Taken by Kris Nelson on February 24th, 2009
Location: Oheo Gulch at Haleakala National State Park

Lots of good stuff this week, but let’s start with the photo. The shot above one of the photos I got soaked for when visiting the Oheo Gulch earlier this year. Regardless of the fact that my cell phone never recovered and we had to take a pass on our hike to Waimoku Falls along the Pipiwai Trails, I’m still pretty happy with the way it came out.

I know I’ve already said this quite a few times now, but spending the night in Hana and being able to make it out to the park before the majority of the crowds was a great idea. Highly recommended if you’re able to fit it into your vacation schedule.

Two Weeks to Takeoff

Now, onto the countdown to our next Maui trip. We leave in just two weeks, and just because we finally wrapped up all the travel arrangements, it doesn’t mean it’s just smooth sailing from here on out.

I posted some of our initial Trip 5 ideas already, and now it’s time to start making those reservations. There’s also a few omissions that I left out. First of all, Cindy wants to go parasailing. Yup, something she hasn’t been able to try the last few trips because of whale season. Me, I plan on tagging along just to snap some neat photos, but don’t have any desire to take the plunge.

I also mentioned last week that we wanted to make it out to Baldwin Beach near Paia, which we passed up on on our way back from Hana in February. Well, we hope to make it more than just a trip to the beach, and thanks to a post from Liza at A Maui Blog, I’m inspired to plan a longer visit to Paia that day. Read her post on why she loves Paia town to see some of the things we’re going to look into.

Gearing Up

Not forgetting the primary reason for this trip is to attend the Maui Photo Festival, I still have quite a few things to do in order to prepare for all the learning and shooting I’m going to be doing. I started this list over at my photography blog, and so far the only item I can cross off is the new gear I ordered from Adorama. It should be arriving this week, just in time to test it out for a bit before we leave.

As for the other items on that list, I hope to cross more of them off today, or early this week. As you can tell, there isn’t much time left. But, as seriously as I want to start taking my photography, I really do need to make more time for it on top of everything else I do on a weekly basis.

Sunday Photo #75

Lastly, it seems like only yesterday I was talking about my first Maui photo as the 50th edition in my Sunday Photo Series. Well, as fast as this summer has zipped by, I’m already up to #75 with today’s post. I like the feeling that I’ve been able to share all my favorite photos with all of you over these past two years, and am excited that I still have so many to post and more future trips to Maui that will allow me to continue sharing the Aloha for years to come.

Here’s to another 75!

Mahalo and Aloha,
- Kris

I’ve been busy working on spreading the word of my new Maui website, and in the process I’ve been very active on Twitter and on Facebook. While going on that renewed social networking kick, I came across the Lahainaluna High School Foundation page on Facebook and connected with the creator of the page and a teacher at the school, Jeff. Their fan page currently has close to 300 members, and they are on a fan drive to reach 1,000 fans by the start of the school year. The fan drive is also geared towards raising awareness and donations for much needed renovations to their stadium.

Jeff invited me to take a look at their foundation’s website, as well as a video they put together on YouTube to help highlight their need for this new stadium. They also have a few planning and fundraising documents on their site, including reports on how far they’re come in their efforts so far, and sponsors and grants from local groups and corporations like Nike.

For those that might not know, Lahainaluna High School has a very long and storied history. It’s was founded all the way back in the 1830’s and is actually the oldest school in the country West of the Rocky Mountains. That’s over 175 years of history and heritage on the island of Maui. You can read more about the foundation, their mission statement, and Lahainaluna Pride at the website.

Help Spread the Aloha
Since our readers here are a nice mix of both frequent Maui visitors and island residents, I wanted to take the opportunity to help in their efforts to raise awareness of their need for a new stadium and for the foundation’s other goals. Seeing that a few of you are also social media savvy and have blogs like this one, I also invite you to share this with your own readers and followers alike, and see if we can help give them a little boost in their efforts.

As always, if you have your own Lahainaluna stories, don’t be shy. Talk story and share them here or on their Facebook page.

Mahalo,
- Kris

Over the weekend, another one of my favorite Hawaii bloggers, Liza from A Maui Blog, was featured on the new So Much More Hawaii site, which is put together by the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. The piece is a Q&A style with Liza and she offers some very nice insight into the what/who/why of her blog and her Aloha for Hawaii. Be sure to read the entire post and leave your own comments.

