Hawaii-Oh!Oh!

As if Alaska weren't enough, Jack and I are just returning from Hawaii.

Our adventure there culminated in an encounter with a wildfire that burned well over 1000 acres on Maui and closed the road that traverses the West side of Maui where our hotel sits.
I Lost my drivers license, credit card and room key when it washed out of Jack's pocket while we were swimming... We had a lovely time besides that.
And now the rest of the story.

Oahu
As you may know, I took a new client in Hawaii because I thought it would be interesting to have an excuse to visit Hawaii. But the first two trips were boxed in between other commitments so I had no time to play tourist. Finally, I could add some time at the end of the trip and so Jack joined me. Our first stop was Waikiki where we stayed in the Hilton Hawaiian Village: a resort that is like a tropical Disneyland with elaborate pools, firework displays and shops galore. While I worked, Jack visited Oahu, and enjoyed the beach.

And we had a few fun evening adventures as well.
Our second night, we took a drive across the island to the eastern side. Leaving Honolulu on route H3, we passed through sacred mountains that in a moment took us out of the city and into a lush tropical setting. The mountains jutted up on either side of us and were covered with green from below highway level to hundreds, even thousands of feet in the air. We passed through a tunnel that turns out was on sacred land and the process of building the road and tunnel took over 30 years because of the mishaps attributed to the invasion of sacred territory.

When we exited the tunnel, we opened up onto a view of the ocean, beautiful valleys and the sun setting behind us illuminating what we saw ahead. We explored this corner of Oahu, with its military bases (right on the ocean, what a setting!), beach side homes and parks where many people were practicing for outrigger and canoe races. We came around the North East Corner of Oahu and saw the winds pick up and the white caps on the ocean increase and begin pounding the rocky shore next to us. We passed blow holes and cliffs and golf courses and small communities. We came to a Marina ("Koko Marina") where I had dinner one night I went exploring several months ago, and we found a lovely little Italian restaurant for the evening. Then on back to Waikiki to the fireworks at our resort.

The next evening we were hosted to a wonderful dinner with some of my clients at Alan Wong's restaurant. He is a famous Pacific Rim Chef who has several restaurants in Hawaii and in the orient. When I was here several months ago, I attended a benefit he hosted with a wonderful array of foods. His restaurant was no disappointment! Jack and several of the others had the tasting menu; we all enjoyed a complimentary hors d'oeuvre: red and yellow tomato soup served in a martini glass with a beautiful design, served with a asiago cheese cracker/sandwich with delicate pork and onions. So, it was an adaptation of tomato soup with grilled cheese, but gourmet style. This is the only restaurant in the world where I have had a coffee menu at the end listing vintages of coffee! We tried a 1999 coffee that had "hints of chocolate" in the aroma. I would have enjoyed doing a comparison tasting of coffees!

On our last night, several other members of the family took us to a luau and we had a wonderful time being "wined and dined" (Mai taied?). Because of their connections to this establishment, we were treated like Hawaiian royalty and were served (rather than going through the lines) and had the opportunity to observe the ritual removal of the pig from the roasting pit from a private viewing spot.
We had great seats to watch the singing,dancing (hula) drumming and acrobatics with fire. The luau was on the north western edge of Oahu and we traveled through an industrial park to get to the beautiful beach location where we got to see the sunset over the ocean.

Maui
Our "vacation" really started on Monday when we flew to Maui. The flight only takes 30 minutes, but the preparation takes hours---dropping off the rental car, going through security, etc. At the other end, we picked up the rental car and looked at the map of Maui.

