News from Maui, Installment 6

Aloha again from Maui-licious. We hear its snowing right this moment in both Portland and the TriCities. I bet it's beautiful. So are my Maui waves and blue skies and breezes and 80 degrees. I will not be smug, I will not be smug, I will not be smug.

Yesterday we had wonderful adventures. Had to get up very early (4:45 am) to get down to Lahaina Harbor by 5:30 am to wait in line for our Sunrise Whale Watch cruise with Pacific Whale Foundation. They told us to be in line by 5:30, and like the good little citizens we are, we were dutifully there. So were perhaps 30 others, so we didn't feel like the only sleepyheads. In fact, we waited in line for an hour until we could get on our catamaran, but even waiting in line in Hawaii takes on a lazy, unstressful tone. We had a nice rock wall to sit on, people talked quietly or sipped thier coffee, and we watched the harbor come to life. The Sunrise Cruise catamaran holds 150 guests on it's two stories, and we were only 50 total, so we had lots of room to manouver around. Our captain was Becca and she steered that big boat like she'd been doing it forever. She was aided by Laura and Anna -- our strong all women crew took us bravely out into the Pacific to scope out some whales. Here are some Maui whale facts -- 99 percent of the whales in the water now off Maui are humpbacks. You may find a stray Orca, but it's predominatly humpback season. There are approximately 1200 humpbacks wintering now around Maui. They've come in these shallow warm waters between Lana'i and Maui to breed and calve. There are about 4 males to every 1 female, and we got very lucky and chanced upon a "competition pod" where the boys were all vying for the girl's attention. There were 7 whales in our pod to the one female who kept slapping the water with her side fin. Amazing. The boys breeched and rolled around and showed their backs. We were able to stick with this pod almost the whole 2 hours we were out. Boats can only come within 100 yards of the whales because they are protected and twice we had to actually stop engines because the whales themselves came within the 100 yard boundary. Once when we were stopped, Captain Becca lowered a hydrophone and we could hear whale song. She said what we were hearing was probably from another pod more than a mile away because the pod we were with was most likely not singing. When there is a competition going on, the whales are very concentrated on their posturing and they don't do much vocalization. When they fight for the attention of the female, they don't fight to the death, but they get pretty dang beat up -- ramming into each other and shoving and pushing. It's all very intense. It was awesome to be so close and for the early morning to be so clear. We came back to shore feeling awed and blessed by our cetacean ohana. I hope Ingi's pictures turn out.

We were starving upon our return, exhausted by our whaling, so we found the Pioneer Inn right by the Harbor and bellied up for some really good eggs benedict. After that we came home and showered the sweat off , took a nap, and got up to go roam around Lahaina again. Lahaina changes almost hourly with the flavor of the crowds -- sometimes the cruise ships are in (we saw a Holland America ship, the Zaandam, and Princess Cruise line's the Golden Princess) and then Lahaina perks up with lots of disembarking gawkers and shoppers; sometimes the streets are overrun with kids intent on partying; sometimes the sidewalks are filled with strollers and sleeping hot babies with pink cheeks. We found the local needlework shop (which had very low inventory and not very good stock at that) and we continued our art's walk in earnest. We've learned now about the Giclee (pronounced gee-clay) process (a way to make prints of originals with computers -- the process produces amazing copies), about limited editions, about plein air local painters, about the HUGE Maui art community. We were told more than once that Maui is the third largest art sales (of works by living artists) locale in the world -- second only to London and New York. After all the art galleries we've been trudging into, I believe it. It's been an exciting and unexpected part of our time here. I am listing our faves and where you can find them on websites, but first a bit more about the art community here. It's very eclectic, yet there is so much inspiration in the environment, that there is a riches of Hawaiian and tropical oils and watercolors. Many painters have had galleries of their own, or have shown in the big resorts, but what has happened in the last year or so with the downturn in the economy is that artists have taken to showing their work in parks and in their own garages or homes. When gallery space rents for tens of thousands of dollars a month, it makes sense to make the shift to a cheaper way of showing. We've been invited into several artist's homes, and may even take them up on it later. Anywho, here's our current list. All are living except Eugene Savage. Eugene painted the menu covers for cruise ships in the 30's and 40's (I think. It may be later) and I love his colors and style. We got a giclee of a luau that he painted that is really interesting and colorful.

Jill Ireland jillirelandart.com
Michael Stark starkartgallery.com
Monica Sweet (photographer) gallerysweet.com
Janet Spreiter janetspreiter.com
Kim McDonald kimmcdonald.com
Suzy Papanikolas mauihands.com and then click on her name
Rik Fitch mauihands.com and then click on his name
Darrell Hill darrellmhill.com
Leohone (Shari Leohone) findingfineart.com and click on her name. She's the one who paints the ancestor paintings I mentioned being so moved by in my previous blog.