I think it’s pretty cool that the HVCB has taken to blogging and social media (@hawaiihta) to help spread the beauty of Hawaii. It’s also fitting that they choose to feature Liza and A Maui Blog because she herself has been a big advocate of social media Aloha with her blog, via Twitter as @AMauiBlog, and by taking it one step forward by adding the “in real life” connections via her Maui Tweetups. Cindy and I had the great pleasure of meeting Liza and a few other Maui tweeps on our visit to Maui last February, and it was such an awesome part of what turned out to be an amazing two weeks in paradise. Having met her in person, I can say that everything that Liza exudes on her blog and via Twitter is 100% completely genuine, which is a very admirable trait in my book, and one of the big reasons you should be reading her blog.

Left to Right: Dave (@raatz), Liza (@AMauiBlog), me (@webnelly) – not my best shaka.

Be sure to check out the full article with Liza over at the So Much More Hawaii blog. Also, I featured A Maui Blog in our Weekly Website series back in January, so take a read there to see more of why I really enjoy her blog. And of course, if you’re not already subscribing to A Maui Blog or following @AMauiBlog on Twitter, you’re missing out.

Way to go Liza, and keep up the great work!

Related Posts

• Share Some Aloha for GoVisitHawaii.com
• Weekly Website: A Maui Blog
• Sunday Photo: Maui Tweetup
• Whales and Tweeps
• Another Maui Tweetup
• More Maui Tweetups

Sure, you can buy postcards and posters of all the beautiful sights on Maui. You can also, like me, take a dozen memory cards full of photos yourself, capturing that same majesty of the Valley Isle forever. But when you can get that same surreal backdrop with both you and yours in the foreground, you have an instant memento. Now, do that almost 200 times over the course of an hour, and you’ll be able to fill a vacation album that will make your wedding album feel a little jealous.

The following post describes how this idea came to light for us, and details of just about everything that went into our little version of things. There are also notes about the wonderful photographer we hired for this, Natalie Brown, and some of the reasons why she helped make this experience so incredible. And of course, there are a few of our favorite photos from the shoot, too.

If you haven’t considered having vacation portraits taken while on vacation in Hawaii, I strongly urge you read the rest of this post. By sharing our experience, and how happy we were with the results and having such beautiful pictures of us in paradise, hopefully you’ll give it some serious consideration. If you have had vacation portraits taken, be sure to scope this out anyway and talk story with us at the end with thoughts and feedback from your experiences.

Introduction
Allow me to start with a short story. I really enjoy taking pictures of just about everything when we’re in Maui (I know, shocking). But for the literally thousands of shots I’ve taken, and the hundreds upon hundreds I’ve shared with family and friends, there are maybe two dozen or so that are of both Cindy and I together. For awhile there, it was sort of a joke that Cindy was vacationing without me because she was the only on in the photos.

So, last year as we toured the island with my mom and showed her all the wonderful reasons we love coming back to Maui each year, I noticed a portrait photography kiosk at Whalers Village in Ka’anapali. It was right along the beachwalk, so we must have passed it about a dozen times over the course of those two weeks. And although we didn’t stop at that particular booth, I kept the idea in the back of my mind as something I definitely wanted to do the following year. This February was that following year.

The Research
There are a lot of great posts already out there about how to find a wedding of portrait photographer for your Hawaii vacation, so I’m not going to re-invent that wheel. Sheila at GoVisitHawaii.com has a good one that I recommend to those interested in learning more about things to look for, what to ask, things like that.

My search actually started shortly after I signed up at the Hawaii Photography site and started sharing some of my own photos there. What I discovered was a lot of great Hawaii photographers sharing some of the most beautifully done couple and family portraits. That pretty much sealed the deal that we were going to do this. I followed a link from the HP site for the Maui Photographers Organization, which helped narrow my search down to two photographers: Natalie Brown and Karma Hill.

I considered them both as they each had wonderful portfolios and tons of experience. And it would have been a very difficult decision, had Karma not been planning to take a maternity leave at the time of our trip. Natalie it was!

