Ooops…………………………

Yeah, so I just realized that I told you I would give a walkthrough of our trip to Maui in a day by day format. Well, uh, looks like that didn’t work out. Instead of boring you with “ooh, this is what we did” I think instead I will offer up some tips on things to do and see in Maui. I think this would be better than my vacation stories don’t you?

First things first, you HAVE to rent a car. Why? Well the public transportation in Maui is lacking to say the least. I hear that on Hawai'i and O'ahu there is great public transportation, but Maui? Not so much.
so rent a car. We rented a mid sized sedan and not a convertible. Why? Because on the islands you can run into rain frequently and I saw numerous times on the drive to Hana people who were caught with rain pouring into their car. That and I figured we’d spend so little time IN the car why bother with the expense?
Another thing is to make sure you visit the major things that EVERYONE who has been to Maui suggests. What are those? They are:
a. The road to Hana.
If you are a person who feels the need to rush from point A. to point B. then go on a tour of the road to Hana, don’t drive it yourself. It will take pretty much all day to drive from Paia town to Hana. The road is narrow (boy that’s putting it mildly) and at almost every bridge or corner the road narrows even more (yes it’s that narrow) so you’ll spend a fair amount of time yielding to oncoming traffic. BUT… It is one of the most stunning drives I have ever taken in my life! Your are driving through a tropical rainforest on one side of the road, and the other side of the road offers a view of the most beautiful blue coastline you could imagine. And the waterfalls…LOTS of waterfalls. Many you can just pull your car over and walk right up to, even swim in the pools at the bottom of the falls!

b. Drive up Haleakala
Haleakala is the largest volcano/mountain on Maui. It dominates your view from anywhere on the island, so why not drive up it?!?! The summit is at roughly 10,023 feet above sea level so it’s gonna take a while to do the drive. Most people suggest a drive up early in the morning to see the sunrise. And while this is probably an incredible sight I suggest a sunset, and here’s why.
Unless you have made the drive up before you won’t be prepared for all the twists and turns, the steepness of the road, the driving through clouds (cool eh?). So why do that drive at 3 in the morning? Yeah, I said 3. It’s gonna take more than a few hours to get from wherever you are on the island, to the top of Haleakala. From the base to the summit takes about 2.5 hours! Another reason for sunset vs. sunrise is that in the morning the summit is FULL of people who are doing the bike ride down the volcano. So there goes your quiet serene sunrise. However, at sunset there are a lot fewer people and you have already made the drive in the daylight so you know what to expect on the way down in the dark. Be advised though that for every 1000 ft. in elevation increase, the temperature drops about 3°. So do some simple math, 10,000 ft. =’s about 30° colder at the summit! Dress accordingly.

c. Go to a LUAU!
I know what you are thinking, “A luau is so corny and so touristy”. Well, at least that’s what I thought when I was booking it. I thought, “man $90 a person for a buffet and dancers?” Ya know what? It was so worth it! The food was great, you get to meet new people since you share a table with several others and the show was phenomenal. We learned a lot about the Hawaiian culture from the show and it was just plain fun. BTW, we went to the show at the Sheraton in Kaanapali.

d. Go Snorkeling!
Wow! That’s all I have to say…WOW! You can rent the gear all over the place for just $7-10 a day. And you can go to almost any beach and there will be reefs to snorkel over. Just make sure you go early in the day sometime between 8a.m. and 11a.m. because that is when the wate is the calmest. You can also schedule a snorkel excursion but to be honest it’s pretty exciting to just drive around and find a cool spot on some beach with no one around.

e. Eat out… A LOT!
If you happen to rent a condo/timeshare or have a hotel room that provides a kitchen, don’t bother. One of the main reasons I got a condo vs. a hotel room was because I thought we’d go grocery shopping and do a lot of eating at the condo. Yeah right. Food is so expensive in Maui that it is nearly just as expensive as eating out! So why bother with the hassle of shopping for food, preparing a meal, then cleaning dishes? Why not go eat out? We did (and we liked Bubba Gumps in Lahaina, and Buzz’s Wharf in Kehei).

