Kapalua, Maui – November 2019

09 Saturday Nov 2019

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Dukes Kaanapali, Gazebo Restaurant, Kapalua, Kapalua Bay Villas, Lahaina, Lahaina Pizza Co., Maui, Napili, Sansei Sushi, Seahouse Restaurant

Kapalua Bay Villas overlooks Onelea Bay with a view of Molokai at 12 and the sunset at your 10:00. It is both peaceful and luxurious

Kapalua Bay Villas

The Sea House Restaurant at Napili Kai has a great patio but we were greeted by rain so moved indoors

Sea House Restaurant

Lava Flow

Coconut Shrimp from the Pūpū platter at the Sea House

We were treated to an awesome sunset with a rain shower complete with rainbow

First rainbow from Napili Kai

Sunset Day 1 after a rain shower from Napili Kai

Not bad for the first day

Day 2: time for breakfast and our go-to restaurant is closed for remodeling – ended up at the Honolua Store where we were treated to music from 2 nearby church services.

Honolua General Store

Snorkeling in Kapalua Bay is so easy… no waves and lots of reef. It was a bit cloudy and although checking on both sides of the cove, there were zero Sea turtle sightings. I was surprised and went to the Sheraton at Black rock to snorkel with turtles but didn’t find any there either. Thinking perhaps there was a turtle convention somewhere else?

Kapalua Bay

Kapalua Bay looking North

Kapalua Bay looking south

Napili Bay

Dukes on North Kaanapali Beach for Sunset Dinner and Hula Pie!

Duke’s Kaanapali

Kaanapali Sunset from Dukes

Gotta try the Hula Pie!

The Kapalua trail fronts the property of the Kapalua Bay Villas.

Kapalua hiking trails

Kapalua Bay Trail

Fleetwood’s on Front street in Lahaina town serves lunch on the rooftop with an awesome vies. The Ms Amsterdam was in port _ day 8 of their 52 day cruise.

Fleetwood’s has some great Rock and Roll photos

Fleetwood’s on Front Street

They also served snapper in the fish tacos – very nice

The Gazebo Restaurant in Napili is extremely popular for breakfast. They open at 7:30 and the line is already long. They are famous for the Mac Nut pancake but the fried rice is also a huge hit.

Gazebo Facebook page

Banana Mac Nut Pancake

View from Napili Shores – Gazebo Restaurant

Back at the condo, we have a little friend

Our new friend

The Spa at the Sheraton Black Rock offers a Lomi Lomi massage – long strokes but deep enough tissue to do some good. It was extremely relaxing

Spa at Black Rock

Waiting room – Soa at Black Rock

Open air treatment room – Spa at Blackrock

The beach was rather calm at around 4 pm. There were quite a few people snorkeling. This is a great place to find sea turtles. Some brave teenagers were jumping, diving and even doing back flips off the rocks while I enjoyed a Mai Tai overlooking Kaanapali Beach

Tourist at Black Rock

Kaanapali – Black Rock

The chicken wings were delicious

Cliff Dive Grill and Bar

Chicken Wings – Cliff Dive Bar: Sheraton at Black Rock

tThe shopping is very good at the wharf shopping center on front Street just across from the Banyan tree we were able to get souvenirs there pretty easily we stopped for lunch on the way home in Kaanapali at Whaler’s Village we had lunch at that hula grill at the barefoot bar it was nice to have our feet in the sand

Hula Grill

We were looking for something casual for dinner – we ended up at a new restaurant in the Napili Plaza shopping Center that claims to be family friendly. I had a tough time with their menu and uncomfortable chairs. Fondo is getting better reviews for breakfast from people who were discouraged by the length of the line at the nearby famous Gazebo restaurant. My chicken skewers were dry and too spicy for my taste. I was grateful they agreed to make me a Mai Tai even though it wasn’t on the menu. I was grateful for Maui Taco nearby since I sent my skewers back – something I rarely do.