The Preparation
After trading a few emails and a couple of phone calls with Natalie, we were booked for an hour-long sunset shoot at Keawakapu Beach down in South Maui. Most photographers recommend either early morning or sunset photo sessions (aka the “Golden Hours”) when there is enough natural light but not that glaring sunlight when the sun is directly overhead during most of the day. Anyway, just from talking with Natalie over the phone, I could tell she had a very cheerful and friendly personality, which really helped make the overall experience that much more enjoyable. More about that in a bit.

Our session was scheduled for Friday the 20th, which gave us an entire week to hunt for our portrait attire. It was kind of fun hopping from store to store looking for something we really liked, and by Wednesday, we were all set. The other part we were careful of was to not to get overly sunburned prior to the photo session. That was a tough one, because anyone that knows Cindy will tell you it’s very hard to keep her out of the sun, especially on Maui! Considering we landed on Sunday and had to wait the entire week before heading to the beach, Cindy was a real trooper about it.

The last part of our preparation was picking up fresh leis to wear for some of our photos, and also because we didn’t receive them while checking in at the Sheraton like we had received in the past. We found two beautiful, fragrant leis at Safeway (yes, Safeway) that we brought along with us. We were down at the beach about 45 minutes before our shoot started, so we walked around and enjoyed the incredible beach Natalie had recommended. I totally forgot the leis were in our tote bag. D’oh! It wasn’t until after we were back in the car and on the way to dinner that we realized we had forgotten to use them. Too funny, if you ask me.

The Photographer
The name Natalie Brown came up a lot during my initial research. I mentioned earlier that she has a profile on Hawaii Photography and the Maui Photographers Organization website, under both Weddings and Portraits. She is also featured on the new Art on Maui website, which I might add is a beautifully designed website. Based on all these samples of her work, and her own website, it became evident rather quickly that we were going to be getting some high quality photos that we would adore forever.

I noted that Cindy and I arrived about 45 minutes prior to our shoot, which gave us a chance to start walking off some of that nervous energy. After all, aside from our wedding and a view portraits on a cruise back in ‘07, we haven’t had a lot of exposure (pardon the pun) with getting professional photos taken. To this day, Cindy still reminds that our wedding photographer way back when was a little shady.

Even though we were nervous in the beginning, Natalie’s friendly and engaging personality made us feel very much at ease. She asked us a few questions on what we were looking for in terms of poses and shots, which we really hadn’t thought of up to that point. Natalie offered a few suggestions, explained the rest, and we were off and running. Before long, we were talking story about our trip and the island and sharing different ideas for photos and poses, and all those nerves were completely gone.

In fact, near the end of the hour when the sun was starting to set and the usual crowds began to gather on the beach, we noticed a few people watching us to see what all the camera flashes were about. Was it yet another celebrity couple vacationing in paradise, or the latest pair of Maui newlyweds? Or maybe they were watching that guy standing on his head doing beach yoga? (No, I’m not making that up.) Normally, all those eyes would have added some anxiety for us, but as you can see from the photos, we didn’t have a care in the world.

Natalie was a real pro, and not only could you tell she was really good at her job, but that she genuinely enjoys her work. Come to think of it, if I was a professional photographer, I’d have a hard time thinking of anywhere better than Maui to shoot. All told, it was an amazing experience, and one that was totally worth it. And thanks to Natalie, we have incredible photos to always remember it by.

The Photos
Okay, so if you’ve read the entire post up until now, a big Mahalo. If you’re just here to see the photos, that’s cool, too, but you don’t know what you’re missing (hint hint, scroll back up).

One short note. The reason I’m able to post these photos here are because (1) we purchased the duplication rights for all the photos Natalie took for us, and (2) I asked for Natalie’s permission to do so. Photos taken by professional photographers in these types of photo shoots are almost always still owned by the photographer unless arranged otherwise. Therefore, while I’m able to post these photos here, they are still owned by Natalie and I have to insist that you treat them as such. As an aspiring photographer myself, I wouldn’t want my photos to be stolen or otherwise misused without my permission, so please treat these the same way.

So, on to the pics.

Now, for that last photo, Natalie showed it to us on the LCD viewscreen right after she took it. She said the sunset and the sky in the background was so perfect, that people might think it’s just a fake backdrop. I totally agree, so it’s a good thing we have all these others to prove everything is real.

