Sayings on the steps of the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte.
Food For Thoughts
Category Archives: Travel
In Formation
I spotted these scooters lined up on a street corner in Charlotte, just waiting for customers. Nice of someone to arrange them so well! 😉
Birthday Girl
Earlier this week, Kathy & I celebrated the ’44th anniversary of her 21st birthday” with a couple of nights in The Big City (Charlotte) with some jazz, dinners with friends, an art museum and lots of walking around. We had a great time, I took a few photos and we are now back on our diets for a few more weeks! 😉
A Visit to NoDa
This is the first of what I plan to be a series of posts under the category “Tourist In My Own Town!
Kathy & I paid a visit to the area of Charlotte near the intersection of North Davidson Street and East 36th Street, known to locals as “NoDa” as in North Davidson. Clever, huh? We went primarily to visit a wine bar and retail wine shop recently opened by a friend of ours, but decided to make an afternoon of it. It was a nice day, a little warm for spring with highs in the mid-80s, but the humidity was low and there was a nice breeze.
NoDa is packed with bars and restaurants, with a few retail stores and tattoo parlors mixed in for good measure. Kathy & I avoided the tattoo parlors! During the day it is pretty quiet, but I understand that things get cranking in the evening. We did our thing early and got out before the masses arrived!
We walked around a bit and I took some pictures. Then with time to kill we hopped on the light rail, took it out to UNC Charlotte, wandered around there then got back in time for our destination to open at 4:00. We filled up on wine and snacks, bought a few bottles for souvenirs, and headed home in time to enjoy the sunset from our porch.
A nice day!
Big and Little
One of the things that always amazes me about cruise ships is their size! The loop in our neighborhood that I walk around some mornings takes 5 laps to make a mile. The walking/jogging track on Allure of the Seas takes only 2.5 laps to make a mile!
Marella Discovery is what cruise ships used to look like. She was placed in service in March 1996 as Splendour of the Seas. With a capacity of 1,830 passengers, she was considered state of the art at that time.
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, by comparison, holds 5,402 passengers. When she was introduced in 2010 she was the largest cruise ship in the world. That title now belongs to Wonder of the Seas at 5,734. That’s a lot of peoples! 😉
I just posted a gallery of photos from this cruise and our recent swing through Florida at my Adobe Portfolio site.
Will Cruise For Photos
Yes, I’m still here. And thanks to those who wrote separately to ask if everything was OK. All’s well!
Kathy & I had a little “Caribbean Business” to attend to for a few weeks. We visited friends in central Florida, met up with a long-time friend of Kathy’s and her husband on a cruise for 6 days, stayed on the same ship for another 8 days, then visited with different friends in Florida on the way home. Got back, started attacking a long-neglected to-do list and here we are!
Remarkably, we have no confirmed travel plans for the remainder of the year. But we are working hard to remedy that situation! Lots of possibilities in the works, to be sure.
One of the things I love about cruising is the interesting variety of things to photograph. The ships themselves have plenty of subject matter, and in sailing to different destinations, there are always new things to see. I grabbed a quick handful of a few photos in order to end the drought, as it were.
I’ll have some more photos and stories to share as I get things done over the next week or two, so stay tuned! 🙂
The Long And Winding Road…To Hana
Another “must do” in Maui is what has come to be known as “The Road to Hana.” It is marketed as some kind of scary beast that terrifies drivers and leaves them shaking in their seat belts. I suppose that might be true if the only roads you ever drive are 4 lane roads to the mall or interstate highways, but for the most part it wasn’t what I could call “scary.” Of course, (a) I didn’t drive, and (b) I have driven a few roads that I would consider scary! What the Road to Hana is, however, is quite beautiful.
The Road to Hana is actually a series of roads, only one of which is called Hana Highway. The loop essentially circles east side of the island of Maui which is formed by the Haleakala volcano. The loop is 52 miles long and reportedly (I didn’t count them!) contains 617 hairpin curves and 59 one-lane bridges. Hana is a town located on the eastern tip of Maui. We drove through Hana but didn’t stop, as it is mostly a little village with a few shops, restaurants and small motel. We did stop at quite a few places, including a black sand beach and several waterfalls. Along the roads are little villages, shops, roadside stands selling food and local crafts, waterfalls, beaches, scenic overlooks and much more.
We took a tour with a company called Hawaiian Style. They are locally owned and operated by a Maui native and his family. The tour was nice because our driver, although he was a transplant from Idaho, had lived on Maui long enough to have a lot of “native knowledge.” Our driver and the company in general display a lot of respect for local customs, and go out of their way to yield to “locals” in order to earn their trust. It would have been possible to drive at least a portion of the road ourselves, but most rental car agreements expressly prohibit driving a rental car on the “back side” of Haleakala, where the road is rough and unpaved in sections, there are many places where the road narrows to one lane, and several spots that are subject to flash flooding. Plus, I wanted to be able to look out the window! I was fortunate to be able to sit in the front seat, and although that left Kathy not sitting with me, she did have her own window seat farther back in the van. She liked it because she didn’t have to navigate! I got some nice “out the window” photos of the road that I would not have gotten otherwise.
