Maui (Day 1)

(Photo courtesy of www.donnachameleon.com.)

Romney booked us reservations at the Maui Seaside Hotel in Kahului. We figured this is pretty central and since we wanted to visit both the East side and West side of the island, it would make a great home base. The hotel, although a little run-down, was comfortable and affordable.

Our first day was spent exploring the West side of the Island. We wanted to go all the way around in a clockwise direction but ran out of time. Our first stop was at a lookout over Maalaea Harbor. Across the way you could see Kahoolawe Island, an uninhabited island where a lot of bomb testing went on during World War II.



Our next stop was at Olowalu, a town so small that if you blink, you'll miss it. Actually we did miss it. I had to turn around and go back. Why? Because there are only two buildings next to the road. Anyway, we turned off the highway and parked next to a water tank. Then we walked along a long dirt road for about a mile, taking us towards the center of the island. This brought us to a small cliff wall where ancient Hawaiians had carved hieroglyphs into the rock. The unfortunate thing is that over the last few decades, bored kids from the surrounding areas have decided to add their own not-so-ancient drawings in an attempt to trick tourists into believing theirs is ancient too. Here are some pictures. You decide on what's ancient and what's not.

















Lahaina wasn't planned as our last stop of the day, but that's what it ended up. We found free parking and walked the strip downtown. We wanted to take a short walking tour of some of the historic sites of the town. But as we were heading to the old courthouse where it starts, we decided to stop and look at pricing for whale watching tours. (See photos of some of the buildings below.) We ended up purchasing tickets and went out on a catamaran for two hours. The water was pretty choppy so trying to use the digital camera didn't work so well. Instead, I used the video camera and got some footage of several whales breaching. But, after about an hour of it, I started getting seasick from looking through the viewfinder for so long. I'll post some video later.

After returning from our whale watching tour, I had to sit in the park and wait for my stomach to settle for a while. Then we went to dinner at Bubba Gumps where I nibbled off Romney's plate and got a Sprite. By then, it was dark and we didn't want to drive around the rest of the island because the roads are so narrow and there are many cliffs without guardrails so we just went back to Kahului the way we came.


The Old Courthouse, now used as a museum upstairs and tourist shop on the first floor.


Whalers, after harpooning a whale from a distance, would come up close and shoot it through the head with this gun, which would pierce their skull and blow up inside the brains, finally killing the giant mammal.


This is the old prison of Lahaina, taken from the inside. This is the entrance gate where the guardsman and his family lived, watching over the prisoners. The surrounding walls of this prison are made of coral.


In the center of the grassy inner courtyard is a small building where the inmates were locked up each night.