Vacation

There was no blog last week because I was in Maui, HI. Ahhh! What can I say, someone invited me to go along with her family and I didn't say no. It really was a good vacation, lots of sunshine and some warm rain, lots of fresh air and fresh tree ripened guavas, pineapples, mangoes and those other ones I don't like, papayas. We stayed in a home on a private dirt road just off the Hana Hwy between mile makers 1 and 2 so we were 29 miles from Hana on the wet side of the island. We got a lot of rain which was fine except the house was "off the grid" powered by solar panels and our water was run-off from the rain falling on the roof and piped into a 10,000 gallon tank in the front yard. We had to watch how much power we used in the mornings before the sun brought up the batteries which took most of the day. That's okay, we were at the beach or hiking or shopping and having lunch in the little town of Paia. I couldn't resist the Maui beef burgers on a Kiaser roll served at Mambo's Cafe. It's on Baldwin Ave up the block from the Hemp store. Then there were the mahi-mahi fish and chips at the Paia Fish Market on the corner of Baldwin and The Hana Hwy.
We rose each day at sunrise as the house faced east and there was no stopping the sun from waking us. No blinds or draperies on any of the windows to keep it out. Mornings are best for picture taking so I took advantage of several mornings for a little walk with my camera. Clouds moved continually along in front of the house so the family's 5 year old son and I called it a train of clouds and we pretended it was hauling sugar cane. Clouds do make for the best sunrises all pink and gold. One day I did glimpse the cinder cone of Haleakala as I stood on the front lawn but didn't ever see it again to photograph it. Two of us drove over to Wailuku and Iao Valley State Park. We climbed up the tourist steps to the little look-out but didn't know where the real trails were so couldn't get up close to the cone shaped rock that is at the head of the valley. Kings are buried there and battles were fought there I suppose for dominance of the huge fertile valley watered by the four streams that converge there and flow down into the plain.One day we all drove further up the Hana Hwy and stopped to hike through a small park beside the road. It had mahogany trees which I had never seen close up. Their bark is spongy like our Redwood trees only not so thick. The trail was graveled at some parts but most of the time we were walking on roots. So many plants combined in that jungle. Many of the larger trees had vines wrapping around them from the base on up. It looked to me as if the vines would eventually strangle the trees. It all seemed a bit eerie  for me raised in dry California but oh so lush and pale green compared to the darker oak and pine greens I see every day.
Guavas grew all along the Highway and all down the road we were on. The smell of them is like a wonderful perfume and they taste like it too. Neighbors grew coconut palms and sweet little apple-bananas. How I wish we could get some of those here. They have nothing of the cloying aftertaste of regular bananas, just sweet. I would eat one every day if I could. Maybe if we all ask at Trader Joe's they will bring them in. We did find one good coconut on the road and carried it home to try. It yielded two cups of coconut milk which I froze and then made into "shave" ice for a treat. The coconut meat is very soft and rich tasting unlike the hard meat we get from the imported ones here. It is not very sweet either. I guess that is my recipe for the week.

We did drive over to the dry side to go to the beach at Kihei and drove on down through Wailea and Makena to the big state beach there. How it has changed since I was last there 26 years ago. The sugar cane fields are still there but a bit less extensive. The population must have doubled and it shows.
I have posted pictures of the trip on facebook. Here is the link to take you there. Enjoy and Aloha.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30421&id=100000307281191&l=70d7fa4940