Touring the Road to Hana with an experienced operator is really the way to go. I might opt for a 4×4 tour where we were the only passengers, in order to be able to stop at more of the photo spots that could not accommodate a larger vehicle. We swapped places on the road with a number of them, and frequently saw them pulled off in places that would have made for great viewpoints. It’s all part of the compromise of travel, and overall we had a great tour and it was a fun and educational experience!
How Do You Pronounce Hali’imaile?
At first glance, Hawaiian words, especially names, can be difficult to grasp. I’m still no expert, but it’s actually pretty easy when you pay attention. All of the letters are pronounced, and the vowels are pronounced only one way. The hardest part was parsing out a name like “Alanui Ke’ali’i” (ala-NEW-e kay-ah-LI-i) or “Upper Hamakuapoko Road” (hama-kua-PO-ko) in the 5 seconds between when you could read it on the road sign and when you passed it!
When we first started planning our trip, we knew that there were several places we wanted to visit around a place called Hali’imaile. We jokingly referred to it as “Holy Moly,” but not wanting to sound like ignorant tourists we decided to make an effort to learn how to pronounce the words property. Of course most of these Hawaiian words also have significant meaning, but we weren’t prepared to figure that out. When it mattered, a driver or guide would tell us the meaning!
So what is in Hali’imaile? First, it is the home of Maui Gold Pineapple Company. They are very proud of their home-grown pineapple in Maui, to the extent that they generally don’t sell beyond the island. Their fruit is sold all over the island, and wherever someone served pineapple, it was likely Maui Gold. But their picking method requires that the fruit be sold and used within 5 days for optimum freshness. Beyond that it gets turned into juice and used at the distillery that is conveniently right across the street! Ever had pineapple vodka? It’s pretty good!
We did a tour of the Maui Gold Pineapple Farm with a guide named Mo, who has lived in Maui for about 20 years, moving from California. A lot of people in Hawaii are from elsewhere, and now we know why! Mo talked with a confidence that sounded like he could be one of the owners, but I suspect that he is just a knowledgeable and enthusiastic employee. He did a nice tour, showing us pineapples in various stages of growth, how to make new plants from old pineapples, and slicing a fresh picked pineapple for us to taste. Yummy! After the tour, we were all offered pre-boxed pineapples that were carry-on friendly. We declined since we weren’t leaving for over a week. And we got plenty of already-cut pineapple in other places!
After the pineapple farm tour we visited the Hali’imaile Distilling Company. Their main product is vodka made from pineapple juice. Because vodka is generally odorless with a neutral flavor, it can be hard to distinguish tastes, but the Pau Vodka had just a hint of pineapple sweetness. Even the Bourbon Girl liked it! They also make a flavored rum using local ingredients including Kona coffee, a whiskey that is made from blending Kentucky Bourbon with some local hooch, and a gin made with Hawaiian botanicals. We didn’t bring home any of their souvenirs, although we did make a point of seeking out cocktails made from their spirits!
Also in Hali’imaile is the Hali’imaile General Store. No longer an actual store, it is the name of a restaurant owned by James Beard Award recipient and celebrity chef Bev Gannon. We had lunch there and the poke’ was excellent! 😉
So how do you say Hali’imaile? Sound it out: holly-e-ma-EE-lay. Now you know Hawaiian! 🙂
The Myths of Maui Luau
We had 5 specific things we wanted to do in Maui, besides lounge by the pool and have Tiki drinks. 😉 We wanted to go to a Luau, see sunset on Haleakala, go on a whale watch, drive (ride!) the Road to Hana, and see the big waves on the North Coast. Anything else we did would be a bonus. We did a lot!
Luaus are very popular with tourists to Hawaii, and there are many to choose from. Our travel agent recommended the Myths of Maui Luau, which from what I could gather is a smaller event, but still very good. We heard lots of comments from folks on our other tours, and of course everyone chose the one they chose for some reason, and generally thought theirs was the best. But I’m pretty sure they are all good!
All luaus will have food, and although the authenticity of the food may vary a bit, it is all pretty good. The pork that was served at our dinner was pit cooked, as they do in Hawaii. The fish, though, was not local. It was some kind of Asian fish that is common to the island, but it was not caught off the shores of any Hawaiian island. Oh, well.
The performers were excellent. There were only a dozen or so, and with costume and prop changes that managed to tell a number of the stories that make up the history and culture of Maui. The narrator explained what they were doing and why, and that made it very interesting.
We had sprung for ‘VIP’ seating, which gave us a table that was literally ‘front and center.’ It was a perfect spot to photograph the performers, although there were times when I could have used a wider lens – they were that close!
We really enjoyed the show. I took lots of pictures, especially at the end with the fire performance. It was quite impressive – we could feel the heat coming off the torches – I can only imagine how hot they would have been to hold. I have no idea how one would learn to do that, but am certain that it involves lots of practice, and more than a few burned limbs!
Big Waves!
We’re home again and doing all of our usual “just got home stuff.” I’ll be working on photos over the coming weeks but have a small collection that I worked on but hadn’t posted yet.
This series is from time we spent at Ho’okipa Lookout near Paia, Hawaii. The waves there are often huge, and as large as they were on the day we visited, there are times when we can’t stand where we were standing. As it was, our sunglasses and my camera were covered in fine salt spray by the time we got back to the car.
I don’t know for sure, but would estimate some of the waves at 20-30 feet high! And if you look closely on some of the photos you will see windsurfers and parasailers on the water.
