Maui, Hawaii 2015 – Part 1
Maui, Hawaii 2015 – Part 1

Maui, Hawaii 2015 – Part 1

Jim & I visited Maui, Hawaii from April 25, 2015 through May 4, 2015.  Together we had over 2,000 photos, which have taken forever to go through, mostly because of an issue I mentioned at the bottom of my last post:  we took photos during our trip with 5 devices: my cell, Jim’s cell, my Nikon DSLR, Jim’s point and shoot, and Jim’s Nikon underwater camera. Our phones were the only devices that automatically changed over to the Hawaii time zone [EST minus 6 hours].

map of the hawaiian islands        map of maui hawaii and nearby islands

My Nikon DSLR [for who knows what reason!] was set to EST minus 40 minutes, so to correct the time stamp on those photos to local Hawaii time I had to subtract 5 hours and 20 minutes.  That was fun to figure out.  Jim’s Nikon underwater camera was set to EST minus 18 hours [WTF?], so to correct the time stamp on those photos to local Hawaii time I had to ADD 12 hours.  Jim’s Olympus point and shoot was the only one displaying the actual time [in EST] so I had so subtract 6 hours to calibrate those photos back to local Hawaii time.  OMG!!!  Thanks to Google I learned that Windows Photo Gallery lets you edit the time stamp on a ton of photos at once – just select the ones you want, go to edit, tell it how many minutes &/or hours to add or subtract, and click OK:

164a         164b

So without further ado, here is a recap of our first 3 days in Maui:

DAY 1:

Well, the first day doesn’t really count because we spent the entire day getting there.  Darwin helped me finish packing, then it was off to the airport for an 11am flight out of Boston.  We got to Maui at 6:30pm local time [midnight 30, Boston time], just in time to see the sunset from the plane:

164c        164d

DAY 2:

We spent most of the day super jet-lagged!  And napping.  Although we did find time to marvel at the beauty of Lāhainā:

164e        maui hawaii looking towards lānaʻi

We also did some shopping at our favorite Hawaii convenience store ABC, and grabbed a bite to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise [check out the hat on the woman behind me – gah!]:

164i        164j

We also gaped at one of the world’s largest banyan trees [planted in 1873], which was right next to our hotel [all those “other trees” you see?  They’re just root sprouts from the main tree]:

164h        164g

We also stared at the majestic beauty of the mountains from our hotel [you can pretty much see them no matter where you are on Maui] and played in the waves at a local beach:

164k        164l

All in all, not bad for a very jet-lagged first day in Lāhainā, Maui!

DAY 3:

We slept in a bit, then wandered across the street from our hotel and took some shots of the water [you can see the island of Lanai across the water], and some morning surfers:

164p        164s

164t        164u

Here’s a cool pic of our hotel [The Pioneer Inn] that hubby took from the end of the pier, looking back at it, and a closer pic I took later that afternoon:

164v        maui hawaii lāhainā pioneer inn

After breakfast we decided to check out what was supposed to be one of the best snorkeling sites on Maui:  Honolua Bay, about 20 minutes north of Lāhainā [I’ve circled Lāhainā on the map, since that’s where we stayed]. Honolua Bay is just above Kapalua on the map – pretty much the most northwest tip of Maui:

maui hawaii lāhainā map

It’s a gorgeous place:

164y        maui hawaii honolua bay

I say “supposed to be one of the best snorkeling spots” because it wasn’t.  I guess it’s hit or miss depending on current, water temperature, tide, time of year, etc.  We found it murky, colorless, devoid of most life [except rocks], and boring:

164w        164x

But it was still a really cool trip – you have to park on the side of the road then hike about 10 minutes through the jungle [which apparently is private property, but everyone does it, so we did too] to get to the rocky beach.  There were all kinds of birds and things chirping in the jungle, and tons of chickens, baby chicks and roosters everywhere, including all over the beach:

164za        164zb

164zc        164zd

164ze        164zf

164zj        164zg

164zh        maui hawaii honolua bay rooster

My mom actually called while we were there, to check in.  Hi Mom!

164zk        164zl

164zza        164zz

After that we went back to our hotel for a late lunch of nachos and fish tacos [well, I had fish tacos, hubby had something vegetarian] – numnumnum!  The hotel restaurant always had good food, great views, and cool ocean breezes:

164zn        164zm

After lunch hubby wanted to check out a beach we could see in the distance from our hotel.  It seemed like an easy enough walk, so we headed up the road.  25 minutes later we finally found the beach, which was down an unmarked side road and next to a crumbling pier:

164zo        164zp

Hubby got these really cool shots with his Olympus point and shoot – it has really cool filter functions:

       

We walked along the beach a ways, but it was pretty overcast, so we decided to head back.  Upon leaving the beach we stumbled upon an open-to-the-public Japanese temple and Buddha!

164zt        maui hawaii buddhist temple

And roosters of course:

maui hawaii chickens and rooster

The Buddha had impressive offerings [if you zoom in on the little tree you can see all kinds of necklaces made of shells and other trinkets]:

164zv        164zw

The sky kept getting darker and darker:

164zzb

We got back to the hotel and up to our 2nd floor deck just as the skies opened up:

maui hawaii pioneer inn deck in rain        maui hawaii pioneer inn deck overlooking banyan tree in rain

And that’s where we stayed while Lāhainā got hit with a freak storm with tons of rain and wind.  According to the hotel concierge, that just doesn’t happen in Lāhainā!  I’ll end this post with a pic of a very wet Myna bird, and one of the bright, funky public transportation buses complete with pink whale tail:

maui hawaii mynah bird in palm tree        maui hawaii lāhainā pink public transport bus with whale tail

Stay tuned for Part 2!

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9 Comments

  1. Travel posts take forever to write! I think I’m the last person on the West Coast who has never been to Hawaii. We have to go–it looks gorgeous!
    Hope your job calms down. It’s no fun to get stressed out. Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday!

    1. Nine Dark Moons

      I was amazed last night to check my work email from home and find out they’d fixed the phone system! So looks like my 50-60 phone calls a day will slow down to hopefully 0-10/day. Woohoo!!! FINGERS CROSSED IT STAYS FIXED…
      we miss Hawaii. It’s so amazing there!

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