2012-5-28 PDX-HNL-OGG and Maui Hill Resort:

2012-5-28 PDX-HNL-OGG and Maui Hill Resort:

The day finally came and I was on my way to PDX.  My sister, Carolyn, picked me up and we headed back to Dallas, Oregon, for a couple days.  Then we spent the night before our Maui flight in a hotel by the airport.  On the 28th (Memorial Day), we were on our way bright and early (to me!) to catch our 10:30 flight to OGG.  Since Ken and I usually travel to Hawaii from STL all in one day with a couple stops and long layovers, this travel day seemed to go fairly quickly.  Only long part was the 2 1/2 hour layover in Honolulu.  Originally we were suppose to fly non-stop to Maui---one of the big reasons why we picked Maui over Kauai, but Hawaiian decided to eliminate that flight and keep an extra 8000 of my miles that I used to book the non-stop instead of a connector flight---I was not too happy about that, but Hawaiian didn't care!  The only good things about it were the views of Honolulu and Maui county as we flew over them.
 Not sure what part of Oahu this is, but there looks to be some great snorkeling there!

    This is Waikiki Beach.

 Diamond Head

 Olowalu on Maui, close to mile mark 14, on Hwy 30.  Great looking reef there, too!

 windmills on the north mountains of Maui.

 Finally arrived in OGG about 4pm (7pm Pacific Standard Time) and Carolyn headed off to get our rental car.  Carolyn had reserved it, so she got to be my chauffeur for the week.  I did bring a Garmin, which came in very handy!  Soon we were on our way from the airport.  First stop---Walmart---since it was on our way to the condo.
Check in at Maui Hill was a breeze.  It is in the more residential and "affordable" town of Kihei on the dry southern part of the island.  Even though I knew it wasn't too close to the ocean, we did get a bit of an ocean view.  Our 2 bedroom condo was very nice.  It even had an unlocked "owner's" closet with beach chairs, snorkel gear (although I brought my own), and other "toys".  It was also nice having air conditioners in the living room as well as each bedroom.  The kitchen was small, but adequate. 

pool by the office.  Love the sitting area under the big, flat topped tree!

View from our unit

I spent many mornings on the large lanai waiting for Carolyn to get up.

The large livingroom with an odd empty space behind the couch table.

 from the far end of the livingroom looking towards the dining room (entrance door to the right of the dining room), small kitchen all the way back, the bedrooms out of view to the left.

 the 2nd bedroom.

 master bedroom with en suite bathroom.

 Some views while walking around the resort.

 Usually I'm in Hawaii in Jan. or Feb., so it was a pleasant change seeing even more flowers and greenery---especially all the colorful fragrant plumeria.

 and all the flowering trees.

 and bushes

 and ground flowers

 The resort is large and has lots of beautifully landscaped areas and wide open lawn areas.

 We even used the bar b q pits by our unit one night.

 practice putting area.

 even shuffle board

 and a path that led down to Kihei Rd. by the ocean.

 more views along the border of the property.

 lots of bougainvillea, too. 

 and the Hawaiian State flower---the yellow Hibiscus.

 some beautiful plumeria next to our unit.

  I would definitely stay here again.

2012 Kauai-Schneiderjans trip

 2012 Kauai---Feb. 16-March 2 (Schneide trip): Na' Anina Kai garden; Just Live Zip line tour; Smith's luau; Coffee plantation; Waimea canyon; Polihale;

Finally, another year has flown by and we are in Kauai again!  This makes Kauai trip # 11 for us.   For 1 of our 2+ weeks we are excited to have good friends Coni and John Schneiderjans join us. It was their first time to Hawaii, so we were anxious to show off "our" Hawaii!

