truck is easly found by the large sign on the side of the road. No joke, it was no more than a truck and some picnic tables! You order and pick up your shrimp at the side window of this truck. The menu was easy, there are only three options. We got two different kind of shrimp and shared, yum, good stuff.

The next pictures are from La'ie Point. The rock here has a whole in the middle of it that was litteraly blown out by a tsunami in 1946. We also got this cool picture of the shore line and the mountains looking south. It was a little rainy out, that is why the pics are a little dark.

Last stop before we had to head to the airport was downtown Honolulu. We wanted to check out the statue of King Kamehameha and the only Palace in the US, 'Iolani Palace.

All in all it was a great trip to Oahu.

Erin and Adam come to visit

2007-01-30T19:45:00.000-10:00

Ok, so we are a little late with this post. Erin and Adam came to visit in mid January and we had a blast. They were the first friends to make the trip out, and I am pretty sure it is going to be one that they will remember forever. As you know by now, they got engaged while they were here! So exciting!!

So while they were here, we went on a few adventures together and they did some stuff on their own - while we were at work (boo). These pictures are us hiking on the Ridge Trail in the West Maui Mountains. This is the same hike that we did the week before. What a difference! The view was awesome this time.
After the hike we drove around the west side of the island. I think Adam, who was driving, was really, really happy when that drive was over. They say that the road to Hana is a windy, skinny road...but the drive around the west side is so much scarrier! You spend half of the time on the edge of the cliff. We finally made it to the Olivine pools where the boys took a well desirved swim. Erin and I watched.

On Sunday we all "tested the water" with something new to all of us - SCUBA DIVING! That's right, we all suited up and took a lesson with Scuba Dave. It was a ton of fun. After the basic skills and safety training, we went exploring - seeing some pretty cool fish and a couple of sea turtles!

There are more pics coming from Adam so stay tuned, we will post them when we get them.

We had so much fun spending the week with you guys!

Hiking the Waihee Ridge Trail

2007-01-08T21:54:00.000-10:00

It had been a while since we did some exploring so we took this past weekend as an opportunity to open up the guide book again and find something new to do. We found a trail in the West Maui Mts. that looked good. As with everything here on the island, it is recomended that you get started early. We followed the directions and were out the door early. The drive to the trail head is pretty, offering great views of the north west coast.
The trail itself was well marked and had potential to be really pretty...if we weren't in the clouds for most of the hike! The trail was about a 5 mile hike along the ridge of the mountains. We could see a beautiful view of the valley and of Kahului harbor at the start, but then we lost it as we climbed up and into the clouds. It was still nice to be out and active. We will definitely do this hike again, in the clear; maybe with you Jonathan :)
The pics below are of us at the end of the trail - see the beautiful view?

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T17:09:00.000-10:00

Wow, 2007 aready! Can't believe how time flies!
We celebrated New Years Eve afternoon exploring some of the northern coast, some beautiful views, and some bumpy roads! We got these awesome shots of rainbows on the coast near Pa'ia. The rainbow when across the ENTIRE sky!

We celebrated at night at a BBQ hosted by Spencer from Jon's clinic. The weather was perfect and we spent the majority of the night outside by the fire. Good food, good conversation and good champagne. It was a fun way to ring in 2007. Happy New Year!

Jon's parents visit!

2006-12-26T20:25:00.000-10:00

So get this, what better way to conquor a fear of flying than to take a flight way out to the middle of the Pacific all the way from Florida! That's exacty what Jon's mom, Lynda accomplished. Prior to their arrival, we had made a list of potential activities and sights for them to do and see. It was quite extensive, but they managed to get through most of them, all the way from snorkling to visiting Pearl Harbor! Here's just a taste of what their trip entailed...

We'll start with the infamous "road to Hana". The Hana highway snakes along the North shore of the island along the East side (Haleakala side). The further east you get, the more treacherous the road gets. Add this to increasingly declining weather (it is very rainy on this side of the island - a necessary evil to achieve the tropical beauty here) and it made for quite an adventure!

One day, we hit the links at the Dunes at Maui Lani Golf course. What an amazing course with rolling hills, a magnificent backdrop of the west Maui mountains, and meticulously groomed fairways, hazards, and greens. Luckily, none of us were affected by the hazards... ;)

We spent one day exploring the lava flows at Makena and relaxing on the beach in Wailea. Herb gave snorkeling a try and Lynda went in the ocean for the first time in about 20 years!! Way to go guys!

On Friday night, the last night of Hanukkah, we went to the famous Lahaina Luau. It was as spectacular as the first time! We got some good photos before the show of the four of us.

We spent Saturday in Honolulu which was new for all of us. It is a plane ride from here, but only a 27 minute flight! We had two goals for the day: see Pearl Harbor and Wikiki Beach. Pearl Harbor was amazing. It was so moving. It is run by the National Park Service and, as usual, they did a fantastic job. We spent a lot of time there learning all about what happened and the history of what led up to the attack. We took a ride out to the USS Arizona Memoral which was quite an experience. We all really enjoyed Pearl Harbor. When we left there, we had about 3 hours before our flight back, so we had time to go take a look, and a walk around, Wikiki Beach. It was PACKED (even though it doesn't look like it in this particular picture)! I guess we are getting spoiled by the beaches here in Maui.

