O’heo Gulch

O’heo Gulch, also known as the Seven Sacred Pools, is a series of waterfalls about 10 miles outside of Hana that flow into the ocean.  We managed to beat many of the tourists there today and have a splash in the water.

Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator, is buried nearby.  Apparently he lived the last six years of his life near Hana.  We took a moment to pay respects at his grave.

For lunch we discovered an amazing vegetarian food truck called Cafe Romantica.  It’s the #1 rated Hana restaurant according to TripAdvisor.  After eating there we know it’s well deserved.  When heading east, you can find it parked just past the Hana Hotel on the right side of the road.

Banyan Tree at O’heo Gulch

Charles Lindbergh’s Grave

Ohe’o Gulch

Troy in one of the O’heo Gulch waterfalls

The Road to Hana

Hana is the biggest village on the very eastern side of Maui.  While it’s only around 40 miles away from the main airport the drive takes a little over two hours.  The road is well maintained but constantly turning and curving and sprinkled with one lane bridges.  It must take all the aloha the experienced natives can muster to share this road with the many tourists in bright convertibles making their virgin journey.

There are many places to stop and see waterfalls, ponds and gardens and opportunities to buy fresh fruit smoothies and locally made banana bread.  We only made two quick stops.  The first was the Lower Puohokamoa Falls which are only a few steps off the road.

Lower Puohokamoa Falls

The other was the Wai’anapanapa black sand beach whose sands are filled with beautiful stones that look like onyx shaped by the ocean waves.

We’re staying at the Hana Hotel which is the only resort for miles.  Fortunately, this monopoly hasn’t reduced the quality of the experience.  Every Thursday they have a managers reception with free drinks (including some powerful Mai Tais) and pupus followed by local musicians and hula dancers.  It’s a low key, casual affair and loads of fun.  We met some of the dancers who were really lovely people.  I’d make a point of being here on another Thursday to catch it again.

Sliding Sands Hike at Haleakala

Haleakala is a dormant volcano on the east side of Maui island. It’s a beautiful sight whether you’re down on the beach or up on top looking into the various craters.

Sunrise over Haleakala as seen from Kihei

During a visit to Maui in 2008 we took the Sunrise Bike Tour offered by the Haleakala Bike Company.  They take you up VERY early in the morning so you can see the sun rise over the summit.  You then bike your way down.  It’s an awesome experience and the bike ride, being all downhill, is nothing but fun.  (Don’t forget to stop at the Kula Lodge for breakfast.)

We decided we wanted to spend some additional time on Haleakala this visit so we drove up to the summit to hike the Sliding Sands trail.  The trail starts at the summit and the hike down is deceptively easy.  It offers great views of what looks like a martian landscape of peaks and craters with amazing mix of rust colors and volcanic rocks.  Plan to take a little longer on the way back up as it definitely takes more effort than going down.  (Duh.)

View of Haleakala from the Summit

Troy and Tee at Haleakala

Later in the day we made our way to Little Beach in Makena with hopes of catching one of the amazing sunsets there.  It made for a relaxing afternoon but, sadly, there was too much cloud to allow for much of a sunset.

Sand Castle at Little Beach

Snorkeling at Molokini

Molokini is a volcanic crater that arises out of the water between Maui and Kaho’olawe.  As you drive around Maui it’s hard to miss and I’ve always been curious about it so we decided to book a snorkeling trip so we could see it close up.  The Pacific Whale Foundation offers a 5 hour boat tour that includes a light breakfast, snorkeling gear and lunch.

View of Molokini from the Boat

We had a great time.  The crew were all college-educated naturalists who provided a snorkeling tutorial, nature talks for adults and kids as well as preparing and serving food and drinks.  We were able to see loads of colorful fish and coral.

We also made an additional stop at Turtle Arches which is apparently a sea turtle hang out.  We saw a couple of turtles surface near the boat when we arrived and we were even able to swim with one while we were snorkeling.  All-in-all a great trip.

Maui Coffee Pilgrimage

Tee is a huge fan of coffee and realized that he had never seen a coffee plant in person before.  While I believe most of the coffee grown in Hawaii is in Kona, there is a coffee farm in West Maui near Ka’anapali.  We made a pilgrimate to the MauiGrown Coffee company store and tasted several varities then took a short driving tour of the nearby Ka’anapali Coffee Farms.

Tee at the MauiGrown Coffee Company Store

We spent the afternoon at the beach around our place reading and throwing a football.  When sunset came we made our way to the roof of our condo building which was surprisingly vacant and offered some great views.

View of Kama'ole Beach Park 1 from our Roof

Troy and Tee on the Roof of the Royal Mauian

Lastly, we made our way to Mama’s Fish House near Paia.  We’ve driven by the entrance countless times but never made a point of going.  A friend in Seattle recommended we give it a try and the food there is impressive.  The signature dish is Mahi Mahi stuffed with crab and served with a small lobster tail and some asparagus.  Delicious!

I lost my sunglasses.

I lost my sunglasses a few weeks ago.  This wasn’t a problem because the weather in Seattle had turned into the weather people generally expect from Seattle.  This involves a kind of regular, damp mist and overcast skies.  To a Seattleite, this weather has its own beauty but requires little from the sunglasses department.

We arrived in Maui late on Saturday night and after sorting through baggage claim, car rental and the requisite pilgrimage to the Safeway off the Pi’ilani Highway, we made our way to bed shortly after arriving at the condo we rented at the Royal Mauian.

This was our first time arriving on Hawai’i at night.  Usually you can start to acclimate to the beauty of the sun and surf from the window seat of the airplane, then the drive in, and on arrival at wherever you’re staying.  Not having had this time I almost lost my breath when I descended to the shoreline the next morning.  The beauty of these islands never ceases to amaze.

