Steven’s BD-Kamaole Beach Club-Day 6

Today Steven is 25 years old! It is a little hard to believe! We had a good night’s sleep and after getting up and dressed we headed to Sarento's on the Beach for breakfast. I had the “Pacific” which is crab eggs Benedict, delicious! Actually Saira had that too, John had traditional eggs Benedict, and Steven had an omelet. I think it was something like a meat lovers omelet and is made with FOUR eggs…Yes, he finished it along with the potatoes that come with it, and the toast! We thought we would eat this big breakfast and then not eat until the Feast at Lele Luau tonight. After breakfast we just came back to the condo because Steven had to do homework and we read. I also changed the bandage on John’s foot, it is slowing healing, thankful for the healing. We left about 4pm for the luau, picked up our tickets at Boss Frog’s (purchased there online), and took the short drive up to Ka'anapali Beach Club where we will move to on Saturday. After a brief walk out to the beach and through the lobby area we headed  back to fine the Feast at Lele and secure parking. We checked in and spent a few minutes walking around the area browsing in shops until it was time to be seated. It is a small area in comparison to other luau’s we have been to. it is a lovely setting with the tables facing the narrow stage, then a few shrubs, the beach, and the ocean. More intimate than most luau’s. As you enter you are greeted with aloha, a fresh flower lei, and a choice of Mai Tai or beer on the way to your table. Reaching your table you find a nice white table cloth with a simple fresh leaf and candle for the décor on the table. Waiting for you are banana, sweet potato, and taro chips with fresh salsa and poi. Immediately our waiter Miguel came to see what we would like to drink. There is quite a menu, which I cannot post at this time but John and I had an Island Tea, Steven had a Corona, and Saira had frothy banana drink to start with. S&S ended up having a Blue Hawaii after that while John had Moscato and I had a glass of Riesling (I’m the self designated driver this evening). Instead of listing each course here, I will make a separate post showing the food and menu items. After each course you are presented entertainment from that specific area your food course is from. At dessert time they brought Steven’s with a candle, very nice and we sang to him with their help. It was a delightful evening ending with a fire dance and the performers passing though the audience to say aloha and pose for photos. The 30 minute drive back to Kihei was uneventful. We were all tried and went to bed. As I said, I will post the menu and photos of the food separately, quite the gourmet feast!

Breakfast at Sarento’s on the Beach

Pacific Eggs Benedict

Feast at Lele

 

 

The Feast at Lele

Lele is the ancient name for Lahaina, and this is the beach where the royal family of Maui would feast and entertain. Summon your spirit of adventure as we take you on a musical and culinary journey to Hawai`i, Aotearoa, Tahiti and Samoa.

HAWAI’I

We begin right here in our beautiful island home of Hawai’i with our oli (chant), mele (song), and hula (dance) from the islands of Hawai’i, O’ahu, Kauai, and Maui. We honor the ‘aina (land),
Our ali’i (royalty), and the natural beauty surrounding us.

TRADITIONAL POLYNESIAN STAPLES
Banana & sweet potato chips served w/a tropical ginger & ogo seaweed salsa. (Mai tai’s pictured as well!)

POI Made from the root of the taro plant. (sorry, no photo!)

FIRST COURSE

POHOLE FERN, ASPARAGUS & HEART OF PALM SALAD, Tossed in a light vinaigrette dressing.

SEARED I’A w/ MANGO SAUCE Fresh island catch.

IMU ROASTED KALUA PUA’A, Pork seasoned w/Hawaiian salt, cooked traditional style in an underground oven shredded & served on steamed cabbage.

 

NEW ZEALAND

Kia Ora, welcome to Aotearoa – Land of the Long White Cloud. Presently known as New Zealand, it is home to the Maori people.
It is believed that the Maori migrated to Aotearoa from as far as the Marquesas, Cook, and Society Islands. They have an artistic culture, and are well known for their elaborate artwork. Although the Maori people have a unique culture of their own, their culture shares many similarities to that of other Polynesians.

SECOND COURSE

(sadly, I only have a photo of the steak as we eagerly indulged before I recalled I wanted a photo!) 

