Well, no, we didn't hijack Baby Samantha and take her with us to Maui. Jennifer had sent us a picture to show us that Samantha was wearing one of the outfits that we bought for her. I think Jennifer said that she asked to wear it, which may sound strange, but Samantha actually sent us the e-mail and thanked us for the outfit, so she is quite a resourceful young lady.Our trip to Maui was relaxing and surprising, warm and wonderful. Darla and I went out to dinner on our first night in Maui and decided to go get a pizza in Lahaina at BJ's Chicago Pizzeria. It is the best pizza joint in Maui and also has a great view of the ocean as it sits on the second floor of the city center overlooking the street and the ocean beyond. As the greeter seated us at our open air window seat, the group next to us said, "Well, Hello, Darla!" It was Bob and Debbie from Reno who we vacation with in Lake Almanor. They were there on a week's vacation to Maui and it was their daughter, Brooke's 20th birthday. We talked and got caught up on their lives (you can see Bob leaning over and talking to me in the picture) and made plans to meet them on Friday afternoon for PuPu at their condo in Napili.
Darla and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Kanapali, right on the golf course. It was hard for me not to golf and have to hear the tales from the other men in the group who were out hitting the links. This was Darla's vacation and her trip that she won from Silpada, so I decided to refrain from golf. That didn't stop me from spending a morning at Kapalua and the Mercedes Benz Championship, the "opening drive" of the PGA Tour, but that is another story. The Hyatt is an older resort, but very nice with lush, manicured grounds, an abundance of Flamingos, swans, koi, squirrels, ducks, geese and even some African penguins (I didn't know either), who handle the warmer temperatures. The pools are great and the grounds large.
We did meet at Bob and Debbie's the next day and even took a walk along the beach to Turtle Bay where the snorkelers get up close and personal with the sea turtles. The weather was cloudy the first few days, but the sun came on strong our last four days in paradise. Bob took a map of Maui and scouted out several venues and beaches for us to try. They were packing up and heading back to Reno and a snow storm on Saturday. I brought a six pack of beer and left with chips, fruit, a margarita mix, more beer (Corona) and a bottle of wine. Darla and I being the big drinkers that we are, were able to "pay it forward" when we left on Tuesday and passed along a six pack of beer and a bottle of wine to one of Darla's up line leaders in the company. We enjoyed our stay with Bob and Debbie and loved their condo in Napili Shores.
Friday night was a big Luau with Silpada and we drank rum drinks and watched hula dancers and a fire dance that ended with the dancer lighting a large "SILPADA" sign which burned enticingly. It was a fun night, but it sprinkled rain all night and we called it an early night.
Saturday we drove into Lahaina for dinner at Moose McGillicuddy's. Actually we were planning to have dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise, but the wait was too long. We took our "light up" call device with us and found Moose McGillicuddy's with open tables, in fact one overlooking the drive and the ocean beyond. We decided to ditch the Cheeseburger for the Moose and put the call device under a small potted bansai plant at our table. About fifteen minutes into our meal, the device lit up and then began vibrating LOUDLY as the waitress laughed and the patrons across from us scowled at us. We ate our shrimp and pork and then returned the device to the Cheeseburger rather sheepishly.
Sunday morning dawned sunny and bright and we were up early for a catamaran trip snorkeling over by the island of Lanai. The catamarans do not go under sail this time of year because of the whales. They have to stay at least fifty feet from the whales, but the whales can approach them when they are stationary. Well, we got quite a show as a Momma whale and her baby came to see us and Mom proudly lifted her baby up on her snout and showed her to us. They hung around our boat for about twenty minutes and we got pictures. Unfortunately, we were advised to not bring our expensive digital camera and have some Kodak throwaway digital that I have to see if I can find the memory card in. I'll post those eventually. There was a professional photographer from Silpada on our boat, so his pictures will be priceless. The snorkeling was great and the booze and food on board were very good. It was definitely a highlight of our trip.
Monday, Darla and I drove to Kehei and Waileia and spent part of the afternoon at a small beach outside of Wailea called Polo Beach. It was great and the boogie boarders were in full evidence. We drove back to Kanapali and went to a Surf party that night. The picture of the two women on the lifeguard stand are the two founders of Silpada, best friends, who made it big in the jewelry company. They are high energy ladies and a lot of fun. Darla and I took the picture on the blow up "wave" and thoroughly enjoyed a 7 piece band that played mostly surfing songs, but included Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Janice Joplin, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton and even Patsy Cline in their repertoire. They were excellent and the beach balls were flying on the dance floor. I think Darla thought it was a volleyball game, because she was spiking the balls off heads left and right. It was a good final night party as we were off to the airport Tuesday afternoon. Darla and I took in the Iao Needle and park before turning in the rental car and saying goodbye to Hawaii. It was a great visit.
Our home here took the brunt of a storm and I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon cleaning up downed tree limbs and leaves from the property. Many of our neighbors have downed trees and fences, but we escaped with just a blown off American flag that the pest control guy found in our bushes today. We got home at 1 AM last night and I was at work by 7:30 this morning (5:30 Hawaii time). I called it quits at work by 3 PM and headed home.
Alicia, Darla's sister, watched the animals while we were gone and felt sorry for Buddy. He doesn't handle rain very well and this was a major storm ( 2 inches w/in 24 hours). Alicia decided to bring Buddy to her house one night to let him sleep inside. Buddy proceeded in one night to: fall into her pool, pee on a poinsetta plant, run away in the front yard, and get attacked by her cat. Needless to say, he spent just one night at her house.
Well, Darla is relaxing on the couch watching TV and I think I'll join her. Our computer is on the fritz after the power outage as Darla and I lost our user settings in Windows XP and I had to recreate my mail account with Comcast. All of my e-mails have been lost, so Darryl, send me your address book when you get a chance. That should take care of the family. I have to recreate my golf lists and all of my e-mails have been lost. John is looking to see if I can retrieve them from the hard drive. I certainly didn't erase them and all of our pictures, etc are still in memory. Strange stuff, eh? Take care. Ciao. Oh, and isn't Samantha a living doll?
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