Posted 6:39 PM by Alfred

How cool are Social Distortion? If you've never seen these guys live, jump at your next chance, they're out of control. For a bunch of old-timers these guys have some serious energy. Nice to see that the phat Philips mini-system can pump some rock-n-roll, too. I think this is the first non hip-hop CD I've played on it, except for an Oasis CD which lasted about two songs and then I threw on some Snoop Dogg. I'd say about 80% of the time, I'm in the mood for rap, but hey, even Popeye eats something besides Spinach every once in a while, right?

This record fukn rocks!! Maybe I'll go on a rock kick for a while, dig up my Def Leppard, my Pink Floyd, my Metallica, all that good stuff.

I have broad taste really. I might throw on a polka album, don't make me do it, I'm fukn crazy goddammit!!!!

Anyway, I promised some Maui-Wowee and I am a man of my word, y'all.

DAY 1 - The Arrival

I could do a little diddy about the airport and the hassles and that kind of crap, but I already did the whole losing my wallet at the airport story, so let's just start as the plane descended upon beautiful Maui....

The first thing that hits you as you check out the scenery flying into Maui is the sugarcane fields. Lots of 'em. Maui is actually the last of the Hawaiian Islands to still grow sugarcane for commercial purposes, and it has the last of the Hawaiian sugar mills. (Someone will probably dispute this fact, but well, I think I'm right about this one.)

Landed in Maui and went to pick up our bags. Short wait, no problem. Picked up our car from Dollar Rent-A-Car, and we were on our way. The cool thing we had learned from our last inter-island trip (to Kona) was that the econo-car never has a CD player, so I remembered to bring my handy-dandy Kenwood Portable Car CD player with the little tape adaptor thingie, so we were BUMPIN!!!

It was still about 5:30 or 6 PM, so there was still light, and we were able to catch some scenery on the drive to Lahaina, where we were staying. Mellow 20 minute drive with beautiful beaches and nice mountain vistas. Good times. We didn't let some grimey hippie flashing his schlonger to the passing traffic ruin it for us either. I mean, supposedly that was a sign of respect to passing royalty back in the old Hawaiian days.

So anyway, we got into Lahaina, and found our hotel alright, the Ohana Maui Islander. Pretty much right in the middle of Lahaina, a pretty cool spot. Lahaina is a cute little beach town, kinda reminds me of Carmel, on the coast of California. Lots of art galleries, lots of restaurants, and lots of haoles (white people). Now I don't have any problem with white people, I'm one of them, but anyone who's lived on Oahu will tell you, we are a minority here. The population of Oahu is mostly Asian, followed by probably an almost even number of Whites and Polynesians. Maui is predominantly white, it seems, especially Lahaina. Walking around Front Street that night, I was amazed, I had never seen so many Haoles in one place in all my years in Hawaii.

Anyway, so we're looking for a place to eat, and we pick this place called the Whale's Tail. It was Lobster night, lobster tail for $12.95. Which was all good, but I didn't really feel like lobster, neither did Mrs. P. So we order some tacos and quesadillas. As we're waiting for our food, I notice that everyone is ordering the lobster, and I'm starting to think it looks pretty good. By now it was to late to change my order. Our food was alright (kind of), but the whole meal I was thinking I should have ordered the lobster, so it kinda blew it for me. Oh well, this was the worst meal of the trip, and it wasn't that bad, so whatevers.

After dinner we kinda just cruised around Lahaina town and checked out the Art Galleries. There were two art galleries which were really cool. One was a celebrity art gallery. I was blown away by all the famous people that have come to this place and signed pictures, movie posters, art work, all kinds of stuff. I mean John Lennon, The Rolling Stones, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, basically every famous movie star and rock star you can think of had signed stuff in here. They even had some original Picassos and serious art like that. Really interesting place to check stuff out.

The other art gallery which really impressed me was the Kush gallery. Vladimir Kush. This guy is phenomonal. There was one small painting which really caught my attention. It was almost all green, and it showed a guy on a row boat, trying to row his way through water which was actually a tree stump. Surreal stuff like that, like stuff blending together, water turning into sky. If I find the link to his website, I'll post it.

So anyway, that was about it for our first late afternoon/evening in Maui. By the time 10 PM rolled around, almost all the storefronts were closing up shop. Lahaina shuts down early, especially compared to Waikiki, which is just getting started around that time. Oh well Dorothy, that's the whole reason you travel, so you won't be in Kansas anymore, right?

Tomorrow: The Road to Hana

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