Lahaina

Lahaina is a really nice town. As we walk through the quaint shopping area our eye catches Maui to Go Arts and Crafts. We stop in and check out some amazing photographs that a local couple, Monica and Michale Sweet, take.


We talk with the owner Monique. She is a super sweet lady who moved here from France 20 years ago. After Dan tells her of our plans to move here she tells us how dismal it has been for her and her husband, also named Dan. He is a video photographer and after many years of bountiful work on all the islands, he has had none this year. He comes casually strolling in, in his lose t-shirt and shorts and talks with Dan. After buying one of the pictures, she gives us a cupon for half off lunch and her business card. They tell us to look them up once we move here. We leave thinking maybe this isn't the right time, maybe in the spring. Lahaina is active; a lot of boats, beach goers, surfers. Our cupon is for a place called Pacific 'O. Nice! We sit out on the lanai overlooking the beach.



Our waiter moved here 3 months ago and is totally happy to live in paradise, he says yes, times are tough, people are leaving, rents are going down because of that, but he is comitted to make it work. As he gives Dan his fish and chips, he gives us tips and tricks the locals use to save money. Show them your ID, tell the you are a kama'aina (local) and you get a 15 to 25% discount. I get an organic salad whose produce was grown on their farm, oofarm (oofarm.com)! The tomatoes are golden and the best I've had in Hawaii. There are strips of carrot type things white, yellow and red and white swirled, I guess jimica, carrot and radish. Wrong, they're all beets! I get some grilled mahimahi to go with it, again, the best mahimahi I've had on the islands (a little salty) moist, decicate, tastey. The waiter tells me they don't go through a company, two local guys go out and fish every morning and bring them what they caught! How cool, this is everything I embody about food, I want to work here! I go to the bathroom and glance at a newspaper article about their award winning farm to table practices. On the back of the stall door is a laminated flyer describing the farm/tour lunch activity that you can do. It's over, I'm going to work here. The farm is in Kula, maybe Kula is very Kula!
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