On the last day of their visit, on Christmas Day, we went to the top of Haleakala for the sunrise. It was beautiful. No doubt it is difficult getting out of bed at 4am to drive an hour and a half to watch the sunrise in the freezing cold. Yes, it is really cold on the top of Haleakala in December, but wow was it worth it!

So, this was just a sampleing of some of the fun things that we have been up to for the last two weeks or so. We had a great time with Lynda and Herb, and although they are ready for a vacation after all of the touring they did, we think they had a great time too :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-24T11:17:00.000-10:00

So believe it or not, Thanksgiving is celebrated here just like anywhere else. For us it all started on wednesday night with the usual Longmeadow gathering. Only this time we were represented by video-chat. It honestly was just like being right there with the whole gang - laughing, joking around, drinking, and catching up with old friends for hours. This picture was taken on Kishi's end - the bigger picture is what Marcia and I looked like on their screen, while the picture-in-picture is what they looked like on our end. Very Cool...

Then, on Thursday, it was time for the real deal. We had lots to do because we were hosting a real turkey dinner! The turkey had been defrosting for a couple of days, and now it was time to start making all the holiday favorites....butternut squash, cranberry sauce, greenbean casserole, the works! We had plenty of drinks on hand for watching football with our friends Ildi and Keith. It was a lot of fun and delicious; everything worked out without a hitch!

Work or fun....or both!?

2006-11-16T08:56:00.000-10:00

Here are some "action" photos for you to enjoy from an implant surgery that I did last week. Everything turned out great and it was a lot of fun! Plus, I got to wear one of those cool lunch-lady bonnets. Extra peas, anyone? If you'd like to see more detailed (and graphic) photos, let me know and I'll email them...

Polipoli State Park

2006-11-11T22:14:00.000-10:00

Today's adventure was to hike in Polipoli State Park. The park is 6,200 feet up from here on the slopes of Haleakala. It is a long ride to get there (about an hour and a half), and we head out early. Getting there became half of the adventure. About 10 minutes into the drive, Marcia opened the glove compartment and guess what? the car registration blows right out of the window. We pulled over and spent the next 30 minutes unsuccessfully looking for the little piece of paper that blew out of the car. Oh well, that becomes a project for another day. So we drive on. When we come within 10 miles of the park, the road changes; it becomes much narrower, and very windy. The views (as usual) are great. When we get 4 miles from the park, the paved road ends and we are on a dirt road - 4 wheel drive only (we knew this was going to happen, it wasn't a surprise). Jon was in his hayday! The jeep is perfect for this type of road. I think we almost flew out of the jeep a few times when bouncing over the rocks, but it was fun. We both agreed, 4 miles was long enough.

We finally get there and begin our hike. Are we still in Maui? This is incredible. There are huge redwood trees, pine trees (complete with pine needles and pine cones!) and a totally different landscape. If we didn't know better, we would have thought that we were in a forest in the Northeast or in Northern California.

The air is cooler up here and the hike is beautiful. We even saw the tops of three different volcanos on the Big Island! We followed a few of the different trails so that we ended up making a 5.5 mile loop. It was wonderful!

The day ended with quite a sunset too!

Happy Halloween!

2006-11-01T00:02:00.000-10:00

OK, so I don't know what happened to our camera tonight but it didnt take any pictures. You will have to trust us on this. We went up to Lahaina tonight for Halloween and it was wild. They call it the Mardi Gras of the Pacific! The costumes were amazing!! We had an awesome time!

Mom comes to visit :)

2006-10-27T20:19:00.000-10:00

Our first visitor! Mom was here for a week. It was wonderful. We had so much fun and boy were we busy! Don't worry, she had a few days of sun and beach when we were at work so she got to relax too. When we weren't sitting on the beach or taking in the Hawaiian sunsets we were on the move. We have to say that thanks to Mom, we ate better this past week than we have since we have been here!! We went to some delicious restaurants both here in Kihei and in Lahaina.
Some of the highlights of the week in no particular order:
1. Haleakala. We went to the top of Haleakala to watch the sunrise. We left Kihei at 4:30am to make it up there in time. It was, obviously, pitch black when we left and we had wonderful star watching during the drive up. The sun started to come up during the drive but didn't pop over the clouds until we were at the top. It was something to see. Jon will tell you that it was the sunset in exact reverse, but Mom and Marcia thought that it was different. After sunrise, and breakfast at the top, we started on one of the hikes. We got some great views on the hike. At one point the clouds rolled right over us. We went from seeing the entire crater to only being able to see a few feet in front of us. It was very strange! Luckily the cloud rolled out just as fast as it rolled in.

2. Lavender farm in Kula. We found a lavender farm in Kula so we stopped there on our way down the volcano. The grounds were beautiful, flowers everywhere. The view was awesome too. They had a gift shop at the farm with all lavender products. There was all sorts of stuff, lavender flavored! We stuck with the tea and scones. It was a great stop after the hike.

