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June 14-15, 2003 Maui: Arrival / Black Rock (1) June 14th - We Arrive (Hover over images to see description.) Early on June 14th, Calvin, Marie and I set out for a ten day stay in Maui. Somehow, the thirteen tons of clothing, shoes, toiletries, and camera equipment we were bringing with us equated to only two suitcases, a duffel, and a single carry-on. Still, it was a near thing - we almost had to cough up an extra fifty bucks for exceeding the weight limit. We were picked up shortly after 7:00 by the towncar taking us to the airport. The driver and I made small talk about his son and ex-girlfriend as we enjoyed the rare treat of cruising along nearly empty freeways. Calvin and Marie were as silent as mice and blinking sleepily in the back seat. In what would be a surprising trend throughout the vacation, check-in was relatively easy and the lines were fast. With some time to kill, we stopped at the Kokopelli Deli (feh - cutesy!) for a quick breakfast. We were surrounded by other diners who would appear to stalk us throughout our vacation - small island, Maui. It's disorienting indeed to see someone so far away from home who strikes a chord in your memory and you're trying like hell to place where you've seen 'em before. We barely made it on the plane without Calvin kicking the kid that was in line in front of us. It was the most badly behaved child I've seen in a long time, and its mother (it was an androgynous thing - boys clothes but with a girly haircut so we couldn't figure out what "it" was) did nothing to discipline it. First she had it by the wrist so it wouldn't go wandering off, and it whined shrilly. Then she put it on a wrist leash ("I wouldn't put the leash around it's wrist..." quoth Calvin), whereby it pulled as far away as the leash would allow, then rolled around on the floor shrieking. We had to physically restrain Calvin a couple of times from "mistakenly" stepping on it. Though I didn't blame him for the sentiment. As (bad) luck would have it, we were seated in such a way that I was in the window seat behind the row that Calvin and Marie occupied (I stuck my hand in between the seats a couple of times to pat Calvin's shoulder, but he kept biting it). Though I had a good, thick paperback to read ("A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin), I mourned the lack of a conversation partner. I introduced myself to my row-mates - Bob and Jeff, two men in their fifties who were flying out to Maui to meet up with family members. Making nice with the strangers trapping you from the isle at least ensures that you can get up to go to the bathroom without too much insult. We flew ATA, and I must say that the food was the worst I've ever had in my flying experience. Truly, truly awful chicken mumble with some sort of sweet potato baby food. I passed on both and ate my brick-hard brownie and mealy roll. The movie-du-jour was "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", which adequately killed two hours of the six hour flight. Even though I had to keep popping my earphones out at the embarrassing bits. I'm a freak that way - can't watch anyone putting themselves in an embarrassing situation or making a fool of themselves. I endured the seemingly everlasting flight, alternating between book, small talk with Bob and Jeff, and staring at the monotonous view of water water water, clouds clouds clouds, wing wing wing. There were two young children seated behind me, constantly fighting and pushing against my seat. I had the thought that it was fortunate that I was sitting in front of them, and not Calvin (but then, the people sitting in front of Calvin and Marie were probably annoyed at their horseplay). Their mother kept threatening to sit between them to separate them, but never did. Finally, eighteen million kicks, two sodas, two bathroom trips, and 291 pages later, I spotted something on the horizon that could either be land or a cloud formation. The captain came on over the loudspeaker and announced that those of us lucky enough to be seated on the left side of the plane could see Mount Kilauea peaking up through the clouds, on the big island. Soon after that, the edge of Maui appeared suddenly, during our descent. From the air, the edges of the island look rounded and exactly like someone dribbled wet sand along it to form the coastline. We banked, suddenly and hard, to the right. I gasped and made my row-mates chuckle at me - I'm great during a flight, but take-offs and landings occasionally get to me. As we pulled up to the gate, I stood up and got the first good look at the family seated behind me. Modern granola hippie chic - the mother sported armpit hair longer than most men's sprouting from her sleeveless top, and the boys were wearing