The Island of Maui

After the family left us we rented a car and drove north of Honolulu to Schofield Barracks to see where Jim’s Mom, Mary Louise, lived as a teenager when her father was stationed there with the Army in the 1930’s. We found records of Grandad's service and drove around the area for a little "following in their footsteps" time. We also found a FABulous scrapbook store near the pier where we boarded our cruise ship, the Pride of America. Our first night out was a bit rough but we docked at beautiful Maui where we rented a car. We stopped at the Iao Valley State Park, a lovely, deep valley that features the Iao Needle. The Needle is a natural rock pinnacle presiding over the Iao stream and surrounded by the wall of the Pu’u Kukui Crater. The stone pillar is 2,250 feet tall and was used as a natural altar. We drove past many miles of sugar cane to the west side of the island through Lahania to Kaanapali where we boarded a catamaran for a whale watching trip. The Trilogy IV is a 50’ sloop rigged catamaran that is normally a very calm sail, but on this day the winds were quite strong so out came the sea bands for me. The humpback whales travel nearly 3,500 miles from their feeding grounds in Alaska and most end up in the waters off Maui from December to April. They are so plentiful there that they say it’s “whale soup” there much of the winter. We were there at the very end of the season but still “chased” several small groups being careful to stay at least 100 yards away (Federal law). Twice we were surrounded by groups of spinner dolphins who put on a show for us, leaping and spinning in midair. They also seemed to love bow riding, using the pressure of the wave off the bow of the moving vessel to get an effortless ride. Beautiful creatures. To get OFF the catamaran we had to line up on the ladder and run off the boat between huge waves; even with only three of us at a time, the last person always got wet. Before heading back to the ship we stopped at one of the open air restaurants for the famous Hula Pie, macadamia nut ice cream on a chocolate cookie crust with fudge sauce, whipped cream and more nuts. Lovely day. MA