3. No pictures of Joanie and Lindsay (Ravens) but they were here in Hawaii too (it was planned, not random). We met up with them for dinner at Kimo's in Lahina which was delicious.
4. Dinner at Roy's in Kihei and the strange amount of attention we got from the manager from the moment we got there.
5. Watching the surfers in Paia. The waves were awesome for surfing. We just sat and watched for a while.

6. Hanging out at the beach in Wailea. We had one lazy day (Mom had a few without us) at the beach. We tried to snorkel but the waves were too big and the sand was moving around too much. Oh well, it was great just enjoying the beach.

7. Walking around Makawao. It is such a cute little town. We ended up eating lunch at the same restaurant we ate at last time we were there, it is just so good. Mom found her new favorite artist and ended up buying a beautiful piece of art! It should arrive in Westboro in 3 weeks, go check it out.
8. The Old Lahaina Luau. This was a fabulous show and I am sure we will be back with other people throughout the year. The grounds are so pretty, the food was great, the drinks are FREE, the costumes were beautiful and the show was awesome. We didn't get to many pictures during the show but believe us, it was great!

9. Dinner at Fred's with margarita specials
10. This is a tie between seeing the cars flooded out on South Kihei Road right outside of our apartment, and meeting our new friend: Gonzales (aka: Gonzo) the baby gecko.

Overall, it was a great week!!

Earthquake

2006-10-15T22:07:00.000-10:00

We survived our first earthquake today, 6.5 on the Rickter Scale. It happened around 7 am this morning and woke us up out of bed. It took us a few second to figure out what was going on. Although it only lasted a minute or so, it was pretty scary but we are fine. Sounds like there is some damage on the Big Island and parts of Oahu are still without power, but all seems ok here on Maui.

Upcountry

2006-10-15T11:20:00.000-10:00

One of the areas we haven't spent a lot of time exploring is Upcountry. So, what better to do on a Saturday than do some exploring. We started by heading to Makawao. It looks like a historic town from a few centuries ago. The shops are either filled with old cowboy memorabilia or fancy gallery art - interesting combination. We had lunch at a restaurant called Casanovas - which was delicious. From there we headed further south to Kula. Kula sits at the bottom of Haleakala and it is much "coola" than Kihei. Ha ha ha. Anyway, this is a really pretty area, whith spectacular views of the south side of the island. We could almost see our apartment from up there! We had heard that the Kula Botanical Gardens was nice so we stopped to take a look. There was a huge variety of plants and flowers representing places all over the world. We saw a lot of really interesting, and really colorful plants, flowers, and animals. I think that the gardens were probably more in bloom in the spring, but it was still pretty. Here are a few pictures:

Marcia also made some friends at the gardens :)

After we left, we headed south again to the Tedeschi Winery. We heard that they make pineapple wine and wanted to give it a try. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but a pretty one at that. When we arrived, we headed straight for the tasting room. They gave us each 4 samples of different pineapple wines. Our conclusion: don't mix pineapples and wine, it doesn't make a great combination. Although the wines weren't so great, the grounds were pretty.

Oh Yeah, We Have To Work, Too...

2006-10-09T21:20:00.000-10:00

Here are a couple of pictures for your curious minds. Believe it or not, we really do have to work here in Paradise...

Jon works at the Maui Oral Health Clinic. It is mostly a medicaid clinic where we treat patients that would not be able to afford dental care anywhere else on the island. We treat mostly kids (because medicaid covers basic dentistry for kids), but some adults, too, at a very low cost for them. It can be quite rewarding, and a lot of fun...

Marcia works at the Maui Community College which is part of the University of Hawaii system. Apparently her job (which is a NEW position) is to organize and make sense of all of the money that passes through the Allied Health Department. Kinda makes you think....what the heck were they doing before?!

Aloha Festivals and Block Parties

2006-10-09T20:20:00.000-10:00

This past weekend, we traveled up to Ka'anapali for one of the annual Aloha Festivals. The festival was held at the Ka'anapali Hotel, which claims to be the most Hawaiian hotel in Maui. They had booths set up on the lawn of the hotel showcasing classic Hawaiian arts and crafts. You could partake in basket weaving, Hawaiian checkers, cooking demonstrations and tool making (plus a few others). In the middle of the lawn there were classic Hawaiian sports demonstrations and sea shell conch blowing. Jon and I both tried making music, it was a lot like blowing the shofar! Of course, there was also great Hawaiian music.
The Ka'anapali Hotel is among the popular strip of hotels on the Ka'anapali beach, which is beautiful. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging at the beach.
In the early evening we traveled to Lahaina, slightly south of Ka'anapali for the first annual block party. Like a typical block party, they closed down the road so that pedestrians could frolic in the streets. They had food booths set up and two music stages. One stage was classic Hawaiian music and one was local bands (also with a Hawaiian flair). The highlight was the last performance by Willie K, who is a very well liked musician here. We tried to get a picture but it didn't come out that great. Oh well... We had a good time dancing in the street!

