Hawaii 4-0! The Series

Below is a compilation of posts from our trip to Maui in late November to celebrate my 40th birthday.

Just click on the headlines to access the stories and pictures.

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HAWAII 4-0!

Part 1 - "It's Out of My Hands"
Our trip gets off to a surprising start

Part 2 - Lets Go Surfin' Now (And Other Aquatic Adventures)
We hit the waves...hilarity ensues

Photo Feature
Check out the pictures I took while on Maui

Part 3 - Eating on Maui
Not just a lot of fish stories

Part 4 - A Birthday to Remember
Relive my big 40th Birthday Party

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Hawaii 4-0, Part 4 - A Birthday to Remember

You don’t turn 40 very often. And when you do…if you are fortunate…you will be able to celebrate with friends and do so in a fun and exotic place. If you’re really lucky, you’ll be able to have an excellent birthday dinner on top of everything else.

Well, count me fortunate and lucky because that all is exactly what came to pass on my own 40th birthday. Diane and I knew we would go to Maui for my four-decade-a-palooza, but we were very fortunate that a number of friends joined us on our Hawaiian trip. Many of our friends who we would have loved to have been there couldn’t make it for one reason or another, and certainly asking people to do something other than visit with their families over the Thanksgiving holiday limits who is willing and able to participate. So, we were super pleased that 11 of them could make it to Maui.

However, we wanted to avoid daily "group think," so mostly people in our group did their own thing while there – beach, pool, shop, snorkel, surf, eat out, etc. The one thing we all did together was my birthday dinner on November 26…also Thanksgiving Day.

Here’s how it unfolded…

Pre-Func
A good party deserves a “prefunc.” And so it was for my birthday. Meeting at the upper bar of the Westin pool deck area, our group kicked off festivities with a round of cocktails as the sun went down over the horizon and a friendly Hawaiian played a ukulele for the gathered. Somebody must have tipped him off that it was my birthday because he suddenly broke into the birthday song for me. As the group sang along, I have to say that this was as unique a birthday serenade as I’ve ever had. At right is a picture of Diane and me at the bar where this all happened.

Party on Wheels
The restaurant where we were to have our dinner was an hour drive from the hotel, and so with great foresight Diane arranged for a van – more of a bus – to take our entire group there together. A stroke of genius. Another stroke of genius was bringing some very nice champagne with us to keep the party going as we traveled to the restaurant. The only thing was, the bus company would not let us bring glass bottles on board. Hmmm. What to do? Third stroke of genius…put the champagne in plastic pitchers and give everyone a plastic champagne glass. Perfect. Carefully planning our exit from the hotel so the Westin “police” wouldn’t see us dispensing our first round on their property, we covertly assembled our drinks on the back bumper of one of our vehicles. See picture below.

From there it was over to the bus with plenty of bubbly in reserve in those pitchers and off to our dinner. Dark outside now, we were on the road with a driver who knew where he was going and so we continued the festivities all the way…all the way to Mama’s Fish House.

The Main Event
Pulling into the parking lot of Mama’s near the town of Paia, we now realized it was raining. This was kind of a bummer, but it was still a good 75 degrees outside so we quickly dashed from the bus to the safety of the undercover greeting station at the top of the hill above the main restaurant. Securing some complementary umbrellas, we made our way down the steps, across the beach side lawn and over to check our group in.

Unfortunately, despite having reservations for our group for about eight months in advance, the restaurant could not seat us at our reservation time of 7:45 p.m. All told, the made us wait for about an hour. But, at least if you have to wait an hour for your table at Mama’s you can do so in a really cool South Pacific and Hawaiian themed bar. Equal parts tiki tacky and upscale modern (really, it’s both) the bar and restaurant as a whole deploys a very unique and enjoyable ambiance. They also deploy a mean mai thai…which most of us quickly ordered upon entering the bar.

As we looked around the bar, we realized that the restaurant structure wasn’t really a building in the four-walls-and-a-ceiling sense of it. Rather, the roof line appeared to be cobbled together in pieces with drainage pipes placed strategically to catch and distribute rainwater elsewhere. Also, there were not too many solid external walls – especially on the sides of the restaurant facing the ocean. Perfectly dry and warm the whole night through, I thought this was a pretty neat feature of the restaurant. Seated at one big table in the middle of the restaurant, our group got down the serious business of ordering and eating.

Lei
One of the first things brought to our table after another round of mai thais was a beautiful, colorful and fresh Hawaiian lei – for me! At left is a picture of Diane and me, and I'm wearing the lei.

Aps
The table started out with a round of shrimp won tons, ono and ahi in coconut, wasabi crusted calamari and probably a few things I'm now forgetting. But suffice it to say that the flavors really lit up our mouths!

