Need to work on a packing list, we always start gathering stuff, and then laying it out, and THEN making verbal lists. And we always forget something. It’s not possible to overstate the importance of actually creating a personal packing list, and using it regularly. Such a list serves two principal purposes. First (and foremost), it’s a sort of contract you make with yourself, an agreement (and ongoing reminder) that if it’s not on your list, it shouldn’t be in your bag (because all the necessary items are on your list); this defends against last-minute attacks of “I might need…
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Today being our last full day on Maui (booooooooooo!! WAAAAAAAAH!!) we went for one last snorkel swim at the far end of the beach from the condo. I had been talking big like “Oh, let’s go to this place south of Ka’anapali” that I read about in the Snorkel Maui Lanai and Molokai Guide but in the end my relaxed attitude towards early rising this last week led to some pretty late starts. That’s okay, we’re still on vacation! Anyway, we got our gear out and went down the beach for what turned out to be a pretty enjoyable snorkel.…
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New restaurant in Kihei, open only three weeks, with three young owners. Great food, great prices, nice ambiance makes a change from all the slightly funky places in the same block. Wheelchair access ramp, indoor seating with air-conditioning, outdoor deck under a shady tree doubles the seating area. No liquor yet, but planning to open a new club/lounge section by April. WIN! Three’s Bar & Grill, a new Hawaiian Fusion restaurant, occupies the space of the former Bada Bing restaurant in Kihei’s Kalama Village. They serve up a fusion of Hawaiian, Southern, and Eastern cuisine with steak and seafood specialities.…
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UPDATE: Wow! This was a great luau! We’ve been to probably… 8 luaus, so we know a little about what to expect. Some are better than others – we went to one on the Big Island last year that was a disappointment, but so far every Maui luau we’ve been to has been a good experience. We’ve even been to the Wailea Maui Marriott’s show before, remembered chiefly for the mother/calf pair of whales that showed up close to shore doing the show. But tonight’s show, called “Honua’ula”, was one of the best we’ve ever enjoyed. Why? Because they do…
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Once again, I’ve let nearly the whole vacation slip by without keeping up with blogging about it – but this time, it’s now much easier to get photos uploaded to Flickr, which act as an informal timeline of our activities. Dinner at Five Palms was very, very nice – this time we sat outside. Missed the sunset, but enjoyed the ambiance anyway. Then on Saturday, we went to the Whale Day parade and took some photos, then met up with some Twitter acquaintances (although we got a late start and missed the beginning of the parade). It was pleasant to…
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I like Picasa, especially since a recent update means when you Save changes, it really Saves like you’d expect. But I also like Flickr, and the two don’t have drag-and-drop compatibility as far as I know. So I did a little searching for updates and found that I don’t have the latest version of the Flickr uploader, for one thing. While that downloads (slow connection while on vacation here in Maui), here’s a post from Lifehacker from a couple of years ago that offers a solution towards a more efficient workflow when dealing with lots of images. Perfect Your Picasa…
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…there’s more to it than simply scanning your menu as an image and throwing some HTML around it, Shaka Pizza! Plenty of Maui-based web designers could help you out! #shaka #pizza #kihei
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Every night at sunset, it’s traditional to blow a conch shell here at the Condo Called “Done Working.” I call it the Kihei Phillharmonic because everybody blows a different note, but they (mostly) are in harmony. Sounds like bunch of out-of-tune bassoons, but is not unpleasant. I don’t even know if conch shells are local – I think they’re actually imported from the Caribbean, or they’d be on all the trendy menu items here. Today’s activity was simple – head to Lahaina for a late brunch, which we had at the Pioneer Inn. Then we mooched around town taking pictures…
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… blew right by some whales because we were on a schedule with the Pacific Whale Foundation. Grr! It was pretty frustrating – nice day for a snorkel cruise, good conditions, nice boat (the Ocean Voyager) with Pacific Whale Foundation. But because we were on a “tight” schedule, our 7.5 hour trip consisted of motoring right past pods of whales. Which, perhaps due to our high rate of speed and high engine noise, generally dove as we approached rather than hanging around on the surface. I did get some decent shots that will be useful for identifying individuals – they’ll…
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We coffee’d up this morning and headed north with our cameras, as we decided the surf looked a bit high yet to snorkel off our beach. We noodled along in a relaxed way and drove as far as the Honokowai Valley, an area with one of the scariest roads EVAR. Normally, there’s a little school bus parked there at the top of the road, which acts as kind of a cue to stop and look over the one-lane road that goes down into the valley. But it wasn’t there today (maybe because it’s President’s Day, because I did see a…