So it seems that we are falling into "real" life here. We have spent the last few Sundays getting up at a reasonable hour and starting the day with the Sunday paper and a cup of coffee. It seems that the regular tasks of laundry, supermarket shopping etc. have caught up with us. We try to mix these things in with occasional trips to the beach, afterall, it is still Hawaii :)

Jon even made a new friend!

Rosh Hashanah weekend

2006-09-24T20:15:00.000-10:00

Rosh Hashanah in Maui...not the same as in Massachusetts. For us, Rosh Hashanah signifies the beginning of Fall as well as the beginning of the New Year. Normally when it feels like fall, you wear your new fall outfit, family is all around, and you have a wonderfully delicious meal the night before. Well, we don't meet any of those criteria here, but none the less, it is Rosh Hashanah. We decided to celebrate Erev Rosh Hashanah in our own way this year. We drove to the top of Haleakala to see the sunset and look at the stars. It was a new moon, so the sky was completely dark.
We had a wonderful time! The sunset was beautiful (see pics) and we had a fun picnic, complete with apples and honey, a makeshift holiday challah (a raisin bagel), and red wine. All that was missing was a brisket! As it got darker, the stars started to come out, and oh my gosh, they were incredible!! We were above the clouds for the most part, and with no moon there was no interference. It was absoluetly amazing! Every inch of sky was covered with stars. We saw the milky way too, who knew that it goes across the whole sky like a full rainbow!?! It was a wonderful way to spend the first night of Rosh Hashanah. It was very spiritual and (as you could imagine) sparked some interesting conversation.

On Saturday, we went to services for Rosh Hashanah. There were two services to choose from. One more traditional service at the temple and one reform service at a rented hall behind a church. We opted to try the reform service. It was very small, probably only 20 people, but the sense of community was wonderful. It was a makeshift service which felt a little discombobulated (sp?) but the effort was definitely there. They even had cold bottled water available to everyone because, to no one's surprise, it gets pretty hot here. Everyone was very nice and welcomed us with open arms. I guess we stood out as the newcomers because we were definitely the most dressed-up in the group! There were some people there in shorts, nice aloha shirts and flip flops! I guess things really are pretty laid back here. After the service, we took the traditional Rosh Hashanah walk, only instead of finding a pond or lake, we found the Pacific Ocean :) We think we are going to try the traditional services for Yom Kippor :) We will let you know how that goes.

On Sunday, we explored the Maui Ocean Center. It is the only aquarium in Maui and it was really very good. We saw tons of fish that are only found in the Hawaiian island area. Some really beautiful fish! Hopefully we will see them sometime when we are snorkeling! There was also an exhibit on see turtles. They just got new turtles which are only a year old. They keep them at the Ocean Center for a few years and they the release them into the wild and get new sea turtles. It was really interesting to learn about the different kinds of coral, see weird sea creatures such as eels, sea horses, sting rays, and octopuses, and see how the Hawaiians used to hunt for these fish. They also had tons of sharks, including Jon's favorite, the Hammerhead (insert sarcastic remark here). It was really a lot of fun :)

Pineapples and Turtles, again

2006-09-18T12:55:00.000-10:00

Funny, this is the second weekend that mixed pineapples and turtles. Hmmm.
Well, Saturday was the Maui Pineapple Factory festival. There were pineapple throwing contests, all sorts of food made with pineapples, a kids cook off (like Iron Chef) using pineapples, music and tours of the cannery and fresh fruit distribution area. It was, surprisingly, very interesting. We learned more about pineapples than we knew there was to know! Some more interesting tidbits:
- The Maui cannery is the only pineapple cannery left in the USA
- USDA buys all of their pineapple goods from Maui
- Any canned pineapple that you buy that says 100% USA or 100% Hawaiian, comes from this cannery in Maui
Cool.

On Sunday we went snorkeling at a beach in Mekena (south of Kihei). This is the same place we went last time we saw turtles, and yes, again we saw them! This time, thankfully, Marcia didn't flip out. We saw a bunch of bright colored fish, tons of cool coral and at least 3 turtles!! So fun!

Sorry no pics this time...

Kaua'i - The Garden Isle

2006-09-12T22:40:00.000-10:00

Well, in case we forgot where we were, this past weekend's little excursion to Hawaii's oldest and northernmost island was a sure reminder....paradise.

We left early Saturday morning for the 50 minute plane ride from Kahalui, Maui to Lihue, Kaua'i. Saturday was all about exploring the South and West part of the island. Poipu (see map), right on the southern coast, had beautiful beaches with huge waves and beautiful resorts. We just passed through, however, because we were on our way to see Waimea Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". And it really was. Check it out.

Continuing on through Waimea Canyon, we came to Kokee State Park, where we ventured out onto the Canyon River Trail. At the end of the trail, there was a nice little waterfall on the left, and to the right was where another HUGE waterfall began. Unfortunately, you couldn't peak your head over the ledge to see the waterfall, but we got a nice picture of it from the other side of the canyon!

