Thursday, September 3, 2009

Evening Stroll




We are sitting in our customary smoking spot, there is no smoking within 20 feet of a building on all the islands. Kicked back in lawn lounge chairs, under the palm trees, facing the ocean. We are getting ready to walk the beach. I'm reminded of my morning post which didn't make it onto the blog for some reason. It went something like this:

We slept in! Our days have been so sun drenched and wind blown that we fall into bed and sleep fast all night. We had breakfast at Stella Blue again. Dan; eggs, bacon, and potatoes. Me; tofu scramble with broccoli, mushrooms and tahani sauce. Folks have been snorkeling outside our room all week so we give it a go. The water is cool and refreshing and we are instantly awake. Underneath, the water is cloudy, I can see maybe 10 feet in front of me. I guess all the wind Kehei gets stirs the sand up. We see loads of small fish, 2 to 3 inches long. Some yellow with black racing stripes, some black with a white spot about the size of a dime on either side. I see 2 long fish, about 2 to 3 feet long, I think are eels. Dan says they are either Trumpet fish or Coronet fish. He pops out of the water elated, he was swimming in a school of 1000 small fish. Strolling down the beach we talk for about the 5th time this week about whether we should live here or Kauai. Maui is more expensive but has more job opportunites. Kauai has nicer people and a small town feel. Maybe a job at a nice resturant, where we can play in the water before heading into work. We see a young lady walking her dogs. One is a Pom, about the size of Lucy and the other is a Pit about the size of Baxter. She tells us of the horror that her Pom went through being quarenteened, the Pit she got here. Says Frontline keeps ticks and fleas off. She has been here for 3 years and is thinking she may have to move back in about 6 months. We have heard that a lot today, about how a lot of people are leaving. She has worked in 3 resturants that have gone out of business, the last because the owner died. As we walk back, we reconsider the resturant business, maybe we become certified in scuba and take tourists out. Tiffany and a lady who works in the gift shop at the Pacific Whale Foundation (she moved out here from Grand Junction before her house sold, almost going into forclousure) say they always need people to work the boats. We spy a crab, flat as a pancake in the black lava rocks. Crouching over it I wonder aloud if it is dead. Dan scares it, immediately it becomes vertical, as tall as it was flat and skitters off on it's tiptoes, taking our thoughts with it until the ocean swallows it up.

-- Post From My iPhone

Pizza Shaka







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Bad mana

I'm not into Lahaina. It's all about shopping. It's picturesque allright.







It's the richest part of the island with shop after shop selling Maui style goods. After going to the grocery store to check out prices, we went to Front street to get some ice cream. It reminded Dan of Vail. Hard to find parking and one central place to pee. As we are eating our ice cream, I accidentally inhale some. Ice cream going down the wrong pipe is the worst. I could barely breathe for a good 5 minutes. Dan was checking out the ukulele shop, hand made from koa, and the tiki shop. He wants to do wood carving here. The whole time I just wanted to leave. Dan later said he had a headache the whole time we were there. We drove through Kanapali, another rich town. Shortly there after we were driving down narrow mountain passages, sometimes desert like, other times lush tropical wildness. Through huge mountain valleys, cliffs covered in green really, and around narrow one lane roads with sheer drop offs to the ocean below.


See that line halfway through the mountain, yhea, that's the road!

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Lahaina Farms Market




Apples 1.99 lb
Portabellos 9.99 lb
Poblanos 4.99 lb
Butternut squash 1.99 lb
Yellow onions 2.19 lb
Yukon gold 1.79 lb
Russet 1.29 lb
Not organic tofu 1.99 14oz
Tomatoes 2.49
Huge mangos 2.59 ea
Whole wheat bread 6.99
Organic valley eggs 8.59 dozen!
Hawaiian maid eggs 3.99
Maui island free range eggs 8.99
Bionature spaghetti 4.29
Bionature diced tomatoes 4.19 28.2 oz
Dry red kidney beans 3.89 lb
Pineapple .99
Olive oil spectrum ev 22.79 25.4 oz
Brown rice 8.69 5lbs
Organic valley butter 10.59
Organic valley chedder 8.29 8 oz
Applegate farms turkey breast organic 6.59
Kashi cinnamon harvest 7.99
Puffins 5.59
Woodstock organic frozen corn 3.89 10 oz
Morning star tofu crumbles 5.89 12 oz
Haagen dazs vanilla ice cream 5.49
Maui coffee co 100% kona ground 14.45 lb
Alba SPF 16 lotion 29.19 32 oz
Crest cavity protection 4.49 6.4 oz
Newmans own chix and brown rice dog food 3.59
Ecover dish soap 5.19 32oz
7th generation white flower 2x 12.49 50oz
Fish section does not smell fishy opah 17.99 lb
Ono 16.99 lb
Mahimahi 14.99 lb
Ahi 20.99
Organic valley 1% milk 7.49 1/2 gallon
Surfing goat dairy goat cheese (local) 12.99 4.4 oz
Parma 18.49 lb
The lady in the cheese dept just suggested looking on craigs list for jobs and rentals, so did our waiter at lunch.
Gunness 11.00 6 pack bottles
Cazadores reposado 35.99 750ml
Gascon malbec 2008 16.99
Costal range organic chix 5.29lb
Prosciutto di Parma 29.99lb
Jamon serrano 28.99lb







-- Post From My iPhone

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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