Trip Journal entry for Monday, September 14th, 2009
The first full day of our trip called for a little exploring and some familiar scenery.
One of the cool things about Maui is that even when you’re plans don’t work out, there are still some great memories to be made. Case in point for Monday was our drive north of Kapalua in search of the Nakalele Blowhole. Maybe a little bit of arrogance on my part, but we decided to just wing it drive up on our own without reading too much about where it was.
We never actually made it to the blowhole itself, although I could tell we were close. Instead, we did end up spending about 2.5 hours hiking, climbing, and taking photos of some breathtaking views from the sea cliffs in the area nearby.
Nice hair, eh?
It was a beautiful morning to be out there, and definitely something we’ll want to do again. With a little more preparation, that is.
Show Me The Turtles
Two weeks ago I shared an article about the new turtle hatchlings that arrived at the Maui Ocean Center courtesy of Sea Life Park on Oahu. Seeing that we love honu, we just had to check these guys out. They were too cute, for sure.
Well worth the stop. This little guy had his own tank, while the slightly old ones were taking over the Turtle Lagoon. Certainly much smaller than the ones we saw back in April of last year.
After that, we made our way into my favorite exhibit, the Open Ocean Exhibit. The timing couldn’t have been perfect because it was feeding time. We came in near the tail end, but there was a big group outside the shark tank and one of the naturalists holding a Q&A session with one of the divers in the tank. Very cool to see, if you get a chance.
Photos didn’t turn out that great (I didn’t bring my tripod in from the car), but I did shoot some video that I’ll hopefully get around to posting once we get back.
Before we left Ma’alaea, we took a quick stroll through the shops there and came across one of the 808 Clothing Company stores. We first found them last February during the Whale Day Festival and were going to try and find time for a trip down to their Kihei store, but this was much more convenient for us on our short trip. I really love the cool designs they have there, plus the fact that everything is made right there on Maui. You can’t get much better than that.
Going to Town
After the stop at the ocean center, it was time for our usual day one tradition. Yup, a stop at Cheeseburger in Paradise for a meal with a view.
Sure, it’s a tourist place right in the middle of Lahaina, but it’s been a regular stop of ours since we found them in Waikiki on our honeymoon quite a few years ago. We joke because we always have one of two waiters that we see there each time, and last night was no exception.
New Aloha Wear
While we couldn’t fit in a luau this trip, we were on the lookout for some new Aloha wear to bring home with us, another one of our traditions. Actually, this time it found us, as we spotted it in the window along one of the shops on Front Street. I’ll post a picture later in a week when we take our Aloha photo for this trip.
It was quite a busy first full day, with Tuesday shaping to be just as busy. And this is all before the 6am – 10pm activities begin on Thursday for the Maui Photo Festival. I’m going to be completely wiped out once this week is over. 
Mahalo,
– Kris