clothes that looked like they were made out of hemp. The older boy glared at me foully and demanded that I turn off my overhead light - which wasn't mine, but Jeff's. I growled, "You're not the boss of me, kid," and earned a *look* from his mother. There were people with leis waiting at the baggage area to greet arrivals, but we were not among the fortunate to receive one. You had to belong to certain tour groups, I guess. A minor disappointment, since advertisements and movies make it seem like *everyone* is greeted with a lei. We claimed our bags after only a brief wait, all intact, then headed to the curb to wait for the van to take us to our rental car. Two minutes later, and I was standing at the National counter, credit card in hand. I kept hopping around in excitement (I'm a dork that way), and the nice lady behind the counter asked if it was my first time on the island. I said yes, and she said she'd never been to "the mainland". I goggled at that, though I don't know why. What, did I expect that Hawaiian natives were supposed to take a field trip to California in sixth grade or something? (Aside: All Maine elementary students - or at least the ones in my school district - take a field trip to Boston in sixth grade, to see the Prudential Building and the Science Museum, and ride the subway. For some, this is the only time they ever leave the state in their lives. No joke.) We claimed our white Chrysler Sebring convertible, and after a bit of a struggle to fit all the luggage in (the trunk's tiny, if you're thinking of buying), Calvin put the top back and I spread out the map in my lap, and we were ARRIVED. We navigated the streets of Kahului fairly successfully, only getting moderately confused by the directions provided by the hotel's website. We saw fields and fields of sugar cane along the two-lane highway, and what we later found out to be the last operational sugar mill (owned by C+H) left on Maui. We took 380 (Kuihelani Highway) to 350 (Pu'u'nene Avenue, which name, whenever mentioned on the radio, made us crack up - it's pronounced poo-oo-nay-nay, which Calvin and Marie quickly converted to poo-poo-nay-nay), to 31 (Pi'i'lani Highway), to Alanui Ke Ali'i (say it with me!), to South Kihei Road, where we turned right and drove the quick jog to the Maui Coast Hotel. Traffic was massively slow the whole way, and would continue to be massively slow throughout our entire stay. We spotted a bumper sticker that said it all: "Slow down, this ain't the mainland." We checked in at the hotel, but our room wasn't ready yet (it wasn't quite 2:00), so we decided to go off in search of some lunch. Right down the street from the hotel were several shopping centers, and we settled in at "The Sports Page", a sports-themed bar that completely hid the fact that we were in Hawaii, once we were inside. I had a BLT, Calvin had a roast beef sandwich, and Marie had a hot dog (get used to this, I wrote down everything we ate the whole trip). Sitting there, relaxing and sipping beers, it had not yet sunk in that we had finally arrived in Hawaii, after months and MONTHS of anticipation. We kept looking at each other and grinning our fool heads off. A Snorkel Bob's was nearby, so we stopped in to rent some masks and fins. We'd purchased our own snorkels on-line, since Calvin's previous experience in Maui (about fifteen years ago with X(f)) showed the importance of having a "dry" snorkel - one that doesn't let water in when it goes under. It has this little valve type thingy that closes off the end of the snorkel, though how it knows that water's about to get in is beyond me. So. We are the proud owners of snorkels. In the middle of the desert. Riddle me that. The lady manning the place (heh) was very nice. She was wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip flops - seeing this, I mentioned that she has just about the greatest job in the world. She laughed and said that she didn't want a job where she had to wear nylons. We went back to the hotel, and our room was ready. Room number 545, a one bedroom suite with a balcony overlooking the "Garden Path", and a wet bar. Calvin and I claimed the bedroom (king sized bed - much more real estate than we're used to), and unpacked. Now, when traveling I usually just leave all my stuff in the suitcase, yanking out whatever I need when I need it and leaving the rest in a messy pile. This time, though, we put the armoire and closet to good use, and made the place as comfy and organized as we could. The cell phone rang, and it was my sister checking in on us to make sure we made it all right. After a quick conversation with her, I put the bulk of our traveler's checks and our tickets in the safe in the closet, and we all changed into our bathing suits in order to explore the beaches across