Feb. 16, 2012:  Travel day from St. Louis

Feb. 17, 2012 : Lydgate

Feb. 18, 2012: East side and Lawai

Feb. 19, 2012:  East side and Poipu

Feb. 20, 2012: Anini

Feb. 21, 2012: Lydgate, then to the airport to pick up the Schneides

 Feb. 22, 2012: kee, Kilauea Lighthouse, Hanalei

Feb. 23, 2012: Kilauea, Na 'aina Kai sculpture garden, Anini

Feb. 24, 2012: Just Live Zip Line, Smith's Luau

Feb. 25, 2012: Sicker then a dog today!

Feb. 26, 2012: South Kauai, Kauai Coffee Plantation

Feb. 27, 2012:  Waimea Canyon, Polihale, Poipu

Feb. 28, 2012: Anini

Feb. 29, 2012---Leap day! Tunnels and Kee

March 1, 2012: Tunnels, again

March 2, 2012:  Lawai and Poipu

We had an interesting time at the Lihue airport, too.  Between the time we checked in and printed our boarding passes and the time we got to the airport, they changed the type of plane they were bringing in and everyone's seats were reassigned---and mostly not together.  

  Another great Kauai vacation!  Loved sharing it with friends.  Can't wait to come back!

March 2, 2012:  Lawai and Poipu

And another Kauai vacation is about to come to an end!  Time goes by so quickly these days!!!  At least it ended with some sunshine!  To help insure that, we headed south.   On our way, I made DH detour a bit in Lihue (or Puhi---or whatever it is) so I could get a picture of this driveway.  We need a new driveway!  I think this would be perfect in St. Louis!  And the original owners would probably never know I stole their idea!!!

After the little detour, we continued south.   I've read lots of rave reviews about Joe's on the Green, so decided we should finally try it. 

 To describe it in one word----Wow!!!!!  I can't believe we waited 11 years to go here!!!!  Being on the golf course, I expected the views to be awesome, but I didn't realize you actually ate outside.  I also wondered if they had a dress code, but they let us in with our swimsuits and coverups and others were dressed pretty much the same.

 Prices seemed reasonable, too.  Maybe even a bit less expensive then our meals at Olympic Cafe!  The lunch menu looked really good, too.  Will definately be going back here!

On our way out, we said good bye to this little guy.

 Then we turned and saw this one!  Never saw a brown one here on Kauai before.

 It was time to get our last snorkeling fix for a LONG time.  So we headed to Lawai.  Note---we actually got to use the sun umbrella we borrowed!  This was the first time we had a chance to use it!

 OK---I like palm trees, and triggerfish!  Since I included the ones from Tunnels, I have to include this black triggerfish from Lawai.  Lawai is still the only place I've seen these guys.  Only saw one this trip.  I hope they aren't being fished out!

Also came across this guy.  I imagine it's a type of bleney, but I've never seen one like this before .  There were actually several of them on the dead coralhead right by the shoreline.  (strasburg's Blenny?)

After spending about 3 hours here, we decided to go throw our lei flowers in the water at the small boat harbor.  So far the flowers have always come back to shore, so that means we keep coming back!

 Even saw several fish in the water---made me wonder what it would be like to snorkel there?!  I imagine it's probably against some law, though.

 I know it hadn't been that long since breakfast, but we were thirsty.  So off to Bubba's.  Of course, we had to eat, too.  I even had a chili dog---it was very good. 

 I couldn't help but notice this sign!  I think it applies to me!!!!

 Then we headed off to Poipu beach.  Found some interesting birds (Hawaiian Stilt or Ae'o) enjoying the new Poipu lake (x-Poipu beach parking lot!)

Once we put all our stuff on the beach and headed out to snorkel, we first tried the area by the lifeguard stand again.  Again there were hardly any fish there.  Did see this in that area---a wierd sea cucumber, I presume (Light-spotted sea cucumber?).

We didn't hang out in that area very long before heading over to the other side of the tombula.  There were lots of fish there.  But you sure could tell the difference in the clarity of the water after being at Tunnels the last 2 days!  Visibility was at best "fair".

