Valley Isle Memorial After Dark

Cemeteries give me the creeps.  You see all the gravestones and read the writing on said gravestones.

Valley Isle Memorial Park located on the Hana Highway just before Haiku is the only graveyard I don't really mind.  Due to the fact that the the tombstones are flush with the grass facing up, the park isn't as ominous, to me at least.

When viewed at night, you see a side of the park rarely glimpsed.  All you see are the little solar powered lights friends and relatives erect next to their departed loved ones.

Pickle Mango

Let's say you have a mango tree in your front yard.  Of course the fruit ripens all at once, and since a fully-grown mango tree can give birth to hundreds of mangoes at the same time, you can't possibly consume them all before the fruit rots.  What to do?

Enter a local tradition that goes hand in hand with  food preservation methods dating back thousands of years - pickling of the mango.

"Pickle mango" is simply sliced mango pickled in a chilled sweet brine solution, usually infused with li-hing powder - a tasty plum-like flavoring common in the Islands.  Locals put li-hing on everything - popcorn at the movies, preserved fruits like cherries, gummy bears, you name it.  Li -hing makes everything a bit sweeter and more savory.

This pickle mango stand was set up on the side of Hana Highway right before Paia town.  You will see this very distinctive pickle mango sign all over the North Shore, so if you're in the area and see this call to mango lovers the world over, why not pull over and have a taste of local Hawaiiana?

Roar!

I love my pets, and this shot was a lucky grab.   His name is Tiger, a.k.a. - "Bah Bah" as he sounds like a sheep.  He's doing what he does best - nothing at all!

Tourists On Vacation

I tried to think of a more original post title, but that pretty much sums it up, so I'll leave it at that.  I never spend much time in Kihei around sunset as I'm usually at home by then, but I was visiting my sister today and thought it was a great time to get some shots of the beach and S. Kihei Rd.  Tourists galore!

After a bit of walking around, I realized that Kihei in general is what I believe visitors expect when then come to Maui.  Hey, if I was on vacation, I would probably think so too - full of sunsets, beaches, cuddling, ice cream, and posing for photos.

If you care about these kinds of things, all shots were taken with a 35mm prime lens (52mm equivalent on a full-frame camera) with a Nikon D90 shot wide-open at f1.8.

A Traffic Inferno

Yesterday afternoon, there was a 25 acre brushfire near the Kahului Heliport that snarled traffic around Kahului, Paia, and blocked access to Upcountry and Paia for hours.  Originally reported around 1:25P, I got stuck in the traffic trying to get home (Haiku) from Kihei at 3PM.  The only way to get to Paia was via the back road behind Costco, which incidentally wasn't closed and led traffic right by the fire. Fortunately, the road was upwind of the fire.

At the time, Hansen road and Hana highway between Dairy Road and Haleakala Highway intersection were closed.

 Here are the smoldering remnants of the fire.

Due to the nearby location of the fire to the airport, we got to see the fancy airport fire rescue trucks in action.

Me stuck in traffic trying to get to Paia.

Crazy mess - intersection of Hana Highway and Dairy Road

Officer directing traffic at above intersection

A Picture Perfect Maui Suburbia

The suburbs.  I grew up in a Florida suburb, in Saint Petersburg on the Gulf Coast.  The rows of houses with fenced, manicured yards, sidewalks on both sides of the street, and depending on the suburb, houses that look like they were erected from one of 5 standard templates.

Well, Maui has its own share of the 'burbs too - where resident families of Maui lay roots.  If you're visiting Maui, you will probably never intentionally eye such neighborhoods.

I always thought suburbs such as this one were a little creepy.  It all looks the same.  Are the people the same too?  Who exactly lives around you?  Such uniformity and acceptance of conformity.  Different strokes for different folks I guess.

This is the Maui Lani subdivision near Wailuku.  The neighborhood was shot in the early morning light around 6:30AM on a Sunday morning while driving through in my truck.

The Google mobile!

A Park Ranger truck - note the newspaper in the driveway.

The Earth Keeps Rotating

I've been on Maui for 6 years now, and I don't think I'll tire of sunrises or sunsets like these. Please note, the images have not been digitally enhanced in post-production.



Sunrise from Kahului (facing northeast)

Sunset from Haiku (facing north)