I spent in time in Lahaina Town on Maui this last week. This is a small old-time whaling town that was originally the capital of Hawaii. This town is about 5 miles from the Papakea Resort where we were staying. It is so small that you have to get there early in the morning to find parking. There are several public parking lots, but you can only stay parked for 3 hours....though locals indicated there is no one to monitor that in town.
We ate some really good fish, did some serious Christmas shopping, and spent time looking at the art galleries. We actually brought home several pieces of art from this town. We booked a snorkeling tour to go to the neighboring island Lanai and a sunset pupu (snacks) cruise. These trips turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Maui definitely has a lot to offer, but the expense of living on Maui is outrageous. There were plenty of people camping at the beach "permanently." It is also hard to get on and off the island.
We also spent time up on Haleakala National Park, which is a volcano on Maui. It is a spectacular piece of federal real estate, giving one a sense of being in the clouds. We were also able to visit Hosmer's Grove, a botanical disaster of a bunch of tree species that are non-native. However, coming down to meet this grove is a native Ohia tree grove within a riparian area. We were able to see I'iwi, a bright red honeycreeper that migrates there when the Ohia trees begin to flower as they eat the nectar. They were too fast to photograph, but I included a picture from the interpretive sign to show you all how gorgeous they are.
We said goodbye to the beauty of Maui and flew home to Tucson. Both sunset and sunrise over Maui have similar colors...go figure. As we lifted off of Maui early in the morning, the sunrise was just beginning.
Meanwhile back home "Little R" our Winnebago Revel was in the shop for fixing that darn automatic door. It took them forever to figure out that the door just needed to be adjusted (somewhat like a normal door). We flew back into Tucson that last couple of days, to find out the house is still not being worked on. For those of you with simple mathematics-the engineer wants the contractor to put in 2*8 beams steel. The contractor does not have enough space to put that in the ceiling. He is suggesting 2*6 size. The engineer is suggesting 2*7 as a compromise, but they have to special order from Wisconsin for this, delaying the house renovation further. We compromised by putting in the 2*8 beams and "wrapping" the drywall around the extra one inch of beam. There is also an additional cost of 10K for this special order, so much discussion has taken place. We are in an Airbnb for the month and my partner is not happy about that either, but on the other hand I go with the glass being half full. This gives us additional time to explore Arizona during the cooler season. The hosts are terrific and very interesting. They live and play in their van for much of the year too.
My goal this month is to start to build some solid community around me in Tucson. I am realizing as I get older that this is so important. That social aspect of aging keeps your mind young. Keep tuned while I go about this. Today, I spent time with some lovely ladies making succulent arrangements. I really miss gardening in my home and this little gathering reduced my isolation in town and gave me a hit of gardening. It is funny, though I am enjoying being home, I am already planning the next trip with "Little R." We are going to explore camp hosting this next spring and summer for a large park or state park in Florida and/or Alaska. I am excited about this. It is one of my retirement dreams.
Welcome back to the mainland and the dry desert air. Your future blog entries are eagerly anticipated.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barney. We are hanging out in an Airbnb till the house gets finished next month. I think we will be taking the van down to Cactus Pipe National Monument at the end of the month. I hope are feeling better.
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