Return to Maui; Shakespeare in the Park

 Maui

We decided to go back to Maui. United now has a non stop flight from Newark to Kahului. Great scheduled times both ways. The airport in Maui has improved its rental car area and they have built a huge enclosed garage for the rental companies. The garage is connected to the airport by a short tram or you can walk. We had no problem with a rental car. We used National and car was great and it was the same price as always. 

We needed to be tested before we left NJ but they have now waived the testing if you are vaccinated. United handled everything very well and they checked our test results in Newark and gave us a wrist band which allowed us to enter Maui without an issue.

We divided our stay between Wailea(5 nights) and Hana(3 nights). In Wailea we stayed at the Ekahi village condos through Destination by Hyatt. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom ocean view condo with full kitchen and a 3 minute walk to Keawakapu Beach, one of our favorite beaches. I love the Ekahi condos. They are not fancy but the location is great and the units are spread out over beautiful grounds. The prices are not bad either especially when compared to the hotels.

In Hana we stayed in the owner's suite condo in the Hana Maui Hotel but we booked through AirBnB.

Everything looked  beautiful a s always but then things got real. Restaurants are at reduced capacity and so there were crazy long waits at our favorite places Monkeypod, Wailea and Paia Fish Market, Kihei. Monkeypod took our name for there waiting list and told us it would be an hour and 45 minutes. They did not take reservations. Paia Fish Market had a wait of 45 minutes to over an hour for eat-in or take out.

The wait at Ululani's Shaved Ice in Kihei was over an hour, ouch. Luckily they have other locations like in Kahului where there was no wait.

We did eat twice at the Maui Brewing Company in Kihei.https://www.mbcrestaurants.com/kihei/ They have a huge restaurant with very spread-out tables outside. They had live entertainment and and a very efficient method of ordering. They had a 20 minute wait one night but the wait list is very efficient as well. 

We went to the upcountry farmers' market on Saturday. It is pretty good with about 30 vendors. Parking can be tough but there are spots available a few blocks away. Saturday mornings from 7am to 11am.http://www.upcountryfarmersmarket.com/

Wailea now has a farmers market https://mauifamilymagazine.com/event/wailea-village-farmers-market/2021-07-06/ every Tuesday and it is very good. It is small but has some great vendors. We got local fish and some top notch fruit and veggies.

Luckily we had a kitchen so we were not dependent on restaurants. The supermarkets are doing fine and Costco was good as always. Their wine selection is great and don't forget to use their gas station as it is around $.50 less than other gas stations.

We went up Haleakala and had a great time. Perfect weather and it was not very crowded. It is about a 2 hour drive from Wailea depending on stops. It is part of the Haleakala National Park. https://www.nps.gov/hale/index.htm If you want to go up for sunrise, you need to make a reservation.

Makawao is still the same. It is upcountry and is about 40 minutes from Wailea. Komoda's bakery is same as always except for the line outside. We got our Monkeybread and malasadas. closed Wednesday and Sunday.

Hana is the same as always but a bit depressing. Locals are not to pleased with tourists. There were some nasty signs. The Hana Maui Hotel https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/hawaii/hana-maui-resort/oggal?src=adm_sem_agn_360i_crp_ppc__google__e_hana%20maui%20hotel_TwoRoadProp&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvO2IBhCzARIsALw3ASqgAHVu7RnHw1PguBYlQNraXzKr_a1WOBkUSeUgR322RAL2xJ307wgaAqazEALw_wcB has been taken over by Hyatt. We saw nothing positive about the change except they added a bar to one of the pools. The usually delightful staff was rude and un-helpful. The restaurant was closed. There are basically no activities and worst of all they have made no attempt to rebuild their house on Hamoa Beach. They give you 2 ratty chairs at the front desk and they a have shuttle to the beach every 2 hours. Wow! They could have a person at the beach with chairs, towels and umbrellas. Check out the hotel prices and you can see why you might expect more. 

