July 2019

We got up and went straight to Julia’s Best Banana Bread stand. Last time we were here we loved their bread, and we had to go back. The man at the stand told us he was going to show us “a trick and a treat.” The treat was banana bread samples.

The trick was that he yells “hup hup hup” and throws pieces of bread, which causes a mongoose feeding frenzy. One of our fellow customers at the stand had never seen a mongoose, and thought they were rats. The man at the stand explained that they’re “like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.” We bought two loaves of banana bread, some passionfruit lemonade, some passionfruit butter, and some dried mango slices with li hing mui powder. Then we headed for the blowhole.

We went a bit too far, and saw some beautiful places beyond the blowhole.

Our Jeep.

The wind at the blowhole is always incredible, and so are the views. We didn’t stay too long, having seen it before, but we were glad we went.


Next we went to Honolua Bay, where after a short hike through the forest we arrived...

...at the most amazing snorkeling location we’ve found. There were three diving boats in the bay, and lots of people snorkeling from the shore. We saw a lot of fish and, most amazingly, a small sea turtle! We’ve never snorkeled here without seeing a turtle.

We went back to our room and had lunch after snorkeling. We had our leftover musubi, chips, some Julia’s banana bread, and the passionfruit lemonade. After that we headed to Upcountry!


We stopped at Maui Wine for wine tasting and admiring the beautiful views from the cottage where King Kalakaua stayed. While there we had a nice conversation with a couple who had moved to Maui from Chicago, as well as an employee who was studying to become a teacher. Catherine recognized his surname as a Portuguese name, and he said his ancestors were from Madeira. We talked a bit with him and then headed back to Ka’anapali.

Some Upcountry Maui views. It looks a lot like the Azores, and in fact many of the Portuguese people who came to Hawaii seem to have settled in this area.

As we drove we talked to Catherine’s parents and got an update on Flora, who is doing very well and playing happily at their house like she does at ours.

On our way back we stopped at the Maui Pineapple Store in Lahaina. Catherine went in, and the cashier asked her if, in addition to the pineapples we were buying we would like some fresh cut pineapple. Catherine accepted the offer, and we ate this delicious pineapple. After that, we went to have dessert at our hotel.

Today we slept in to get on a decent schedule. We hadn’t slept much getting ready for our trip, so it was nice to rest. We had a breakfast of pineapple, tea, and some muffins. We went out with the objective of driving to La Perouse Bay on the Southwest side of the island. We went to a small restaurant called Ono Kau Kau to pick up some Spam musubi and then headed south. On our way we stopped in Kihei at Kihei Pet Supply. Daniel had read that they carried a particularly well-reviewed brand of elastic cat collars. We had a nice long talk with the employee there who gave us some useful advice, and ended up buying Flora a collar and tag as well as a new toy.


After that we drove to Big Beach, and had a picnic with the musubi. It was amazing. We each only had one so we can have the others for lunch another day.

We made it to La Perouse! It was a beautiful beach and an amazing lava landscape.

At La Perouse we met a family who was staying in Wailea. We had a nice conversation with them and they offered to take a picture of us. We recommended they try Julia’s banana bread and the Maui Gold plantation, and they recommended a place called Secret Beach which was near La Perouse.

When we got there, they were also just arriving. We both parked our jeeps and walked down the path into the most idyllic tropical island scene imaginable.
A truly amazing place. People started filtering in as we got closer to sunset. We took a few more pictures but left before the sun went down, to start getting on our way back to Ka’anapali in the light.

We took leave of our new friends as we both left for our respective lodgings.

We went to a beach near our hotel for the sunset and to wade into the water a little.

We went to the food truck court near our hotel and got some food. Catherine had the smoked meat from Sparky’s Food Truck and Daniel had the drunken rice from the Thai truck. We split the fries and pot stickers. Both meals were delicious.


We went for a swim in the pool and then to have dessert at the poolside restaurant. A wonderful first full day in Maui.

Daniel’s parents dropped us off at the San Jose airport, where security seemed especially tight (we all had to walk in twos by a dog, etc.) We got on the plane and began our journey to Maui.

We bought these delicious snack-packs on the plane. They really were good. We had them with the free drink that came with our “premium” economy: we chose Prosecco to toast our trip.

When we got to Maui we went and got our rental car. We had arranged to have a Jeep, but when we got to the counter they said we could pick whichever Jeep we wanted from the lot. There were three grey ones and one red one. Daniel guessed correctly that Catherine would choose the red one.

We drove to the food trucks near the airport, where we had hoped to go to the Thai food truck (Thai Mee Up). It was closed on Sundays, so we went to a different nearby place that we had planned to go to during our trip: Tasty Crust in Wailuku. It’s a wonderful, welcoming, and delicious restaurant that we highly recommend. Daniel got a waffle and Catherine got the banana pancakes. We split the linguiça, hash browns, and corn bread. Everything was wonderful and a great start to our time in Maui.

After our brunch we drove to Ka’anapali, where we are staying. We have a beautiful view of the ocean and the island of Lana’i, and our room is wonderful.

We went to mass at Maria Lanakila church in Lāhainā. It was a nice mass, and a beautiful church. Lanakila means “victorious,” and Maria Lanakila is thus “Our Lady of Victory.”

We looked at the graveyard next to the church and prayed for the people buried there. It was interesting seeing the mix of last names: Hawaiian, Portuguese, Italian, Filipino, and more. One grave belonged to a man who (assuming he was born in Hawaii) would have been born in an independent kingdom and died in a US State.

When we got back to our hotel we went swimming in the pool (while it rained) and then had dinner at the poolside bar/restaurant. Daniel had Maui onion soup and Catherine had kalua pork sliders. It was a delicious dinner and a great end to our first day in Maui.

One thing has changed since our last travel post: this June when Daniel was taking out the trash, he encountered a tiny kitten abandoned by her mother. We have named her Flora because she was hiding under a flower pot. In order to be able to go on our trip, we had to find proper accommodations for her. Thankfully, Catherine’s parents agreed to watch her. We set up these two tents as a home for her while she is there, and they also let her out for play time with supervision.

Catherine’s aunts and uncles were hosting a retirement party for her parents, so we went to the party and then went back to the house to get Flora settled. She seemed happily snuggled with her toys and ready for her “stay-cation” in Fresno. Then we drove to San Jose to begin our journey, and had dinner with a delicious dessert of pineapple pie, and a night of playing 500 with Daniel’s parents.