Paradise

I can definitely see why the natives thought they were in paradise ... and did not want anyone intruding.

Sunrise on Monday ... you can still see the full moon.

My day goes something like this .. up at 5:00 to run (Ofie will be proud) ... download images from camera and write blog ... lay by the pool reading til 11:00 (when it's too hot to stay out) ... shopping/photography til around 6 p.m. ... dinner at Alexanders or Fat Daddys (BBQ yum!) ... back to condo to work on images ......

So yesterday I went up to Lahaina to the Harley store and to check out some sites I did not know were there.  This pic is taken from the car on the way over (don't tell anyone it's through the window!!)  This is why Maui is called the Valley Isle.  Two big mountains on either side and this valley between.

I did not know there was a large Chinese population here in the old days.  It seems they were the prime labor force for the sugar cane and pineapple fields.  They ordered a building from Sears Roebuck and built it on Front Street as a place for meetings and congregating with friends and family.  For safety reasons, they did not cook in the house.  They had a separate building out back with their cooking pots.

Pretty smart .. if there was a kitchen fire, it wouldn't burn down their pre-fab building!!

Another discovery was the town prison.  Built by the prisoners from coral taken from the old fort at Lahaina, the walls definitely look climbable at only 7 feet high.  In reading some of the literature, they apparently were either shackled to the walls or carried balls and chains, making it impossible to climb anything.  The brown building on the outside is the gatehouse where the warden and his family lived.

Inside the walls the garden is beautiful, with orchids and many different varieties of palm trees.  Doesn't look like such a bad place to live, but I'm sure it didn't look quite the same in the old days.

Inside the walls is a small building that kind of looks like a church.  NOT!!  It's the actual cells the prisoners spent their time in.  Lighting and locked gates did not allow photos, but here's one of the doors.  The cells were simply wood all around with a wooden box for a bed.  Not too cushy!!

Today is another day for adventure ... to find something else I haven't seen before!