f. Go shopping, or at least window shopping.
There are a lot of cool towns to visit like Paia,Lahaina, and Hana. And these towns have all kinds of little shops, boutiques and art galleries lining their main streets. We had a blast looking at all the cool things for sale. And if you’re in Lahaina you HAVE TO go see the Banyan Tree….trust me. We also found a little swap meet of sorts in Kehei that had lots of handmade items for VERY good prices so don’t pass up those kinds of places either. Oh, I almost forgot. If you want to get T-shirts and those kinds of things as gifts fro friends and family go the ABC Stores. I won’t explain what they are or where they are, you’ll see em.

Ok, that seems to be enough for now (my fingers hurt).

Cya…

A camping we will go………………………..

I’m back from a weekend of camping with the family and here to report that it was a success!
We didn’t go too far, only about an hour from home. We stayed at the Irish Hills Kampground (no I didn’t misspell that, it does indeed start with a K). I am also proud to say that I am getting pretty darn good at backing up the camper. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of backing up a trailer or camper let me tell you it aint easy baby. The shorter the trailer/camper the more difficult.
We got put into a campsite right next to a family who were tent camping (we have a small 20’ pop up camper). When we arrived they had their minivan parked right the dividing line between lots. This left me very little room maneuver the camper when backing in. But after about three minutes, 2.75 gallons of sweat, a few curse words and some luck I squeezed in perfectly straight without destroying their van or killing any of their family members……success!
After the “parking phase” I got out to inspect our lot (and gloat over the perfection of my parking) and noticed that the power hook up for our lot was at the far front. Meanwhile our camper and it’s power cord where at the extreme BACK of our lot. Crap! So I had Becky walk up the office and ask if we could move over one lot since it had power at the back.
So after all that we were all hooked up and ready to camp. Of course the kids wanted to go to the pool and I had an errand to run, so I left Becky and the kids and told them I would meet them at the pool. When I returned I found Becky still wearing her regular clothes, and the kids soaking wet from the pool. She informed me that she had forgotten her bathing suit. Sheesh.
Oh, and while on my errands I get a voicemail notification that my work has a bit of an emergency and they’ll need me in on Saturday morning for a few hours. Swell.
So that night we were ready to have a fire when I realized that:
A. We had no paper or kindling to start a fire with.
B. It was raining.
C. Do you really need a C?
So we hit the sack at about 10:00.

The next day after realizing that we slept on a slight incline (although my spinal column would say SEVERE incline) we made the decision for Becky to drop me off at work while she went home to get her bathing suit. So I waltz into work (metaphorically speaking of course, I can’t dance for nothing) only to find out that I was no longer needed, that the emergency had been rectified earlier that day. Thanks for the phone call! My employer was very cool though and offered up a gas card to make up for my time and trouble, as well as pay me for waiting for my wife and kids to return. Pretty cool eh? So after my wife picked me up it was back to the campground for some swimming!
The rest of the day was great. The kids had a blast, I actually got a good fire going (after gathering up some kindling and paper!) We cooked out on our camping stove and sat back watching the lightning in the distance.
So to sum it up, a good weekend in my book.

Maui summed up………Day 1

How about a breakdown of my recent trip to Maui? I’ll give a blow by blow of the trip, and I will offer up some suggestions on things to see, places to eat and stay to those of you planning a trip there.
Don’t worry though, I’ll add to this over the next few days so as not to burn you out on my terrible writing!

