NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025 MAUI STORY

From the moment one gets off the plane at Maui Airport, everything changes. The natural beauty of the surroundings, mixed with the sincere friendliness of the people creates a vibe that makes one want to immerse him/herself in the “local everything.” It’s amazing, after the numerous visits we’ve had to this enchanted isle, that it still holds its “magic” for us. Yes. We rent a car, to drive to our hotel. But on the way there is a feeling of enchantment even as we are driving, rather than the usual drudge that accompanies the initial trek to a hotel after flying for a number of hours.

Yes. Maui. Home to fabulous sights, tropical fruits, seafood, and adult libations….Not Glucerna, or Ensure.

On our way to our suite, we made our usual pilgrimage to COSTCO for some of our “supplies,” along with our stop at Safeway, to fill out what will become necessary in the coming weeks of our stay. Amazingly, both markets are within close proximity to the airport, as well as directly on the way to Kaanapali, which is the neighborhood that our resort is in. How’s that for some luck, or good planning? We usually stock the suite with breakfast foods, and fresh produce. The main cooking stuff, products of the sea, we leave to the pros here on the island.

After checking in, we usually take some pictures of the view from our suite. This arrival was no exception.

By the time we unpacked, this was the view with which we were presented. How do you spell “SERENITY?!”

After cocktails, and salad, we decided that it was time to call it “A Day.” After all, we would have to be up for a full day at play in the morning, whatever time that was going to be. As always, we keep our schedule religiously loose, except for when we have to catch a plane. Thus, 10:00 comes once a day. We saw this critter shortly after awakening. The sunlight was just right, as was Naomi’s aim. We were to see members of his family in the coming days.

Now that the morning espressos had taken their effect, it was time for us to join the denizens of the temporarily not-so-deep for some snorkeling and picture-taking.

Here is where we mainly snorkeled. Yes. Those are people on the beach.

Here is a school of fish that we found.

I guess this is what our resort looks like to the turtles in the late afternoon.

Lest you think that we spent all of our time getting wet, we also got into the “gym scene,” where we met some very interesting people during our workout sessions. One individual, named Mike, in our language, an Egyptian Koptic Christian epidemiologist, whose wife is named Isis, which we learned is pronounced IZEEZ. Now we can pronounce Tony Farrell’s wife’s name properly, after over thirty years of messing it up. Ain’t life grand?! One never knows who one will meet when away from home.

Meanwhile, back in the ocean, it was wonderful seeing children aged 5 and 6 boogie boarding, and snorkeling with their parents, without floaties. They were swimming like little tadpoles. When they would wipe out, they would swim to their boards, get on, and try another wave. Great stuff to witness.

Of course, on the 7th of December, we paused, along with others, to commemorate the attack by the Japanese 84 years ago at Pearl Harbor, where we were caught militarily flatfooted by an enormous act of treachery. There was a touching program about it that we watched on the American Heroes Channel on television after we got back to our suite. Once again, bringing to mind that there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come. Or that we will be here to see and live it. Perhaps this is what feeds our lust for life, and new adventures together.

The next day, we decided to take a drive on the Road To Hana, otherwise known as the Hana Highway. It’s a 64-mile stretch along Maui’s northeast coastline. For those who have driven the Amalfi Coast, this is just as goofy, but in different ways. This nervous-system-assault-course features such funzies as narrowing down to one-lane bridges, that are crossed with a polite beep of one’s horn, and a quick, silent prayer that the folks in the vehicle across the bridge somehow understand that it’s your turn to cross. I guess the commonality of purpose comes into play here. The scenery along the way is just as beautiful, and attention-commanding as Amalfi. However, here we saw beautiful rainforests, and waterfalls, unlike the Amalfi cliffs, with peddlers selling giant lemons, along with monkeys jumping around. Along with the waterfalls, a couple of sites that we were in search of, were the Rainbow Forest, and Mama’s Fish House.

The Rainbow Forest is just as it is named. A forest whose eucalyptus trees have rainbow-colored barks. This is not stuff that was painted on the trees, but rather it is their natural barks, which, by the way, are incredibly smooth to the touch. It’s one of those things that has to be experienced up close and personal to really get the natural wonder of it.

