The DougBlog
"Et sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!" —Baudelaire

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The Aloha Blog, Part 3: Maui

Clare and GM get “Mauied” at last!!

So from Moloka`i it was on to Maui—my last stop and, indeed, the reason for my trip. My dear friends Clare and GM were to be married, an event I was to witness and photograph.

The first nights there I stayed at the Maui Prince Resort and enjoyed my last room with a view:


The hotel had this desk where you could arrange "pleasant activities". I guess they don’t want to guarantee anything too crazy or “out there”. Just pleasant:


Our first day, I met up with Clare and GM to find and check out the cove at Makena Beach, where they were to be married the next day. You can click here fore a 360° view of it, which the locals also call “Wedding Beach” because it is so popular for that purpose. Here’s Clare and GM chatting up a few of those locals:


The small, cozy beach offers a lovely view of neighboring, uninhabited Kaho`olawe, the smallest of the Hawaiian Islands:


Making their mark:


We found this cool crab. Unfortunately for him, he was dead.



That evening, Clare’s dad hosted dinner at the Fairmont Kea Lani, and next was the big day. I was in charge of picking up the flowers and relatives and getting all of these things to the beach. When I did, we saw that Pastor Vance had already arrived on his Harley:


He performs a simple ceremony with a few Hawaiian customs thrown in. Anyone who goes to Hawaii (except, apparently, for Clare) quickly learns a few basic Hawaiian words that appear everywhere, like keiki (kids). After the wedding Pastor Vance told Clare to keep in touch and one day send him pictures of the keiki. She thought he wanted pictures of the cake. Smooth.

We proceeded to the beach for the wedding. When you get married on the beach, you don’t have to worry about your footwear:


Now I myself was a little nervous about being the designated photographer. That’s a lot of responsibility, and I’m more of a landscape photographer than portraits or weddings. But all in all, I think I did well (whew). The wedding began with the blowing of the conch (as always, you can click on any picture to enlarge):



Then they got leid (no, seriously):



The paparazzi:


Clare cried a little, Pastor Vance sweated a little…:


...I got a little dramatic:


The blushing bride:


Portrait time…It was a very small group. Clare’s dad and step mom are on the left, her mom (in hat) and aunt are on the right. GM’s family was unable to make it in from Austria, but they were there in spirit:


The happy couple:




I got a little creative:


I took hundreds of photos (yay for digital) but here are a few that will probably not make it into the album…like GM getting cheeky:


…or Clare getting saucy:


…or Clare doing her impression of the obedient Oriental wife:


…and—it took a quick hand to get this—but here’s a shot of the newlyweds with none other than the great Indian leader and pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, washing his feet:


After a champagne toast, we had dinner at Nick’s Fish Market, one of the best reviewed restaurants on Maui. I toasted them with a Chinese proverb that my friend Grace Yu graciously taught me how to say. Her family didn’t understand a word of it. Oh, well—at least I tried. In any event, here’s a picture that Clare can send to Pastor Vance: the wedding “cakey”!


Shhh….


For the last couple of days, I also moved into the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel. It is a lovely hotel on the Waimea coast, though it looks more Arabian than Hawaiian:




Interesting architecture on the Kea Lani. Is it cold in here?:


Talks about classy…they changed the carpet in the elevators based on the time of day! I assume there was a “Good Morning” version but, needless to say, I never saw it:



The day after the wedding, Clare and GM went snorkeling…and she lost her ring in the ocean! Less than 24-hours: that’s gotta be a record. Luckily Clare has a good sense of humor about such things. And even luckier, the hotel referred them to a local dude with a metal detector—who found it the very next day. So all’s well that ends well.

On my last night in Hawaii, Clare and GM took me out to a dinner/magic show for my birthday called Warren & Annabelle’s. The magician was really more of a comedian, and I have to say it was a riot. Probably because he told a lot of terrible jokes that were right up my alley (“Why do mermaids wear seashells?…because B-shells are too small and D-shells are too big!” Hey-yo!). He really picked on GM, whom he called “Gomer”. Of course, we had to explain to GM who Gomer was after the show.




The next day I chilled at the hotel until my overnight flight (3 flights, actually!) home. All in all it was a wonderful time. Hawaii is still one of my favorite places. Moloka`i was a new and different experience and worth going back to, but my favorite island would still be a toss-up between Kaua`i and the Big Island of Hawai`i. Each island is really different from the others. And this trip was different from any other because of the beautiful wedding and wonderful, unforgettable time I had with Clare and GM. Not to mention Clare’s shy, demure, and unassuming mother, Nancy (cue the sarcasm…).

CORRECTIONS!!


My friend Julie Monroid is a genuine Hawaiian—she grew up on Kaua`i!—and she pointed out an error in my last post: I said that Moloka`i is “…the most ‘Hawaiian’ of the islands”. This honor really belongs to tiny Ni`ihau. Although there are only about 160 residents, Ni`ihau is the only island where Hawaiian is the primary language. The island is entirely privately owned and therefore generally closed to visitors (hence it's known as “the Forbidden Island”). They're most famous for their unique pupu shells. But Julie did applaud my proper use of the `okina, the backwards-apostrophe-like letter (`), also known as a glottal stop, that appears in many Hawaiian names! So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

Also, I’d like to give a special shout-out to Missy Wilson and Ted Kossakowski so they’ll stop bitching about never making it onto my blog.