In all, we ended up with over 175 photos from the hour-long session with Natalie, 30 of which we ordered 4×6 prints for a little photo album. With that many great photos to have as keepsakes (or a brag book, if you will), I don’t know how the evening could have been more
amazing.

Talk Story
Mahalo for reading, and hopefully these notes from our experience has left you considering to have your own vacation portraits taken. While I tried to add a lot of different details here, I did have to leave some of the lesser things out, so if you have any questions or what to hear even more about our experience, hit me up and let me know. Leave a comment, shoot me a note on Twitter (@webnelly), or via the Contact Us page. Just like everything else Maui, I could talk story about this evening for hours on end.

Also, please share your own experiences or thoughts on having portraits taken on your Hawaii vacation. We’d love to hear how things turned out for your portraits.

Mahalo,
- Kris

Taken by Natalie Brown – www.nataliebrownphotography.com on Feb. 20th, 2009
Location: Keawakapu Beach, South Maui
Posted here with written permission from Natalie Brown

As mentioned last week, Cindy and I just received the DVD of all of the photos from our amazing vacation portrait session with island photographer Natalie Brown (www.nataliebrownphotography.com) back in February. Having our portraits taken on the most beautiful island in the world was such a magical idea, and have given us some of the greatest keepsakes from our Maui trips that we’ll probably ever have.

I’ll be writing more later this week about how this idea came about and why it’s such a great idea to look into if you love the islands as much as we do and you want to bring home such a personalized memento. In the meantime, you can check out more of our portraits in our Photo Gallery or view them as a Flickr Slideshow.

Mahalo and Aloha,
- Kris

Imagine, walking into the office on just an average, overcast, gray Tuesday morning in the month of April and seeing your regular padded cube turned into the tropical paradise below.

All that was missing was the sand and a few Mai Tai’s.

It was really only the beginning, though. Everyone in my department was dawning party leis and flowers in their hair (or for the hairless, just behind their ear). My boss even dawned his Hawaiian shirt for the occasion. Very festive.

Lunch with the gang was over at my favorite taste of the islands this side of the Mississippi, Kona Grill. Hey, I’m always up for a little Hawaiian pizza, even if it’s not from Nikki’s at Whalers Village.

As always, when the whole group goes out for lunch, it’s nothing but a blast. Cindy also tried to squeeze in time for a trip out to Kona to meet up with us lunch, but she ran out of time at the last minute.

All of us have been off doing mostly our own things for lunch this past winter (or at least I have), and we’re looking forward to kicking off some nicer weather tomorrow by resuming our lunchtime rollerblading sessions, with a few new faces this year.

Back at the office a little later in the afternoon, we were treated to a little homemade pineapple upside down cake (minus the rum). Homemade, as in my boss spent 2 hours making it the night before. A truly nice gesture to say the least.

A Big Mahalo
I wanted to extend a big Mahalo to the awesome ladies that put this all together (and yes, outsmarted me by pulling this off a few days early).

These three lovely wahines in their leis and flowers (and one more not pictured) were the masterminds behind the particular setup today and others like it in the past. They certainly do a great job of keeping things very fun and interesting on a daily basis, but most of all, they are always putting smiles on everyone’s faces in one way or another. And with the regular stress in our line of work, that’s no small feat.

Mahalo nui loa (thanks very much) to everyone who had a part in today’s activities and for the rest who played along. I do have one question, though. Where on earth did you ever get the sense that I liked Hawaii?

Bonus Note
Notice the desktop backgrounds on those two monitors on my desk in the first photo? Maybe you’ve seen them somewhere before? How about here and here.

The Old Lobby
The first place I’d like to share with you is where you can get a view of nearly half of Ka’anapali Beach, just like this one.

In fact, the view is so nice from up here, the Sheraton chose to put one of it’s live webcams at this very spot. Decades ago, back in the earlier days of the Sheraton, this area used to be the lobby of the hotel. We were told the Sheraton was once called the “upside-down hotel” because the lobby was all the way up on the top floor.

So here’s how to get there. When you’re down by the pool area (there are two of them) keep walking along the pathway towards the cliff by Black Rock. You should now see the recently renovated Black Rock Spa, at ground level, and you want to head to the left of that. You’ll be greeted by a Starwood representative at a big concierge desk and there are two elevators across from that. Take that up to the 8th floor and once you step out of the elevator, you’re right there.

