Happy Aloha Friday

Well, it’s been over a year since the last entry in our Aloha Friday series, and although I’m likely not going to restart it again at this time, I thought adding at least one more would be nice.

As was customary at the time, I would post the Friday photo from my Maui photo day calendar, so why not go with that again, too. This shot taken back in February ’09 on our descent back down from the Haleakala Summit. Boy, that visit first to the summit was such a thrill. Anyway, this view from about 8,000 feet above sea level is pretty spectacular itself. We were very fortunate to have such clear skies that morning.

More Aloha Friday Photos

Sheila over at Go Visit Hawaii has been running an Aloha Friday series of her own, and just reached the 1 year milestone in the series. The cool thing about the GVH series is that readers like you get to submit the photos, so dust off those memory cards and send in your best.

To celebrate the 1 year mark, GVH is holding a contest for a very, very cool photo book featuring their best images from all of the Hawaiian islands. If you’re interested (and you should be) check out that link above to find out more. And hurry, the deadline is Tuesday, February 1st.

New Site Announcement: Daily Maui Photo

I’m also happy to announcement (belated) the official launch of the Daily Maui Photo website. The name pretty much speaks for itself, and you can read more of the details in the official post on my developer blog. I’m pretty excited about the possibilities that are in the works around this site and where things are heading towards in 2011. While this won’t be a replacement for the Ka’anapali Dreamin’ site, it will be a great place to get your Daily Dose of Aloha.

Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

All For Now

Well, that’s all from me for now. Have a good weekend everyone, and if you get a chance, try to catch Anuhea as she sings the anthem at the Pro Bowl on Sunday. We’ve been listening to Anuhea since May ’09 (scroll down to middle of post) and are pretty excited for her. It’s going to be great!

– Kris

Aloha Friday Everyone!

The last Friday before Xmas, and for me at least, before a full week off for the holiday. Sweet!

Back to task, I reluctantly woke up from a very vivid dream about Maui this morning, and it was too unreal. I know it’s been a long while since our last post here, but it certainly isn’t because our Aloha for Maui has faded. The holidays, among other things, have been monopolizing much of our time lately, but that’s not what you want to read about, you’re here to Talk Story about Maui.

Our Next Trip(s)?

Perhaps one of the reasons gorgeous visions of Maui popped into my dreams last night is that we’re thinking about fitting in our next trip early in ‘10. Originally, we wanted to return in February for a week as we did this year, as that seemed to be an amazing time to see the whales. Unfortunately, our budget window for that trip sort of came and passed, so now we’re thinking of something in March.

We’re almost certainly going ahead with our plans to return in August for the Maui Photo Festival after such an amazing time in September, so that throws our annual trip budget a little curveball. Originally, the plan was to spend the entire month of August on Maui (2 weeks vacation, 2 works telecommuting) as an initial test to see if the island lifestyle was indeed for us. That is certainly something we still want to do, but planning two trips for consecutive years is forcing us to consider additional sacrifices and savings on top of what we already do each year.

Change of Venue

While we are evaluating a trip in March, we’ve committed to mixing it up from what we’ve done in the past. As you’re able to tell, our previous trips have all been focused out of West Maui, more precisely our absolute favorite Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali. No question that is an amazing home base for two weeks in paradise, but the accommodations we indulge in there, while well worth it, aren’t the most budget friendly.

So, in order for us to squeeze in two trips (a total of 5 weeks, actually) this year, mix things up a little bit and get a different sense of the island, and be closer to some of our cool friends in South Maui, we’re going to be looking at condo rentals in Kihei this time around. We’re not entirely strangers to the condo rental idea ourselves, since that’s what we do when make our seasonal visits up to Door County, WI. It’s just that we haven’t done so yet on the Valley Isle up to this point, and as I’m just starting to scratch the surface, there are a ton of options out there.

When talking about an early trip in ‘10, I had initially wanted to return to Hana and spend at least one night there as we did in ‘09, but that might have to wait until August.   The good news is there is still so much exploring (and photos) that we have on our list just around South Maui itself that it would more than fill up an entire week. Take La Perouse Bay, for example, which my friend and Maui photographer Peter Liu (@PeterLiu47) has captured so beautifully at sunset on his blog.