the street from the hotel. Maui Coast Hotel is situated directly across the street from Kamaole Beach Park I. It's only a very short walk, but Calvin wished to drive over with our snorkel equipment and park on the street. Creamy sand met blue blue BLUE water (sorry, it's an annoying habit of Hawaii vacationers to continually comment on how blue the water is, and I'm going to be no different), with northwest Maui and visible off to our right, and Kahoolawe Island and the Molokini Crater visible to our left. Calvin jumped right in with the snorkel gear, and right off started seeing spotted trunkfish and various species of butterfly fish. Marie and I waded into the waves, and then at the count of three dove under. It was by far the warmest ocean water I've ever been in - barely something that needs to be gotten "used to" before it becomes completely comfortable. We splashed around for a bit before I went back to the car and got masks for Marie and myself, so we could see what Calvin was animatedly pointing at and grunting through his snorkel. I did quickly remember the necessity to keep my mouth firmly closed - we only swam a short while, but my throat was already irritated by the salt water. Wonderfully enough (that'd be sarcasm, right there), our first glimpse of "eye candy" came in the form of a fairly buff man in a thong bikini suit, and a decidedly NOT buff woman (his girlfriend) in a thong bikini. Ass, all over the place. The guy was a total poser, standing knee-deep in the water and all, "Yeah, check me out. Here's my ass." Marie and I giggled and made snarky remarks as we made sidelong glances at him - the guy thought we were impressed, and so posed some more. It was gag-eriffic. We messed around at the beach for about an hour and a half, then went back to the hotel to change for dinner. Our Gap clothes were out in full force, as Marie and I wore our new jean skirts, and Calvin donned his loose linen pants and Hawaiian print silk shirt. We made the 40 minute drive to Lahaina along the Honoapilani Highway, which offered breathtaking views right along the coast. You know, we made that drive multiple times throughout our stay, and never ceased to be frustrated with the snail's pace of the traffic. There's a tunnel through the mountainside at one point in the road, and people traditionally blast their horns on the way through. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure if this act is unique to Hawaii, or tunnels. Scared the hell outta me the first time it happened, though, loud and echoing as it was. We turned off onto Shaw Street and drove along Front Street (here's a view from the south side). The place was a madhouse of activity - cars, people, music, and shops clustered on top of each other along the waterfront. We found parking off of a side street and made a beeline for Moose McGillycuddy's. I don't even really remember what we ordered - I wasn't hungry at all, and we were completely worn out. I'd dragged the video camera along with me, and amused myself with annoying Calvin with it while he and Marie ate. Afterwards, we walked the shops a little bit, but were dragging our feet in a matter of minutes, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We put the top down for the drive along the coast, and the stars were clearly visible in the black sky. I haven't seen stars like that since I lived in Maine, and it made my heart happy. June 15th - Ka'anapali and Black Rock The next day I got up at 5:30, evidently still on Arizona time (there's a three hour difference). I decided to take a quick walk down to the beach to take the pictures we didn't take the day before. I got honked at and whistled at as I walked down the sidewalk, which, you know, didn't suck. The water was much calmer than it had been the afternoon before, and the beach was dotted with old retired couples walking their dogs. I stood and took a few shots of the views, then walked back up to the hotel and took a few shots of that. I was absolutely wrecked without coffee, so when I got back to the room I levered Calvin out of bed and woke Marie. While Marie was getting ready for the day, Calvin and I made a quick run to a Starbucks that we'd seen near the hotel, when we were on the way to Lahaina the night before. We left with Calvin gasping at the $4.15 price tag for a Venti Mocha, but I was willing to pay twice that to feel the sweet nectar restoring life to my limbs. Ahem. Got carried away, there. We still had to wait another fifteen minutes or so for Marie to finish up (this waiting would be a continuing theme throughout the vacation), then decided to spend our day in the Ka'anapali and Lahaina area, since we had to pick up our event tickets from Activity Savers, located behind the shops on Front Street. We parked at Whaler's Village, and