Be sure to take a moment looking over the view to your left. You can see the beach, the pools, Black Rock, and even some of the mountains to the west. From there, you can also continue walking on the 8th floor where you’ll see a big open area (the old lobby). The giant open air windows that line this old lobby are just as spectacular, and have a few benches if you’d like to take in the view a little longer.

Pretty impressive so far, but we’re just getting started.

Scenic Lookout
Once you’re done looking out from the old lobby, the next stop is to find a little lesser know spot where I snapped this photo a few years back.

Keep walking through the 8th floor opposite from the elevators you arrived in. You’ll see more open air windows, another building in front of you (building six) out through that lookout, and yet another elevator that awaits you. If you’d rather get a little workout, take the stairs next to the elevator like we do.

The numbers are gonna play a little trick on you. You’re starting on the 8th floor, and you first go down to the 7th floor (which is the Fitness Center). After the 7th floor, you arrive at the 3rd floor. I know, it took us for a surprise at first, too. From this point, it starts looking like an entirely separate hotel, no view of the beach, fewer keiki running around, and even a reserved parking lot.

At the base of the elevator/stairs you came down from, there’s a long walkway that has a slight decline. Take that walkway until you set another elevator and a set of stairs on your left. Take the stairs down to what is the ground floor (also listed as the 2nd floor). You’ll have another walkway on your right this time that will lead you towards the parking lot. When you get to the end of the walk, you’ll see cars on your left and a sign that says “Scenic View” on your right. Unless you want to see the same Mustang convertible in 4 different colors, turn right.

Follow that short path (shown below) and you’ll find it turns into a circle walkway around a large tree and a sign with the story of Pu’u Keka’a (Black Rock).

And you’re there. One funny story about this view (the one of Lanai above), is that the tree on the right in the photo is no longer there. Maybe it took a day trip to another island.

An Ocean View
By now you’re probably satisfied with grabbing a few choice photos for the folks back home, but we’re not quite done yet. Take the stroll back down the path you came up here on. When you get to the walkway near the parking lot, hang a left and go back down that hallway towards the elevators. Continue on passed the elevators this time and make another left towards some of the rooms that have the best ocean views on this side of the island.

As you continue down this corridor, you’ll come across one open path on your right hand side that leads out to a lawn area. You can choose to take that one or keep walking all the way to the end of the corridor to find a similar exit. These both take you to the same lawn area. Once you’re on the lawn, it’s just you, a few well placed palm trees, the reef behind Black Rock, and a wide open view of the ocean.

Kahekili Beach
Well, I hope you still have room on that memory card of yours (or roll of film if that’s still your thing). One last stop while we’re on this side of the resort is a nice view of Kahekili Beach.

Retrace your steps back towards the elevator and that makeshift Ford Mustang dealership in the parking lot (sorry, I couldn’t resist). This time, walk into the parking lot th
rough the first set of cars on either side and following the driveway to the left when it starts to curve. Obviously watch out for hotel golf carts and cars. Follow the driveway and you’ll soon see Kahekili Beach through the trees.

There’s a few good spots to sneak through the foliage and grab a shot or two of the beach and the private cabana at the Maui Eldorado. If you’re brave and able, there’s a very small ledge area on the rocks, next to the sign that warns “No Diving”. We’ve seen a few people taking photos from that area (okay, I was one of them), and I’m only mentioning it because you probably would have seen it anyway.

Not Too Bad, Eh?
Depending on how long you stopped to enjoy these great views, you’ve probably killed close to a half hour by now, and might even be a little lost on how to get back. Or maybe you want to keep heading down that driveway towards Kahekili Beach for more photos. If not, you have two options on how to get back to the main resort area.

First, you can retrace your steps back through the parking lot. Once you get back to the building, hop in the elevator (or stairs) to the 3rd floor. It’s a right towards the walkway (on an incline this time) that will lead to the next elevator/stairs combo. That one goes only one way, up. Take that to the 8th floor and you’re back in the old lobby. Follow that to yet another elevator (by the first lookout point mentioned here) and that one will take you all the way back to the first floor and the lawn and pool area.

