Maui Part 2

Day 3  We decided to go up Haleakala, the 10,000 ft high volcano on Maui. There is a 37 mile road up to the top. I had been to the top several times before and knew the way. The weather was clear and beautiful. You can take a bike tour down the mountain and some enthusiasts ride their bikes up the mountain.

 Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island

I love the drive up the mountain and the views. I never get tired of visiting.

On the way back we wanted an interesting lunch so we went to the town of Makawao. This is a small town upcountry with some shops and restaurants. We ate at the Makawao Garden Cafe. The food was very good and freshly made. I had my Mahi sandwich and my son had an eggplant sandwich. The prices were very reasonable.http://www.letseat.at/MakawaoGardenCafe

Makawao is a great little town with some nice restaurants. There is also a funky bakery the Komodo Store Bakery. A big store with not much inside. They make donuts and sweet pulled bread and the stuff is irresistible. We had guava filled donuts, plain donuts and the pulled bread. The dough is chewy and the outside not too sweet.

For dinner I grilled steaks form Costco on beautiful outdoor grill and the our hotel. We drank a Muga Especial Reserva 2009 for dinner. $29 at Costco. The wine was great, almost like a good California Cabernet Sauvignon. Balanced, medium bodied with tart fruit and smooth tannins.

Day 4    This was the day for our sales presentation at the Hyatt Residence Club. The people were very nice and there were no high pressure sales tactics. We politely said no. I don't know how people can make a $60k decision on a real estate purchase in 20 minutes.

The boys had taken the car to explore the road to Hana so we stayed around Kaanapali. We walked along the beach path and went swimming near Black Rock. The Sheraton is built into the rock. I believe that the Sheraton was the first hotel at Kaanapali. I actually stayed there over 35 years ago. The sand is very good for swimming and there is very good snorkeling near the rock.

 Black Rock.

 The Sheraton.

 Sunset from our room

For dinner we had Mahi mahi and Opah from Costco. We drank a Sancerre that was good. It wasn't a a real fruity wine like many Sancerre's today. It was acidic with just enough fruit. It was around $14 at Costco.

Day 5  We went on a catamaran trip on Teralani Sailing Adventures.http://www.teralani.net/ The boat left from the Whaler's Village at Kaanapali. We got a 25% discount by buying gift cards at Costco. The trip cost about $130 per person and included a light breakfast and lunch. The trip was about 5 hours. Winter is whale season and we saw a number of whales.

The boat had a snuba instructor and the boys signed up. Snuba is scuba without a tank or wetsuit. You are given a mask and air tube that is connected to through a tube to a tank floating on the water. You can go down about 20 feet.It was $65. They had 2 person units that floated in the water. The instructor lead the group of people. They enjoyed the tour.

After the boat trip was the infamous grand opening party celebration at the Hyatt Residence Club. See Part 1.

We checked out Lahaina for dinner. Lahaina is touristy and funky but it has a great banyan tree and a real waterfront port area. Parking can be very difficult. We made reservations at Honu Seafood and Pizza. The owners are chef Mark Ellman and his wife. It is part of their restaurant collection. They have another restaurant next door Mala Ocean Tavern and are building a third place nearby. It seems that this the new wave of restaurants. Famous chefs open a number of restaurants with different themes or price points. BTW he started Maui Tacos but has sold the chain.

Ahi Bruchetta

Baby Romaine Salad

Honu Seafood was very nicely decorated inside, it is on the ocean and we were seated a few feet from the water. We had pizza, a fried oyster sandwich, ahi bruchetta, which is their house specialty and we drank some draft beer.

Day 6  We checked out of the Hyatt Residence Club and went down the road to Kapulua for some mini golf. Kapulua has one of the best mini golf set-ups anywhere. It is not advertised. You walk up to the guy at the driving range and ask for some putters. They now charge $5 a putter(it was free 6 years ago) and you get to play an 18 grass course that is not manicured but lots of fun.

 The clubhouse and mini golf  at Kapalua

Kapalua is a big golf resort with several hotels including a Montage and a Ritz Carlton. It is beautiful and windy. It is locate about 6 miles west of Kaanapali but the weather is completely different. We once rented a villa on one of their 2 golf courses and it was very nice but we needed to drive to Kaanapali for sunshine.

We went off to Hana for our next stop on the trip. The boys were going home and my wife and I were going to the Travaasa Hana Hotel.We tried to go to Paia for lunch but the parking and traffic were horrible. Paia is a great little town and has a very good pizza place and the Paia Fish Market http://www.paiafishmarket.com/which has been a family favorite. We did not try it this time. Apparently they have expanded to a second location in Kihei and I did read a review that said it had gone downhill. We will check it out on our next trip.

We ended up in Makawao again for lunch. More in Part 3.

Part 3, Hana the new foodie destination will be coming shortly.

Enjoy and dream warm weather.

Maui, Part 1; Theater Alert-- Hamilton, the musical; Valentine's Day Wines

Maui Part 1

Just returned from a trip to Maui. Me, my wife, my son and his friend all went.  We had a great time. It has been about 5 years and we were reminded how much we love the island. I will have several segments on the trip. Spoiler alert - Hana is a new foodie destination.