Fond Maui

CHICKEN SOUVLAKI Tzatziki sauce

Another breakfast at Napili Kai’s Sea House Restaurant – and another rainbow

Sea House Restaurant at Napili Kai

Slight rainbow from Napili Kai

My son always makes fun of me for photographing my thumb

After much relaxing I was delighted to return to Sansei in Kapalua for a baked roll I had enjoyed years before

Sansei

Sansei Kapalua

YAKI-MAKI ROLL California roll wrapped with smoked salmon & baked with Sansei’s special dynamite sauce

PANKO-CRUSTED FRESH AHI SASHIMI Island fresh ahi tuna wrapped with arugula and spinach, panko crusted and flash fried, served with a soy wasabi butter sauce

SANSEI’S SHRIMP DYNAMITE Crispy tempura shrimp tossed with a garlic masago aioli & unagi glaze drizzle

The landscapers at the resort were busy most days – I especially enjoyed the palm tree trimming – watching those guys climb was cool

Another day of relaxing in Kapalua Bay Villas, I ventured into the Kapalua trail that fronts the complex

Kapalua Bay Villas

Kapalua Bay Trail

Our last day on Maui, I was happy to have the opportunity to go back to Front street and enjoyed Lahaina Pizza Company. Great views and awesome deep dish pizza

Lahaina Pizza

Mini Sweet Pig and Mai Tai

Lahaina Pizza Co

Lahaina Pizza – Full Bar

Front Street North

Front Street South

Back at the villa for more relaxing…

The pools all have great views

The Lanai was on the shade most of the day

Our last sunset was beautiful and followed by a pretty heaven rainstorm but we managed to fit in a trip to Maui Taco where if you want a straw you buy a reusable one for a dollar.

Final sunset from Kapalua

Maui Taco

Fish Taco

It’s time to go home, now that I’ve completely relaxed.

So the lodging was just a bit odd with huge master bathroom showers taking up space

Master Suite shower – wasted space

I would recommend staying closer to the beach but this location was very relaxing

I also recommend not travelling on a Saturday – it was a zoo

Aloha until next time.

Yosemite – June 2019

20 Saturday Jul 2019

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Our family trip up to Yosemite was planned to avoid the Memorial Day crowds, but we ended up with Fathers Day weekend. It is rare, but we were able to reserve the same camp site for 3 nights. The waterfalls were very full, and our favorite spot for tea in

Happy Isles was next to white water rapids which we have never seen so full

Mariposa Grove is about an hours drive from Yosemite Valley. It has undergone massive improvements since our last visit. The parking lot was moved with shuttle access into the grove. This will give the roots a chance – tourists were picnicking on top of these beautiful old growth shallow roots – the parking lot itself was destroying the trees. It’s really a great improvement with walkways to keep the foot traffic raised up above the root structures.

The Mariposa Redwoods are massive

Bridalveil Fall as seen from across the Merced

Half Dome from Upper Pines Campground

Lower Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls

Caribbean Princess – April 6, 2019

14 Sunday Apr 2019

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We opted to fly Southwest for this trip, as we had credit on the airlines. There is no direct flight, and no assigned seats – but you get 2 bags to fly for free while boarding in groups. It wasn’t too bad – on one leg I had a young man around maybe 11 who was riding alone who fell asleep on my shoulder

Our pre-cruise meet up party was at the Hard Rock Café and Casino – The did a pretty good job accommodating the crush of 100 single cruisers over 50.

We stayed pre-cruise at the Crowne Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale, as we had been there for a prior cruise and the beds were comfortable. They offer a shuttle to the pier but I’m pretty sure an Uber is cheaper. Our uber driver got lost on the way to the pier

The Caribbean Princess is a Medallion Class ship and we were sent our medallions which are used instead of card key for room entrance, ordering drinks etc. They have an Ocean Ready application for the smart phone and you can order drinks from anywhere on the ship and the staff can find you with your medallion. (Yes, they can track you) I ordered the premium drinking package and internet package so that I would not feel deprived.

We booked a balcony stateroom aft on deck 14 – close to the Terrace Pool and Bar at the back of the ship.

Princess Cays, Bahamas was our first port of call. I had pre-reserved a clam shell just to be sure I had a reserved lounge chair with shade based on past experiences at private islands. I didn’t want to have to rush off the ship to be the first ones grabbing chairs.

Monday was a sea day and time for a poker crawl. We were part of a fun group with four balconies in a row.