Anywho, there is a plethora of beautiful art here. I know I've said this previously, but its true -- it's overwhelming as sometimes can be the sun and the sea and the colors of nature that are everywhere you look.

So, exhausted again from our mad dashes from painting to painting, we tucked ourselves into a table at the Lahaina Fish company on Front Street and feasted on calimari and mahi mahi. It was delicious. Home to bed.

This morning we arose in a more leisurely fashion, but did manage to get out the door by about 9:45 (9 am was our goal, so 45 minutes post goal is pretty good for Hawaii time) and we steered the yeppi up first south around the west Maui mountains and then north to Wailuku. We'd been told to check out the Main Street Bistro in Wailuku (about a 35 minute drive from Lahaina) as it was touted as having the best food on the island. I was skeptical as we entered. It was sans any nice decoration or art, the acoutrements of serving food were piled up within patron sight -- cups and fridges and silverware sitting on tables below the long window where you could see the single chef/owner slaving away. No pretty chairs or tablecloths, no real ambiance whatsoever. I thought perhaps the place had changed hands since the folks who recommended it to us had been there or perhaps this was another symptom of economic disaster on the islands. However, everything seemed clean and there were already several guests seated before us. We had no water view and it was warm inside (the restaurant is right next to the concrete and brick courthouse) but everything shifted when the food came. It was BEAUTIFULLY presented and some of the best, tenderest, yummiest food I've ever had. No joking. The guy used to be the executive chef at Sensei and some other fancy pants places in Hawaii. He's now got his own gig going in this rather unassuming spot and wow is it a gig. Ingi had mahi mahi that had just jumped out of the ocean and onto his plate, served with rice that tasted like candy and lightly fried and crunchy artichoke hearts, asparagas and a white sauce. We both had locally grown organic tender greens with sweet cashews and I had a 3 sampler salad that was pan seared ahi tuna, a terrine of eggplant and goat's cheese, and chicken with some sort of asian crunchy noodles. We ate moaning and rolling our eyes at each bite. The bill was $27.00. Total. It's worth the airline ticket alone to eat here. Come on over and we'll met you for dinner tomorrow. What a treat.

From Wailuku we drove another half a hour to Makawao (pronounced Mack-a-wow), which is upcountry at the base of Mt. Haleakala. Green and pretty, paniolo country. Another arts town, welcoming and small. You could walk easily from one end of the main street to the other in about 15 minutes, but it takes much longer if you go in every store to peek about. We ended up at Viewpoint gallery and happily found a large giclee of Suzy Papanikolas' that was enough discounted that we could afford it. It's actually the piece that's on the cover of the current Maui Upcountry Guide -- Suzy has named it "Wahine Looking Left" and it's a neck up portrait of a lovely Hawaiian woman, her head graced by a lovely lei po'o. Ingi and I are quite entranced and will be extremely pleased to have our Wahine in our home. We will look at her and think of the islands in the years to come.

After Makawao, we headed back north and west to the coastal town of Paia, the town that was taken over by hippies in the 60's and 70's and who are still (supposedly) there. I thought I would like Paia a lot, and I actually didn't find it that appealing. I liked Wailuku and Makawao much better. The traffic was horrible, the shops were not that terribly interesting (or perhaps I'm just shopped out), but we did get some fabulous lilikoi and coconut and pineapple gelato. By the end of the day, Ingi's feet were killing him from all the walking we'd done and my eyes needed a rest from all the beautiful things we'd been looking at, so we headed home before it got too terribly dark. We wound up back at our Lahaina condo around 7 pm, which is just after when the sun has truly disappeared over the horizon. Tired, full, and satisfied, we're both sitting in the living room on our computers, listening to the waves and the Slack Key Hawaiian guitar music we've put on the CD player. It's alllllll goooooooooood.

What have I learned in the last few days? Don't wear any shoes, no matter how cute they are, that don't fit right or support your feet for walking. Jeeps have nice seats but a very bumpy suspension, even on smoothish roads. A down economy makes for chatty salespeople. The light in Hawaii makes greens greener and blues bluer than seems even possible. Never underestimate the wounding power of cruel words or the healing power of a smile. Iced tea tastes really good when you're really thirsty. Gas is too expensive. Hawaii IS actually a part of the United States -- I keep forgetting this.

Ingi said this morning that he (jokingly) thought no one should be able to live like this (referring to the pacing, the beauty, the sounds of this environment). I said to him, "I think, in fact, you mean EVERYONE should be able to live like this." So in closing, I wish you your own version of whatever paradise means for you. Aloha.