Honeymoon
- Kahana, Maui, HI
Week Two: May 6-12, 2002 |
|
|
 05/06/02
Monday
Cya later, Waikiki...a shot of Waikiki from our plane, on our way over to
Maui for Week Two of our Hawaiian Honeymoon Vacation...
|
|
|
 ...a
picture of Diamond Head, a crater just East of Waikiki Beach...named by a
band of English sailors who found calcite crystals in the rocks and thought
they were diamonds...hahaha, dumbasses...now it's home to a Hawaii National
Guard outpost...
|
|
|
 ...click
on the map to make
it bigger (like every other picture on this page) to see exactly where
we're headed...
|
|
|
 ...I
have no fuckin' idea what this is a picture of...I'm think' it's possibly
the island of Lanai, or maybe even Maui itself...who knows...
|
|
|
 ...we
landed at a teenie-weenie dirt runway, known as Kapalua Airport, where the
ticket counter woman serves as the security, baggage handler, and
stewardess...oops, airline attendant...from there we drove west/northwest to
Kahana, which is technically also Lahaina, to our resort, Kahana
Falls...
|
|
|
 ...a
beautiful place, beautiful resort...there was only one problem...
|
|
|
 ...GIANT
MAN-EATING LIZARDS ROAMING THE HALLS!!! ARGHHHH!!!
|
|
|
 ...just
kidding (like you didn't know that already...duh)...this lil' guy was
standing guard right in front of the door to our suite...he scooted away
when we asked him to help with our luggage...
|
|
|
 ...from
our balcony we got a great view of the pool...nice layout, huh? Gives a sort
of an oasis/lagoon atmosphere...
|
|
|
 ...we
put all our crap away, went to dinner at Leilani's,
on the Beach in Kaanapali, for a lovely, romantic
sunset dinner...and because we turned down dessert, we got a coupon for a
free Hula Pie! (whatever the hell that is)...ingenious marketing...now we'll
HAVE to return for dinner one night to get our "free" pie...
|
|
|
 05/07/02
Tuesday
The next morning we awoke and
went into Lahaina for a bit of touring...first stop: breakfast at Moose
McGillycuddy's...
|
|
|
 ...damn...just
looking at this picture relaxes me...remembering how at ease I felt, waiting
for my big ass breakfast in Maui...
|
|
|
 ...and
then I get stressed again, cause my wife can't give me a goddamn
non-cheesy smile, no matter how many pictures I take or how much I beg...dammit...
|
|
|
 ...a
picture of the island of Lanai, taken while we were walking through town
Lahaina...
|
|
|
 ...and
when we got back from our little day trip into town, we couldn't wait to get
to the oasis! We jumped in for a quick swim...went out, fed out fat asses
dinner, rented a movie and retired to our suite for the night...
|
|
|
 05/08/02
Wednesday
Went on a longer
drive, pretty far south/southeast, taking in the scenery in our Jeep
Wrangler rental, the vehicle of choice in Maui apparently...at the car
rental places there were literally fleets of these things ready to go...
|
|
|
 ...but
strangely enough, they didn't give you those side-rear plastic windows with
the Jeep...their reasoning was that the local thieves cut through the
windows to steal any items left in the vehicle; not giving renters the
windows discourages them from leaving valuable items in the Jeep, therefore
saving damage to the vehicle...
How cheesy are we?
Posing with our rental vehicle...sheesh...
|
|
|
 ...here's
a beautiful picture I took of the typical roadside scenery...makes good
desktop wallpaper...
|
|
|
 ...more
"seaside" scenery...
|
|
|
 ...of
course all this touring made our fat asses hungry...but our fat asses
woulda been hungry if we toured or not...so we stopped at Cheeseburger
in Paradise in Lahaina and had some damn good burgers for lunch...
|
|
|
 ...and
less than 30 minutes later, we're in the pool!
|
|
|
 ...Melissa,
apparently cramping because we went into the water too soon after eating...
|
|
|
 ...oh
my goodness, she's really cramping badly!
|
|
|
 ...just
look at the disfigured contortions her face displays as her body writhes in
agony!
|
|
|
 ...ahhh,
my photography skills are progressing along nicely...
|
|
|
 ...this
sleek, sexy, scaled denizen insisted on posing for a shot...although she
moved around way too much for me to get a good picture...
|
|
|
 Ok...here's
a series of Maui sunset pictures...I'll let them speak for themselves...
|
|
|
|
|
|
 After
such a romantic sunset, where should one go to enjoy a romantic dinner? Roy's
Nicolina restaurant of course! One of Chef Roy Yamaguchi's many
Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine restaurants. They serve some serious food here, let
me tell you...one of the best meals we've had...and their Blackened Ahi?
Best Ahi EVER...
|
|
|
 05/09/02
Thursday
Bright and early (6:00 am) we
drove 25 minutes south to Maalaea Harbor to board the 48 foot Maka Koa for
our 2 tank dive near the Island of Lanai...
|
|
|
 ...here's
Melissa, hugging our towels, anxious to get on the boat to go see fishys...
|
|
|
 ...the
boat, owned and operated by Maui
Dive Shop, departed at 7:00 am, crossing the Au Au Channel to the island
of Lanai to our first destination...
|
|
|
 ...but
first, our
Divemaster escort laid down the rules...
|
|
|
 ...here
lava was making it's way into the water...can't see it in this picture
though, we were quite a bit away from it...
|
|
|
 ...scenic
photo opportunities made themselves available on the ride to the dive spots
and back...
|
|
|
 ...I
especially like the way the clouds rolled over the tops of the mountains
here...
|
|
|
 You
probably wouldn't know from this picture, but I puked twice on this day;
once, waiting to get in the water, and once, the second I popped out of the
water...the South Pacific was being particularly treacherous that day...
|
|
|
 Nob
Hill...no, that's not Nob Hill in the background (at least I don't think
so...)...I think it's a cliff known as Kahekili's Leap, near Kaunolu Bay,
and is where the world cliff diving championships are held each year. A
Hawaiian warrior named Kahekili leaped from this 60-foot-high sea cliff to
prove his loyalty to Kamehameha the Great...Nob Hill is underwater I think (notice
how meaningless this paragraph would be without the words, "Nob
Hill" in it)...
