HURRICANE WEATHER

 Waking up once again VERY early in the morning.  There were three huge trees here, but they fell over in the last storm.

Breakfast was simple ...  a breakfast bowl from the ABC store.  No kidding  ....  this stuff is delicious.  Rice, scrambled eggs and fried corn beef with peppers.  

Our plans for the day were to drive up to Lahaina.  When you stay in our condo for two weeks, you have to leave on cleaning day.  So off we went, looking for a place on the beach to snorkel since the water in Kihei was too rough for paddle boarding due to the hurricane heading our way.  Oh yeah ... hurricane!!

We arrived in Lahaina just in time to drive the main road through town.  Oh so sadly, this is all that is left.  I mean if you were ever here before, you would not even think you were in the same place.  There is nothing but tall weeds and very few skeleton buildings.  It's just not recognizable at all.  Every single building is gone.

This is what remains of the old Jail/Library/Art center.  We spent many hours in the basement of this building in the old days.  It's all gone except the concrete side walls.

At least what remained of the old fort is still in tact.

This was the busy downtown section, full of art shops, souvenir shops, clothing stores and restaurants.

It's just awful ... you can't even visualize where anything once stood.  The only thing left untouched was the Cannery and the Safeway store.  If you ever went to the Luau behind the Safeway, it is still in one piece too.  

Thank the Good Lord, THIS is the banyon tree.  Everything around it is gone.  The parrots who posed for pictures now live in Kehei.  The big wooden building/hotel is completely gone.  The two story across the street with a restaurant upstairs is also gone.  So sad.

At the very end there are still two tiny restaurants open.  We lucked out and got a seat at the bar.  The bartender said they were closed down for 6 months before they were allowed to reopen.

I ordered three malasadas.  HUGE they are.  They come on a wooden plate with a syringe full of caramel sauce.  The sauce on the plate is lilikoi vanilla.  You take the syringe, stick it in a malasada (kind of like a HUGE fried donut hole) and fill it up.  Not too much or it will explode.  They were amazing!!

Cyndae had eggs Benedict with bacon and hash browns.  Also delicious!!!  At least we donated a bit to the locals for breakfast.

Right outside was the Hula Girl.  She's been moored here for as long as I've been coming to Maui.

We finally landed in Kapalua bay.  It looked crowded, but the water was perfect for snorkeling.  This is a big sheltered bay where fish and turtles hang out.  Too bad I forgot my camera.  No kidding .... this place had some of the best snorkeling ever ... and we were practically alone in our endeavor.

Just to the right next to those rocks was a baby turtle eating up a storm.  What a cutie he was.  I spotted silver knife fish, parrot fish, angelfish and dozens of tangs, along with my favorite Humuhumunukunukuapuaa fish.  I was surprised to see so many in spite of the rough ocean.

We could have sat under that tree all day, but alas, the tide came in and washed us out.  

We skipped dinner since we were late getting back, so we walked across the street to the Gelato store.  Peanut butter Oreo cookie if you please!!!  There was a fabulous sunset ... probably the best I have ever seen here.  

It is of course because of the hurricane heading straight for us.  The good news is that it will hit the island of Hawaii first, and according to the weather guessers .... it will turn West and miss us, with the exception of some good winds and ocean rollers.  We are close enough to get a little wet, but hopefully no damage will occur.  No, I'm not to thrilled about that and I'm watching the weather constantly.

Wish us luck!!!  And if I don't return someone please take care of Kitters!!!  Just kidding .. we should be fine.

Update:  It rained very hard three times last night.  There will be flooding here and there, but hopefully not where we are.