Tuesday the ship docked around noon in St. Thomas and a group of us took Taxi’s to Coki Beach where they serve tropical drinks in the water. I brought my snorkel gear and really enjoyed the beautiful fish along the reef. No turtle sightings but there was an iguana on the beach

We took the Tram up to Paradise Point for a good view of the sunset, since the ship was late in dock. They are famous for their mudslide type frozen drink the bushwhacker… I only made it half way through, likely due to the earlier libations at Coki beach

Wednesday we called on St. Maarten with it’s beautiful blue water. The group excursion was a snorkel trip on a Catamaran. The drinks were flowing and snorkelling was good but not great – our guide was feeding the fish and I prefer natural reef to sunken objects and man made reefs.

We had 2 days at sea before returning to Fort Lauderdale. One day was my actual birthday so I took 2 naps before formal night. The final sea Day we hosted another party on our combined balconies and had a lot of fun.

When we disembarked the Caribbean Princess we signed up for an excursion with the ship.

We toured the everglades in Ft. Lauderdale

We stayed at the Riverside Hotel in the heart of town, and expected to Enjoy the water taxi to have a stop nearby. The weekends that we were enjoying Fort Lauderdale. There was also a spring break music festival so the water taxis were all busy. Since we were already in the wonderful tourist area we enjoyed walking through the shops and drinking tropical drinks near the river. We even managed to find ourselves a wine bar, go figure.

Riverside Hotel view from 1003

Pride of America – Feb 2019

24 Sunday Feb 2019

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February is an awesome time in Hawaii – mating season for the humpbacks. It’s iffy on weather, but always better than home

We arranged to stay two night pre-cruise in Waikiki – which is quite expensive so we reasoned we wouldn’t be in the room much and could go with a budget hotel. This proved to be a poor decision as the room was quite dated and bed was extra springy.

We made our way by Uber to Dukes for dinner

We had a full day to explore Oahu in a rental car so we headed for the North Shore to see big waves. We didn’t go all the way around the island and didn’t really see huge waves, but it was still very cool to see The Banzai Pipeline

The beautiful Waimea Valley has been well used by Hollywood.

The birds and the bees and the butterflies…

Saturday is embarkation day, but first we headed to the Hula Grill for breakfast – they did not disappoint! We had tried iHop next to our budget hotel (which was pretty darn expensive) the previous morning and after waiting a long time for service, my food was returned inedible.

At the Hula Grill I had eggs Benedict and asked for it to be made with smoked salmon.

Smoked Salmon Benedict

My sister had the Pancakes

Macadamia Nut Banana Pancakes

View of Waikiki Beach from Hula Grill

We were a bit disappointed with the size of the staterooms on board the Pride of America. We had a balcony guarantee stateroom so ended up in 9666 – go figure why nobody would choose it at the aft elevators with a balcony is like being on display, just at the curve of the ship… no privacy at all. I told a guy a few cabins down that I felt like I should be out there dancing like in a birdcage

Our first stop was Maui where we rented a car and reserved a room at a resort in West Maui for our overnight.

We had reserved a Whale Watch trip well in advance on line with Pacific Whale Foundation. We have gone out on a Catamaran in the past which was glorious, but we figured we could see whales from all sorts of vessels and had done this same trip the previous year. We ended up sitting with folks from our ship that had planned the excursion with the cruise line.

Whale Watch out of Lahaina with Pacific Whale Foundation

After our Whale Watch we walked down Front Street for our reservation on the patio at Kimo’s with a full on water view. I had the pulled pork sandwich and a Mai Tai – it was perfect weather sitting under the umbrella and super friendly service too!

Royal Lahaina Resort

The Myths of Maui Luau at the Royal Lahaina Resort had a few fashion changes, the guys were wearing some Walmart version of grass skirts. The band was great and the fire dancers did not disappoint. They didn’t even pretend like we were eating the pig that they hauled up on stage – that is clearly for tomorrow night’s luau. The wind picked up and brought rain toward the end of the show, so we rushed out quickly. In the morning, I enjoyed the walk along Ka’anapali beach

Royal Lahaina Resort

Kapalua is beautiful – we had planned on hanging out at Napili or Kapalua beach and doing some snorkeling but the water temp was about the same as the air, and just a few degrees shy of our comfort level. We enjoyed lunch at the Plantation House overlooking the golf course with a beautiful island view.