RAKIRAKI SALAD w/ POHA BERRY VINAIGRETTE Upcountry greens, duck tenderloin,bean sprouts & carrots. HARORE KUMARA  Roasted mushrooms, sweet potato & onion,
sautéed in soy & garlic. MITI HANGI Hangi cooked steak in kiwi fruit, soy & ginger.

The Maori culture is rich in song and dance, intertwined with strong oratory skills. You will notice their facial tattoos or moko. This was used to symbolize ones genealogy and personal identity. Our dancers perform a Haka, a war dance that was used to intimidate their enemies. Then our women perform an exciting dance using poi balls, which are used to imitate the actions and rhythms in nature.

TAHITI

Come along with us to Tahiti, land of intrigue and romance, capturing the imagination. From the verdant majesty of its mountains rising out of the mist to the starling clarity of color
in its coral lagoons, Tahiti is considered by many as the image of Polynesia, and throughout its history, Tahiti has beckoned explorers from around the world.

THIRD COURSE

MOA FAFA Chicken wrapped in taro leaf, steamed in coconut milk, lemongrass & ginger.

E-IAOTA (POISSON CRU) Raw fish marinated in lime juice &
coconut milk w/ tomatoes, carrots, onions, cucumber & cilantro.

BAKED SCALLOPS On Moloka’i sweet potato & spinach
in a lobster cream sauce topped w/ bread crumbs.

(E-iota on the left, Scallops on the right)

Sit back and enjoy the sensual swing of the hips and pulsing rhythm of the ancient drums, which combine to create a titillating dance performance. Oversized headdresses made of grasses and shells balance the exuberant movements of the hip and hand. Experience the romantic lure of Tahiti as called forth in its lusty dances.

SAMOA

Our eveningʻs journey ends at Samoa, “the cradle of Polynesia,” literally the sacred center of its fiery soul. The islands of Samoa reflect their age in a lush jungle-shrouded paradise. Even today,
thatched grass roof fales can be seen dotting the coastlines, where island homes are open to nature,and the island people open their hearts to you.

FOURTH COURSE

GRILLED GUFE’E Grilled squid with upcountry island herbs sauce. PALUSAMI Breadfruit & squash cooked in young taro leaf
and coconut cream. SHRIMP, AVOCADO & FRESH FRUIT Tossed in a lilikoi dressing.

For the Feast at Lele finale, the energetic and vigorous Samoan dance is punctuated by staccato slapping of legs and feet, and rhythmic clapping of hands. Men wear shredded leaf leggings which emphasize their movements, while women don very finely woven leaf skirts to accentuate their gracefulness.The famed fire knife dance is an important component to their culture and fitting end to our show.

FIFTH COURSE-DESSERT

Caramel Macadamia nut tart Topped w/haupia (coconut pudding). Hawaiian Chocolate Truffles and fresh, exotic tropical fruits.

Drinks

(in addition to having this really long list, they make a wine and beer suggestion for each course on the menu)

COCKTAILS
Mai Tai
Pina Colada
Banana Madness
Lava Flow
Island Iced Tea
Blue Hawaiian
Planters Punch

LIQUORS
Smirnoff Vodka
Bacardi Rum
Gordons Gin
Grants Scotch
José Cuervo Tequila
Jim Beam Whiskey
Christian Brothers Brandy

BEERS
Amstel Light
Coors Light
Bikini Blond Lager (Maui)
Big Swell IPA (Maui)
Longboard Lager (Hawaii)
Steinlager (New Zealand)
Vonu (Fiji)
Becks (non-alcohol)

WINES
Sparkling Wine
White Zinfandel
Moscato
Riesling
Sauvignon Blanc
Pinot Grigio
Chardonnay
Pinot Noir
Merlot
Cabernet
Port Wine