Day 1 We took a non-stop flight from Newark to Honolulu and then a short flight to Maui.We rented our car and went off to Kaanapali and to our hotel, the Hyatt Residence Club.http://kaanapalibeach.hyatt.com/en/hotel/our-hotel.html  Kaanapali is a planned resort that has a number of hotels and condos. There is a Hyatt Regency Hotel, Marriott Vacation Club, A Westin Hotel and a Sheraton Hotel.  It can get crowded but you can walk places and the views are insane. The sunsets framed by Lanai and Molokai are sunsational.


 The Hyatt is a brand new time share condo that is next to the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Kaanapali Beach. We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bath oceanfront suite with state of the art kitchen and a huge terrace overlooking the ocean. We paid an intro rate of $199 per night for 5 nights and we had to participate in a sales presentation.

The sales presentation was gentle with no real pressure to buy. The price was $60K for a week in August with $2400 per year maintenance. We politely declined.
The resort played music from 8am to 8pm everyday. It started to drive us crazy. We just wanted to enjoy the view and natural sounds. while the Concierge agreed with us, no one seemed to control the music.
We had one silly occurrence. The grand opening for the building was on a day that we were there and it was listed on our weekly activity sheet and was held in the lobby. We went down at the appointed time and there was food and lots of people. I went and grabbed a shrimp and a women came over to me told me that I was not invited to the event. I had no idea what she meant but she insisted that we were not invited. It was embarrassing! I complained at the front desk and they called the asst front desk manager who also explained to me that we were not invited. I explained that we were staying there and it was on our weekly activity sheet. She still said no, politely. We left to go near the pools and a women who also worked at the hotel saw me and said good night. We had chatted previously and I explained the party situation. She was very upset and went to tell her manager. Several minutes later he came over to me and apologized but told me that they would try to do things better in the future but we were not welcome at the lobby party.
I left for a short car ride and my wife called me an told me that someone had called our room and explained that it was all a mistake and that we were invited to the party. Oh well. So much for Hyatt Maui hospitality. It was all so silly. I was really interested in finding out more about the building and could care less about their tasteless shrimp. We did not take up the late invite. I tweeted the Hyatt Concierge and have received no response.

We ate dinner at Leilanis  http://www.leilanis.com/at the Whalers Village in Kaanipali. It is a nice walk along the beach path that goes along Kaanapali Beach and connects all of the resorts. The path is paved and easy to navigate but one is never more than 20 yards from the water as the beach is not that wide.

We had fish tacos, nachos and a veggie burger with some Maui onion rings. Everything was  quite good and we were right on the beach. A great way to start the trip. We had draft beer to wash everything down, For dessert we had their famous Hula pie. A huge wedge of ice cream with Macadamia nuts, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and oreo crust.

Day 2 Me and the boys went off to explore. We went to Leoda's http://www.leodas.com/ for breakfast. Leoda's is somewhat new and serves locally sourced food. The food was good and reasonable. The boys had the frittata of the day and I had an apple muffin. We then went off to the IAO Valley to see the IAO Needle and to experience rainforest. It was raining so we had the real experience.

 Iao Needle

We then went to Costco for food. The Maui Costco is amazing. It seems to support the entire island. They have mainland prices. Things are so cheap that when you go to a normal supermarket like Safeway, you taken aback as to how much more things cost.
We bought local fish, Ono, Opah, and Mahi mahi. We bought local tomatoes, mushrooms, salad and bananas. Costco has a gas station that sells gas for $2.50 a gallon when other gas stations are selling at $3.50 a gallon. Costco also sells gift cards to local attractions and restaurants at reduced prices. We bought gift cards for a catamaran sail for $75 for a $100 card.

I also bought wine. The Maui store had the best wine selection of any Costco I have seen. I bought an Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, a Sancerre, a French rose, a Spanish rioja and Champagne. We drank well in Maui. Costco makes Hawaii affordable.

For dinner I made the ono and opah (pan sauteed) and we had a Miraval Rose from Provence that I had bought at Costco for about $20. The fish was great and wine was crisp and light.

Theater Alert

We saw Hamilton last night. It is at the Public Theater  http://www.publictheater.org/en/Public-Theater-Season/Hamilton/in NYC and is a rap, hip hop and incredible musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton. Lin-Manual Miranda wrote in it and stars in it and it is brilliant. Brian D'Arcy James plays King George III and is hysterical. It is a must see however the buzz about the show is so loud that the show is sold out thru the end of its run in May. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/theater/lin-manuel-miranda-and-others-from-hamilton-talk-history.html   http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/onward-and-upward-with-the-arts There are plans to move it to Broadway but they are waiting to see the reviews of the play. The official opening is February 17.

Anguilla

The NYT's has a 36 Hours Anguilla piece this weekend.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/04/travel/36-hours-anguilla-interactive-map.html?_r=0 As I have been writing for a while, Anguilla is a great place for a beach vacation.

Valentine's Day Wines

For Valentine's Day romantic wines try the following:

 Juve y Camps Pinot Noir Cava $12. It is a deep red and it does not taste like the color would imply. It is dry, balanced, light with good fruit. We drank it last night and I highly recommend it.

Or one could try a Cru Beaujolais from St Amour. Many different wineries. Around $20 and look for 2011 or 2012.

Or try a Chateau Calon Segur from Bordeaux. It may not be inexpensive but it has a heart on the label. Look for an off- year such as 2007 or 2011 for a reasonable price. The wine has decent amount of Cabernet Sauvignon in it.

Enjoy

1.