Day 1: We left Detroit Metro at roughly 8:05 a.m. and flew for 3.5 hours to Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport. The layover was an hour and forty minutes long (just enough time to make it to the next gate and relax a minute and grab a bite to eat) From Phoenix we flew non-stop to Kahului Maui. That leg of the flight took around six hours. And to me…six hours non-stop is about as long as I can handle! A note about Phoenix Sky Harbor..they offer travelers free WiFi, so use it!
The arrival in Maui was an exciting one. Not so much because it was Maui we were landing in, but because of the turbulence and very short runway. The trade winds that are blowing on the islands coupled with the freakishly short runway make for much conversation amongst passengers as you taxi into your gate! Our arrival time was 2:20 p.m. Maui time.
It was raining and drizzly when we got off the plane and continued to be that way for pretty much the rest of the first day. But even with the rain and clouds the weather was comfortable, around 78° F. We then proceeded to Hertz to get our rental car and headed out onto the road for the condo.
It didn’t take long to realize that we were on a relatively small piece of land as it was only 10 mile from the airport to our condo on the other side of the island. Kahului (home of the airport) is on the northern side of the island, Kihei (home of our condo) the southern end. There is really only one road from north to south connecting these two towns.
The remainder of day 1 was spent un-packing and going to the grocery store. Well, let me discuss the condo and grocery store before I get to day 2.
The condo:
The condo is at the Sugar Beach resort in Kehei and was a nice place. It was a typical small condo, one bed, one bathroom, small kitchen and living room. It was on the second floor (unit #212 if you are looking for some place to stay!). The resort has a good sized heated pool with a smaller elevated heated pool that overflows into the larger one. A hot tub (why a super hot tub in Maui I just don’t understand). There is a small bar/grill to hang out at (great food and a really cool cook and bartender there!). They also have on premises a place to get your island activities arranged. If you want to go to a Luau, snorkeling, or anything else you can get it arranged right on the premises. Oh, and they have 5-6 very nice BIG new stainless steel grills for the residents to use right near the beach.
Grocery Shopping:
One of the factors that led me to rent a condo vs. getting a hotel room was the fact that we would have a full kitchen at our disposal so we could just get groceries and save a few dollars by not eating out all the time. WRONG. We quickly found out that a lot of items that are fairly cheap her in Michigan aren’t exactly cheap on Maui. I mean it makes sense, if it isn’t local it is imported from great distances. Milk for example was nearly $6 a gallon, bread was almost $5 a loaf. Bread, cheese, chips all of it grossly overpriced due to shipping costs. We quickly discovered that eating out was on par with eating in as far as money is concerned, that is unless you only eat local foods.
So my advice? Eat out! And I don’t mean at McDonald’s or other fast food places, I mean eat out at small local restaurants and pubs. The food is priced reasonably and is also locally raised, grown, or caught.

Alright, enough of day one. The remaining days will be a bit more interesting so keep checking back. And remember, I have many pictures up at http://www.flickr.com/sl33stak and more will be added over the next few weeks as I wade through 700+ images I shot while there.

Mahalo for stopping by.

Life Status Update……………….

Since my last post I guess a few new things have happened.
I have started doing more photography business. I’ll be shooting photos for 4 sports teams in Eaton Rapids this summer. 1 baseball team (Mason’s), and 3 T-Ball teams. I’ve also gotten a lot of inquiries about shooting dance recitals. Covering a diverse range of subjects there eh? Another BIG thing is a vacation I booked to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary. Becky and I never really had a honeymoon per se, we just got married and spent a few days in northern Michigan. So to make up for it, and again to celebrate ten years together I booked us a week in Maui. It should be incredible, but at the same time it will be tough because we will be leaving our two boys back here. Mason will probably not even miss us because he will be spending the week with his best friend. But Carter has never spent any time away from us at all. We’ll be getting him used to spending the night elsewhere over the summer and hopefully that will lessen the shock of us leaving. Our daycare provider and good friend will be keeping the boys so I don’t have any worries about that.
Another cool thing that has happened in the last few weeks is that I have converted the house over to Macs only! Becky is on a 15” Macbook Pro that is loaded w/ 3GB of RAM. And I am on a 24” iMac w/ 4GB of RAM. And Mason is using a Mac Mini w/ a gig of RAM. I am stuck having to run Parallels in order to use our laser printer though ( guess I need to get a new printer now ).
Work has been keeping me pretty busy. Weekends are pretty common around here, but at least the paychecks are great!
Becky and I have been spending a quite a bit of time out in the yard working. Our flowers are looking awesome. We actually have people stop just to comment on our yard as they are driving by. That makes the work worth it.