And wow — the sun is bright!  First stop: Sunglass Hut.  I love my new Ray Bans.

View from Kama'ole Beach Park 1

Day 1 was peaceful.  The highlights in bullet form are:

• Loco Moco from Da Kitchen Express across the street — Loco Moco, a Hawaiian delicacy, is worthy of its own blog post.  In short: rice, hamburger patty, fried egg, gravy.  Nom nom.
• Walk along the nearby beach parks: Kama’ole I, II and III
• Mass at St. Theresa’s, the local church, which offers upbeat music
• Dinner at Monkey Pod Kitchen, a relatively new restaurant in Wailea that has a huge bar, live music, pizza and an extensive selection of fish.

Staying fit in Seattle

When I moved away from Seattle five years ago, I pretty quickly found a weekly pick-up basketball game.  It happened to be a bunch of people from work and we met weekly for a fun game.  I grew to really enjoy it – never quite grew to a stellar basketball player, but definitely got decent (it’s all relative, keep in mind!).  In addition to that, I had a local gym that was rarely crowded and easy to do a workout at.  I probably could have used it more, but at least I was in a fitness routine for the most part.

Now that we’re back in Seattle, I’ve really struggled to get into a rhythm of good fitness and exercise.  We built out a basic free-weight room in the unfinished portion of our cellar.  So in reality, I have no excuses for not at least exercising there periodically.  It’s remarkable how easy the excuses do come to avoid doing exercise!  I’m currently still working under the assumption that picking a few activities like basketball will ultimately work better for me (maybe the commitment to a team or a fun activity).

Anyway, Troy’s new Seattle-area start-up (fitropolis.com) is designed to help people like me..  want to find all your local Seattle gyms?  Want to look for Yoga in Seattle?  Want a gym with a basketball court and a swimming pool in Seattle?  You get the point..  it’s pretty cool to see them soft-launch recently and to continue building out with additional info soon, such as personal trainers, pilates, etc.  It’s particularly nice that as a real person I can see value in the site – there really is no easy way to figure out fitness options in Seattle when you care about particular aspects of the facility.

Now I suppose step 2 for me is to actually do something about it, now that I know what my options are..

Seattle

Starting a list of service-related things in Seattle we like and would use again..

• Seattle Landscaping through Ligaya Landscaping – great small company for lawn and garden maintenance and projects.
• Construction and Remodel through Proform Construction – again, a small company with great service and results

just get rid of the debt ceiling once and for all

Okay, this whole will-they / won’t-they about the US Congress raising the debt ceiling is a bit crazy. Let’s stop back for once brief moment and look at what the entire debate is over. It’s not finance. It’s politics. But it really is finance and that’s the problem. Yes, that’s right – we’ve elected lots of stupid people to Congress. Oh my.

If memory serves me and various news reports on the debt ceiling crisis are accurate, the United States is one of about two countries in the world who have a debt ceiling. The other is Denmark I believe. I have no idea how the debt ceiling works in Denmark, but let me do a recap of how the debt ceiling works in the US. There are two main factors to be aware of.

First, requests for spending and for budgets are typically approved by Congress. For example, the annual budget of XYZ department in the government? That’s decided upon by Congress. Similarly, Congress – yes, the same one – decides on taxes. How much income do you need to make before you pay taxes? How much? Which deductions can you claim? What is the rate of selling stock held for less than twelve months? You get the point. So what’s the point of this? The point is that Congress determines how much income the federal government takes in, and Congress also decides on how much money the federal government spends. There is some elementary school teacher somewhere who is jumping up and down, exclaiming “subtract the spending from the income!”

Second, we come back to the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is an artificial and fairly useless separate law. That law basically sets in stone the maximum amount of money the US government can owe – ie be in debt by – at any given time. That maximum number is written into the law and is called the debt ceiling.

So the situation the financial world is all in a mess amount is that Congress has allocated and approved so much spend that the US’s total debt is now quickly approaching the maximum debt ceiling. August 2, 2011 I believe is the day when the US government will hit that ceiling, barring any change.

One may make a logical argument that since Congress already has approved all the money flowing out of the US Treasury, presumably Congress was also okay spending that amount. And since Congress has done or not done anything to change tax rates or close loopholes, presumably Congress is okay with the revenue flowing in. So it strikes me as completely unbelievable that we are seriously having a debate in Congress about whether to raise the debt ceiling or not. If you don’t want to raise it, try not approving new spend next time without an income source.

So I’m torn between eliminating the debt ceiling all together – bye bye stupid limit, and firing all the stupid people in Congress. It’s not all of them, mind you, but it’s most of you. Be on notice!

Am I missing something?

Seattle: The Most Active City in the USA

We arrived in Seattle just as Men’s Health declared Seattle the most active city in the United States. This is great news because I truly believe that you are shaped by the peer group that surrounds you. We’re fortunate to have active friends and even found room to build out a home gym in our new place.

I already have plans to try Spinning for the first time and am longing to go bouldering at my old climbing gym. But summer in Seattle is all about being outdoors so I’m particularly looking forward to some great walks and hikes, especially in the nearby mountain ranges. When winter comes I’m more likely to include some hot yoga or swimming at an indoor pool.

Needless to say, I have a lot of curiosity about the fitness scene in Seattle. At the same time I’m eager to improve my skills in web development so I’m playing around with a site focused on Seattle Yoga Studios and Gyms in Seattle. A friend and I are committed to updating it as we learn more about the sorts of things that keep Seattle at the peak of the active list. The site is called fitropolis.com. Check it out!