The Road to Hana

One of the must do things on Maui is the famous (or infamous) Road to Hana.  It is a twisty, turny 30 mile stretch of hairpin curves along one section of the coast.  At times it is right along the water and at times it wanders inland a bit.  There are pull-offs for scenic views and state parks, a few food stands, but no gas stations. Years ago it was considered treacherous and people could buy T-shirts that said, "I Survived the Road to Hanna".  You can still buy the shirts but the road now is well paved with guard rails and is quite safe, as long as you drive slowly and carefully.  It is still as twisty as before. There is a section where it turns into a one lane road, where rental car companies tell you not to go.  That is dangerous and we didn't do it, although we did do one section of another one lane road that was quite scary.  It was also hairpin curves and if a driver was coming in the opposite direction, someone had to back up.  There were no guard rails and on one side of the road were drops to the ocean below and the other side was a rock cliff. I know that I never could have driven it, but Claire, our fearless driver, did it with having to back up several times.  We all gave a huge sigh of relief at the end.  The views were spectacular, but most of the time we were too scared to look.

I must admit that this is another purloined post card.  It gives you some idea of the road.

One of the stops along the way was an arboretum.  I absolutely fell in love with this tree.  Here I am giving it a big hug.  Does that make me a tree hugger?

The official name is shown here, but most people call it the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree.

Isn't it amazing?  The thin bark peels off to reveal different colored bark beneath.  I think this is screaming to be used in a quilt somehow.  Imagine the fun I could have with it in Photoshop! I took a lot of pictures.

Here's that gorgeous orange flower again. I looked up "African Parrot Tree" and it doesn't look like this.  Does anyone know what it is?  As I said before there were whole hillsides of them, but there was never a place to pullover and take a picture.  There was a small pull-off where I was able to get this close-up shot.  I can't decide which I like better, the one with the ocean behind or the one with greenery.

Hawaii was formed by volcanoes and the evidence is everywhere.

This is a black sand beach.  Although parts of it were rocky, the sand itself was very fine.  There were three little boys who were rolling their wet bodies in it until they were completely covered.  I neglected to get a picture.  Shame on me!

Please come back tomorrow and I'll try to wrap this up.

DON'T DO IT!

Hawaii was beautiful with its many rocky cliffs, scenic lookouts and coral reefs.  But I've never seen so many dire warning signs to keep the visitors safe.  After awhile I started to find them amusing and took many pictures.  I especially liked the accompanying pictograms. Be sure to click on any of the pictures for a bigger view of all so you can read all the was to the bottom of the sign, where death by drowning is usually implied. I don't mean to be flippant and I know that the signs were meant to be serious and meant to keep people from harm, but I couldn't help having fun with them. If you do go to Hawaii, pay attention to the signs!!

I this home made sign was my favorite.

Maui

We left the beautiful island of Oahu to fly to Maui.  I took so many pictures, but I'll try to keep it down and wind this up in a few days.  I have other things to show you after my travelogue.

Even the planes are beautiful in Hawaii.


We loved our resort, Hanoa Kai.  Four of us shared a two bedroom suite and two had a one bedroom. We had a fully stocked kitchen with full size stainless steel Bosch appliances plus washer and dryer.
We had a spacious living, dining area, a large lanai balcony, two bathrooms. There was maid service every day, when they made the beds, cleaned the bathrooms, changed the towels, cleaned the rest and ran the dishwasher.  We ate breakfast in most days and some lunches and went out to dinner every night. Not a bad way to live.

This was just a small part of the beautiful marble floored lobby.

One part of the lobby opened out to the reflecting pond with large koi and a grass play area for the kids. You often saw little kids kicking a soccer ball or playing touch football. It was a great resort for families with kids.  Beyond that were several pools, each with a different style, and beyond that the ocean beach.

These large orange-flowered trees were everywhere.  On our Road to Hanna trip (more about that later) we saw whole hillsides of them and it was breathtaking.  Someone said they were African Parrot trees, but I'm not sure about that.