Good news from Hana, Hana Farms https://www.hanafarms.com/ has opened up a new restaurant with pizza in the jungle. The restaurant is nicely laid out and they have singers on some nights. The pizza is great; we took out. But it can get busy and check days and times when it is open. Dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. Best place in Hana by far. Good banana bread at their stand.

Hana has a farmers market once a week. They had a stand that sold taro hummus. It was a great. The guy grows the best taro on the island. He also is Israeli so he knows his hummus.

 Past Hana is the other part of the Haleakala National Park where the 7  pools are located. This park also has the Pipiwai Trail which is a great hike. It is about 4 miles round trip and you walk through a bamboo forest and end up at a 400 ft waterfall. The trail has been discovered but it is not that crowded and the hike is lots of fun. Bring water and wear hiking shoes.

Shakespeare in Central Park

The NY Public Theater has produced the Merry Wives in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park,https://publictheater.org/ NYC. It is a updated version of the Merry Wives of Windsor. Plays at the Delacorte are always a delight and we had great weather the night we attended. The play is entertaining and tickets are free through a lottery system on Goldstar.https://www.goldstar.com/events/new-york-ny/free-shakespeare-in-the-park-lottery-merry-wives-tickets A great experience and bargain in NYC.

We ate dinner before the play at Sarabeth's Kitchen on Amsterdam Ave. We had a hamburger and chicken sandwich but everything was very good and service was great. We ate outside in one of the new street kiosks and it was very comfy. Their Happy Hour extends to 7pm and food is part of the deal.

End of the Pipawai Trail.

Haleakala

Ekahi Condos

Ululanis shaved ice.

Hotel Hana Maui lanai

Pipiwai Trail

Hidden Red Sand Beach in Hana

Pipawai Trail bamboo forest

Hana

Hana Farms restaurant for pizza night

Keawakapu Beach

Enjoy.

Travelling again; Kiawah Island, South Carolina

 Kiawah Island

Kiawah is an island near Charleston, South Carolina. It has a security gate but we had passes because we rented a house for the week. Since the island has a number of public golf courses, a big hotel and a several restaurants I don't believe that is difficult to get a pass for the day. 

The area is doing alright but many business appeared to be hurting. Many restaurants in Charleston and Kiawah have closed. The Bohicket Marina, near the entrance to Kiawah had 1 restaurant open and the rest of the place was a ghost town. Everyone we met and all the businesses we encountered were well maintained and followed Covid protocols.

The island has beautiful beaches, 4 public golf courses that are gorgeous and lots of houses to rent and There is a large hotel, the Sanctuary,  https://kiawahresort.com/accommodations/the-sanctuary-hotel/which is on the beach and part of the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. You can also rent houses through the resort which gives some advantages to renters such as discounts on golf. We rented a house from Pam Harrington Realtors https://pamharringtonexclusives.com/kiawah/  The house was great, reasonably priced and everything went smoothly.

We had a great time without spending lots of money. 2/3 the cost of the Jersey shore for a house.  The weather was great. The ocean was very swimmable. The island is a bikers paradise with trails everywhere. The island is about 40 minutes from Charleston. Charleston is worth seeing but I would not spend more than a day sightseeing. There are some great restaurants in Charleston but I would not go there for the fancy food.

Fish is easily obtainable in Kiawah. Local shrimp are really good. There is a small village at the entrance to the island, Freshfields https://freshfieldsvillage.com/directory/. There are a few restaurants, shops and a very good Harris Teeter supermarket. Harris Teeter had a great fish department with some local fish. Shrimp, snapper, mahi mahi and clams were somewhat local and all were very fresh. They had a great meat department as well.

There is also a very nice farm stand that sells fresh fish right before you get to Kiawah Island. They have tuna, Mahi, snapper, shrimp and flounder at various times. There is also a small cafe, The Hemingwayhttps://www.thehemingwaysc.com/, which has breakfast items and it also has an extraordinary wine shop with a small collection of excellent wines. I found a bottle of 2017 Pax Chenin Blanc Buddha’s Dharma Vineyard. I had never seen a Pax wine before. Good stuff from California. There is also a small barbecue and ice cream café next to Hemingway's.