decided to have breakfast at The Rusty Harpoon. The hostess seated us at a lovely deckside table, with views of the garden and ocean beyond. I chose to eat light (a continental breakfast with the most EXCELLENT pineapple), since we were planning on snorkeling around Black Rock after breakfast. Calvin had a breakfast skillet, and Marie ate about 1/4 of her ridiculously enormous omelette. Birds were flying through the restaurant, even landing on the railing next to our table, inches away. After breakfast, we walked along the beach about a quarter mile up to Black Rock, which was in front of the Sheraton Hotel. Early as it was, the place was still starting to get a bit crowded. We cast our towels and shoes on the beach and waded into the water carrying snorkels, fins, and masks. Calvin had been snorkeling in Mexico and on his last trip to Maui, but I'd only messed with it in my aunt's pool as a child, and Marie had never snorkeled at all. Calvin paused to help Marie figure out her gear, while I donned mine and in heartbeats was paddling around and getting used to breathing with my face stuck under the water. The know-how came back to me more easily than I figured it would - I swam out deeper and deeper, then turned and swam back to Calvin and Marie. I did this several times to occupy myself while Marie received an impromptu lesson, but within a half hour Marie was swimming around like a pro, too. The three of us stuck loosely together, paddling nearer to the rocks and seeing a vast assortment of fish that stuck around even among the thrashing limbs and splashing bodies. We had to be especially careful around the high point of Black Rock - folks were climbing up and cannon-balling back into the water. The fish must be used to the disturbance, there were certainly no shortage of them around. There was every variety of butterfly fish - yellow Longnosed and Milletseed and Pyramid. Moorish Idols were everywhere, as were Spotted Trunkfish. We saw a couple of Spotted Pufferfish, and a ton of Needlefish. Gilded Triggerfish added their blue color, and Long-Fin Anthius their red. Blue Parrotfish were everywhere, and a whole slew of other species that weren't conveniently defined on the reference card that Snorkel Bob's gave us. We also saw bright red Slate Pencil Sea Urchins hiding in the rocks and coral, competing for space with the starfish. Every time we saw something new and interesting, we'd wave to each other under the water to gain attention, then grunt through our snorkels and point - sometimes diving down to clearly indicate where something was hiding. We started to develop our own language, after a while. Variations of "Oh, cool!" and "Hey, lookit!" and "Wicked!!" started coming through loud and clear. Grinning with a mask on became a hazard, though - the movements of the cheeks breaks the seal and floods the mask. Me being the chipmunk that I am, I was having a hard time with it. But it was hard not to grin at the experience - easily one of the coolest things I've ever done. We headed back to the beach for a bit of a rest, but soon Calvin and I were itching to get back in the water. Leaving Marie to sun herself on the beach, Calvin and I swam back out to the point, and beyond it. It gave me such a wonderful feeling, slowly paddling along hand-in-hand with Calvin, having a fantastic time. There were an abundance of nooks and areas that would have kept us occupied for hours. The water got much cooler where a deep water current fed into an inlet. Coming up to clear our masks (which kept fogging despite the anti-fog goo we had), we heard an older gentleman announcing that he'd found sea turtles. We ducked back underwater and were rewarded with the sight of a turtle gracefully gliding up from the bottom, coming up for air. He looked around in mild curiosity at everyone staring at him, poked his head above the water and gaped his mouth while he breathed in, then dove back under to settle on the bottom under an outcropping of lava rock. We looked more closely at the bottom and saw several more turtles, nearly hidden with their camouflaging shells. Calvin and I spent a good long time simply floating and staring at these marvellous creatures. After a while we started to realize how long we'd been out, so we swam the surprisingly long distance back around the point and to the beach. We had to get quite close to the shore before we could stand upright, and as I did I realized just how long I'd been swimming without being able to "touch". Usually it tires me out immensely, but treading water and dead floating with snorkel gear is surprisingly easy and relaxing. Effortless, really. I'm sure the buoyancy of salt water contributed to the ease, as well. I kept forgetting about that aspect of it - one doesn't swim much in the ocean around