The second option is to just continue down the driveway out of the parking lot, passed the entry gates. Continue down the hill and you’ll see another parking lot and the tennis courts on the right. Follow the signs through there and you’ll make your way back to the lawn area right next to the Black Rock Spa. This is the preferred method if you’re tired of riding in elevators by now.

The Best Views
While these views are pretty amazing, the absolute best views, in our opinion, are from the deluxe ocean front rooms in the Hale O Ka Moana building, also known as building six. Imagine waking up every morning and walking out to a lanai with a view like this one.

Certainly something you could used to, right? I’ll save notes on those for another post.

Mahalo.

Taken by Kris Nelson on February 20th, 2009
Location: Iao Valley State Park, Maui
View Larger Version

Of all of my photos from our last trip that I’ve been able to sit down and go through (about half so far), this is my absolute favorite, hands down. It was taken along one of the hiking trails at the Iao Valley State Park, and is a shot of the stream down below of the Iao Needle that most people come to visit.

The legend behind the Iao Needle is one of romantic tragedy, and the areas surrounding it are said to have a more magical, romantic aura it. Not scientific, of course, but I will say that while we were hiking through the trails (both marked and unmarked), there certainly was something more magical, more intimate about what we were seeing.

Taking this photo in particular, for example, was pure magic. We were completely surrounded by tree cover, and the sound of the rushing stream practically echoed in your head, if not actually echoed out loud. The rocks in the water were so welcoming, and I managed to find one large enough for me and my camera, and safe enough from the water, to take a few shots like this one.

We were viewing a part of the island that had been mostly untouched for centuries, and aside from the 3-pound piece of 21st century technology I had in my hands, it felt like we were viewing the stream the same way the ancient Hawaiians had seen it themselves so long ago. That was pure magic.

If you like this photo, you can see more in our Sunday Photos series here at the blog. Our website also features daily photos on the Today’s Photos page, and you can also get a new photo from Maui everyday on your Google home page.  Check out our Maui Photo Day Calendar for more details.

Picture Worth a Thousand Stars

Allow me to start with one of my favorite (and luckiest) photos on this week’s topic, Stargazing.

Those familiar with the Ka’anapali area might recognize that as Black Rock, and the astronomers in the house are calling out the Milky Way on the left. And for good measure, that bright object right in the center there is not a star, but the planet Jupiter.

I’ve touched on the topic of stargazing on Maui in various parts here and there over the last year or so, so the regular readers have heard this story before. We, like a fair number of people who visit Hawaii, come from a highly populated area where night skies full of stars of this magnitude aren’t readily available. When we came out to Maui for the first time, it totally blew us away, and quickly became one of the top must-do things on each of our trips.

The Tradition

The tradition we have of stargazing really started from our after dinner strolls on the beach, especially walking off some Hula Pie. By the third day of our first trip so long ago, it became it’s own activity outright. While the views from our lanai at the Sheraton were nice for watching the skies at night, we couldn’t think of anything better than heading down to the beach and watching the stars from there and listening to the waves at the same time. Ahhhh.

To our surprise, there wasn’t a lot of activity down by the water at that time of night. Since sunset is typically about 5:45pm-6:45pm depending on the time of year, it’s already nice and dark by around 8-9pm when the stars come out. Where was everyone? Still out having dinner or enjoying the nightlife in Lahaina? Too much sunshine and fresh air putting folks to sleep way too early (we’ve been there)?  In any case, having the entire beach practically to ourselves made us feel like the only ones on the planet. Not to mention the enormous number of stars in the skies making our planet seem that much less significant as well.

The Geek in Me

I do admit that I was always fascinated with space and astronomy growing up, but perhaps of where we lived, it never became a big part of my life. It could very well be that deprivation that makes me feel so excited now that I’m all grown up. As amazing and prevalent as the stars above are on a moonless sky over the island of Maui, I of course needed to take it to the next level and get myself all geeked out.

So, in later trips, our tradition went from after dinner strolls watching the skies, to just the two of us laying on the beach admiring the heavens, to me filling up half a carry-on bag with all sorts of toys. How could I resist?

At first, it was just the tripod, my DSLR camera and a book or two about how to take photos of the stars (also known as astrophotography). That worked out pretty well, and I had a blast doing it. I soon encountered a little unexpected deja vu. You see, on our first trip, we took a guided tour along the Road to Hana and came back with some really great photos. The problem was, when all was said and done, I couldn’t tell where half the photos were taken.