Aloha!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Aloha Blog, Part 2: Moloka`i

“Slow down…this is Moloka`i”

First of all, this being December 7th, I would like to point out a second national tragedy that occurred at Pearl Harbor while I was actually there:


But I digresss…

The flight to Moloka`i is just 20 minutes on a small plane; but from the time you board the flight you know you’re headed someplace different. Although there are only about 30 people on the flight, many of them know one another (and the flight attendant) well enough to share stories and pictures and family updates.

Moloka`i is one of the smallest islands, and the least visited by tourists. In fact, just about any hotel on Waikiki has more rooms than the entire island of Moloka`i. There isn’t even a single traffic light. But it’s called “The Friendly Island” for a reason: the “Aloha spirit” pervades here more than anywhere else. Everyone waves and smiles, whether passing on the street or on the highway. It’s also the most “Hawaiian” of the islands: about half the people here have Hawaiian blood, and many speak Pidgin—a hybrid of English and the Hawaiian language. It’s the birthplace of the hula, and the ancient Hawaiians thought it the most spiritual of all the islands: there are countless ruins of Heiau (temples). Life is slow and relaxed. A sign near the tiny airport says it all: “Slow down…this is Moloka`i”:


Typical Moloka`i wit:


The most famous sight on Moloka`i is Kalaupapa, once home to the leper colony tended to by reknowned Father Damien. This was also my first stop on the island, and getting to it required my first ride on a mule!

Look at this jackass (and he’s riding a mule!):


In 1866—long before the disease was understood or treatable—King Kamehameha V decreed that all people with leprosy would be forced into isolation. Kalaupapa seemed to be perfect: a lonely peninsula on the north coast of Moloka`i, cut off from the rest of the island by the sea on three sides and the world’s highest sea cliffs on the fourth. The only way to get there is on foot or mule down 2000-foot cliffs. This picture (which I took later from the plane to Maui) clearly shows how isolated it is, like a little tongue or geological afterthought:


It’s a beautiful spot, but a tragic one. Yes, people still get leprosy—but it’s called Hansen’s disease now and is treatable. Most people are naturally immune to it, and it’s only infectious in its early stages. But before that was understood, anyone with the disease in Hawaii was forcibly taken from their home and family and dropped here. This tragic policy was continued by the US government and only ended in 1969. The peninsula is now a National Monument but remains home to about 57 patients who stayed here by choice after 1969, and can stay here until they die. Then that will be the last of the Kalaupapa lepers.

On the way down:



Although it was a bit of a rainy day (uncommon here), that did mean we got to see quite a few of what the ancient Hawaiians considered a sacred and powerful symbol…the rainbow:



Down on the peninsula, looking back at the sheer cliffs we’d just precipitously scaled on our asses (that joke never gets old):


At the bottom, we met up with people who had either hiked in on foot or came by small plane (lazy losers) for the tour. Because it is still home to a few patients, there is only one tour a day, during which they tend to stay out of sight. In a clunky old school bus we saw several aspects of life at Kalaupapa. The tour ended at the east end of the peninsula (Kalawao), which offers another striking view of the cliffs:


The patients were traditionally cared for by Catholic missionaries who devoted their lives to helping them over the years. Most famous was the Belgian Father Damien, who himself contracted the disease and died here. He is currently on track to sainthood. Mother Marianne was another revered caretaker.





Then it was back up the trail. My mule, Aleka (Hawaiian for “Alexander”), kept stopping on the way down to eat stuff he found. Then on the way up he kept putting the moves on a little filly named Kaikaina (“Sister”):



While on Moloka`i I stayed at the Beach Village at Moloka`i Ranch. This was like upscale camping in little tents. Actually, you got TWO tents and an outhouse!




The bathroom portion had no roof:


But there was a hammock out back:


Yes, it was called the Beach Village because it is on a beach (Kaupoa Beach). At night all you could hear was the waves on the shore and the wind in the palms (and the deer…who knew deer make noise?!):


One morning I awoke to find this wild turkey stalking my tent. I think he was still mad about Thanksgiving:


The main town on Moloka`i is Kaunakakai. It’s all of three blocks long:


On another day, I drove out to the east end of the island. This is the “rainy” side, with lush forests and waterfalls, dominated by the inaccessible Halawa Valley:


View of Maui across the way:


Moloka`i residents are known for their signs. I’m not 100% sure what it’s all about, but they were certainly up in arms about something called La`au point and leaving it alone:


Random roadside sight:


I wandered through the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove. A Hawaiian king had once planted 1000 coconut palms here. Seems to me quite a few are left. The “Watch out for falling coconuts” sign seems funny at first, but once you’re under them you realize that it is actually pretty scary—they are very tall and a falling coconut could easily kill a man!





Sunset (and some friends) on the beach:




There were a lot of beautiful flowers on Moloka`i:


Gee, should I check out the view of a National Monument and memorial to human kindness and suffering…or a rock shaped like a giant schlong?:


For those of you who chose the latter, here it is (the offerings on it are from women who seek fertility from the gods):


In the town of Hoolehua (such a fun name to say—c’mon, try it!) the post woman has for years collected fallen coconuts and provided them to tourists (in a program she calls “Post-A-Nut”. In the post office you can color and address the coconuts and then she’ll mail them. You only have to pay the postage. Here are a few I sent to my nieces:


In Part 3 of the Aloha Blog, you'll get to see the results of my first official job as a wedding photographer as Clare and GM get “Mauied”!! In the meantime, a few parting shots...



This sign hung over the toilet in the mule ride HQ:


I was entertained by this particular brand of toilet stall manufacturer:


I’ve said it for years: Just Say “Malama Manae Aole!” to drugs!