Maine unless one has a full wetsuit. We saw Marie searching the heads in the water for us - she'd fallen asleep and was just waking up. Fortunately, our habit immediately on arrival was to slather ourselves with UV 30 sunblock every morning after showering, so she wasn't burned. By this time, we were all famished. We walked back along the water toward where we'd parked, scanning the beachline for public showers. Calvin spotted one in front of a hotel, so we started to walk across the sand. And then we walked faster. And then a bit faster. By the time we reached the boardwalk, we were practically shoving each other out of the way to get off of the hot hot HOT sand. Then, true to our natures, we turned and giggled at other beachgoers, mincing their way across in the same fashion. It felt good to get the salt water off. We rinsed thoroughly, then went back to the car to grab a change of clothes before finding a place for lunch. Calvin just put a shirt on over his swim shorts and stuck a baseball cap on his head, and was good to go. Marie and I changed, one at a time, in the car. The guy who came along and parked his car in the space in front of us probably got a good view of me in my bra. I was now wearing capris and a blue sleeveless shirt and flip flops, my damp hair caught up in a low pony, the end of which was stuffed through the back of my baseball cap. I was feeling refreshed and sporty, while Marie, who had donned a white crochet shirt, a jaunty cap set low and tilted over her face, and blue jeans, was looking like she stepped out of a J-Lo video. It finally started to sink in that we were HERE and DOING IT. So we did the obvious thing - dialed up Michael and Lilly to rub it in a bit. They were at the mall in San Diego, and Michael well and truly did NOT want to hear all about how much fun we were having. I believe he said, "You guys suck." Lilly at least sounded a bit happier to hear from us. We walked along the boardwalk a little ways, and came upon the Hula Grill, a great little place with "barefoot" beachside tables. It was absolutely marvellous to sit and relax and sip on our umbrella-clad drinks as we watched the people go by. A public shower was within eyeshot, so Calvin entertained himself watching the bathing beauties while Marie and I scammed for hot guys. We ordered a light lunch - I had a brown rice salad with bean sprouts, chicken, and thai peanut dressing. Calvin had fish and chips, and Marie had a fruit platter (a couple of which were unrecognizable as any fruit we've ever eaten - very reminiscent of eyeballs!!!). We sat for a good couple of hours, eating and drinking and commenting on the views. The waitress even stopped by with a free drink - a Mai Tai that the bartender had mixed by mistake. We walked past the bar on the way out, and who should we spot but Bob and Jeff, from the airplane. They hollered out, "Hey, it's the airplane chick!", so it was obvious that they didn't remember my name. We exchanged a few pleasantries, then headed back to the car. The next stop was Lahaina to pick up the tickets for all of the activities we had planned. Tim from Activity Savers was extremely nice and helpful (and his office was EXCESSIVELY hot - a lot of places don't believe in air conditioning in Maui), and got us all taken care of in very short order, even taking into consideration the fact that his computers were down when we got there. Back along the 40 minute drive to the hotel, this time keeping the top up as we'd had enough sun for the day, thank you. Plus, it was in the low 90's for much of the time we were there - with the added humidity it wasn't nearly as tolerable as the same temperature in Arizona. We relaxed for a while and got cleaned up, then drove a short distance south of the hotel to KKO for some dinner. The outdoor seating was pleasant, if you were situated under the fans and could ignore the fact that there were GIANT COCKROACHES climbing up the walls. They're everywhere in Maui, and there's nothing that icks me out worse - especially while dining - than seeing a cockroach. Fortunately, it didn't appear until our meal was over, so we spent a happy hour tapping our feet to the good music they were playing. I had a most excellent bisque of corn, potatoes, leeks, and chicken broth, followed by an appetizer portion of ribs. Calvin had one of the famous Maui pulled pork sandwiches, and Marie had a hamburger with some really good french fries. I tried my hand at a Raspberry Cosmo, but I didn't like it much. Too sweet. I stuck to beer and water after that. Back to the car, back to the hotel. We wanted to make an early night of it, in anticipation of the launch of our exciting activities the next morning. -> -> Go to Part Two of the Hawaii Entry

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