Outside our room within the Maui Marriott.
This was a bit of a slow day but to be honest, most days there are very relaxed and easygoing. This morning I woke up at 3:30 a.m. (7:30 in the Twin Cities, Hawaii doesn't observe Daylight's Savings Time) but stayed in bed until 5:30. Then I got up, had a quick bite and walked the 20 feet to the beach! Yep, we were in the Maui Marriott on Ka'anapali Beach (http://www.marriotthotels.com/HNMHI/) with a beach side, second floor room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. Beautiful! The resort also includes a 3.5 acre swimming pool conglomerate with waterfalls and super slide.
Outside our room within the Maui Marriott.
From the beach I watched the revelation of the sun coming up to my back as it displayed the island of Lanai immediately west across the water. As I looked north of my beach, I saw the island of Molokai. Between the two, there were Humpback Whales playing in the water. They travel to Hawaii in the winter time from Alaska to have their calves so I was there at just the right time to see them.
Lanai
Dottie & Mike have decided that they would like to move to Maui so we went to a real estate agency and they looked at properties while I shopped at a truly expensive mall. The stores included were designer clothes, Tiffany, and a jewelry store where all the pieces were designed & created by David Sacco (http://www.saccodesigns.com/) and the average necklace was $32,000. Needless to say, I didn't get anything there.
Housing in HI is outrageous. A *simple* 2 bedroom with a small yard is $400K. A house on the beach with .6 acres is $7.5 million. Gads! I don't want to live there. Many people with average jobs actually live on the beaches because there simple isn't enough housing for the people who live on the islands.