Maika'i Maui | Dispatch 4

The latest news to report is that I finally was able to take the Ka'anapali Historical Trail & History and Legends Tour. Learning the history of people and place is very important to me so it was awesome to finally be able to catch this tour after several years of trying. The images above are of a display of Canoes I stumbled across during the tour. As I expected, Ka'anapali, the area where I stay each year, is rich with the history of larger than life poeple and meaningful places. An example are the Pohaku of Moemoe and Wahine O Manua/Wahine Pe'e pictured below that lie in the Royal Lahaina golf course. According to legend, Moemoe (the larger pohaku) was turned to stone by Maui because of his laziness. The smaller pohaku has two legends tied to it. The first of Wahine Pe'e is involves a love story with Moemoe. The second story is that Pueo, the owl guardian spirit, helped protect a woman from an abusive husband here and now here spirit rests in the pohaku.



Our guide was Thadd Camara (left), Hawaiian Culturalist at the Westin Hotel. The tour stories were great but Thadd's personal stories made the tour even better. You can find the brochure for the tour here. Thadd also gave me a heads up that there was going to be a canoe race on Saturday that would end right at Hanakao'o Beach (aka Canoe Beach), home of Kahana and other Canoe clubs. I ended up going to watch the landing on Saturday and got a chance to speak with some folks from the Hawaiiian Canoe Club out of Kahului. It was all pretty cool having just finished the 2009 Tribal Journey in the Puget Sound.

In the afternoon I did a bit more walking around Lahaina. Below are a couple favorite shots.



The final four images are of a sculpture titled "United" that a came across at the Episcopal Cemetary in Lahaina, one of the stops in the Lahaina Historical Tour. I added a little tinting for fun.





Saturday ended with another visit to the Whaler's Village Hula show by KM Polynesian Productions lead by Kumu Keoni Manuel. A special treat this evening was that Keoni actually came out and danced with the troop.

Maika'i Maui - Dispatch 3

Lots of great things to report in this dispatch. First, one of my favorite restaurants on Maui, Aloha Mixed Plate has gone full-on biodegradable with all their disposable plates and utensils. This is a pretty big committment for a quick serve restaurant that is always busy. Another great food discovery, Roselani Ice Cream made just around the Island in Wailuku...I'm totally addicted. These are all part of my efforts to join the Kanu Hawaii Eat Kocal Campaign.

Wednesday was a full day of activities. I started early in the morning with a stop in the Pacific Whale Foundation store where I bought my annual t-shirt. I figure its a win-win when you can buy a t-shirt and/or gifts that are cool AND support a great cause. Next, it was off to Maui Nui Botanical Gardens (MNBG) where I've wanted to go for several years now. The gardens were a bit smaller than I expected but they had a really extensive collection of native plants, from Ape to Wiliwili. One could spend a short time at the gardens or the whole day if you really spend the time to get to know the plants with all their beauty and cultural meanings. Best of all, their website features a video with my favorite song in the background, "Maunaleo" by Kealii Reichel.



Next it was off to the Maui Tropical Plantation, another great stop for anyone into plants. Maui Tropical Plantation is certainly more commercial than MNBG, but beautiful nonetheless. The grounds were extensive and the tram tour is a blast. Feeding the pond fish and local ducks shouldn't be missed either. And yes, there is a GIANT - like five story - windmill on the grounds (pictured above). I could sit and watch it spin and respond to the wind all day...very relaxing.

Finally, I discovered in my many conversations that there is a new effort underway to restore Kahoʻolawe, an island in the Hawaiian chain that was used briefly as a penal colony, for sheep and cattle ranching, and as a bombing range for the US Navy. In 2003, the US Navy tranferred control of the island back to the State of Hawaii and now their is a full cultural and environmental restoration taking place. Having just completed the 2009 Tribal Journey in the Puget Sound where several villages were 're' named back to their original Indian names, I can start to understand the importance and meaning of this restoration effort to honor both the people and place of Kaho'olawe. I look forward to following, supporting, and hopefully volunteering with the project going forward.

Photo: from kahoolawe.hawaii.gov)

Maika'i Maui | Modern Mansards

Some of you sslog fans know that I have a crush on modern mansard roofs. I've found a few on Maui that certainly fall into the 'exceptional' category so I thought I'd share them here. You can find more on my full blog Modern Mansard. Enjoy!

Maika'i Maui | Dispatch 2

Today I got to visit some of my favorite places in Maui. For example, I stopped by a great boutique in Wailuku, Maui Thing. Their slogan is "stuck on good" and with all their great local design, organic t-shirts, and calls to action, I'm totally addicted. This year I got a 'Pono Power' T. Afterward, I walked down to Gilbert's Formal Wear to see if they had any more palaka shirts. I did get two shirts (apparently the last shirts the Maui) but also discovered that Gilbert's will be closing after 59 years! That's right, owner Susanne Hotta is closing her doors. Read more in this Maui News article: Wailuku landmark goes out of fashion. We had a great conversation, as always, so its quite sad to know that Gilbert's will soon be gone.

After Gilbert's we stopped in to Cafe O'lei where I had both the best Mahi sandwich AND Mai Tai I've ever had in Maui. Very affordable, very good, lots of local options...yumm!!!

And what would a day in Kahului/Wailuku be without a visit to Savers (aka Value Village to some of us). I purchased some Aloha shirts, Ts, and some Hawaiian textiles for the big Ballard Luau coming up when I get back to Seattle.

I ended the night by watching the Hula show at Whaler's Village next door to where I'm staying. Its one of the best hula shows I've seen (perhaps because it has dancers ranging from children to adults) and its FREE! I'll be stopping by the other shows on Wednesday and Saturday for sure.

Maika'i Maui | Dispatch 1

The annual trip to Maui is on and this year I'll be spending 11 days on the island trying to scout out all the new sustainability things going on. Once again this year, Maui follows on the wake of the annual Tribal Journey for which I paddled over 100 miles so I'm very much looking forward to some rest time.

One of the most important things I learned from my Tribal Journey days is that one should always ask permission to enter another People's lands. So, during our approach I sang the song that I had come up with during this year's Journey and once we landed, I paused for a moment and asked permission to enter. There wasn't anyone to give the permission but as this often happens on early morning launches during the Tribal Journey, I knew that by following the proper Protocol, things would be OK.

The first thing that I was very pleased to see upon landing see was that recycling has finally taken off on much of the island. In the airport, in restaurants, etc. Even in our condo where once there was one small can for recycling there are now seven separate containers for various recyclables. Yay!

The next major sustainability story comes from our first afternoon walking around Old Lahaina....Paul's sunglasses purchase. Turns out the ubiquitous Sunglass Hut stores now are supporting OneSight, a nonprofit that works to improve vision around the world through outreach, research and education. Sunglass Hut supports OneSight, you can make a donation at the store, AND you can even donate your old sunglasses for OneSight recipients.

Next up was a visit to the gallery of Lahaina Arts Society in the Old Lahaina Courthouse. The group supports many local artists and my purchase this year was a small medallion pin made of beautiful feathers by Ellen Levinsky. The pin will look great on the cedar hat I recently bought back in Seattle.

An afternoon snorkel included peeks at an eel and a puffer fish and we ended the day with a grocery visit to Lahaina Farms, the local natural food store.