Holidays with Family in Maui

Turns out it was a fun idea to vacation in Maui!   We were all able to get vacation time that week, lucky !

Joey flew in from NYC, a very long flight.  Kristina from Switzerland, Amanda & Todd from Phoenix and Ed & I from DC.  Whew! Travel plans all worked out!

We were on the 5th floor here, nice views of both the pool and the ocean. That is a little ice skating rink in the upper right corner, in case anyone is longing for cold weather activity.  Don't think I saw anyone use it. For me, I didn't pack ice skates, but I did pack that trusty old snorkel mask, hot pink, of course!  

Perhaps I booked too much stuff, but I could have booked lots more!  

  Arrive Saturday. 

1.  Monday - Old Lahina Luau

2.  Tuesday - dinner at the lovely Mamma's Fish House

3.  Wednesday -  Slack Key Concert. 12 string guitar, but with a twist and da ukulele boys

Add to this Amanda's photographer on Baldwin Beach Monday morning early.

And Amanda, Todd and Ed on a Snuba/snorkel trip!   

Mamma's Fish House

Slack Key Concert

Snuba demo in the pool.

See Ed and Amanda, sitting on edge of pool?

In addition to our plans, we found time for lots of other neat stuff.   Checked out the Harley Davidson shop in town.

Tried out Teddy's Bigger Burgers

There was paddle boarding, 

and surfing, 

and spotting whales, 

swimming with sharks, 

eating foot long hot dogs,

eating poi, and some ahi,

Ed fixing our breakfast,

And sitting in the shade reading my kindle,

Enjoying drink of the day, except that my arthritis meds preclude alcohol, so mine were virgins.  

Still fun. 

View from the Sea House Restaurant in Kapili.  

Sunsets from our balcony were lovely. 

 Maui rainfall makes the place lush, and has the added benefit of producing rainbows. 

Very thankful this Thanksgiving

Acela got Ed and I to NYC in just a few hours.  we arrived at The Hotel Giraffe on Tuesday, Amanda and Todd arrived on Wednesday very early in the morning.  The hotel let them check in very early, so that was really convenient.  It is a very nice small hotel.    The weather grew REALLY cold and pretty windy, although we had no rain or snow, so that we great!

Tuesday evening, Ed, Joey and I enjoyed a Broadway play, Motown!  It was a lot of fun, great songs and good to learn the story. It's a old theatre with little leg room though. Small seats too. 

In keeping with a hip kind of southern theme, we had dinner at B. Smith's, complete with fried green tomatoes!

Wednesday evening we all (Todd and Amanda too) went to see the Rockettes, which was good too.  Seats were better!

Dinner was at STK (a steak house) which was excellent. 

Thursday was, of course, Turkey Day!  We ate at Friend of a Farmer.  We enjoyed the company of an old friend from Concord, Jessica and her friend, Erik. It was funn and just a touch unconventional as a restaurant. 

This was the walk to the restaurant from our hotel, through the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. Note the Chrysler Building!  Nice to walk in the city.

Friday was our day to visit miss Liberty, which involves a subway ride and a ferry boat. 

This was pretty cold, but nice to see. Our wait in line for a boat to leave the island was unexpectedly long (two hours standing), which made it memorable. 

We dropped into the very first place we came to for a warm meal, The White Horse Tavern.  It was a cute old tavern owned by a nice Irish guy. Friendly people and typically bar food. Nice meal. 

Saturday was time to go to the 9/11 memorial. It isn't quite finished, but was good to see. The security is very tight. There are a ton of people in line (took over an hour to clear security, even with advance tickets in hand.). Line are outside in the cold weather with no facilities (bathrooms).

Enjoyed breakfast at Anthony Boudains place, Les Halle's. Victorian is style, good food. 

 

Other fabulous meals included Dos Caminos, my favorite. (Good margaritas!)

And

Hillstone, with Rudi, a friend of Joeys.  Great conversation and good food all around. 

A couple breakfasts at Sarabeths too, awesome pumpkin waffles. 

Empire State Building!

Chrysler Building a little better view. 

Flatiron Building, near Eatily.  Hey, I almost forgot about having lunch in Eatily, which is Mario Battaly and Lidia Bastion. It was amazing and huge and interesting.