Kamaole Beach Club-Day 5

We had a very relaxing day. Steven & Saira were in and out all day, I know they went to the store and also to some beach south of us, other than that I’m not sure. They are having a lot of fun in the ocean. It’s nice that there are boggie boards, chairs, and a couple of umbrellas in the condo for our use. Well, it is actually useless to try using an umbrella in this wind.The wind even picked up more today if possible! I started reading a book that is free to “borrow” if you are a prime member called Maui Widow Waltz it is the first in a series of three (I think). There are several books by this author Joann Bassett to choose from, most based on one of the islands. The next one (Book 2) is free from Amazon right now, Livin Lahaina Loca. Thanks Cheryl for the heads up on that fun read that lead me to the rest! I’m half done with the first book, as I said we had a relaxing day. We introduced S&S to Maui Tacos, they liked it a lot. We were determined to rest so S&S went and got it for us! S&S also made a brief stop at a shrimp truck around the corner, though the food was tasty the price was a lot for what you got. We had a beautiful pink sky after sunset today. My photo doesn’t do it justice. This was the ONE photo I took today. I will post S&S’s photos while in the ocean having fun! Finally someone else is taking photographs!!! Thank you Steven!!!

Steven at the Shrimp Truck

Maui Sky

S&S Having a Blast!

Love this Photograph!

S&S

Steven is in that “wipeout” someplace!

Kamaole Beach Club-Day 4

For me personally I had the best night of sleep so far and woke refreshed at a “normal” Island time! Today I decided to cook a nice breakfast for all of them. Pineapple-Coconut pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, pineapple, papaya, and of course coffee! After everyone ate we got ready and headed out to Maui Tropical Plantation. Yes, it is a tourist spot but I like it and wanted Saira to see it plus I doubt Steven remembered it from when he was a teen. The place has changed quite a bit. Maybe even more touristy. They really promote the zip line they have and it is quite expensive in comparison to others we have seen. They still have the tram and they still crack open a coconut and give you some to eat but the route the tram takes is a little shorter. You can still see how most things grown on the island look. This time in addition to the coconut the tram driver/guide gave us each an apple banana. Nice that there were so few of us on this particular tram so we got the whole banana and didn’t have to share! They’ve added an expensive little chocolate shop, a glass blower, and a Tiki wood carver. They are interesting to look at. They also have an app on Guidebooks with corresponding numbers as you walk around the gardens and other areas. I did download it but didn’t really use it. The dreary old restaurant is being refurbished, it is now built over part of the old tram route, with added water features and sculptures. Overall it is a nice improvement to the place. The restaurant looks like it will be very nice when it reopens. We headed back to the condo and decided to stop at Moose McGillycuddy's since were were starving. We had a nice lunch (dinner) and headed back to the condo. After a brief R&R we headed to the beach with S&S. Such energy they have. The wind was really blowing and the water was pretty rough. This is typical for afternoon as the trade winds really pick up, today was especially windy, the sand stung our skin but we had a great time watching them on the boogie boards or are they body boards? Anyway, it was fun. Steven is getting more practice on his GoPro. Another lovely day in PARADISE!

Maui Tropical Plantation

Moose McGillycuddy’s

Steven’s Seafood Platter

Kamaole Beach Park I

Hawaiian Dogs!

