Rest of the Trip - combined

Due to other priorities - like relaxing and repeating - I fell down on posting, but figured you'd all survive.

We continued working on the Mai Tai recipe - with great shuc-shess.  Oooee they're tasty, and packed with Vitamin C - so we are good there.

We watched every night (that's us in the water).

 Sunset Torch-lighting and ceremonial dive from Black Rock.

the warm breeze in the palm trees, and the moon is getting larger...

 

Aloha...

 

Every evening was about like this.  A few more or less clouds but always a treat to enjoy.

Here's the lovely Tim Osborne.  Does he look blurry to you too? OK - it must be the low light. 

We enjoyed his music - he played songs we knew... but we did resist the urge to sing along (loudly and poorly). 

...my favorite.

Yes - we are indeed...'somewhere over the rainbow'.

From our helo trip to the Haleakala crater and Hana.

A view of the waterfalls you don't get from the road. Our pilot was good - it was windy but he was steady as a rock. Nobody hurled! Always a plus...

Clouds below...blue above...Haleakala in the middle.

At the Pineapple Grill.  We are repeat offenders at this place, which is great. The food, the wine, the food, the service, the food - was all just swell.

Our server Laurie was from Vashon Island and she knew some Shrides (Mom's family) from there. Small world.

A look up from our walk on the last full night, which we enjoyed at the Sheraton.

Panoramic from Maui Sands. What a view, eh Jon?

Elvis is still kickin' back at Spanky's Rip Tide in Lahaina.

At Spanky's - Go Hawks!

...this was from Spanky's - the Chicago bar on Maui (really...) where we watched the Blackhawks win Game 6 and The Cup. There were actually other Hawks fans there, and they played Da Chairman of da Board after the win.  Truly...My Kind of Town! 

Maui and Hockey - seems a strange mix but what a way to end the trip. 

To our Chicago friends - you were right here...with us!


OK - we're off to the airport (and 3 plane rides home to KCMO...)






Aloha and Mahalo to you all for making the last 30 years wonderful and special to us.  We've surely enjoyed the trip...
Melinda and Jeff  
  
 

Couple Days of Catch-up

Wednesday was Beach Day.  We got a cabana, a cooler, a spot on the beach and stayed there all day.  People watching is fun.  We just tried not to give anyone else something to watch (or video).  Such as getting pounded into the surf like a rag doll.  But we negotiated the surf timing with great skill - citing no incidents.  Some of the waves were pretty significant, making for screams, soaked stuff and decimated sand castles. We had better luck due to solid site planning by Paul the cabana dude.


Thursday we took a drive up the mountain a ways - it got cooler and cloudier.  Driving through Kula was interesting - a kind of neat little town up around 3,000 feet or so with a great view of the ocean and up the coast.  The road got quite windy, and we reached our destination - the Tedeschi Winery.  We did a quick tasting (cause that's all the time it took) - grabbed a couple of bottles to take home, then wandered across the road from the Ulupalakua Ranch Store for a bite to eat. 

We had to laugh at the signs at the store warning us not to feed 'Barney' the official welcome cat.  "I'm not fat - I'm just big boned".  But apparently, Barney has no willpower and loves the BBQ. 

Below, Barney enjoys a nap in the yard.  That is one relaxed cat...

Background: Tasting Room  Foreground: Barney

Cattle Pasture - Maui Style. Coastline below - Lanai way in the distance

The country up here is interesting - lots of cattle, and they have a great view of the ocean and high-dollar real estate from their pastures.  They seemed happy.  I guess they should be.

Hula Grill for light goodies to eat this evening.  Jake and Elwood entertained us with great music. 

OK - it was not Jake and Elwood but something like that, but with a Maui twist...'Sweet Home...Lahaina....'

Jeff took this pic underwater while snorkeling

Interesting beaded arts at one of the Whalers Village stores.  If we had seen this earlier, we would probably not have ordered the calamari...

