Nearly the end

It was so windy this morning that the resort cancelled the Craft Fair, so I didn’t get a chance to buy another fish-printed aloha shirt as I had hoped. Instead, we walked the Beach Walk and enjoyed the postcard-perfect view of Kaanapali Beach from just north of Black Rock.

We didn’t see many snorkelers or swimmers, but I guess wind doesn’t bother scuba divers.

And the birds didn’t care, either; here’s a Pacific Golden Plover near the Sheraton.

I had hoped to get more photos on the Kapalua Coastal Trail this afternoon, but it was impossible to find parking anywhere near the trail, so we gave up and started packing for our trip home.

Our next Hawaii trip will be to the Big Island; we haven’t been there before, partially because the Westin…err, Vistana Vacation Club didn’t have any properties there. But now Vistana has been bought by Marriott’s Vacation Club, creating a way to transfer points between the two systems without losing too much value in the process, so I booked a stay at Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club as well as booking a return trip to Maui for next year.

I’m hoping for calmer conditions for both trips!

It’s magic!

The winds picked up overnight, as predicted, so we didn’t even try to snorkel this morning. Instead, we walked the Beach Walk. We saw a couple of snorkelers, a few swimmers, and even some folks out for a morning row.

We walked a bit past Whaler’s Village – this is a fairly slow week here, so restaurants are doing last-minute maintenance before the hordes arrive for Christmas.

We’d read about Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center in Hawaiian Airlines’ magazine, and it sounded interesting. It occupies 25 acres which used to be a sugar cane plantation and mill before becoming the Baldwin family estate, Kalaunui. During most of the year, the main building hosts art exhibits; during December, it’s basically a gift shop. We didn’t know that until we got there – luckily, there was one room that still had an exhibition: Grafica: Auwahi.

The main role of the center is to serve as a learning center for the visual arts; they have classes and provide facilities for printmaking, ceramics, and more. The grounds are beautiful and well worth a visit. We started by walking the “Sugar Mill” route, which features the old sugar mill.

There’s artwork scattered over the campus – I liked the way this piece framed the mansion.

We had to prove we were here, of course.

This interesting piece was near the ceramics studio. I call it “Totem Cups”.

There were hibiscus plants all over the grounds, including this unusual Hawaiian White Hibiscus, which Hawaiians used as a mild laxative and made into cordage.

We drove back to the resort with just enough time to catch the shuttle into Lahaina and meet our friends at Warren and Annabelles for dinner, drinks, and magic. The magic started early – somehow, none of us shared a vertical axis here!

And that was before Diane and I had even gotten our drink – the Honeymooner’s Heartthrob.

The show was very entertaining; there were two magicians, John Shyrock and Chris Blackmore. We’d seen John in 2019; he specializes in sleight-of-hand magic, with some comedy thrown in. This was our first chance to see Chris – he was much more generous with the comedy, but the magic was very good, too. I was a little disappointed that the resident ghost, Annabelle, didn’t play music for us; maybe she’ll be back next time.

Upcountry Day

We spent the day in Upcountry Maui, mostly in Kula. We started at the Kula Botanical Gardens; it was our second trip there. They were badly hit by flooding a year ago; there are still a few areas that aren’t open (like the koi pond), but the garden looked terrific. I’m restraining myself and only posting 17 photos (I could have posted that many hibiscus alone!) – do visit if you come to Maui!

Wall Iris
Jackson’s chameleon
Rhododendron
Pink Fittonia (nerve plant)
Costus Productus (Spiral Ginger)
Crown-of-thorns
Gazania (African Daisy, Treasure Flower)
Calliandra haematocephala (red powder puff)
Fuschia
Epidendrum secundum (crucifix orchid)
Impatiens
Candelabra aloe
Banksia spinulosa
Aechmea fasciata
Hong Kong Orchid Tree with Butterfly
Dombeya
King Protea

We tore ourselves away from the garden after nearly two hours and drove into Kula proper for lunch at Kula Bistro; it was delicious and fairly reasonably priced for Maui. Recommended.

Our next stop was Ocean Organic Vodka; we were lucky, and they had an opening for a 3pm tasting (we should learn to plan ahead); we got there at 2:53. Plenty of time!

When we visited them a few years ago, they only had vodka and a very new rum; now, they have three rums, a gin, a bourbon-barrel rum, and the vodka. We tried them all.

We returned to the resort and took a walk to burn off a little of the day’s consumption; it was dark and windy and slightly rainy, but it was a lovely evening anyway.

Palm Trees at Dusk
Sunset Ocean Play
Lanterns

Steamy day

We used some of our resort credit for massages today at Spa Helani here at the resort. Our masseurs suggested using the steam rooms afterwards, and we did – I can’t speak for Diane, but I found it relaxing.

We returned to our room and got dressed, then went out to see what we could find at the Craft Fair. Our favorite vendor, Norain of Primitive Hawaiian Gyotaku, was there – she recognized me because I was wearing a shirt I’d bought from her on our first visit to Kaanapali in 2017! Diane bought a beautiful Tommy Bahama dress that Norain had enhanced with a seahorse and octopus; she’s wearing it to dinner tonight.

We walked the Beach Walk to Huihui Restaurant for lunch, then onward to Whaler’s Village before returning. My weather app claimed we’d see thunderstorms, but we haven’t; it’s just been hot and steamy.

We joined our friends for dinner at the Plantation House; it’s a beautiful restaurant, and our friends said that sunset there was spectacular. Not tonight, but the food made the trip worthwhile anyway.

After dinner, Diane and I went back for one last stroll on the Beach Walk for the evening. We walked out to the beach to enjoy the quiet.

Water Day

We went snorkeling this morning at the resort; it had been three years since we’d done it and it took a while to get comfortable again. The viewing was good – Diane brought her underwater camera and took lots of photos! We saw old friends like yellow wrasses and black triggerfish almost as soon as we got in the water.

We swam around for about twenty minutes and decided it was time to go back – but we got delayed when this turtle showed up.

This afternoon, we took a sunset cruise on the Trilogy III out of Lahaina Harbor. The ship is a catamaran; we sailed near its twin a few minutes after casting off.

There were smaller vessels around, too.

Trilogy doesn’t start whale watching tours until December 15, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t any whales in the area!

There are other sunset cruises in Lahaina, of course.

We saw more whales throughout the cruise, generally in pairs.

It was a beautiful night to be out on the water.

The sunset was wonderful, too.

For a change, I didn’t have to take a selfie!

We saw two more whales on our sail back to the harbor – the captain said it was the most he’d seen on a cruise this year.

They had to run to clean up all of our drinks before we moored!

We got off reluctantly and took an evening stroll through Lahaina, starting at the banyan tree.

Even though they’d fed and watered us on the boat, I was slightly hungry, so we went to the Lahaina branch of Ululani’s Shave Ice. That might have been a mistake, though, because I lost the 2022 Little Drummer Boy Challenge while I was there. Wait till next year!