One interesting thing we noticed about Kaui'i were the everpresent families of wild roosters. Here is one now!

Our adventure began on Sunday, driving up the Eastern Coast. The first stop was banana pankaces at a dinky restaurant in Wailua. Needles to say, they were pretty darn good! After that very important stop, our next stop was the Wailua River. Our original plan was to go kayaking on this river, but apparently on Sundays the river is closed to private commercial businesses (such as touring or rented kayaks) and only open to public usage. Bummer for us, but pretty cool for the locals, though. We were still able to drive along the river, and get a pretty good shot of Opaekaa Falls. The road continued on to the middle of nowhere, where the climate turned into tropical overgrowth. Apparently we were at the "wettest spot on Earth", where it gets about 600 inches of rain every year.

We continued along the West side to the North side of the island, driving through a bunch of cute little towns, with our destination being.....the end of the road. Literally. The highway turned into a smaller road, then an even smaller road - with a few one lane bridges, until it just ended at Ke'e Beach at the famous Na Pali Coast. The Kalalau Trail starts here and zigzags along the Na Pali Coastline, hugging the cliffside, and takes you to magnificent places and offers breathtaking views. There are no roads that go here, and they never will - leaving the natural beauty of this part of the island to take it's natural course. The coastine is ragged and forms many inlets from the power of the waves that have crashed into them for thousands of years. The two mile hike in to Hanakapi'ai Beach was tedious, but pretty awesome and well worth it. We decided that we were onto something really special here, so we decided to continue onto a side trail that led inland to the Hanakapi'ai Falls. This was another 2 miles crossing streams, scaling rocks, going under trees, and navigating sometimes poorly marked trails. But the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was like nothing we could have ever imagined. All of a sudden we were looking up at a 3-tiered waterfall that could easily have been 300 feet high. Unbelievable!! After four miles of hiking (and sweating), the water couldn't have looked more appealing. The water must have been as cold as the northern Atlantic, but that didn't stop us (or the other hikers on the trail, for that matter). We were in in no time, frolicking amidst this natural wonder! We couldn't spend too much time there, though, because we knew the 4-mile hike back to Ke'e Beach would probably take us a while... Here are some pictures from the Journey:

Once back to the car, we needed to rush to make it to the Queen's Baths in Princeville for the sunset. These are large pools of water (big enough to go smimming in) that collect on the lava rocks on the shoreline when big waves come in. We didn't remember to grab the camera, but rest assured, we made it in time, and it was picture-perfect.

Monday was a day of much needed relaxation after our two strenuous hiking days. We spent the day lounging aroung our hotel- which also was pretty amazing. Our room had an incredible view of the pool and the ocean, there was a huge garden that had tons of fish, tropical plants, a hammock, and even three swans! Even the lobby of the hotel had a resident parakeet. Outstanding! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend getaway.....

Paradise is not always 24/7

2006-08-27T22:00:00.000-10:00

For weeks we have been watching the surfers from our balcony. We decided it was time for us to take the plunge and give it a try ourselves. We signed up for surf school (really just one class) in Lahaina at a place called Goofy Foot. They claim that everyone will be surfing by the end of the class and if you don't, you get your money back. Sounds like a fair deal.
Class started at 7:30 in the morning, and it was almost an hour drive up to Lahaina so we had to get going bright and early. Out to the car and...what the?...our car was vandalized over night! We had no driver's side mirror and the passenger's side mirror was dangling, there was beer spilled all over the inside of the car and a bottle on the bumper. Someone had rummaged through the glove compartment, but strangely, all of the stuff that was in the glove compartment was now on the passenger's seat - including a tape adapter, but the only thing that was taken was the air fresheners - guess whoever took them had a really stinky car! No time to deal with this now, we had surfing lessons to get to!
Surfing was awesome! We were geared up with water shirts, water shoes and 11-foot surfboards (that are HUGE). We had a lesson on the beach, in the sand first, learning the basics before we ventured into the water. We practiced standing on the boards in the shallow water, without waves. Jon did great, but Marcia couldn't get up without tumbling into the water. Well that is enough practicing. Nate, the instructor, led us out to the waves for the real deal. One at a time (there were 5 of us in the class) we paddled out to the waves where he helped us try to catch them. Then we rotated and the next person would go. I think we got about 5 turns each. It was so fun! We each rode the waves :) Marcia ended up catching many waves, and will be turning pro next season! We are now threatening to rent boards and attempt it on our own. Not sure it will be the same without Nate telling us when to go, what to do, and giving us an extra push on the back of the board :)
After class we lugged the boards back to the beach, and then BAM!, more bad news. Some time while surfing, Jon lost his wedding band in the ocean. We went back to look for it but it was a lost cause...Some tropical fish is now happily married.
So at this point, it is 10:30 in the morning, we have no mirrors on our car and Jon doesn't have a wedding band. You can imagine how the rest of the day went - insurance, car shops, jewelers, etc. Needless to say, paradise is not always 24/7.

Looking on the bright side, surfing was awesome and we saw the best sunset yet...