...we were 66'
underwater here for about 37 minutes...saw a whole bunch of kewl fish...
|
|
|
 Our
second dive of the day lead us to Pu'u Pehe, which translated means "Pehe's
Hill"...it's also known as Sweetheart Rock, named after one of those
stories where two lovers leap to their death from a cliff...yeah, that one
again...anyways, this is where the Second Cathedrals are located, a world
renowned dive site...tubes, caverns, ledges and walls of lava make excellent
backdrops for underwater photography and magnificent mazes for exploration...the
unique formations were made when molten lava poured into and cooled in the
Pacific Ocean...we were at 53' here for about 33 minutes...
|
|
|
 05/10/02
Friday
Friday we did some serious
sightseeing, driving along "The Road to Hana"...and wouldn't ya
know it, my digital camera used this day to decide to not to work
anymore...I dunno if it was from having it on the boat yesterday, with all
the saltwater mist about, but I was flipping...so we had to use our crappy
underwater camera...perfect, just perfect...
|
|
 ..."The
Road to Hana" is a long-ass winding road that goes from Lahaina to
Hana, from one end of the island to the other...it winds up the sides of
cliffs and back down again, alongside the shoreline...it's pretty damn
treacherous at points, being almost less than a car width wide, mostly
unfinished road, with no guard rails to help protect drivers from a couple
hundred foot plunge off of the cliff face...you gotta be on your toes to
make this drive...
|
|
 When
we stopped to take some pictures, this crazy streaker broad (with great
tits by the way) decided to jump into my perfect picture frame...
|
|
|
 ...along
our trip there were many opportunities to exit the vehicle and explore...
|
|
|
 ...and
all along the road were these stacks of rocks, everywhere...people would
make little piles of rocks, stacking them one on top of the other...why?
Well, we asked a local, "What does it mean?" and he said,
"Nothing. Some tourist started it and the rest of the crazy tourists
followed."
Here, I am
contributing to the nonsensical actions of insane tourists...while Melissa
takes my picture with her thumb in the frame...
|
|
|
 Look!
They have boy scouts in Maui too! Don't tell Michael Jackson...
|
|
|
 ...some
serious scenery...paradise, no doubt...
|
|
|
 ...and
we found this beautiful waterfall along the way too...
|
|
|
 ...actually,
we saw a sign on the road that said, "Waterfall: This way."
More of my photographic skilllz...too
bad my fucking camera was broken!!! Arghhh!!!
|
|
|
 Melissa,
frolicking in the pristine water...
|
|
|
 ...two
fat bastards, posing in front of the waterfall...damn we ate good on this
trip...
|
|
|
 ...and
one of the places we ate at was this Luau, held at the Marriot Resort...it
was a multi-cultural Luau, taking into account all of the Polynesian Island
cultures, as opposed to a straight-out Hawaiian Luau...
...as you can no
doubt tell, my temperamental camera decided to work again...
|
|
|
 This
guy was good...a humorous and informative MC...climbed up a tree, ripped
down a coconut and showed us how to open them, should we ever be trapped on
an island with no supplies...he warned us about eating the Poi and suggested
that nobody drinks coconut milk...after making some guy drink it...
|
|
|
 ...the
main event...
|
|
|
 ...I
gotta tell ya, some of these Hawaiian chicks were seriously hot...
|
|
|
 05/11/02
Saturday
We made a 3-tank dive trip to
the Molokini Crater, a marine reserve below water and bird sanctuary
above...the visibility on this reef system averages 100+ feet and provides
a panoramic view of the marine ecosystem...Molokini is one of the few
places in the world where you can see Hawaiian garden eels, which we saw a
whole shitload of inside the crater...they look like grass sticking out of
the sand...as you get closer, the "grass" appears to retract
back into the sand...freaky...
This picture was
taken at the Backwall of the crater...just look at the water...un-fuckin-believable...like
mint Scope...
|
|
|
 ...along
the Backwall we saw Yellowfin Tuna and Whitetip Sharks, one of whom found
me particularly interesting and swam right at me, to a distance of about 6
feet, before deciding I probably wouldn't taste very good and made a
u-turn...the dive went along the wall down to about 80 feet for around 26
minutes...inside the crater, we had the best dive of our trip...sooo many
fish, so many species and tons of sharks...another 80' dive for about 39
minutes this time...on the way back we made our 3rd dive of the day, at a
spot called Marty's Reef...now, I don't know how true this is, but they
tell us that this reef was discovered by a guy named Marty...spent 32
minutes at a depth of 65'...saw a huge-ass Spotted Pufferfish...and almost
drowned when I ran out of air and had to buddy-breath (or buddy-drink
rather) off of Melissa's faulty octopus...with every half-breath of air I
got a mouthful of water...but that's a whole other story...
|
|
|
 05/12/02
Sunday
Reflection day, time to go
home...one last trip into town and one last photo op...
|
|
|
 ...dammit,
I HATE waiting at airports...a word of advice: If you ever get the
opportunity to go to Hawaii, take Continental; they are the only airline
that offers direct service from Newark...I can't imagine anyone doing a
stop-over on this one...but then again, some people are really cheap...
|
|
|
|