Here we are with a couple of the trees. Thank goodness, we met a couple on their honeymoon who asked us to take some photos of them with their camera. Upon doing so, they volunteered to take our picture with our camera.

Yes. The colors are that vivid. No. Naomi did not go crazy with a box of crayons.

Following this caper, we realized that our inner-weather-reports were telling us that it was “getting hungry out.” We had been told by a good friend, Mike Kirvan, that the “in place to dine” on Maui is a restaurant/bar named simply “MAMA’S FISH HOUSE.” According to Mike, we should get seats at the bar on the left side for the best view. “Don’t get a table,” he said. So that’s what we did. Luckily there were two adjoining seats at the bar on the left with an unobstructed view of the beach, which, of course was wonderful. We also followed his instructions, by immediately ordering a Mai Tai, and Navy Grog, both of which were perfectly concocted. Along with the Lobster Bisque, Ceviche Tahitian Style, and Crab Cakes, coupled with great friendly service, and atmosphere, it was a solid 4.0 experience. Yay Mike!

This is us with one of the purveyors of the goodies at MAMA’S.

Welcome to Christmas at MAMA’S.

Having experienced driving on the Hana Highway, we were basically ready for the trek back. We did, however, come across some things that we had not previously seen. Here is their idea of Santa Claus in various countries. I guess Christmas is big in Maui.

After all of this driving, and carousing, we were feeling a bit tired. So we stopped at the first Walmart that we encountered, and picked up a couple of individual cans of “Royal Mills Black Coffee,” for a pickup. It was not only a simple source of caffeine, it had terrific flavor, unlike most canned coffees. Sadly, it’s not available here on the Mainland. Nonetheless, it powered us back safely to our little sanctum by the sea, where, after cocktails and dinner, we were off once again to The Land of Nod.

This was to be our day of water-sports. Yes. Snorkeling! Seeing more underwater fish, turtles, and coral reefs. Great right? Not quite right. There was just too much wind. Thus, after being tossed around like champagne corks in a flushing toilet, we decided to limit our aquacade to the nearest swimming pool. But not before we got this shot of a Spotted Tang Fish. How it got that name, with those stripes, I have no idea. Imagine being named after a powdered orange drink that has no spots either. Oh well. We got this shot purely by luck of the toss. Yes. We were being tossed. It also made exiting the surf quite a project, not easily accomplished.

Upon stumbling our way out of the surf, and onto terra firma, we found this plaque commemorating the Last King of the Maui Empire, KING KAHEKILI NUI AHUMANU, as it says, 1766-1793.

So there we were, with our full snorkeling regalia making our grand entrance into the adult’s pool area. Did we look a bit out of place? Yeah. That’s okay. There’s sometimes great personal ego security in anonymity. After a reasonable time in the pool, we decided to go upstairs for our evening ritual…Cocktails, dinner, and well-earned sleep.

Usually one has to book a tour for whale-watching, or as it usually turns out, whale-chasing, and seeing nothing. Unbelievably, shortly after we awoke, while we were having our morning coffee, there appeared a group of whales directly in front of our lanai. Of course, trying to time our shots to when they would breach was a near impossibility. We did, however, see them, and got some shots of one tail, and some spouting as you can see below.

For some reason, they just wouldn’t hold still for us. We called out to them, telling them that they were going to be memorialized in our travelogue that we were going to send to our friends. Sadly, there was no reply. I guess it’s a contractual thing that they have with the ocean.

Apparently, some people just have to make a statement, however temporary in the sand. When they say, “Dig this,” they mean it literally. This is what we saw from our lanai. Consider it “Dug” by all in attendance.

There is quite a number of islands around Maui. Here are a few of them.

What tale of Hawaii would be proper without a “Complete Rainbow?” Fortunately, we caught this shortly before leaving this land of unbridled beauty.

As with every trip, there is a time for “Aloha,” or as we would say it, with a bit of Shalom added, “Shaloha.” Yes. It was time to fly back to our home in the West. Yes. Texas. We hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed living it.