Friday night waves

2006-08-27T21:08:00.000-10:00

Friday afternoon, home early from work and where better to end the week than the beach! The plan was boogie boarding, but after seeing the size of the waves, we decided that watching the waves was a better idea :)

After wave watching we decided to find a slightly calmer beach. We headed off to Polo Beach where the waves and the beach were wonderful. We swam for a while and then watched a beautiful sunset. Ahhh.

Iao Needle

2006-08-20T19:41:00.000-10:00

Yesterday we went to see the Iao Needle in the middle of the Iao Valley, which is in the middle of the west volcano mountains. The needle is a very tall and skinny piece of mountain left behind from years of erosion.

As we drove into the valley, we noticed that the climate was really changing. When we left Kihei it was sunny and hot. When we arrived at the Iao Valley (after a 25 minute drive) it was cool and cloudy. It also changed from desert-like to rainforest-like. Weird, it was such a short drive!

At the entrance to the valley, there is a memorial park that pays homage to the different peoples who have settled here in Maui. That is why there is a picture of a Japanese tea house.

Up, Up and Around

2006-08-16T21:15:00.000-10:00

Around the West side of the island that is. On Sunday we spent the day exploring the north west section of Maui.

We started out by driving clockwise around the island again - past Lahaina, past Ka'anapali, past the Dragon's Teeth, and started at a magnificent view of Honolua Bay.

Next we went to see a site like neither of have ever seen before: Nakalele Blow Hole. As usual, we needed to do a little hiking to get there. It was a pretty hike, over weird salt-eroded lava. As the book so eloquently puts it, "it looks like an alien war zone where combatants fought with acid". A little further, and we were there. What is a blowhole? Basically, the ocean here pounds the lava rocks with such force and constancy that it has made a hole in the rock that the water is forced through - sometimes shooting up to 70 feet in the air! It never got that high when we were there, but it was still unbelievable. Hopefully the pictures will give you some idea of what looked like. It was pretty amazing....

Just like some of you might do with clouds, we started seeing formations in the rocks that reminded us of images. There was even one that looked like E.T. What do you think??

Next up was Bellstone and Olivine Pools. Now this was cool, too. After a picnic lunch (PB and J, of course), we hiked down the cliffside to what looked like just a couple of puddles, where the ocean had come over the shorline rocks and formed little pools. However, as we got down to ocean level, we realized that the puddles, were more like 20 feet deep!! We could even jump in from the other rocks from a height of like 20 feet! Marcia was a little nervous at first, but then ended up jumping from almost the top! Of course, there are no pictures of Jon jumping in, but don't worry - he did...

After frolicking for a while, we moved on. From here the road around the northwest part of the island (the back of the head - if you visualize the entire island as a head and torso of a man...see map) becomes VERY windy and narrow. Sometimes only wide enough for one car! What a beautiful drive, though - very tropical and some unbelievable views of the ocean. Just when it seemed like we were at the edge of the planet, low and behold, there was a thriving village. In fact, we even stopped to get some of the "worlds best banana bread". No offense to any moms out there, but I think it might be true!

Ride that wave!

2006-08-14T20:46:00.000-10:00

Lazy Saurday afternoon with the new body board. We went down to our favorite beach (so far), Charlie Young and spent a few hours riding the waves :)

Friday night Luau

2006-08-12T11:18:00.000-10:00

Last night, in celebration of our third anniversary and being here in Hawaii, we went to a Luau at the Wailea Marriott. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun! We sat a table of 10 with some really nice people, and enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet and an open bar. Somehow we missed the Poi, but Jon tried the roasted pig. Mmmm, pork (perfect for the nice Jewish boy)...

Turtles and Pineapples

2006-08-07T22:01:00.000-10:00

Not so many pictures from this adventure but surely a story! We have been snorkeling a few times since we have been here but have yet to see any really good fish. The trick is to get up and out early in the morning, and this is difficult on a Sunday morning :) We did however get ourselves out of bed and out of the house by 8 am. We headed south towards a place called The Fishbowl. As the name says, it is supposed to be fabulous fish viewing. So we pull up, bathing suits on, towels around necks, snorkel gear on our backs and flip flops on our feet. Well, we did NOT get the memo. In order to get to this fishbowl, you have to hike over tons of lava. We gave it our best shot and started hiking over this lava. Neither of us have ever seen lava so I am guessing that some of you haven't either. It is like the ash that is left after a camp fire...just tons of it. It is sharp and rough and not so good to be hiking on with flip flops! After two scrapes we gave in, defeted by the lava and decided that we would takle this another day, in proper footwear. We headed off to another snorkeling loacation.
At this point it was like 9:30 and we were sure that we had now missed the good snorkeling. Not the case. We ended up at a beach in Wailea and the snorkeling was awesome! We ended up pretty far out where the water was calm and we saw some great coral, very colorful, some colorful fish, and giant SEA TURTLES!! It scared the living daylights out of Marcia the first time. Jon got a kick out of seeing Marcia swim for her life in the other direction. Needless to say the second and third time we saw the turtles, it was much better. So cool to be so close!

