Agendas

Whenever you travel with someone, you have to realized that each person has at least a slightly different agenda. If planning was not discussed, the agendas of each person can be very different, which can lead to conflict. I've travelled with My Lovely Wife enough in the tropics to know that the number one item on her agenda is the purchase and drinking of coconuts. Before leaving the mainland, I had printed out a webpage which listed the many farmer's markets in Hawaii.

Today's excursion started at a local super market. The hotel wanted 20 dollars each for breakfast. Money goes way farther at Safeway. I had a bagel and cream cheese, My Lovely Wife had some fruit. We also bought a 12 pack of soda, and some snacks. Less than 20 bucks.

We headed down to Kehai, a small town on the south-west coast of Maui. All of the Hawaiian islands have micro-climates. I think Kehai is much nicer than our resort in Kaanapali, were it rains more often. The Farmer's Market was across the road from the beach in the parking lot of an ABC Store. There are about 50 ABC stores in the islands. They are the local convenience stores, with two interesting attributes. First, the name ABC. No one knows what it means. Some people make up words for the acronym. In Honolulu, where they are as abundant as Starbucks in New York City, people say ABC means All Blocks Covered. In other places I've heard Always Bring Cash. The second thing to note is that you gather points every time you make a purchase. These points can be redeemed for free merchandise. So always keep your receipts.

My Lovely Wife immediately found a German woman in the parking lot selling coconuts. I entered the store looking for my Mother's postcard. I found one of a beach in Kehai with a palm tree hanging over it. I walked outside and saw that yes, the picture had been taken across the road. Perfect! However, the ABC store does not sell postage. OK, I'll work that out later.

I stuck my head out the door again. My Lovely Wife was still engaged in the coconut trade. More perusing through the store, I found coconut M&M's. Hmm, I decided to try these. Maybe they would make a nice gift for someone back home. The German woman is now out of coconuts. My Lovely Wife is eating the flesh of the last one. We're back in the car headed to Mount Haleakala.

You can't drive in a straight line anywhere in Maui. You will find there are a lot of connecting roads to get anywhere. To get to the highest peak on Maui, which is east of Kehai, you must drive north, then east. We spot a sugar factory on the map, and decide to make a stop. Unfortunately, there is only a museum to see here. I walked across the street to look at the factory through the fence, and My Lovely Wife pointed out there was another building just a block away. We walked into the local Post Office. It was a collection of P.O. Boxes, and a window where you could do business. I asked for postage for Mom's postcard and made note that the picture was that of a Polar Bear. Not very Hawaiian. The woman who sold the stamp looked like she had heard this from everyone she sold stamps to. I wrote the postcard right there, put the stamp on it, and shoved it into the slot. Both top items of both of our agendas were accomplished.

Haleakala is 10,000 feet high. The road is very well maintained, and very curvy. There are signs to tell you there are no gas stations. You keep driving and driving. Soon, there are no trees. Later, the bushes and grasslands end. It's lava fields to each side. The plant that survives up here is the Silversword, which is the state flower.

Then, my Uncle Sam showed his face. Since I was last on Haleakala it has become a National Park. That's ten bucks, please. I'm not against the admission fee as long as it's used to preserve the best places for all of us. After you pay the fee, you drive more. Soon you can see observatories. And then you get to the parking lot at the summit.

Wham! Something slammed into the car. No, it was just the wind. Wham! More wind. I don't remember it being so windy up here. I'm in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals. I'm going to freeze. But the National Park Service not only built this parking lot, they also built a shelter for observing the crater from a less windy perspective.

Once we were inside, we found large picture windows looking out into the crater. Haleakala is dormant, and filled will gravelly lava, and dead cinder cones. The Apollo moon buggy was tested here. There are trails leading into the main crater. You need to plan your hike well. Many trails are one-way. Going backwards on this gravelly lava can exhaust you. You also need to bring water.

It struck me the perspective of the cinder cones was different than in the pictures I took in the 80's. When the National Park Service built this parking lot and shelter they must have built it in a different location. So... there should be another spot to shoot some pictures. There had been another road that was illegal to turn left onto when driving up the mountain. On the way down, the turn was a legal right turn and I ducked down it. I found the old parking lot and observation ledge. Now, I was looking at the cinder cones from the perspective I had in the 80's.

Because I was outside in the wind, and I didn't have a tripod, (not sure if it would have helped) I needed faster shutter speeds. I turned the ISO setting of my camera up to 800 to gain three f stops. This is a great feature of a digital camera. In the film days, you could "push" black and white film, then alter the development time. But you had to push the entire roll. Pushing color film more than one f stop begged for trouble when printing your pictures. You might never get the colors right. The trade off with digital cameras is you increase digital "noise" when you raise the ISO. But if the choice is a little more noise, or blurry pictures, take the noise. Just return your ISO back to 100 or 200 once you're done. It was time to leave. There was a long drive ahead of us. We needed to get back to Kaanapali, with time to shower and rest before Luau #1.

A luau is a celebration. People feast on pig that was roasted in an under-ground oven. Modern luaus also include beef, and vegetarians are served special plates. There's also dried mangos, bread made from taro, and poi. Poi is a paste which is the starch staple of the Hawaiians. It's rather sour. Hawaiians try to eat it with something salty which is why Hawaiians eat more Spam per capita than any other people. Most tourists, take a taste of poi and never eat it again.

The first luau was at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa. We were seated at a round table just behind the "preferred" seating. (Preferred means, we prefer these people because they paid more for their ticket.) The stage was over by the beach to the west. The show started and we were looking directly into the sun until it went down. This was a terrible way to start a show. Eventually, the sun went down and the lights came up. It was a good show, and the food was great.