Playing golf was great. I had a tee time late afternoon and played solo. A very relaxing and fun experience. Price of a round is steep and there was  no late day discounts but everything was first class and the course, Cougar Point,https://kiawahresort.com/golf/cougar-point-golf-course/ was incredibly well maintained.

I cooked most nights but we went out to the Salty Dog Cafe  https://www.bohicket.saltydog.com/in the Bohicket Marina one evening. We sat outside and they had a singer who was very good. The food was quite good and reasonably priced. We had local fish.  

I brought wine with me to the island so we drank well. The kitchen in our house was incredibly well equipped so we had a great time cooking local food.

Roof top restaurant at Market Pavilion Hotel in Charleston https://www.marketpavilion.com/index.cfm. We had a nice lunch away from the crowds. Ambiance great, food OK.

Rainbow Row in Charleston.

Kiawah beach.

Path to beach

Pax wine.

2020 In review Part 2; 2021 Prospectively; Rose Wine

 What wines have been sustaining you during the pandemic? Have your tastes shifted? Have you been drinking more? less? More expensive wine? cheaper wine? 

I have been drinking my usual eclectic assortment of wines but with more of an emphasis on California. I like getting wine directly from wineries, hence the California connection. Problem is that many California wines are quite expensive. Let's define expensive as $30 and over. Not exactly the Wine Spectator's definition as their average wine is much more.

Rose

Rose's are the wine of the moment as most wineries are introducing their 2020 roses at this time. In addition, roses are usually on the low end of a winery's price point so they can be good introductions to a winery's winemaking style.

Denner, Tablas Creek and Domaine Drouhin currently offer their 2020 roses at good prices. Tablas Creek makes 2  roses - Dianthus and Patelin. Unfortunately I have not tried any of the 2020's yet as I have just received them. They are all in the $20 to $30 range and are all serious wines, not light quaffers. However I don't mean to imply that they are not fun or easy to drink and enjoy. https://www.dennervineyards.com/product/2020-Rose-6-Pack  https://tablascreek.com/wines/rose     https://domainedrouhin.com/product/2020-edition-rose/  These wines tend to be lighter in alcohol which in todays wine world is refreshing.

Wines to try that are not in the expensive range.

Finger Lake Rieslings - Anthony Road https://anthonyroadwine.orderport.net/product-details/0283/2019-Rose-of-Cabernet-Franc (this is  very good rose made from cabernet franc)and Dr. Konstantin Frank

Spanish wines - Bodegas Borsao https://bodegasborsao.com/wines/  Muga Reserva; Cava -Juve y Camps, Raventos, Codorniu

French wines - Loire Valley, Beaujolais, Languedoc- Roussillon; even Bordeaux.

Costco Kirkland wines- recently had their Barolo $20 and their Sancerre $15 and their Rioja $8- all very good.

Food

It is difficult for me to get good fish in the winter. Salmon, cod, clams and shrimp - nothing exciting. Try salmon in a light ginger cream sauce over spinach fettucine or a simple clam sauce over pasta or fish and chips with cod or cod, clams and shrimp in a tomato based fish stew or simple baked clams..

Homemade chocolates by my son.

Store made chocolates from Nap Valley.

New Jersey tuna sushi.

Ribs anyone.

2020 in Review Part 1

 Wine Spectator Annual 2020 Wine Tasting Statistical Summary

I always find this synopsis of their wine tastings for the year fascinating.(Jan 31 - Feb 28 Edition)

They tasted over 11,000 wines and 53% of them scored 90 and above. The average price of a wine rated 90 or above was $90 which is up from $84 in 2019. The average might be deceiving as they review some very expensive wines. I have also found that the prices that they use are like MSRP for autos -- over stated. For example, I recently bought a wine that they list at $75 for $60.