On Sunday evening we went up to Haiku. One of the other dentists had us, and the other resident and her boyfriend over for dinner. We all had a really nice time. Before we had dinner, we went pineapple picking right in her bakcyard! Now we have been apple picking, berry picking, pumpking picking but never pineapple picking. There were pineapples as far as you could see! We now have about 8 pineapples.

Anyone have any good pineapple recepies??

Our first trip to Haleakala National Park

2006-08-05T20:39:00.000-10:00

Let's start off by saying, wow, what an amazing day! We started out from our apartment in Kihei at about 8 AM. Now, even though the giant volcano is practically right in our backyard, the only way in is from the north side of the island. Needless to say, it took us about an hour and a half to get there. But the journey was remarkable.

Even though it was 8 in the morning, it was already about 75 degrees and sunny at home. During our drive north through the valley, the weather became cooler and cloudy, and eventually it looked like it was going to pour. Sure enough, just before we started making the climb, the heavens opened. Just our luck, we had neglected to put the doors and windows back on the jeep. Oddly enough, as long as we kept moving, neither of us got wet. Anyway, as we started up from sea level, the rain turned into a mist. We drove through a couple of nice little towns and started noticing the posted elevations. 1000 ft, 2000 ft, 5000 ft., etc... At about a mile above sea level, we could see the vegation starting to change. Instead of tropical Hawaii, we were now in what seemed like New England with pine trees and deciduous trees. The landscape eventually started to look like how you picture a volcano would look. The temperature was dropping by the minute, too! It was pretty cool going in and out of clouds.

We pulled over to snap a few pictures of Kihei from so far up, and how the clouds looked from above as they turned from white to rain clouds. Pretty soon after that, we had to pull over to put on our windows and doors because we weren't in the clear just yet - the rain and the cold were starting to be too much.

As we rounded one of the many bends in the road, our trusty tour book recommended getting out to go check out a lookout site. Not wanting to pass this opportunity up, we got out and went to check it out, even though it was back to raining again - the weather is so unpredictable up there. It was about a 10 min. hike, but it was totally not worth it. Cold, check! Rain, check! Visibility, ZERO. Back to the jeep! Many people might have been discouraged at this, but not us, we trekked onward and upward. And a good thing we did, too!

We reached the summit (10,023 feet - almost 2 miles above sea level) after only 20 miles of road (the steepest ascent anywhere on Earth) and we were totally in the clear of all the clouds. Nothing but sunshine and unfiltered UV radiation. Sweet. Marcia's neck and Jon's face are prime examples of this phnomenon. After visiting the visitors center, we decided on a trail (Keonehe'ehe'e - Sliding Sands Trail) and so it begins...

But first a little history on Haleakala (read: what the heck is it?) Just like all the Hawaiian Islands, Haleakala is a volcano that built itself up from the ocean floor. After a long period of inactivity, erosion ate away at it, and formed a massive canyon in the middle of it (the crater). The volcano then erupted again (forming Cinder Cones) and the valley was partially filled in from the lava. At least, that's the story that we understand, anyway.

As we made our way down the trail, we had to be careful as to not step in any horsepoop. Apparently, you can take a guided horseback tour. Anyway, the trail zigzags almost all the way down to the crater floor (almost 4000 feet). Don't worry, we didn't go that far. The volcanic rock was black at first, then changed colors as we got deeper in. It was really amazing to see the clouds in the crater, moving all the time and sometimes refreshing us with a cool mist. On our way down, we'd see other people on the trail that were on their way up, and say hello with enthusiasm. We'd get comments back, like "sure, you're smiling now, just wait until the way up!" We soon knew what they were talking about.

Also along the way, we ran into some interesting vegetation. That's right, we saw PLANTS growing out of the rock. Weird.

At one point, the trail forked in the road. We chose our direction, which apparently led us what seemed like STAIGHT DOWN, with only "sliding sand" as footholds. It ended up being a lot of fun and we got to learn the true meaning of the name of the trail we were on.

We finally reached our destination of the Ka Lu'u o ka 'O'o Cinder Cone. What an amazing sight to see. You can see where the Lava boiled up and blew out the side. You can even see on the crater floor the stream of lava that has since solidified. The colors that you can see here are surreal. After walking down what seemed like a lunar surface, now you can see bright red rocks, white rocks, and green vegetation growing on the cliffs. The red rocks reminded us that we were standing on some of the newest Earth on the Earth. Pretty cool. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and started our way back up. We took the "other fork" on the way back - much less steep. The walk back was painful. Imagine walking uphill for 2.6 miles in sand and rocks. Ugh...

Back up at the summit, we took it all in once more, the crater, the ocean, the rest of the island, we think we could even see the Big Island off to the southeast. We went back to the original "rainy" lookout area and the visibility was much better now. We could see where we had hiked to and some pretty cool rainbows.

