Maui Travel Journal-Saturday

June 17, 2006

Can’t believe we have been here of a week already. Where did the time go? Strange that time went so fast but it seems like we have been here forever. Guess that is the sign of a good vacation. We were second in line for breakfast at the Gazebo at Napili Shores. This place is great but get there early! They open at 7:30am and the line starts forming at 7. They are only open for breakfast and lunch. We headed out the door around 6:30 and just sat by the pool enjoying the scenery. We met a nice family that lived nearby. The husband, Johnny suggested that if we go back to Kahakuloa we stop at Lorraine’s stand (and tell her he sent us) for shave ice since it was the best on the island. Since we were near the front of the line we got to pick our table once the restaurant opened. We choose a table near a window so we could look for turtles while we ate but there were none out. The menu has a lot of choices. You can order breakfast all day. We decided that we would try the pancakes that everyone raves about. Matt had the banana-macadamia nut and I had just macadamia nut and we ordered a side of bacon. Unless you are a big breakfast eater, do yourself a favor and order the short stack of pancakes. These things are big. Glad we chose the short stack since it was 2 pancakes with a large dollop of a flavored whipped topping piled on. They have regular maple flavored syrup and coconut syrup. If you choose the coconut syrup keep in mind that it is extremely sweet so a little goes a long way. After breakfast it was off to the Maui swap meet in Kahului. Only 50 cents to get in, what a bargain if you are looking for something to do. Coming from West or South Maui, it is on Puunene just before the post office on your left. You can get some inexpensive gifts to take home. There is a good selection of local produce there as well. We bought a handmade photo album for $8 and a beaded Hawaiian print purse for $16. Silver jewelry is well priced here also. If you didn’t already have breakfast the snack bar sells a really good looking breakfast burrito made with egg and Portuguese sausage. Our next stop for the day was Pa’ia. We had previously only driven thru on our way to Ho’okipa Beach but thought that we would take a walk around. It is a very funky place. There is quite a mix of shops-art galleries, surf shops, organic food. There are all types of restaurants. A lot of the storefronts were boarded up. Since the town has been a plantation town, then a hippie hangout and now a mecca for surfers, I wonder what it will be the next time we visit. Off to Makawao. This town is referred to as the “cowboy town”. It did kind of have that old time western feel but seemed more “new-age” to us. Lots of art galleries. We found a Christmas ornament for Gramma at one of them. Went to Komoda Bakery (again looking for something raved about on the internet) but they were out of the famous malasadas since we were there kinda late and they go fast. Just another thing to add to the list for next trip. I don’t know that I could have eaten anything from there anyway after the sugar overload at breakfast. It was still early in the day so we went to Ho’okipa for a picnic lunch. This has become some sort of tradition for us I guess. We had kind of thought we wouldn’t stop by here this trip since we had been the two previous times. We stayed for awhile and took some pics. I have no idea why we didn’t take any pictures of either Pa’ia or Makawao. Oh well. By this time it was only noon so we stopped by Maui Ocean Center. $42 well spent. They have great displays of the types of marine animals that live around the islands. It is very informative especially for people not familiar with the ocean. This would be a great place to go before a snorkel trip to get an idea of the types of fish you would be likely to see. They did a great job of showing the eco system starting at the surge zone and working toward the deep reef. They had black and white tipped reef sharks in a reef environment that was excellent. Next we looked at the Hammerhead Harbor exhibit. This is Sherri Heaven. They had 3 hammerheads in a exhibit that has a glass front, like you are looking in a fish bowl but you can walk around so you are looking down on the sharks. They didn’t appear to be very old. Into the shark, ray and jellyfish building. The jelly display was cool. It was interesting to see all the stages of their development. Next stop, shark tank! All I can say is, WOW! Sandbars, hammerheads, spotted rays and some sort of ray in between the size of the spotted ray and a manta ray. Top it off with a big scary looking tiger shark! Right after we walked into this part of the display there was a large porthole window looking into the tank and the tiger swam right at the window. It was creepy. I wouldn’t want to see that coming at me while in the ocean! And of course I had forgotten to charge the camera the night before so the battery died. This was the best shark exhibit I have seen. Better than Sea World San Diego or Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. What could possible top the shark experience? How about Turtle Lagoon. Same type of set up as Hammerhead Harbor. While everyone was clamoring around the glass trying to get pictures, Matt and I walked around to look down at the turtles. They stopped by one at a time and poked their heads up to check us out. Luckily I had my camera phone so I got a couple of shots. We hit the gift shop on the way out. Bought a hibiscus sticker for the truck and of course a t-shirt with a shark on it. As if this wasn’t enough for one day, we made out way back to Lahaina for an early dinner. We had no trouble finding a parking space on Dickenson Ave. We went by BJ’s first to see if they still had those amazing cheese triangles that were breaded with macadamias. No such luck. Matt bought a t-shirt to wear to the BJ’s back home. Since I can’t have cheese triangles, it is off to the obligatory stop at Cheeseburger in Paradise. No line whatsoever. We got a table next to the water this time. Definitely not a place for everyone. Some people might not like the fact that you have to order your fries separately. Kinda overpriced but you are eating a burger on Maui overlooking the ocean and what could be better than that. Went to Take Home Maui on Dickenson so we could send home pineapples. Made our way back to the condo to just hang out. Actually did a load of laundry! Thinking that I might have to buy a packing box and ship all this stuff home.