So, for the next trip to Hana, I brought along a GPS Travel Recorder that logged the locations of the photos on our second trip to Hana, and all was well. Similarly, I now had all these photos of the night sky over Maui, and I had know way of identifying most of the stars in the sky. Luckily, this really, really cool guy on Flickr, mattie_shoes, had a similar photo as mine (the one at the start of this post) and was awesome enough to identify what I was looking at.

For the next trip, I was a little more prepared. I found this really cool software app for my smartphone called Pocket Stars, that would use the built-in GPS on my phone to show me the exact sky map of what I was looking at while we were out stargazing. How cool was that! Total geek heaven.

Even More Toys

Now, most people would probably just stop there. Not me, though. When we were visiting Maui in April for our first chance at seeing the whales, I started looking into binoculars to bring with us. I soon discovered that binoculars were also popular for stargazing (which was news to me) and I would up with a Celestron Binoculars that not only gave us amazing views of the whales off in the distance, but also served double duty for bringing the stars and galaxies in the sky even closer. Granted, these binoculars are HUGE and weigh in close to 6 pounds. They aren’t the easiest to travel with, and were really tiring to use at first, but they’re so cool.

Fortunately, that pretty much wrapped up my little techie shopping spree for stargazing on Maui, at least for now.

Other Options

Just to reiterate, you don’t have to geek out like me to enjoy the stars over Maui. At the very least, all you need is your own two eyes and a clear night. If you’re looking for some additional help or even a tour or two, check out these links below.

• Star book – The Sky Tonight. This star guidebook featuring details and sky maps specifically made for Hawaii’s location (21° N latitude).  We picked up a copy a few years ago at the Borders Express in Whalers Village, which unfortunately is now closed.  Checkout Barnes and Noble in the Lahaina Gateway for a copy, and you can use postal code 96761 to see if they have a copy in stock.
• Tour of the Stars – Hyatt Maui Regency.  If staying in the area, why not head over to the Hyatt to see one of there guided tours of the night skies.  They have multiple time slots per night, a powerful telescope and a onsite astronomer to lead the stargazing.
• Guided Tour – Star Gazers Maui. Don’t want to worry about clouds ruining your stargazing activities?  Simple, just drive up to Haleakala 10,000ft above sea level.  That ought to do it. Star Gazers Maui is a guided tour option that will meet you up there and aims to give you the ultimate stargazing experience. They supply hot chocalate, down jackets, a telescope and enough knowledge to keep you entertained for hours.
• Stargazing Q&A – GoVisitHawaii.com.  Sheila over at Go Visit Hawaii recently shared a Q&A session on stargazing in Hawaii with Becky Sydney, the president of the Maui Astronomy Club. It offers great insight into stargazing when visiting Hawaii, including some of Becky’s favorite astronomy links (be sure to check them out).  If you’re interested in the Maui Astronomy Club or other clubs across the islands, I found this little directory for more info.
• Astrophotography books.  If you want to try and capture photos of the stars like I do (or better), you can also pick up a few books on astrophotography or search the many resources online on the topic.  I’ve listed the two books I really liked over on my photography website.
• Flickr Group – Stars Over Hawaii.  There is also a small Flickr group for sharing star photos that were taken from the amazing location that is Hawaii. You can check out photos there as well as add your own if you’re on Flickr.
• Flickr Group – Astrometry.  This has to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on Flickr.  The folks behind this group (from Astrometry.net) have leveraged their massive database of star photographs and data, as well as the Flickr API to automatically identify different stars and galaxies in your photos.  Check out this blog post for more geeky details.

Talk Story

Have any good stargazing stories or tips?  Maybe you have some great star photos of your own. I’d love to hear from you, and if you’re looking for more photos like the ones I posted here, you can find them in our Stars over Maui photo album.

Mahalo.

Our last full day on the island this trip, spending it in Lahaina during the morning and with HAPA at night.

More Whale Watching
We were out the door early on Friday, our last full day on the island. The morning called for an 8:30am whale watch with the Pacific Whale Foundation, so we had to be in town by 7:45am for check-in. It was the first time we had been around Front Street that early in the day, as things were still opening up and the pedestrian and auto traffic were down to a minimum. While it made perfect sense to be so quiet at that hour of the day, we never really pictured the bustling shopping areas as being so vacant.