We were at Kahului which is North central part of Maui and our hotel was Northwest. One of our desired destinations was in the middle of the island, so we decided to stay in the middle of Maui and then go to the hotel. So we took the car and headed on the road to Hana. We did not go far, though, just going through an old hippy/surfing village, Paia, and turned south to head for Maui ranch country. We stopped at the Hui No'eau, the well-respected arts center housed in an early 20th-century estate just outside town, and then Makawao, an old cowboy town that has become an artist colony. Then we continued our ascent from sea level to 10,000 feet elevation by driving to the top of Haleakala, the dormant volcano that dominates Maui. Talk about switchbacks! The road was pretty hairy and most of it driven at 15 miles/hour! We climbed above the clouds and reached the summit where we saw the crater that looked other-worldly.

We also saw NeeNee birds that were almost extinct;

Silverthorn plants that bloom every l00 years,

and other plants that started with tropical and ended up near the top of the volcano with pine trees. The weather also went from over 80 degrees to 50. At the summit was also a scientific center with observatories that are 1/4 around the world that have a special relationship with satellites and other astral objects.

By the time we came down from Haleakala, it was time to head for our hotel. We headed across plains covered with sugar cane, small towns and tall mountains. We came to the south side of the island and turned west, hugging the coast and watching the terrain turn dry and parched on one side and wildly wet on the other. We noted that it looked as if the hills had been burned at some point in recent history. We drove past the town of Lahaina and on to the first planned recreational community, Kanapali, where our hotel was located. We found that from our balcony we could see the golf course, the ocean and the mountains.


Pretty wonderful. We had a drink at sunset by the beach and listened to guitar music while we watched a hula dancer join in. Only a few people were there so it was like a private performance.

Tuesday in Maui: After a walk on the beach swim in the ocean, we planned to explore the town of Lahaina We didn't want to leave a purse or wallet on the beach, so we brought a plastic bag in which i put my drivers license, a credit card, the room key and a few dollars. Jack kept his docs directly in his pocket. After a swim, I asked Jack for the bag. I thought he was teasing me when he said he didn't have it. He wasn't. We searched the beach and the part of the Pacific Ocean nearest to our swimming. Nothing. I mentioned to some families snorkeling, that I would appreciate it if they'd keep their eyes open for my plastic bag. I alternated between being despondent and thinking about how I would get identification in time to get on the plane in 48 hours and prayerful that a miracle would happen and it would show up. I fantasized that someone on Lanai or another island would call me 10 years from now and tell me they found my bag. So we returned to the hotel and asked them to be on the lookout and went to our room to start making phone calls. the phone rang. it was the front desk. a woman had arrived with my baggie!
Amazing. So we celebrated that miracles DO happen!

Lahaina was the first capital of Hawaii and was the scene of early trade, whaling, missionaries and health care. We visited the home of a Harvard trained physician and missionary who raised his 6 kids in Lahaina while he and his wife cared for the local peoples. He was credited with saving many people from plagues effecting the area. We visited a Chinese social club that houses a taoist shrine and the history of the Chinese people who first came to the island as entrepreneurs and adventurers and later as workers on the sugar plantations. We saw a huge banyon tree that was planted in 1859. We went to a wonderful show that was a toned-down version of cirque de soleil called Ulalena that traced the history and mythology of Maui from ancient times to now--with wonderful music, dance, acrobatics, puppets and light shows.

On day 3 in Maui, we took off to see Iao Valley-another beautiful park thick with tropical vegetation, rivers and waterfalls. Of particular interest is the Iao Needle, a large rock protruding upward in the middle of the valley. The area was also thought to be of spiritual significance to early residents and was the site of a brutal battle in 1790 between the forces of King Kamehameha and Maui's local leaders. It was one of the first times that native peoples used the white man's arms and caused so much death that the river ran red with blood as bodies clogged the stream. King K the first did unify the islands into one nation. We visited the town of Wailuku after Iao and found it to be the least touristy town on the island. We had lunch at a local "bistro" and learned that the week we were there was the first week of summer vacation and many people had left town (locals). This town is the government headquarters for the island, state and federal government so has many bureaucrats residing there normally and causing much traffic. As we strolled the streets (partially deserted because of the construction of big box stores in the nearby town), we heard the strains of music and saw, in a local park a performance by a famous singer/ukelalea player with a family of hula dancers.