 Friday - we went back on-board one of the Trilogy catamarans to do a 'snorkeling and so forth' trip. This included: coffee and cinnamon rolls, snorkeling, some tasty salt water (urrp), grilled chicken lunch, more snorkeling (Mom would have yelled at us - we did not wait an hour), rain, dolphins and a nice sail home early afternoon.  Captain Kevin (from Mankato - same skipper as last time) and his crew: Carrie, Kendall and Byron took good care of us.  Most everyone made it back.
 

Are those sharks down there?

"I hope not"

Hey Cap'n...wait for me...

Light snacks at Paradise Grill not far from the resort.  Rained while we were there - rainbows on the way back home - this one over the Ka'anapali Golf Course.





Back to the Sheraton to relax and enjoy more Luau music.

Aloha for tonight...

Tuesday - warm and sunny

Just pics of the beach. You can't see the breeze blowing the palm trees - but it is.

...from the room/balcony. Good view of 'the dive' off Black Rock at sunset.

What Time Is It?

It's Mai-Tai Time...of course.

  OK - so this is a pic from late Monday. We hopped from Oahu to Maui on Monday - which erased one day's worth of stress-relief, but oh well.  Goozfrahbah.....or something like that.

Once completing some unexpected haggling and wrangling with the hotel, we pitched camp in a nice room with a great view. There is a lesson in there somewhere...
 
Had a cold beer on the balcony while the luau went on next door (packed up and gone in the pic).  Interesting and fun to watch.  

No luau pics from last nite - sorry - the camera was not fast enough to catch that lightening quick hip action.   How do they do it...

Greg - you are correct - that is Black Rock (it was not me diving in that first picture - but just wait).

The surf sounds are soothing. 
Agenda for Tuesday - relax, repeat.

Bye for now.

Today, June 16th is...

Happy Father's Day

We love you, Dad.

Pearl Harbor

Today was about remembering.  Not things that we actually remember ourselves, but remembering things that happened.

We went to Pearl Harbor - to learn and see - and to remember.

The USS Arizona Memorial

Some of these need little explanation - they're well known, but being there does give them some special significance - which is why we come.

Here is some special significance for anyone from Coon Rapids.  See if you can identify the local connection, and remember.

Old Glory from above the Arizona

I liked this image - which is unmistakable in a few respects.

No caption - you can fill in your own...

It was a clear and sunny day. Then a little later we got a look at this hallowed site from a different angle.  The gray clouds above the city and the stark white memorial were saying something to us.

Bigguns

The 16" guns on the USS Missouri.  This is turret #3.  There are 3 of turrets - 9 big 16" guns in all.  Hard to conceive what power these battleships had - to hurl a 2,700 pound projectiles - 1 to 9 of them - 25 miles.  Look out.  I think there may be a grammatical connection to Tourette Syndrome, because the thought these things pointing at me causes me to exclaim...

It's Good to Be King

King Kamehameha...downtown Honolulu...still a cool dude after all these years.




More tomorrow. 

Friday...

A long day and trip but now warm breezes and some calming live music from the pool deck as the sun is setting.

OK - after lots of trying to load a few measly pictures, we have come to the conclusion that Google makes it hard to upload stuff here, so that sucks. 

Here's the text version: 1) long flight, 2) arrival, 3) Mai-Tai's (good) followed by relaxation and that music from the pool deck was quite effective.

The pictures will have to be in your minds - guitars...waves...mai-tai's...repeat.  You'd all love it because it's all good stuff....enjoy it from your end.

The Leis Smell Swell

1st Post - About this blog

The Sunset Dive at Black Rock

Hello friends.  This blog is intended to be a way for us to share some of our 30th anniversary trip with you.  We'll try to post something from each day.  

We decided on our 25th to return - if we could - to Hawaii for our 30th. Here we are, and this time we'll do a few things we did not have the opportunity to do last time - as well as some more of the same that we did enjoy 5 years ago.  

Stay tuned for updates - we hope you will enjoy looking and reading and will look forward to your comments.

Aloha and Mahalo...

Jeff and Mel