Entres
I ordered a savory piece of mahi mahi stuffed with lobser, crab and Maui onions and cooked with a macadamian nut glaze. Wow. Diane had the Opah fish with Maui onions and avocado.

NOTE: You can see the Mama's menu by clicking...here.

Gifts
Just having friends along to celebrate is a gift enough, and certainly nobody needed to or was asked to bring me any gifts. However, generous as our crew is, I did receive some nice presents and cards. Thank you to everyone who gave me something.

Cake
Like the lei, unbeknownst to me, Diane had arranged for a delightful birthday cake for me and the table to cap off the meal. Below is a picture of it. She knows I’m a chocolate cake man, and this cake did not disappoint!

A Silent Return
As the very last diners to leave the restaurant this night, we hefted ourselves back up the stairs to the waiting bus. Once aboard, our driver got us going back toward home. Not more than 10 minutes when by and our whole group slipped into a post-dinner, post-cocktails, long-day, its-dark-in-the-bus silence that wasn’t broken until we arrived back at the Westin. As we glided along the coastal highway, I noticed how pretty the Hawaiian moon shone off the Pacific ocean and bounced up to catch the silhouette of the palm trees lining the shore. A very calm and beautiful last vision for my birthday.

Approaching midnight, our bus pulled back into the Westin parking lot and our friends all bid adieu for the evening.

Back at our condo, as Diane and I climbed into our bed I noticed that the clock in our room read 12 midnight. I said, “Well, it’s not my 40th birthday anymore.” Diane quickly replied, “Yep, you’re just another 40 year old dude now.” I laughed because, well, it was true. Too true. But what a way to enter my fourth decade!

A very special thank you to my wife Diane for arranging the party bus, the diner reservations, the champagne, the lei, the cake, and…putting up with me for the last 12+ years. I love you!

Hawaii 4-0, Part 2 - Let's Go Surfin' Now (And Other Aquatic Adventures)

There is just something about warm tropical waters, smooth sand and crashing waves to play around in that sooths the soul and we took full advantage of the ocean and shore on this trip.

On our first whole day on Maui, a Sunday, we kicked off with a nice four mile run along the coastal road to burn off some of the previous evening’s dinner and drinks. Sure, we were running, but what a view! However, that was all the “work” we did the rest of the day as we decided to take it easy and join our friends Matt and Kristine at their low key pad right on Napili Bay. Their little condo complex sat directly above the beach on the relatively unpopulated, but extremely beautiful stretch of sand. Playing in the waves, soaking up the sun and, well, not doing much else really fit the bill. This is a LONG way from cold, rain and stressful jobs and oh how good it felt. The nice Maui Brewery Bikini Blond beers didn’t hurt either.

Monday we decided to take surf lessons. This was something I always have wanted to do, and I figured if not now, when?

Joined now by our friend Sean who arrived Sunday, Matt, Kristine, Diane and I signed up for the lessons from the pros right in front of the Westin Resort on Kanapali beach. These guys know their stuff and from their tans, tattoos and attitudes…you know these surfers are gonna make sure you ride at least one wave under their tutelage. And they did. But first, they taught us the moves needed stand up on a board as it’s propelled through by a wave. After that it was out into the ocean where we took turns as instructors gave us tips and helped us catch waves by shoving our boards forwards at just the right time. After this “launch” you are supposed to through your moves to stand up and then ride the wave in. Diane rode one of her first waves in. Sean and Kristine soon picked it up. It took me a little longer, but low and behold I did do it at least once.

On one of my tries I picked up a surfing souvenir - a scrape to the palm of my hand from the coral that resides only a few feet under the surface of the water. Oh well. It proved to be an exhilarating couple hours…and we have pictures to prove it.

At left is a shot of me "up" on the surfboard...not a great picture or anything, but proof!

On Tuesday, we took off for the south coast of the island for some great snorkeling in one of the many little coral-formed bays that you can find there. Each of them is its own tropical fish bowl with loads of colorful and exotic fish – bright yellow, black and white spots, neon blue and pink, pencil thin, striped and more. Quite simply, some of the best snorkeling we’ve ever done. Below is a picture of the stretch of coast near where we snorkeled.

Our other water sports activities on this trip simply consisted of body surfing, boogie boarding and generally just dinking around in the waves at one of the wonderful beaches on Maui.

One of these outings proved to be a little costly too. After snorkeling, our group headed for Big Beach – a broad sandy stretch lined by palm trees and just about as perfect of a beach as you’d ever want. After greasing up with suntan lotion I picked up our beach football and began throwing it with Sean and my brother-in-law, Matt (not the same Matt as mentioned before). Standing in the surf flinging the ball around was really fun…until the ball came to me real low and I jabbed my hands downward to catch it. Lifting the ball out of the surf I instantly realized THAT MY WEDDING RING HAD FALLEN OFF!

