Shannon and Nick's Wedding

Last night’s dinner was at the Westin down the beach from the Sheraton.  It was beachside, facing the sunset, right at that time.  It was a 4 course meal starting with a large diver scallop, then onion risotto, then mong chong fish, and finally a chocolate tort, with wine pairings for each course.  Totally awesome… the best dinner, and most romantic, we had here.

The Westin is also beautiful.  Well, they don’t have the views that the building 6 has at the Sheraton, but still very beautiful.  If we had kids or were with another couple, I think that would be the place to be.  Lots of stuff going on there.

This morning we got a underwater camera and headed out in to the ocean again.  We went up around Pu’u Keka’a (poo-poo kee-kah-ah .. had to put that Hawaiian name .. it’s the Black Rock outside our window) and took a bunch of pictures of the reef and two of one of the giant turtles that came up to us.  Like 5 ft under Shannon… really cool.  Another monk seal was parked on the rocks this morning too.

Then we sat around the pool most of the rest of the day.  Ya it was rough.  Moving my hat every 20 minutes to keep the sun out of my eyes.  Getting up every 30 minutes to get another drink.  Rough I tell ya!

Went up to the room about 2, took a nap (cuz walking is WORK), and then got ready for the Old Lahaina Luau, which is out back of the Cannery Mall in Lahaina, which is the town immediately South of Ka’annapali, which is where the Sheraton and Westin are.

Luau was cool.. we got a bunch of pictures and some video.  We had a spotlight in our face, so our pictures aren’t that awesome.  Food was all authentic Hawaiian.  We had a ton of stuff I have no idea.  I put everything on my plate and ate it, besides the Chicken Long Rice… f that stuff.  It looks like tape worms, or for my nerd friends, translucent Gagh… no thank you   I liked all the meat and fish.  The raw stuff was a little weird for me even though I usually like it (and I’ve been eating raw fish every morning here with cream cheese, tomatos and capers).. one made me go in to a coughing fit, but it was still pretty good.  They had some grape leaf type things that had fish inside.  I could eat a bunch of those.  A word about Poi though.. uh just one: yuck.  Apparently I can’t be Polynesian

The dancers were all amazing.  Flawless and graceful, but powerful at the same time.  They are all ripped.  Both guys and girls.  Lots of skin flashing around on everyone too since they wear traditional stuff.  Shannon got to see a lot of man butt

At our table was a family who were all from Minnesota.   Literally every 3rd couple we talk to is from there.  Anyway one of their daughters moved to Japan and was there with her husband and new 9 month old.  They were fun and very friendly.

After seeing what was all down there, we realized we missed out on all of Lahaina, which is the party place around here.  We really did the stay in the resort area, and even in the quiet resort area.  The Sheraton is clearly the more chill place on this side of the island.  The place where people come to relax as oppose to party.  We enjoyed that completely and saw that we’d have not had as good of a time if we stayed elsewhere… at least on this trip… because it was just about us.  Everywhere around us has more people running around.  There are just as many people here, but they are spread out and doing their own thing.. kinda hard to explain unless you saw it

Anyway, we took the shuttle back and now are getting ready to sleep.  We’ll check out tomorrow after we get one more shot at the amazing breakfast here, probably hang out around the pool, and head out.

Aloha Maui.. mahalo!