We decided to check out the Wailea part of the island, where many large resorts have popped up before heading back to the western part of the island. We visited the Grand Wailea-the first of the mega resorts with many pools and ponds and a swim-up bar and big slides and sculptures. It was a bit overdone for our taste, but a local "site to be seen." We got ready to head back when we called a French restaurant that had been recommended to us to make a reservation. They told us that the road was closed due to a fire. The hostess told us a number to call to check on road conditions as they hoped to open the road again--and the restaurant--by 6PM. We optimistically made a 7:30 reservation.

Jack noticed that there was a small road that went across the Northwest side of the island. We headed there to see if we could get around and back to our hotel that way. No luck. The police stopped us (and all other traffic) and said it was too narrow and fragile to handle a lot of traffic.
Now what.....we went back to Wailuku and got a coffee at a shopping center. Kept calling to find out what's going on. Considered a movie. Considered other restaurants. Finally, I called the French restaurant again and they said the road was just opening, come on over. We told other refugees hanging out with us the news and jumped in the car. Much to our surprise, the first leg of the road was not crowded. That was short lived. As we rounded the bend to the south end of west Maui the traffic slowed to almost a standstill. We listened to the radio. The road was open. We went 10 miles in about an hour. We came to the French restaurant and they had no power so they hoped to open in another hour (they didn't). We traveled on, seeing the smoke and smoldering ash from the fire all over the hill to our right. We passed the fire equipment, saw helicopters with water and up ahead on the mountain, more flames. We progressed along the road until I saw, perhaps a quarter of a mile ahead, what looked like flames jumping our road, I looked up at the hills and saw the fire coming toward us, as the wind was blowing very strong. While the cars in front of us were still moving forward, I suggested to Jack that we get the hell out of there. The winds were altogether too unpredictable and I did not want to get trapped between two walls of flames. We turned around and headed out, sad to lose the progress we had made back to our hotel. So close yet so far away.
We passed hundreds of cars still creeping Northwest and then I saw that the police had stopped the line and no more cars were allowed through. We retraced our steps and started thinking about our options: find another hotel? stop for dinner and hope that the fire would be controlled? find a boat to take us by sea to Lahaina? Finally, with our phone batteries weakening, we tracked down what appeared to be one of the last rooms available on the island and made our way back to Wailea to one of the large resorts...and prayed that they still had the room by the time we got there. They did. We checked in (with no baggage) and since we were wearing bathing suits decided to take a swim. Have a drink. talk to other wealthy refugees (who else would be spending money on a second hotel room for the night?) and went to bed, hopeful we could get back to the hotel to get our bags before we had to be at the airport.

The next morning we awoke and made calls and found that the road was supposedly open. We "packed up" (camera, phone, hats) and headed for the car. Yes, the radio confirmed that the road was open. We found the road not too busy, and were optimistic. We considered stopping for breakfast, but decided that getting to the hotel was more important (other than a desperate coffee stop. The fire devastation was even worse than we saw the night before. The earth was blackened, trees but a shadow and still some flames from time to time in the hills or nearby in a tree.
The smoke was so bad at one point that the cars in front of us seemed to disappear as they entered it.

Finally, we got through the warzone and got to Lahaina which looked like the resort town we had known before. No signs of fire. And our resort was spared as well. We packed up, turned around and headed back to the airport, just in time to catch our return flights.

The trip was mostly delightful, but ended on a tiring note. A powerful reminder that nature can alter most any plans made by humans and we must always be appreciative of the power as well as the beauty of mother nature.

We are home for two weeks and then take off for our annual drive through the southwest. This time, we head to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a client retreat, to Boulder Colorado for another and then on to Aspen for our annual Aspen Family Business Gathering. Altogether, we will be on the road 3 weeks. Stay tuned!


Leslie