Kamaole Beach Club-Day 3

We snorkeled this am with Seafire Snorkeling Adventures. The boat takes off from Kihei Boat Ramp, which is probably less than a mile south of us at Kamaole Beach Club. We have never heard of them before even though they have been in business for years. The morning snorkel to Molokini was $60 pp, most are $100+ now. This is no frills but we liked it. The boat is a “shell” of a Coast Guard boat so very safe, new, and smaller so it is a more intimate group. They serve only soft drinks (wise in my opinion), muffins, and fresh pineapple. They are helpful and very friendly, fitting your gear to your face size, etc. John and I only snorkeled for a little bit but it was really fun watching S&S. Saira has never done it before but she is athletic and caught on quickly, we joke that Steven is a "merman" so he was diving, etc... well, he was diving until his ears started to hurt. They advised him not to free dive when he has a cold, so he stopped after that. He is using his GoPro that we got him for his BD. There is an obvious learning curve, but it is all the latest for young people who are athletic. He did pretty well for his first time using it underwater. At some point I hope to post a video he has edited of his trip. I want to add that we snorkeled the back side of Molokini as well and I hope I will have a lot of Steven’s photos to share, if not today, maybe tomorrow? We came back starved and ate at the condo, BBQ beef sandwiches on purple taro rolls, Hawaiian potato salad, and veggie platter. John and I showered and redressed his foot. It is looking better. He has a few large, special, waterproof bandages the nurse gave him and I do believe it kept the area dry. John and Steven both napped after lunch, soon Saira joined them. The afternoon was restful for us. S&S went to Wal-Mart and perhaps other places, I’m not sure. He was going to buy some GoPro accessories but they were too expensive. They also ate dinner at Eskimo Candy, a little fish restaurant we found on our last trip, and they loved it. Another beautiful sunset and John and I are ready for bed! I did wake up before 5am, still on Pacific time I guess. S&S took towels and snacks and headed to the beach. I love the beach at night but we’re just too tired tonight. We had a LOVELY day!

KBC, Help yourself to local bananas!

Our Ride This Morning, special photo taken by Steven

S&S doin’ it up right!

White Tipped Shark

S&S Arrive-Kamaole Beach Club-Day 2

The kids texted from San Jose waiting for their flight to board. It’s fun to see them so excited about this trip! Today we took a short walk on the beach, even before coffee! It was so lovely and peaceful, the water is so calm this morning, before the trade winds begin. Lots of dogs and their owners walking on the beach, we sure miss Tony.  It was a short walk but had to get my feet wet at least! Back for coffee and fresh pineapple. We are eager for S&S to arrive! Of course their flight was on time and we are happy to see them. We had a nice lunch at Outback Steakhouse and then home to the timeshare where they unpacked and got settled in. Steven is not feeling great and took a short nap while Saira and I booked a snorkel trip out of Kihei for tomorrow. I didn’t even know they had a trip like that out of Kihei but she found it and it was a good price. They ran a few errands, we relaxed, and took another short walk on the beach. Saira wore Steven’s GoPro in the water but it was pretty dark by then and we didn’t see much. Another lovely sunset tonight, with a brief Lana’ i interruption.

Hibiscus

Flowers From Costco

They Arrived!!!

Lunch, livin’ large!

Steven in the Hawai’i spirit!

John-Hang Loose!

The sun slips down behind Lana’i

Kamaole Beach Club-Day 1

We were up early but just relaxed and got ready to go by the noon check out time.  We did order breakfast from Tante’s Restaurant just down stairs. We had Eggs Benedict and it was delicious, with fresh pineapple as the included fruit cup. We left just before noon and headed to Costco. At least Costco setup seemed much the same and we did the majority of our shopping there. As we were leaving I got a call from Patti at Kamaole Beach Club and she wanted us to know our unit was ready, in fact it was ready last night. She was sorry she did not let us know sooner, I was sorry I didn’t ask!!!  Anyway, it worked out fine. We headed directly there, unloaded and got all our groceries put away, then unpacked. After that we took a quick trip to Hilo Hattie’s to get new “slippers” and we were shocked to find out they had very few and NONE in the size we wanted.  They suggested the shop next door, that did have them.  I was very happy as that is all I wear here and most of the summer at home too. Then it was on to Safeway for a few small things we could not find other places, or didn’t want to buy a huge container of at Costco. Back to KBC and we had our lobster ravioli for dinner, delicious! (Costco) Took a short walk after dinner, can’t go far with John’s foot ulcer. The sun is in a different position, going down behind Lana’i so we will have different sunset photos this trip, didn’t even get one tonight. Lots of clouds in the sky but lovely colors. 

Like coming home again…

The Fridge is stuffed!

My breakfast, please ripe quickly!

