Wednesday Summary
We're in the home stretch of our trip (or the going-home stretch anyway) when Wednesday rolls around. Time for some last minute shopping, time in the sun and our evening at the luau as is part of our trip each year.

Last night was just a small dinner on the lanai, so breakfast this morning was a must. We ended up rolling out of bed a little later, but that was mostly because beach hopping yesterday was pretty exhausting. I wish we could get that much free time and fresh air back home, but we're just too busy (like everyone else we know).

It was a hot one on Wednesday, and the obversant Hawaii visitor would say that the temperature is always about the same anyway. So by "hot one", I really mean that the clouds were almost non-existent for most of the afternoon and there was only a light breeze. Perfect sun session weather for Cindy and a great chance for me to get some good shots of Ka'anapali Beach, the Sheraton and some of the folks along the water that day.

So, after breakfast, that's what we did. Cindy went down by the pool to make a few new friends and I grabbed my camera and started walking towards Whalers. I had a to get a few things for the folks at work anyway, so as I was walking, I stopped for various photo ops along the way.

After I was done shopping, mom and I went out to Lahaina to stop at Hilo Hattie again. It was only a short trip and we were back before long. Cindy, however, was still down by the pool so I cracked open the laptop and started workig with some of the photos we had taken up to this part of our trip. Already it was looking like I had a lot of work ahead of my when we get home to process, upload, update and print all of these shots. It just comes with the territory I guess.

The evening plans were the Ka'anapali Sunset Luau at the Sheraton Maui Resort. We always take in a luau on our trips, and even though we did the same one last year, we enjoy the fact that it's right there on the grounds of our resort and it has stunning views of the sunset, so no reason to switch.

The show, actually, was somewhat different from last year as well. I believe the MC was different (although Cindy says it's the same guy), but there were a few dances that we saw last year that weren't in the show this year, and one or two new ones that I hadn't recalled from the previous show, either. Also we were closer this year than in the past, so that made for some better photos (in most cases).

One of my hopes this year was to get better photos of the fire knife dancer, since I had seen so many good action shots on Flickr. I don't think mine came out that bad, however, it felt like his performance was a little shorter this year, so I didn't have as much time as I had hoped.

Last, but definitely not least, Cindy and I enjoyed a nice stroll along the beach later in the evening. Sounds like a broken record, I know, but the clouds kept half of the sky covered. Still, walking along the shore and watching the torches along the resorts and Black Rock, and listening to the waves crash the sand and tickle our feet, its still nice without all the stars.

Itinerary - Wednesday, April 23rd

• Breakfast buffet at the Sheraton
• Sitting at the pool
• Gift shopping at Whalers
• Shopping at Hilo Hattie (again)
• Ka'anapali Sunset Luau at the Sheraton
• Night stroll on the beach

Wednesday Timeline

10:34 AM HST

Eating a late breakfast

Slept in a little later than planned, but we were hungry because of our small dinner on the lanai the night before.

11:19 AM HST

Back in our room after breakfast (ate too much). Saw the new kittens that they have here now

Seeing that we were so hungry, a few of us ate a little too much (okay, it was probably just me).

On our way back, we stopped to look for the little black kittens Cindy and I spotted the night before. We had seen what we now know was the mother earlier in the trip, but hadn't seen them around in about a week. It turns out it was because she was having kittens, which were so tiny and so cute. They looked so hungry and people were leaving them scraps of food.

We had seen various cats on the grounds of the Sheraton over the years, but four new kittens might be too many as to where the resort might need to gather them up and bring them to a shelter.

11:54 AM HST

Walking to Whalers to do some souvenir shopping and taking some photos

I'm always torn on what to get the folks back at work as gifts from our trip. Since we're all working crazy long hours and way too stressed out, a little bottle of Ocean Vodka and a shot glass just seemed right.

1:08 PM HST

Back from shopping at Whalers. Boy, is the sun hot today.

The clouds were just staying away, so the sun was non-stop. If the sun was like this on Tuesday when we were beach hopping, we probably would have only lasted for two beaches.

1:32 PM HST

Finished blogging, going back to Lahaina and Hilo Hattie

Yup, more blogging. Mom and I headed out to Lahaina to go to Hilo Hattie to do an exchange. We were also looking for a few other gifts, but we didn't stay that long.

3:00 PM HST

Back from Lahaina

Back from Lahaina and Cindy was still at the pool. It's like she was in heaven.

3:13 PM HST

Starting up JetPhoto to work on a few photos from the Road to Hana and the corresponding GPS logs

JetPhoto was the software package that I used last year to merge my GPS logs with my photos to upload them to Flickr and have them show up on maps. I thought I would try and get a head start, just to make sure that all the photos and log data matched up. I later realized that there was an ugly bug in the software that messed up my dates on Flickr which I had to creatively fixed. Oh well.

3:16 PM HST

Also listening to 'Maui Hawaiian Superman' by Braddah IZ

We're big fans of Hawaiian music, especially IZ and HAPA. To that extent, we never come to the islands without our iPods and my travel speakers to fill our entire hotel room with the sounds of Aloha.

4:27 PM HST

Getting all pretty for the luau.

Cindy, finally back from the pool, was cleaning up and I was setting up for our annual photo. Each year, we'll wear our new Aloha wear to the luau and take photos in our room. I still haven't gotten the whole backlight thing figured out yet because I insist on having the view from our lanai in the background, but I'm still working on it.

We really liked the Aloha wear we found this year. It wasn't the type that some people thing of when they think Hawaiian shirt with wild colors and the same design that goes all the way around the entire outfit. It was more subtle and casual, and we were sold as soon as we say it.

8:20 PM HST

Back from the luau, nice show

The luau was nice. We had a better seat than last year, the show was a little different which was a nice touch, and I was able to get some nice photos. The sunset, of course, was always great and the food was nice. We probably didn't eat enough, but that's not a bad thing when you're on vacation.

8:57 PM HST

Walking on the beach under the stars (and mostly clouds)

We enjoyed a nice stroll out on the beach afterwards. The waves had been kind of rough the past few days, which gave the sand and beach kind of a different shape than a week earlier. Walking along the water was nice, and the water itself wasn't that cold.

It was two days before we had to leave, and we definitely didn't want to go back home.

Related Links

• Blog Post - Hot One on Maui
• Blog Post - Wednesday Night's Luau
• Whalers Village
• Ka'anapali Sunset Luau
• Photos - Ka'anapali Sunset Luau