Aloha Hawaii and Mahalo

Mahalo or  thank you to a very special place. Maui is a combination of arid volcanic landscape and lush tropical vegetation. It is spotted with condos and resorts and tourist tat but it is essentially starkly beautiful. The sunsets, the sea and the volcanic rocks have been amazing.

 

This is our last day on Mauii. After a breakfast of bacon and eggs we had a quick dip and the set off to explore. Here we are at Dragon's Teeth at Kapalua. The lava is fine grained and bleached white in some  areas. It flowed during the dying days of the West Mauii  volcano. Spray salt etched the lava into the shapes of dragon's teeth.

Do you see the rock face I am holding on to? 

I wasn't wearing my swimming costume so I couldn't indulge on a swim on our coastal trek but Tom was prepared. He leapt straight into that crystal clear water. Actually he crept down the rocks but others were more adventurous.

They leapt off the rocks.

And then to end our day we visited Lahaina, an old whaling port, and now a tourist heaven. I nearly bought $100.00 of salt  body scrub for no good reason other than the salesperson was glib. Luckily Tom was there. We saw the Banyan tree - a tree over 150 years old that strides a couple of streets and is the oldest Banyan tree in America.

And now we have to say goodbye and fly back home. We could have seen more turtles and we could have relaxed more but what the hell, we had a wonderful time.

Hula Girl

We had an amazing day on the Hula Girl, a large sailing catamaran which took us to Honolua Bay for some great snorkelling. It was a wonderful balmy day and the water was warm and clear. We saw a turtle and lots and lots of different tropical fish. There was quite a bit of coral on the reef. We swam for about an hour and then returned to the boat for some fish tacos. Yum!

 

On the return journey they put the sail up. It was wonderful.

 

They caught a big Mahimahi off the back of the boat. The fish struggled majestically as it was reeled in.

It was a magnificent specimen full of life one moment and then it was dead.

 

They wrapped it in a towel and poured vodka down its gills. The crew had caught their dinner. I don't know why I felt so sad. After all I'd had fish tacos for lunch.

Maui highlights

Sunset from our veranda. Who could ask for anything more?

Our first stop on the road to Hana. It is the road itself that is most important. It is one of Hawaii's most famous roads. It winds for 50 super curvy miles along Maui's north eastern shore. It crosses more than 50 one lane bridges. It takes about four hours each way. And as the guide books say "it is the journey not the destination." Twin Falls is a little touristy spot with a waterfall at the end of a slippery walk. They also sell banana bread, pineapple smoothies and passion fruit.

A pretty flower on the way to the falls.

A delightful detour. A bit like Pearl Bay. I loved Sea Change and it felt like the television show as we crossed the bridge. No cars had been allowed over this bridge for ages. They didn't want outsiders to see their little bit of paradise. We were going off the tracks as we walked down a leafy lane to get to a picnic spot.

Our guide book described Nahiku as a place where plants go to heaven. It also said that everything green seems so happy and healthy, you can almost hear them giggling.

I felt the same way. It was a magical place.

The walk down to our lunch spot.

And then  back into the car to drive to Hana. A tree had fallen across the road minutes before we arrived and Tom and twenty other people worked together  to pull it off the road. It gave me pause to think that if we had been there a couple of minutes earlier the tree may have fallen on us or if there had been no-one around to help move the tree we wouldn't have been able to drive though to Hana.

Life is very random and often nothing like what we plan for.

As I said before Hana seemed to be more about the road than the arrival. When we arrived we just drove through. It was tiny. After a long hot drive we decided to go for a swim at nearby Hanoa Beach. I got dumped a couple of times but we cooled off before driving home.

Contemplations on the nature of bread.

Bread is pretty basic stuff. Some people love it and some people, like me, only react to it when it is particularly good or bad. There is more of the particularly bad variety in America. We were more than a little tired by the time we reached our condo, Valley Isle, at Kahana beach. We had had the ridiculously long delay in Detroit and then a shambolic shuttle ride from Newyark to JFK. We stayed the night in a bland airport hotel. Why do all these sorts of hotels serve breakfast on paper plates with plastic utensils? And why do they call these aforesaid utensils silverware?

Anyway, by the time we got to Hawaii with the time difference we had been awake for a very long time. When we reached our condo it was about eight o'clock Hawaiin time but by our body clocks it was more like three o'clock in the morning.

We staggered across the road to buy some stuff for breakfast at an overpriced grocery store. I spent $50.00 on some bacon, eggs and bread. A stick of butter cost $4.00! And now on to the topic of this blog entry, the quality of bread.