The 8:30am whale watch was a late addition to our trip plans that we had scheduled earlier in the week. Seeing that it would give us more time in the afternoon over say a 11:30am or a 1:30pm excursion, it was worth the early start. As we were aboard and heading out of the harbor, the 6:30am whale watch was heading back in. Now, that would have been way too early for us.

I referred to our surprise about the lack of crowds on Front Street that morning, so too was the activity around the slips in the harbor. We had some time to spare before boarding and decided to walk along the boardwalk at the pier. As we walked, I snapped a photo or two of the boats docked in their slips, waiting peacefully for the day’s passengers.

As for the whales, we were fortunate to see a ton more activity that morning than we had seen on past tours. Of course, the golden rule of whale watching applied: “whichever side of the boat me and my camera were on, all the action was on the other side”. It was okay, though, as just being out on the water again and sharing the thrill of these amazing creatures being so close was more rewarding than any photos I could have taken. We were glad we chose to sacrifice a morning of sleeping late for this last whale watch.

Lunch at BJ’s Chicago Pizzeria
We were back on land and walking around Lahaina by around 11am. Seeing that we skipped out on breakfast, both because of the early departure and the fact we haven’t had enough sea experience to adjust to the motion of the ocean, we were seeking out an early lunch. Seeing as I’m always game for some Hawaiian pizza and we’ve been to BJ’s on our previous trips, it seemed like a no-brainer.

From the upstairs dining area, we were able to take our time and enjoy our meal at a slow pace. Down below, foot traffic was starting to pick up in town as well as boats out on the water near the harbor. The trees along Front Street obstruct some of the harbor views from BJ’s, but it’s still a nice lookout spot. After lunch and a little more walking, we headed back to the resort.

A Lazy Afternoon
Back at the resort, it was mostly a lazy afternoon. It’s always tough that last day or two when the feelings start to sink in that you’ll be leaving soon. Even though we had done so many new things and created a huge amount of amazing memories from the last two weeks, it was little consolation to the thought of going back home.

We started packing a little bit, spent some time out on the lanai, and went ahead and did the online check-in for our flights home (via United). As I try to do on our flights to Maui, I check-in online as soon as they let you (24 hours in advance) to upgrade our seats to the better Economy Plus sections. Once most of all that was done, it was time to get ready for our concert out at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. This year, just as on our last trip, we were going to see HAPA at the Castle Theatre.

A Night at the MACC
Since we had seen HAPA at the MACC last year, we were a little more savvy about the courtyard festivities prior to the show. Rather than trying to find dinner in Kahului before hand, we showed up early to dine there instead. It turns out we were early, but not early enough to avoid a good 30 minute wait in line for food. It was still okay, though, since we were still on Hawaii time (aka in no real hurry) for one more day.

Our seats for this show were almost the same spot as we had the previous year. It was a lovely evening, although there were a few more on-stage antics this year with one of the special guests HAPA had invited. There was still magic in the air and the result was another reminder of why we’re such a big fan of their music and why their popularity on the islands has stayed so strong over the years.

The drive back to the resort at night was stunning as usual. It’s a rather different drive along Hwy 30 at night than it is during the day, since there are no street lights and, this time around, only a sliver of moon hung in the sky. The seemingly constant stream of headlights from oncoming traffic was more than enough to light the way along the turns in the road, but what was more beautiful is looking out over the water in the darkness.

Grant it, my eyes were focused mainly on the road ahead and Cindy was the one enjoying the view, but at certain points near Maalea, you could see lights from Kihei across the water, almost as if the town was floating in the sky. Had we more time to spend and me all my camera gear, it would have been nice to stop at the Papawai Lookout and taken a few keepsake photos of the view that night.

The Final Night’s Sleep
There really wasn’t too much left to do by the time made it back to the resort. Most of everything was packed already, and we knew that no sooner did we fall asleep, it would be daybreak already and time to head home. We were trying out a different travel plan on the way home, taking off at 2:30pm instead of the red-eye back, so that meant even less time to spend making our way back to the airport.

Despite our impending departure, we still slept rather soundly knowing very well that we were already planning are latest return visit to Maui.