Stay Tuned

Although we still haven’t finalized whether our March trip to Maui will happen or not, I still hope to have more details soon and maybe even an update to the site here and there depending on how ambitious I get next week. To say I’ve been spreading myself thin would be an understatement (just ask my wife), but just because I can’t update this blog as much as I’d like to doesn’t mean the Aloha spirit in my heart is not always with me.

Wishing for the best, I can’t wait to see all my awesome Maui friends in person again real soon.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Aloha Friday
A cloud covered Molokai as seen from a private area of the Sheraton Maui Resort.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 3 months since my last Aloha Friday post. I guess it goes to show just how busy of a summer it has been for me. Regardless, I’m still working on getting things a little more regular here.

This photo is an oldie but still a goodie. It’s taken from one of the viewing areas at the Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali. In fact, it’s only one of many great views you can find at the Sheraton.

More FollowFriday Coming Soon
I’m writing this a little unprepared today, so the return of Follow Friday (aka #FollowFriday on Twitter) will have to wait until next week. I’m excited, though, because I met so many great people at the Maui Photo Festival last month and have a great list of tweeps you’d be interested in following.

And speaking of the Maui Photo Festival, they’ve recently announced the dates for the 2nd annual event next year. If you couldn’t attend this year, or wasn’t sure what it was about, let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing. I still owe you details and photos from my MPF experience this year, and hoping to feature some of them this weekend over at Maui by Photo. In the meantime, find me as @MauiByPhoto on Twitter and ask away.

Back to the dates for next year’s event, block off August 25-29 on your calendars. Also, there will be a big push on preregistration starting in a few weeks, and great early bird deals to save money on your registration. Check out their site (and here) as more details are released.

Hope to see you there next year.

It’s sort of a silly compilation, and probably needs an epilepsy disclaimer, but I thought it was neat.

Shown here are 450 photos I took along the road to Hana this past February. None of this photos were edited other than removing all the portrait-composed shots (except for one I missed), so it’s not intended to be some lavish production. And of course, 45 seconds isn’t nearly enough to replace the experience of enjoy 2 days driving up and down the road to Hana in person, but that’s a no brainer.

Not Complete
If you’re an avid Hana fan like myself, you’ll probably notice there a ton of cool places missing. That’s because I only used photos from our last trip, which was our 3rd visit to Hana. As I mentioned during our vacation posts earlier in the year, we skipped many of the places we had seen before on previous vacations, so that’s why there are no photos of things like the Black Sand Beach or Ke’anae Peninsula.

Here’s the list of things you can spot if you’re quick enough.

• Twin Falls – Waterfalls on Flickr
• Honomanu Bay
• Three Bears Falls
• Hanawi Falls – Hanawi Falls on Maui by Photo
• Hana Bay – Hana Bay on Maui by Photo
• Hamoa Beach – Hamoa Beach on Maui by Photo
• Wailua Falls – Wailua Falls on Maui by Photo
• Hotel Hana-Maui – Hotel Hana-Maui on Flickr
• A Hana Sunrise
• Koki Beach – Koki Beach on Maui by Photo
• Alua Islet
• Oheo Gulch – Oheo Gulch on Maui by Photo
• Windsurfers at Hookipa Beach

Talk Story
Let me know what you guys think. I may play around and extend it out 90 seconds and slow down the photo rate, or maybe even go back and include photos from Hana visits passed. Keep in mind this was just a spur of the moment time of thing and not something I slaved over, so forgive some of the jerky frames, crooked horizons, etc.

Enjoy.
- Kris

Related Posts

• Chasing Waterfalls – Trip 4 Journal
• Flickr Group: Road to Hana
• Time Lapse – Maui Sunset

Aloha Friday
A lonely palm tree accompanied only by its own shadow.

Happy Aloha Friday everyone. When I originally named this photo with the description, I truly thought the tree was really it. Looking at it closer, through, there is obviously the lovely view of Molokai in the background. Also, you’ll see a young woman sitting on the rocks in the lower left hand corner. But, alas, that’s not all. Closer to the middle of the photo, just where the water starts, there’s a snorkeler swimming with a honu (turtle). Click the photo to view a larger version on Flickr and get a better view of the turtle.