On our way back, we attempted to find a road that would be a shortcut, but instead ended up driving to basically a dead end before having to turn around. How frustrating, we could practically SEE our apartment from where we were, but there was no road that could lead us there! It added about an extra 45 mins., but we were able to see some cool towns along the way. This just goes to show you that even on Maui, people can still have a two hour drive to the beach!! Who Knew!?

Day Trippin'

2006-07-29T17:15:00.000-10:00

So we decided to do a little exploration of our new island home today. We hopped in our jeep, took the roof and windows off, and headed west (clockwise) from Kihei, around Maui. After almost getting our hair blown off heading across the valley, we stopped for a few magnificent views of Kihei, across the bay from Ma'alaea. We continued on past a few local beaches (crowed with tons of surfers (surf's up, dude!) to Lahaina.

Lahaina is like any other cute little beach town, loaded with tons of boutique shops, jewelry stores, and tourist gift shops. Oh, yeah, and food too. There is not a whole lot to note here, other than the super cool banyan tree in Banyan Tree Park. This is a humungous tree that basically takes up the entire park, where even the horizontal branches have grown their own trunks. It's hard to explain, and our camera seems to have eaten that particular picture, but get creative with the internet and we're sure you can find a picture!

Next we went to Napili Bay to swim at the beach. The water was nice, the sand was nice, but the people were packed in like sardines. There are plenty of other beaches here, and we recommend finding one a little less populated (which we did later in the day). However, a beach is a beach and it was still nice.

Next up was Makulua-puna Point. Now this was cool. After consulting our nifty tour guide book, it advised us to scurry across the 11th fairway of the Ritz-Carlton Resort Golf Course to the shore. Although this seemed highly sketchy (not to mention dangerous due to not knowing the skill level of the Ritzy Golfers on hole 11), we took our chances and it was well worth it! This was like no other shore line we have ever seen.
Right along the waters edge, the lava was white instead of black, the lava has made formations from the salt spray known as "dragon's teeth", and the water has eroded the lava in such a way to crate massive inlets and blowholes. (Jody, you know you are the most interested in this - you would love it!).

Then we went to another lookout area in Honolua Bay that showed a lanscaped perspective of the shoreline that we had just explored. From there we decided to call it a day, stopping in front of the Sheraton Resort at the famed Ka'anapali Beach. Here the beach was much less crowded, there was live music (from the Sheraton), it had incredibly cool waves, and Maricia managed to get half of the beach stuck in her bathing suit. Don't ask me how... (Matt, no jokes here)

We made it home to watch the sunset from our balcony. What a day. :) What will tomorrow bring??

Get Your Bearings

2006-07-26T19:51:00.000-10:00

If you double-click the picture (or any other picture), a larger one will pop up in a separate window.

Maui Oral Health Clinic

2006-07-26T19:30:00.000-10:00

Oh yeah, the reason we are here in Maui, Jon's work. Here is a picture of Jon assessing candidates for a special dental implant program designed to help people that need this treatment but cannot afford to pay for it. He is with (from L-R) Spencer Owades, a dentist who works at the clinic, Ildy, the other resident, and Dan Mayeda, a private practice prosthodontist. Jon will be working at Dr. Mayeda's office once a week on complex implant cases. Fun stuff! :)

Good Day

2006-07-25T13:10:00.000-10:00

I knew it was going to be a good day when we saw this rainbow on the way to work this morning!

Where we live

2006-07-25T10:55:00.000-10:00

Up until this point we have been staying at the home of one of the dentists that Jon will be working with. Here is a picture of her beautiful house from the outside and the inside. The house is in a town called Haiku which is on the border of central Maui and Upcountry (on the north shore of the island).

Haiku is kind of far away from what feels like everything but the beauty is what makes it worth it. It rains daily in Haiku which makes everything very green and lush, what you think of when you picture a rain forest.

And the stars, oh my g-d. On the few clear nights when we were there, the stars are unreal. It was as if were were in a planetarium. The view from her house was great too. We spent as much time on the porch as possible to take it all in.

Today we moved to our apartment in Kihei. It feels like a move from the country to the city!! There is a main road that runs down the shore (called South Kihei - the street we live on) which is pretty busy. From our apartment we can hear the noise from the street. But, the view and the closeness to the beach are what make this apartment well worth it! I am sitting here right now looking at the palm trees blowing in the wind and the waves rolling in. Ahhhhh. Oh were was I? Oh yeah.
So here is a picture of the inside of our apartment. It was furnished when we rented it. Nothing fancy but it will be fine. Hopefully we won't be spending all that much time inside anyway :)

The best part about this apartment, as I mentioned, is the view. We took this picture of the sunset from our balcony on Sunday night. I can't wait to see this everynight!!

2006-07-22T18:23:00.000-10:00

So here we are a week and a half into our year long adventure in Maui. Things are starting to come together. Jon started working at the Maui Oral Health Center in Wailuku last Monday and is really enjoying it!! We have a car and an apartment and have started to see some of the natural beauty of the island (and not just the car dealerships and classified ads). This picture is from one of the beaches in Kihei (the town we live in). I took this one day while perusing the classifieds.

Here is Jon in our new Jeep on the side of the road to Hana.