Ginger Flower

Maui Bound

Up at 5am, well I barely slept so I was up anyway. The shuttle was prompt as was self check-in, and we got put in the Pre TSA line so we didn’t even have to take our shoes off, etc!  We boarded early, a privilege of being older or with young children. Our flight even left early! Departure was 7:15am and we got here at 9:15am. Hawaii is 3 hours earlier right now, sometimes it is only 2 hours because they don’t have daylight savings time here.  We picked up our rental car and headed over to Maui Seaside Hotel for our one night before moving to the timeshare in Kihei. We did this one day early as it was the only way I could get free flights in one direction. Same reason we went in and out of OAK, the free flight with points. When searching for a good price I noticed the price is really a lot higher in just 2 years since we came last. Our room is not ready and they said to come back at 3pm, they did say we could park now, use the pool, etc. but we did want to shop for a few things at Wal-Mart. First we went to the Whole Foods store and bought lunch. It is a nice set up for lunch with even more choices than we have seen at Whole Foods on the mainland. We ate outside listening to a couple of locals playing the guitar and singing, they were pretty good. On to Wal-Mart… It was very run down and not terribly clean. Several selves were empty. Unfortunately I noticed the price increases even here. I hoped to get the calendars for 2015 I like so much and they didn’t even have them. Everything in the Kahului area seems much more crowded than I remember it being. But we love Maui and we are not unhappy, just noting the changes we are seeing. We did the Wal-Mart shopping, sat in the cool breeze of the lanai at the Maui Seaside Hotel when we got back and shortly our room was ready. I was horizontal moments after arrival and slept for about 12-13 hours, I really was exhausted. John watched TV I did hear that going on but it was so relaxing, so I can say the bed was nice and comfortable! I did wake up a little before 4am, and really never went back to sleep after that. I will say that is the usual time I get up anyway at home (6-7am). This hotel is not bad, it is not special either. It is clean and that means the most to me. Staff is friendly. Most of the rooms had a balcony, ours did not because they said we had the “Expedia rate” – which was the case. There is coffee in the room, Bath and Body toiletries, and nice hot water. There is a very narrow beach and it does not actually “meet” the ocean, it is more of a channel with a rock jetty on two different sides. Still nice for swimming of one chooses to do so. The price is decent for a one night stay. I couldn’t find any Airbnb.com spots willing to do one night. It is on the opposite side of the island where we usually stay and surrounded by a lot of the city, I suspect it is quite old, but nicely kept.

This and a soft drink, coffee, or water is ALL you get for free anymore…but wait, we did get a free Mai Tai just before landing!

Maui Seaside Hotel

Sparkling Coconut Water…Yum!

Oakland-OAK

Today we traveled to Oakland Quality Inn, just a short shuttle ride to OAK. This is not our favorite place to be but I got a one way flight free with points from here so, here we are. We had a nice visit with our friend June, and left Tony at her house.  I still wish the timeshare would take dogs!  He would love running on the beach, even if he didn’t like the flight over. Our trip was uneventful, the best kind. There was a little traffic around the 680, which is typical no matter what time of day it is. Then of course we took the wrong turn off and had an excursion though apart of Oakland most people don’t care to see.  Eventually we found the hotel, ate our caprese salad I made ahead with a glass of wine, then slept the best we could waiting for our alarm to go off. 

Another Reservation

While we are up in Ka'napali we will go see Ulalena, which we did see a number of years ago. It was fabulous when my sister took us to it then and we are eager to see it again. It is a story about the people of Hawai’i. We got some really good seats in the second row so it will be really nice.

More Reservations

I have procrastinated about some reservations for various things for this trip so I really needed to get on top of that today. I was very disappointed that I could not book the Old Lahaina Luau but I did book the Feast at Lele luau that is supposed to be very nice, I’ve been told it is “even better” than Old Lahaina Luau. That’s hard to believe but I hope it is nice for Steven’s birthday. We now have our hotel room in place for the preflight night and the one extra night we need in Hawaii because we are arriving one night before the timeshare starts. It was cheaper to fly a day earlier and rent a hotel than fly the day later. It all worked out. We will stay at Maui Seaside Hotel very near the airport so we can make out Costco stop the day after we arrive and then head to the timeshare. I also made the rental car reservation at a new site I haven’t used before, Discount Hawaii Car Rental, and I do believe we saved a few dollars.