 On the left hand side you see the Loves bread I bought that night and on the right hand side you see the preferable Dave's Killer bread I bought at Safeways the next day. What is the difference between these two breads? Firstly $2.00. The Dave's bread was $7.00 and the Loves was $5.00.

And their stories are also vastly different.  Loves was apparently started off in 1851 by Robert Love during the long and fruitful reign of  King Kamehameha. Dave's killer bread is a more recent invention. After 15 years in prison, Dave Dahl found a way to reinvent himself in the family bakery. Pity while he was reinventing himself he didn't end up making better bread. And an even greater pity is that in the more than hundred years Loves bread didn't evolve into something better. 

Dave's won for me because it is made with organic ingredients and because I'm always a pushover for a bad boy makes good story. But as far as I'm concerned Americans should stick to bagels. They do them better.

Detroit

Detroit was a pretty amazing experience. We did so much in so little time and Cathy and Phil were the most amazing hosts. Unfortunately our plane to New York has been delayed for about four hours. Even more unfortunately the long delay surrounded by expensive shops having amazing sales caused me to run amok. I am now the proud owner of a new pair of shoes and a gorgeous silk dress. Hopefully we will fly out soon or there will be trouble.  

The ticket below is from the Rivera and Kahlo exhibition that Cathy took us to. It was wonderful. We also saw the amazing murals that Rivera painted on the Institute walls in the 1930's. It was a very emotional exhibition filled with pain due to Frida's miscarriage in Detroit.

And here is the Van Gogh that we rushed over to see. After all the time with the main exhibition we only had time to look at poor old Vincent for a nano second.

Here are the lovers.

And below is the fabulous Black American Museum. Another very emotional experience.

A lot of time was spent on the history of slavery.

This is a picture of the deck of a slave boat and when you flipped it over......

You saw how all the slaves were packed in for the majority of the journey.

And then for a little light relief Cathy and I had a dance in the Motown exhibition. Here we are blurrily dancing to Aretha Franklin's RESPECT. Luckily we were the only visitors in the museum.

Next day we visited a park and Tom and Cathy played tennis and I went for a walk. I overheard these two dudes talking about following the way of the Buddha especially in relation to parenting a two year old boy. Apparently the answer to everything is that you don't know anything.

Just beside them an excited young girl was catching an enormous carp.

Unfortunately it broke the line and fell into the rocks below. The helpful dudes did know one thing. They knew how to pick up a fish. They helped to pick up the fish by the gills and threw it back into the pond.

The ducks didn't care.

I walked on and saw a happy reader. In fact the entire park was full of happy people.

This little girl had just come up from jumping on rocks in the stream.

And this Greek family were picking grape leaves to make dolmades.

And then we returned home for a well deserved drink.

We only saw a tiny bit of Detroit. We saw some of the abandoned buildings and street art and graffiti but mostly we saw the comfortable suburbs and the great museums. There was much more to explore but now we off to New York,  if our plane ever arrives.

Detroit here we come

Said goodbye to Charlevoix with a final swim.

We drove seamlessly to Cathy's place in Rochester Hills which turns out to a lovely leafy suburb of Detroit. Cathy being the wonderful, kind soul that she is, welcomed us with open arms and a fabulous dinner of Caprese salad followed by a wonderfully garlicky shrimp pasta. We gave her a present  which we bought in Petoskey. I fell in love with Mata Ortiz pottery. Mata Ortiz is a remote Mexican village that is famed for the luminous black on black pottery. They use graphite in the slip and do an oxygen reduction firing.

We all went to bed and slept well. And now we're off to explore the delights of Detroit.

Last purchases for Cherrywood

And here it is the lovely olde dressing table we bought for our room. We also bought a smaller white one for downstairs. The house is really turning into a home.

Pip, Julian and Sam bought a whole lot of games and books for all of us to enjoy.

Last dinner in Charlevoix

Pip and Julian slaved away making a wonderful channa masala while Tom, Ayrie and I drank cocktails on the verandah.

After dinner Pip gave Tom an early birthday present.

And here he is modelling aforesaid mentioned birthday present.

A father daughter moment.

And then a final surprise. Pip and Julian had been hiding away for most of the day engaged in top secret activities. And now the suspense is about to be over.

All is revealed. This is the other side of the chessboard that they had created a couple of days ago. It is a tradition to give out awards in Charlevoix and this is the first one for our house and the first one that Tom and I have jointly earned. Our house is officially named Cherrywood.

And here is the chessboard side.