Thanksgiving 2009 / Celia's Birthday

******Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving 2009******

and

******Here is a little video of some of the activities******

Hawaii

Hawaii 2009

Leslie and I decided to go to Hawaii for our fifth anniversary. Mostly we stayed in Maui, but we did swing over to Oahu (Honolulu) for a Jack Johnson concert.

****Here's a link to the pictures****

I didn't label all the pictures; I figured I could explain a bit here and you could look at them.

Luau

We started off with a Luau on one of the first nights we were there. It was next to the ocean, and there was a stage where the dancers performed the hula, other Polynesian dances, sang, chanted, and performed native music. Upon entering, we received a lei and a Mai Tai (a nice touch), and because we booked our reservation so early, out table was right in front. As the sun went down over the sea, they began to bring out the food which consisted of four main courses, an appetizer, a dessert, and all you can drink. Each course and performance had a theme paired with one of the Polynesian islands (Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and New Zealand (Maori)) They brought out so much food each time (plus vegetarian dishes for me), that we could barely eat it all each time. At the end, they capped off the evening with a fire dance which was a pretty cool display of danger and concentration.

Haleakala

Haleakala means "House of the Sun". It is a big, dormant volcano with a crater at the top. We decided to make the trek 10,000 ft. up the mountain. On the way, we saw a lot of different things like free-range cattle that inhabit part of the mountain. Leslie liked the cows, so she took a picture. It got pretty cold up at the top, but the view was amazing. The clouds were below us, and we could see the island of Hawaii in the distance, which is over 100 miles away. Inside the crater, it looked like an alien landscape of barren rock.

When we went back down the mountain, we got some lunch, and I was playing with a wild chameleon. I also included a picture of what the land looks like at the bottom. Maui is big mountains with flat land at the bottom where most of the civilization lives. I snapped a picture of the sugar cane fields with the mountains in the distance.

The Road to Hana

Actually it's called the Hana Highway, but everyone calls it "the road to Hana" I guess because it sounds like a book title or something. The road to Hana is a very, very, very twisty, tricky drive. You cannot drive more than 5-10 mph in most places, and you pretty much have to stay in your lane going around the many hairpin turns in the road because there could be a car coming the other way that you cannot see. On one side of the road is a mountain and on the other side is a cliff that goes all the way to the sea. Getting to Hana really isn't the point of the drive, but rather you're supposed to stop off often at the many beautiful vistas along the way, and revel in the lush and diverse vegetation that spreads out across the mountain.

Along the way, there are people who run little stands and sell fruit juices, tacos, coffee, shaved ice (or as they call it "shave ice"), etc. We stopped, got some juice, took some pictures, and enjoyed the beautiful drive. When I read about the road to Hana, I heard it was so, so beautiful, and I guess when I hear that, I let my imagination run away with me. Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful drive, but by the descriptions, I imagined some sort of tropical paradise with flowers everywhere and parrots flying all around. It wasn't exactly what I imagined, but there were a lot of different plants, and flowering trees, and fruit that littered the road, vistas of the ocean, and a few waterfalls. It took us over 6 hours to drive 50 miles that day in our white, convertible Mustang.

Beach

The beach was nice. The waters were really calm the first few days we got there, and people were snorkeling. Kaanapali beach is on the west coast of Maui, and in the distance we could look out and see the islands of Lanai and Molokai. It was a nice backdrop looking out at the ocean, and you can see the islands in several of our pictures.

On Thursday, the surf was way up, and all the surfers came out. What we thought would be another relaxing day at the beach turned into an exciting day of watching people surfing. It was an unexpected event to watch on our vacation.

Honolulu

We hopped over to Honolulu for a day to go see Jack Johnson in concert. He was playing a benefit for the Kokua Foundation at the historical Hawaii Theater. The venue was super small -maybe a few hundred people - and made for a great, informal concert.

We saw a bit of Waikiki beach and the main drag in the afternoon. Honolulu definitely has a lot to offer, but seems very busy and crowded, and we were happy to go back to laid-back Maui again.

Kula

The last day we were in Maui, we drove to Kula Botanical Gardens, and I finally got to see the concentration of exotic, tropical flowers that I had imagined before. All kinds of interesting flowers were around every turn, and it was just a beautiful place to be. It was a nice way to wind up the trip before we had to start on our journey back home.

Thoughts

Hawaii was a lot different than I thought it would be. It is such a complex layering of language, culture (both old and new), food, land, and vegetation. It starts to seep into you when you're trying to remember the difference between Kaanapali and Kapalua or street names that are 20 letters long. It is definitely something very different. I thought because it was an American state, it would be just like the U.S., but I came to realize that it was something very unique unto itself.

I left with images of cars that all have surf boards on top of them, and people whose main goal it to go to a beach park, surf, BBQ up some fish, listen to music, and do the same thing the next day.

Everything is a diverse, complex mix - from the people and culture to the many forms of life you can see from the tops of the mountain all the way to the sea.

All these layers form a tapestry and a society that is unlike any other place I have seen before. I went expecting cheesy re-enactments of historical culture and some nice beaches, but was really impressed with the uniqueness of the culture and the relaxed feel of a place where you drive with the top down and enjoy the day.

Mahalo Hawaii - It was fun.