September 29
Intro & Arriving in Maui
 
September 30
Beaches & A Lava Flow
 
October 1
Iao Valley
 
October 2
A Helicopter Ride
 
October 3 & 4
A Bird, A Dog, Work & Drinking
 
October 5
Haleakala & A Luau
 
October 6
Lahaina & Heading Home
 

September 29, 2005
Intro - Arriving in Maui

 
Intro

A lot of my friends ask me for help with their computers. They're always very appreciative. Some even offer to pay my gas. Paul is different.

He offered to pay for my flight to his place in Hawaii.

Paul and I have known each other since 1977 when we were in college together. He's had a very interesting life and had a motley slew of careers: teacher, carpenter, church organ repairman. He's now an oncologist in Maui.

About three months before this trip, when he was in Florida for a convention, he mentioned that he was considering buying a laptop but wasn't computer-savvy enough to know how to use it. I told him that if he paid for my flight to Hawaii, I'd teach him everything he wanted to know.

I was joking but Paul - silly, silly man that he is - took me up on it.

 
Arriving in Maui

My wife Danusia drove me to the Tampa airport long before humans should be awake, and she kissed me goodbye at the curb and headed home to take a nap before going to work. She was a bit envious but understood that this was a boys' night out that would last a week. "Give Paul a kiss for me," she said, and I knew I would.
 

The first leg of my trip was to Salt Lake City, where I've never been but was hoping I'd see some mountains. I had an aisle seat so I didn't see much of the Rockies, but they looked spectacular from the airport.

 

They were even more spectacular from the sky. I took this picture from my window seat shortly after taking off. It's a factory at the south end of the Great Salt Lake, and my guess is it mines salt. Maybe someone from Utah can enlighten me here. Addendum: My brother-in-law Ted, who is not from Utah, tells me it's the only distillery approved by the Latter Day Saints. I didn't know Mormons drink, but apparently Brigham Young himself opened a distillery.

 

For miles and miles west of the city, there were plains of white interrupted by mountains. I imagined the white fields to be salt swamps, but I really have no idea. Addendum: My friend Leslie suggested this might be the Bonneville Salt Flats. Of course! I guess I forgot my high school geography.

 

I've never spent any time in the west, but I've always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and the mountains. Here it was, the end of September and there's still snow on top of the Sierras. I really need to see this part of my own country.

We flew over the south end of San Francisco Bay and then out over the Pacific. For hours there was nothing to see but clouds and water.

As we approached Hawaii, I could see the Big Island poking up through the clouds in the distance, and then the 10,000 foot East Maui Volcano, but both were too far to show up well in pictures.
 

This is my first good view of Maui. It's the northeastern shore, and I planned to see it by driving up the Hana Highway. The island is stunningly beautiful from the air, with mountains crashing down into flat pineapple and sugar cane fields that slope into the ocean.

 
Once on the ground the first very different thing I noticed is that the airport is pretty much open air. I walked off the plane, through the waiting area and was suddenly outside on a long covered balcony that served as the hallway to baggage claim. I was surprised to see a bird fly through the food court. There was a roof but few walls. It was warm and humid, but not hot and sticky like Florida.
 
Right around the airport, Kahului is almost like any US city, with a K-Mart, McDonald's and Home Depot, but there's also a lot of surf shops. The plan was for me to find a place to wait for Paul who was flying in an hour after me. I'd then leave a message on his cell phone telling him where I was and he'd magically show up. I stumbled into Wow-Wee Maui. I had two cups of Kona coffee and a taro burger and struck up a conversation with the owner. He was named Ed, was originally from Indiana by way of Burbank and was very engaging. He told me the story of how he came to move to Maui and open a restaurant. At one time he worked for JBL and once sold some high end audio production equipment to the film department of the school where Paul and I met.
 

Paul showed up, all smiles and looking not quite as jetlagged as I felt. After we caught up, we started out for his place. By the time I had walked to my rental car and drove around to where Paul had parked, he had pulled out of the space but wasn't in the Jeep. I parked behind it wondering where he had gone when he showed up with a lei, and a real lei with flowers, not the cheap plastic kind you see at party stores. He leaned into my car, put the lei around my neck and kissed me on both cheeks. I was officially in Hawaii. As we pulled out, I saw where he got it. There was a little shack of a business called Leis To Go.

I followed Paul south to his place. He called me on my cell phone and gave me a guided tour as we drove. This was a little disconcerting because I wasn't used to the rental car yet and even though the road was straight and flat across the bottom of the wide valley between the east and west volcanoes, traffic would suddenly slow down or accelerate for no apparent reason. Clouds covered the tops of both volcanoes so I wasn't really sure how tall they are but they're big.
 

Paul's porch faces west towards the island of Lana'i. This part of Maui is famous for its sunsets. This one struck me as less than stunning but maybe I was just tired. After showing me around his condo, he took me to the Four Seasons. It's a world class hotel and spa, only a mile from his house. He refers to it as his "local dive bar." We had wine and pizza and talked until our eyes started closing.

Next: 9/30/05 - Beaches & A Lava Flow