Follow Friday
It’s been another full week since I’ve using Twitter regularly again, and it feels good to be back. Here are a few new tweeps for you to check out.

• @asafrommaui – Asa has been sharing some amazing photos of Maui via Twitter and his blog. Some really great stuff, check it out.
• @MauiGuidebook – Bio: “Long-time Maui resident, writing a guidebook!” Great website as well, and still a relative new account on Twitter. Say Aloha!
• @anuheajams – Maui singer/songwriter. I might have posted about her before, but certainly worth it. A very great sound.

And, of course, if you’re still new here, you can find me as @webnelly and also my new account @MauiByPhoto, promoting my website. If you wanna behind the scenes look at the new site, check out our fan page on Facebook.

Mahalo, and have a good weekend!
– Kris

Aloha Friday Photo
Vivid red rocks at the base of a cliff at Koki Beach.

This week’s Aloha Friday photo was also featured in on the Koki Beach post of my new website, Maui by Photo. As always, our Aloha Friday photo is taken from today’s photo in the Maui Daily Photo Calendar, so if you’re a fan of Maui, you might have seen this shot a few times already .

With the shameless self promotion out of the way, I remember being really surprised when we saw these rocks at Koki Beach on our visit to Hana earlier this year. We were there relatively early in the morning, so the beach was empty and the sun was hidden behind a ton of clouds. Made for a nice stroll and listening to the waves hit the beach was very memorable.

Follow Friday
Well, with the launch of my new site, and trying to get back into the full-time Aloha Spirit, I’m back into the Twitter groove again!  After a few weeks of skipping the Follow Friday part of the Aloha Friday post, here’s a few new folks to check out.

• @GrandWailea – The Twitter account for the gorgeous luxury resort in South Maui with the same name.
• @mauithing – Bio: “Maui Thing is a lifestyle company inspired by all “things good”on Maui”…
• @flickr – Okay, nothing to do with Maui, but I love Flickr and can’t wait until this Twitter account picks up
• @MauiPetTherapy – Dr. Shannon Dominguez from Friendly Tails – visiting up to 800 animals a month on Maui, including rescue animals
• @PeterLiu47 – fellow blogger, photographer, social media fan. Calls Maui home.
• @PacificWhale – new account for the Pacific Whale Foundation, although it’s still starting out

As always, you can find me on Twitter as @webnelly, and if you haven’t yet, help support my newest endeavor by following @MauiByPhoto.

Maui Tweetup – July 5th!!!
Wishing we could be there ourselves, @Ucsmiles and many other Maui tweeps are having a tweetup this Sunday, July 5th at Kalama Park in Kihei.  Details can be found at http://twtvite.com/lgxgwx and if you make it out there, pass on a big ALOHA from Cindy and I, and take lots of photos.

Everyone should at least get to attend one of these Maui tweetups, especially if you’ve been lucky enough to get to know them on Twitter. Read more about the tweetups we’ve been to and how this all got started.

Mahalo, and have a good holiday!
– Kris

Related Links

• Follow Friday Archives
• Sunday Photo: Maui Tweetup
• More Maui Tweetups
• Our visit to Koki Beach – Come on in, the water’s fine

Aloha Friday
An old version of the sign out front of Whalers Village.

Back today with another Aloha Friday photo after missing the last few weeks.  I like this photo, even though this sign has since replaced with a new one.  It’s a reminder that even though all of our past trips have essentially centered out of the same spot in Ka’anapali, there is something always new and different to discover at Whalers Village.  The second year we were there, they updated the sign and a few shops.  This past February, there were even bigger changes with the Rusty Harpoon moving out and the edition of Cindy’s favorite, Swarovski, near where Tiffany’s used to be.

Our Aloha Friday photo each week is from our Maui Photo Day Calendar. Visit www.mauiphotocal.com for more details on how to add a new Maui photo on your iGoogle page or your blog everyday, as well as how to subscribe via RSS.

