Oct 2, 2010 - Saturday

2 Oct 2010 – Saturday
GAME DAY! Alabama vs. Florida. James and I wore our BAMA shirts to show our team loyalty. We didn’t get as many comments as we do in Athens, but there are a few BAMA fans in Hawaii. We started early with Breakfast with Penny, the owner of the B&B. She is so informative and is really a pleasure to be around. She recommended we take the Lahaina history walk and possibly the art show under the Banyan tree. James got a good picture of the B&B as we started our day. On the way downtown he also got a good shot of flowers growing wild on the side of the road. We started with the art show which was really interesting. There were lots of paintings of Hawaii landscape but there were a lot of things you would not see at home. There was a carver of totem poles, a young man who made ceramic flutes shaped like shells, a basket weaver and a guy making beautiful jewelry from shells. One of the most beautiful was a display of ceramics including sinks in some of the most beautiful colors I have ever seen. We went to the Old Courthouse and picked up a walking tour guide. The walk was a lot longer than we anticipated but we decided to see a few things. The Church of the Innocents was the first stop. We learned that Queen Victoria of England honored a request of King Kamehameha of Hawaii to send a bishop to the islands. This led to the establishment of the Anglican Church which later became affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The church in Maui was established in 1862 and in 1884 had 37 members and an annual income of $198.30. The present building was finished in 1927. The alter and pulpit were given by an artist visiting the area in 1940. The pictures show the inside of the church, including the windows that slide open (there is no air conditioning.) On the Sunday morning we were in Lahania, they had a “Blessing of the Animals” on the beach. From the church we headed toward another historic site, Hale Piula. On the way to the Hale Piula we spotted a sailboat on the land which was absolutely beautiful. James also found a Hula Girl and tried to see what was under the skirt (didn’t work!) Once we arrived at the Hale Piula we found an outdoor structure built on the site of the original facility and built to reflect the type of facility that would be used in the early islands. This site was used for religious ceremonies, including the consecration of the grounds for the Church of Innocents. Our last stop was a display of historic vehicles. Just these few stops had resulted in us walking between 15 and 20 blocks and we were all hot and tired. We decided to ride to the sugar train and cool off. We had heard that the ride was not great for adults but we wanted some pictures for Brooks and also we wanted to look in the gift shop. We were not disappointed with the pictures and we got some cute gifts for now and later. Now – it was GAME TIME. We had not had lunch so we found a grill that had the game on wide screen TV. We were able to eat lunch and watch the first half of the game. During half time we headed back to our room to change clothes and get ready for the Luau. The game was great – BAMA WON! We got to the Luau in time to get some pictures of us and of the sunset. We also watched them get the pig out of the ‘standard” underground oven. The meal was wonderful. This is absolutely the best Luau on the islands. The show was also extremely well written, well choreographed and well performed. After the show we ended with pictures of the performers. WONDERFUL DAY!!