The average price of a California Cabernet Sauvignon rated 90 and above was $166 and 71% of them scored 90 and above.

81% of Syrahs from California rated 90 and above with an average price of $64. I really enjoy Syrahs and the California versions are some of my favorites. If you are a California cab drinker check out Syrahs.

New Zealand ($38), Spain($47), Washington($57), Oregon($63)and South Africa($58) all have less expensive 90 and above wines. New York is your best bet for low cost quality wines as 90 and above wines averaged $27 although only 17% of their wines tasted rated 90 and above.

Finding a reasonably price good wine.

Many people ask me to recommend reasonably priced wines. What exactly is  a reasonably priced wine? In the same issue as their annual summary the Wine Spectator's lead story was "Smart Buys" and they define Smart Buys as $25 and under. As I have previously stated, buying wine by a price point is not a good strategy. It is great to have a limit on how much you want to spend but the price of each wine varies dramatically from store to store just like everything we buy today. For example a wine for $25 in one store could be as low as $10 in another store. You need to know your store's pricing policy and a good price point for a wine that you like.

There are many tools available to find out the price of wine. Wine-searcher is available through Cellar Tracker and many wine sites such as Vinous and the Wine Advocate have pricing info available. Use the internet to your advantage when purchasing wine. In fact some stores have lower internet prices than the price in the store. In these stores you need  to mention the internet price when you are in the store at check-out.

The price of good wine has increased over the last few years. A good wine to me means wine made by smaller wineries that use ingredients that you expect to be in wine to make their wines. It is the difference between Olive Garden and your local Italian restaurant. It isn't as easy as it should be to determine a decent wine. Many big companies have lots of nice sounding wine brands with catchy names. Remember that wine is one of the few foods that does not have to have a list of ingredients on the label.

Next time I will provide some wines that I believe you will enjoy drinking and that will not cost a fortune. You can find good wines for $10 to $15. Borsao, the best value on the planet is still $7 at some stores. I will also provide some methods such as label information to determine if a wine is worth trying At the end of the day a good wine is whatever you enjoy drinking.

Enjoy!

Turn the clock back as we head into winter

 Slowly adjusting to wintertime Pandemic. I have not traveled far in months. No hotel stays to rack up Marriott points. Credit card tip -- If you are paying for a travel credit card, call the bank up and ask for a reduced fee for the card. You are not getting the services you paid for. I have found that they will reduce your fee without any pushback.

Wineries are adjusting to the new normal. There have been less free  shipping deals but wineries are starting to come out with holiday offers which include some good deals. My favs  include: Domaine Drouhin still has $20 shipping for 6 bottles and $30 shipping for a case. Tablas Creek has a bunch of specials with free shipping. Municipal Winemakers has free shipping on orders over $79.

New local brewpub Untied https://www.untiedbrewingco.com/  It is located on a back street in a warehouse section of  New Providence, NJ. They make good beers of all types. Very relaxed atmosphere. Indoors or out. They have music on Saturdays. Easy to socially distance as they have lots of space indoors and out.

Trying to be more creative with cooking. Go to a Trader Joes for all types of very reasonably priced food ideas. Their frozen foods can be great and their cheese selection has really improved.Use spices more assertively and think about different cuisines when trying to figure out what to cook. Instead of Italian, try Greek. Think feta cheese and spinach pie, (Trader Joes has great frozen Greek Spanakopita)Try Chinese or Mexican. Think guacamole, fried rice, dumplings and lots of veggies. (Trader Joes has some great frozen dumplings. A number of varieties. I have been making fish and chips with cod. Have you made pork schnitzel in a while with German potato salad. Pound some boneless pork chops and bread them. Lightly fry in pan. don't overcook.

Making pizza is an old standby. Add toppings of your choice. Making dough is very easy and very rewarding. A nice Chianti Clasico Reserva makes the pizza even more enticing. Look for 2016's.