 But there were a lot of species of fish and we stayed entertained for quite awhile.

 About 5:30, Ken was itching to leave.  Had to get back to the east side and get ready for our midnight flight.  So one last picture of Koloa as we headed out.

 And another picture of green stuff!!!  Don't know when we'll see that again!  I'm sure nothing's green in the midwest yet! 

Now on to packing!  Can't believe our time is up already!

March 1, 2012: Tunnels, again

The weather forecast wasn't too promising for today, either, but I was pleasantly surprised when I looked outside and saw shadows!

 No McDonald's today.  Instead we had breakfast in our condo----eggs, toasts, and spam.  Yep, we actually like Spam!  After breakfast, I spent a little time on the internet checking out the forecasts again.  The surf was suppose to be even lower then yesterday up north, so even though I had planned on spending our last 2 days south, we headed north one last time.

On our way north, we stopped at Banana Joe's for a smoothie.  I was disappointed that they were out of them and it wasn't even noon.  This is the 2nd time we've stopped and they've been out. 

 While we were there, I went over and checked out the putt-putt golf course landscaping.  It has matured a lot since last year!  It looks great.  I was happy to see quite a few people there playing miniature golf.  I hope it does really well.

 We've been marvelling at these flat-topped trees that we've been seeing all over the place.  I wonder what they are.  (was told they're fast growing weak Albizia trees.) These ones are behind the putt putt course.

 As we were about to leave, I noticed this bunch of bananas growing in the putt putt area.  Hope they don't go to waste.

 In the early afternoon we finally reached tunnels.  It wasn't suppose to be low tide for about 3 more hours, but it sure was low already! 

 It was also very calm.  More like a lake then an ocean!  And the sun was even shining!  Weather.com was wrong again!---this time in a good way.

 We snorkeled Tunnels for almost 4 hours.  It was a very busy day there.  There were so many people swimming in the deep water that I even ventured out there a lot more.  It was another great day for snorkeling the north shore!

 Look closely at the reddish blob in the crevis---it is an octopus!  This was 1 of the 2 I saw here today!  I've seen them a couple times in the past, but have never been able to get a picture.  The other octopus I saw today was actually swimming in deep water.  I got a picture of it, but it was too far away to be very clear. 

 Here is a pair of whitesaddle goatfish.  Now I've seen them at Anini, Lydgate and Tunnels.

 Here's another guy I didn't have a picture of until now---short body blenny?

 Hard to see here, but there were schools of tiny fish with blue heads and yellow bodies.  I thought they might be young cleaner wrasses, but they have yellow heads and blue bodies. 

 This trevelley followed me for quite a distance. 

 Also in the deep water was this eel.  I'm surprised photo editing made it this clear!

 Another new critter.  I assume it's a type of bleney.  (wrong, it's an arc eye hawkfish)

 And this one.  Don't recall seeing it before, either  (juvenile saddle wrasse?).

 Did find my triggerfish buddy again and found there are actually at least 3 of them here.

About 4, the clouds started rolling in and we thought we might be rained on, so we packed up and headed to Wyndham Bali Hai to sit in the jacuzzi a bit, then change.  Then we continued on our way back to the east side.   Although it's at least an hour drive to the end of the road from our Wyndham on the East side, the ride doesn't seem bad with all the beautiful views---such as this one.

 And this one.  I have hundreds more, too.

 Being Thursday, it was Brick Oven Pizza buffet night, so we got our last fix of Brick Oven for this trip. 

 Did I mention I LOVE palm trees?!  don't see any of them in St. Louis---except for the fake ones by Hooters!

 We were done eatting before sunset, so we stopped at Lydgate park on our way to our resort.  OK, I added some color to the shot, but mother nature's been a bit disappointing in the sunset department lately!

Hard to believe we only have 24 hours left!  Maybe not the perfect tropical paradise vacation, but not far from it!  Tomorrow we'll definately spend one last day south.