We took several drives in our rented car and beautiful scenery was everywhere you looked.

This sunset shot with the lit-up cruise ship was taken right from our beach.

One of our adventures was to take a whale watch cruise.

We saw a lot of whales, mothers and calves.  It was hard to get good shots with my camera, but those splashes you see are whales breaching or spouting. The whales will be around until mid-April when they start their long swim to Alaska where they will spend the summer. We often saw whales right from the resort beach.

This beautiful little girl was intent on getting a good view.

I wish I could say that I took this picture.  I would need a fabulously sophisticated camera with super lenses, as I'm sure this photographer had. I confess that I scanned it from a postcard, but this is what the whales were doing.  

Happy Easter

As my niece said, "It wouldn't be Easter without it being on Aunt Norma's blog".  So here again are shots from her sumptuous feast yesterday, beautifully decorated and artistically arrayed in her charming beach cottage home.

 She decorates the table differently each year.  If it were me, I'd probably do the same thing each year.  If it's a success one year, I'd just do it the same the next year, but she doesn't like to repeat herself. You can't see the centerpiece very well in this shot, but it is fresh tulips, alstromeria, and plastic eggs on picks in a clear glass ice bucket.

Even the children's table was decorated.

The appetizers were artfully arranged and oh, so good.

She also has a different menu each year.  This was the first course salad, consisting of fresh greens with her homemade reduced orange juice dressing with sliced strawberries, rolls of prosciutto, candied pecans and some special Italian cheese (forgot the name)  It was all delicious.

The main course was: salmon rosettes (made by her, of course) on poached pear/saffron puree, individual au-gratin potatoes, purple asparagus and sugar snap peas with a pancetta glaze and topped with pancetta.  It tasted as good as it looked. Dessert was: Roasted strawberry cheesecake, a Martha Stewart recipe made by Lauren (fabulous) and key lime pie made by me (pretty good, too).

Fake-out!  These were candy! Not on the dinner table.


We had two new babies to welcome this year, Lauren's grandchildren.  That makes them my sister's great-grandchildren and my great, great niece and nephew.

Here's Millie, in her beautiful Easter dress, just five weeks old and weighing 7 1/2 pounds, a petite cutie-pie.  I couldn't get over those tiny fingers.

 Leo, at three months, a chubby 13 1/2 pounds chewing on his tie. Check out those adorable panda cheeks.

Millie's big brother, Charlie at 20 months, ever the preppie one with his navy blazer, chinos, oxford cloth shirt with bow-tie, and boat shoes. He is such a cute little boy with an adorable personality, always happy and laughing and soooo busy.  I was so sorry to have not taken pictures of Leo's big, bother , Owen at five years old, another precious little boy and  sweet bigger brother Nico at 10 years old. It seems like they were always running around when my camera was out and hard to capture.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  Come back soon for more Hawaii pictures.

Honolulu. part 2

As I said yesterday the Hawaiian Village Hilton was quite a spread.  There were gardens, ponds, animals, and even a beautiful wedding chapel.

Koi were very popular in Hawaii and we saw them in several places, including a large pond at the hotel.  I saw stunning ceramic ones in gift shops, quite large (actually life size) and quite expensive.

There were several beautiful parrots, not caged or tethered, but they seemed perfectly content where they were and very willing to pose for a picture.

I never expected to see penguins, but there they were.  There was no sign telling the species, but obviously they liked the warm weather.

Tropical gardens were everywhere.

On a more serious note, we had to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial and the Arizona.

This was the plaque with the names of all the men who were killed on the ship that terrible day and whose bodies are still within the ship.

The monument was built right over the ship that still lays at the bottom of the sea.  It was a very moving experience.

And here we are with our bags ready to fly to Maui.  The sign we are all making with our hands is seen all over the islands.  It means "hang loose". Where else but in Hawaii can you wear a flower in your hair and not look ridiculous? 

Tomorrow is Easter and I'll be at my niece's again.  This time there will be two new babies to meet.  That will have to interrupt my travelogue, but I will get back with pictures from Maui next week.