Enough yapping for now.

Have a good summer.

To celebrate a decade...............

So this October will be my 10 year anniversary of marriage to my wife. To celebrate, I have booked us a week long trip to Maui..... This will be our first time away from our youngest son, so that will be tough. Our 7 year old on the other hand is geeked we are going because he gets to spend a week with his best friend. Go figure!

So to anyone who has been to Maui, ya hve any suggestions on things to see or do? We'll be staying here.


Oh, forgot to mention, we'll be going the first week of August (before Mason returns to school)

End of the trip.....................

Today was the last full day here. It was sunny, 78, and the beach was great.

Link to last day in Florida.

Day six.........oh the rain....................

So today wasn' the greatest weather, but hell it's still Florida, and 75!!
This shot is of the South Bridge to Hutchinson Island tonight.

Link to more day six photos.

A few more from day five..................

Today we went to Ted's for dinner and some more fishing. I messed my back up yesterday somehow. I think I did it by throwing Mason in the pool. Blah.

Link to the rest of day five.

Day Five.....................

So today we went to Ted's and did some fishing, Gramma cooked me some bacon and eggs for breakfast (yum). The we came back home and I took a nap with Carter for like 4 hours! Then we went to the park and beach for some play time and pictures.

Day Five Gallery

DAYUM!

This is a hmmmmmmmm.......GINORMOUS toad!

And I said we weren't gonna do anything.........

So I lied, We are going to and fro semi regularly.

Great picture of Beck.

Link to rest of today.

Day three

I know it's probably overkill doing updates of the trip so often but hey, what am I supposed to do with my free time down here?

And here's a link to the DAY THREE GALLERY.

Mason's new buddy

Mason wanted me to catch him a Gecko, so tonight we went on the hunt. And here is the catch.
These are for Gramma Debbie.

More Pictures

Click here for more vacation shots. This time at Pepper Beach on Hutchinson Island.

You know what I like...................

My favorite color is green. But I am thinking yellow ain't so bad after all. PIMP BIATCH!

Not soon enough...........

Well, this weekend I am going to book my families flight to Florida. I'll tell ya what,after all this freezing cold weather this trip can't come soon enough! We'll be flying from Detroit Metro (DTW) to West Palm Beach (PBI)March 12th to the 19th. What am I going to do on vacation? NOTHING! Well, I wish. I'll have homeowork for my Psych class,my spreadsheets class,and my Info. Tech class...lol, but other than that I'm doin nothing but gettin a tan and playin in the waves. I am turning my cell OFF, if I don't my work will call everyday with something for me to do. It's funny that I feel no appreciation for what I do at work, but if I'm gone that can't live without me. It's sad isn't it? I was looking at this picture, and got to thinking about how much weight my wife has lost since this was shot (April 05). She's lost about 80 lbs! She won't be complaining about goin to the beach now! This was shot on Hutchinson Island, we'll be spending time there again for sure. Plus I get to go see a shuttle launch provided it doesn't get scrubbed.

So much for a new TV in March.............

I WAS planning on a new 42" LCD TV in March, but instead of that I'll be taking the family to Florida. :) We'll go on the 12th, and return on the 20th. And wouldn't ya just know it? There is a pre-dawn shuttle launch scheduled for the 15th! Maybe that's why I planned the trip for that week. Hmmmm, I wouldn't have ulterior motives for a vacation would I? Hehehe, maybe. But ya know....I am now maybe thinking about shootin for that DSLR now. Damn me and my indecisiveness.!