Panicked, I looked quickly in the shallow water to see if I could quickly spot and scoop up the ring. But, it was not to be as a wave came crashing through and then withdrew – either burring the ring or hauling it out to the ocean. After about 30 minutes of looking I gave up. Diane didn’t think it was too big a deal. After all, it didn’t lose HER and a ring can be replaced. At least if I lost it, it was to the ocean in Hawaii and not, for example, at a football game as was my near miss a year or so ago...which you can read about by clicking here. None the less, I was pretty bummed for a few hours. I guess I know what I’m getting for Christmas this year!

Next up, I’ll be back to post about some of the great places we ate in Maui.

Hawaii 4-0

This past Thanksgiving week, Diane and I bugged out of rainy Seattle and barreled over to Hawaii to celebrate my 40^th birthday. My own “Hawaii 4-0” if you will. For safe measure, a pack of our great friends came along to share the cheer.

For those of you who’ve never been to Hawaii, well, you’re missing out. Lets see…tropical island beach paradise, slowed down relaxing culture, great local and Asian food, easy to get around, surfing, snorkeling, laying the beach, topical breeze. What’s there not to love? Well, maybe a six hour flight from Seattle, but that’s worth it once you’re there.

At least it did for us, and the destination of Maui seem a fitting place for us to ring in the fourth decade of my time on the planet – a place to relax, enjoy, run around and play like a kid while still taking in the finer points of the islands’ culture.

With seven full days and parts of two more at our disposal, I think we made the most of our time. For those interested, I’m going to lay out a few highlights of our trip over several posts going over a variety of things including our eating, outdoor activities and the big b-day celebration.

Before diving in, I’ll simply say thanks to my wife, Diane, for planning such a wonderful trip and celebration, and a thanks to all our friends who came along for the ride. We really are so glad you were there.

OK, to start things off, I’ll go with this…

Part I – "It’s Out of My Hands"

After a long flight over from Seattle, Diane and I were giddy to be on the island of Maui. Even the first few moments out in the warm sun and breeze made us feel better. You knew this was going to be a good week.

After picking up our car, donning our sunglasses and relaxing even more, we struck out immediately for Kaanapali – the area of the island where our condo we were staying in is. On our way, we stopped to have lunch at the “feet in the sand” restaurant on the shore called Hulas. Some icy Longboard lagers, fish tacos and sandwiches later we were really feeling the Aloha. But, the condo awaited and there also was the little matter (at least to me) of getting checked in and in front of at TV to catch the big Oregon Duck football game vs. Arizona. Win and Duckies likely go to the Rose Bowl. Lose and not likely. Big game.

So on our way we went. Pulling in to the lot at the Papakea Resort, all was good. Until we tried to check in. (Below: view from our balcony at the Papakea Resort.)

To our horror, we learned that the room we had booked directly from the condo unit owner had been given out to someone else. Further, there were apparently no rooms they would or could move us to. To make matters worse, we didn’t have any verification info in our possession since we had made these arrangements with the condo owner herself.

And the condo staff could not have been less helpful. The big comeback from the guy behind the desk was, “I can’t do anything, it’s out of my hands.” My stress level went up pretty high as I feared we be stuck without a room – crashing on some of our friends’ hotel room floors – AND given that the ball game was starting. What were we going to do? Both Diane and I were pretty distressed. Only she didn’t show it and I did. While I was stressing out and starting to call hotels to see about availability, Diane calmly remembered three phone numbers for our condo owner friend out of thin air and called her in a desperate attempt to try and circumvent this tragedy.

To make a long story short…the condo management canceled our reservation because they mistakenly believed that the OTHER reservation in our name (the one we made for family and friends coming) was ours. As in, how could they possibly have two reservations? And, the guy at the desk was either unwilling or unable to make any decisions to resolve the problem…and he was the only one there. Our friend did eventually call and things were straightened out after some heated discussion and the intervention of the condo manager at long last.

I caught the second half of the football game at the Maui Brewing Company Pub (Ducks won in double overtime) and we spent our first night of the trip in a different unit than we’d arranged for. Drama over, we met up with our good friends Matt and Kristine (who had already been on Maui for a week!) for a drink and then we headed out for dinner…but more on our eating exploits in a future post.

The next day we moved into the unit we were supposed to be staying. I can only imagine the condo people had to give the other people who mistakenly were in our unit another to stay in.

On to the rest of our vacation!