In the News – Sheraton Working Giving Back
In addition to the Aloha Friday photo, I ran across this article in the Lahaina News this morning that I wanted to pass along:

School receives fresh coat of paint from Sheraton workers

You probably know by now that we’re fans of the Sheraton, so that’s one reason why it popped up on my radar (thanks to a Google News Search).  It’s just one of many touching examples of how people from all over the islands regularly show off their Aloha Spirit and give back to the communities around them. I posted a link to another story back in December about members of the Ka’anapali Beach Resort Association joined to participate in a holiday drive that raised 30,000 pounds of food for families in need. You may only hear about these stories every now and then, but you can rest assured that this type of community sharing and commitment can be found somewhere on the islands just about every week, however large or small.

Follow Friday
So, I’ve been sort of absent from the Twitter seen for the last two weeks now, only jumping back in earlier this week. I don’t have a full Follow Friday list like before, and I actually wanted to take a moment for a shameless plug of the new Maui site I’m working on.

So, I’m inviting you to follow @MauiByPhoto on Twitter and help me spread the word.  I’m targeting Monday for the initial launch of the new site, so be sure to look for an announcement soon.

As for the new site?  It’s going to be mainly a blog format, but with a few slight twists. Relatively small in the grand scheme of things, it’s primary goal is to highlight the beauty and magic of Maui through some of my best photos, and be a place where fellow Maui fans and residents can talk story about some of the best places, and their favorite memories, on the island.  It’s not a replacement for the site here or any other of the great Hawaii blogs out there, just a little place to stop along the way.

I’m pretty excited (and slightly nervous) about the concept, and here’s to hoping it’s well received.  Hoping to see you there.

Mahalo,
- Kris

Aloha Friday
A car stopped near a one-lane bridge along the road to Hana.

Our Aloha Friday photo each week is from our Maui Photo Day Calendar. Visit www.mauiphotocal.com for more details on how to add a new Maui photo on your iGoogle page or your blog everyday, as well as how to subscribe via RSS.

So Much Aloha in a Time of Need
Earlier this week, I posted an update on Twitter that Cindy and I had to rush out to Des Moines (from Chicago) for a family emergency.  Cindy’s younger sister, Jill, needed to have emergency heart surgery and actually had to be resuscitated twice on Tuesday during the entire ordeal (that morning and then again during pre-op).

It’s been a very difficult week to say the least. But the messages, prayers, and well wishes from my Twitter friends from Hawaii have been so supportive and heartfelt. There was so much Aloha from so many great people. I wanted to extended another huge Mahalo to @raatz, @AMauiBlog, @OahuAJ, @GoVisitHawaii, and @AngelaKeen for their thoughts and support, and to all the other friends and family members that have sent us messages, phone calls, and emails these passed few days.

Just a quick update, Jill remains in the Cardiac ICU unit at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, IA, in critical but stable condition.  She continues to make small improvements each day, and Wednesday night she was able to open her eyes and acknowledge that we were all there by her side.  Yesterday morning, Cindy and I got to meet the pastor at Jill’s church who drove down from Northern Iowa to see her. We said a pray with her and she knows she has God on her side, too.

Cindy and I had to return home late last night, but Jill is still on our minds and in our hearts. Her mom, husband, and his family will be back visiting her again tonight and staying over the weekend. Cindy and I are also trying to arrange another visit for the following weekend as well.  It’s going to be a long road, but we’re all confident that with her strength and everyone’s support, she’s going to pull through.

Thank you again, everyone.

- Kris

Aloha Friday
A sunset view of the coast of Kahekili beach in West Maui.

Our Aloha Friday photo each week is from our Maui Photo Day Calendar. Visit http://www.mauiphotocal.com for more details on how to add a new Maui photo on your iGoogle page or your blog everyday, as well as how to subscribe via RSS.

Be sure to check out the preview editions of our Aloha Friday photo in our new Archives.

Mahalo.

Aloha Friday
An outrigger crew out for a little morning exercise in West Maui.

Our Aloha Friday photo each week is from our Maui Photo Day Calendar. Visit http://www.mauiphotocal.com for more details on how to add a new Maui photo on your iGoogle page or your blog everyday, as well as how to subscribe via RSS.

Follow Friday on Twitter
Unfortunately, I’ve been mainly AWOL on Twitter this week, so I don’t have a list of tweeps to provide for Follow Friday. If you’re new to the blog, check out my most recent Aloha Friday posts for Follow Friday recommendations.