My sister received an email from Alaska air offering 40% off fares to Maui - if travel competes by 10/18. The governor has closed (for lack of a better word) West Maui until 10/17.
H has begun the restaurant search. I dare say we’ll be eating out more than we typically do.
We used Captain Steve’s for our boat trips on our last 3 or so trips. I finally googled his site and it says he lost his boats and his home, and some of crew’s homes were lost also. Site says “we do not have any long term plans at the moment.”
Very sad.
I wore my Captain Steve’s shirt the other day after learning he’d lost almost everything. Amazing team - they’re out there helping others!
How cool is this? Oprah & Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) have created a non profit to provide cash payments to anyone who lost their home in the Lahaina firestorm. The payments will be $1,200 monthly. They began by funding it with $10mm - and yes, they are asking for donations. I opted for a monthly donation as this is the type of project I can get behind, getting real cash money into the hands of those that need it now. Annually at Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year) I choose a charity to support. While it’s a couple of weeks early, I’m happy to start now!
H and I landed on Maui yesterday. The plane from Seattle was mostly full.
The agents we used for west Maui refunded our stay there and we managed to get another unit in the same building to add on to our Kihei stay. Hawaiian Air revised our flight home at no charge.
We have a few dinner reservations and plan on playing it by ear or cooking in the condo for the remainder.
Plenty of cash on hand for tips.
Hoping for a pleasant stay.
Perfect timing to escape the rain! 
Get reservations if you can, at Mama’s fish house.
We got those as soon as we firmed up the trip. Looking forward to it!
enjoy!!!
My daughter is going to Maui on Wednesday. They were iffy on going, trying to decide if they’d be a burden to to locals or a help to the economy. They know their plans may have to be adjusted. Usually they just go hiking, do ocean things like surf, hang on the beach, go fishing so I think they will be low impact on the burn areas.
Many of the places tourists stay have been used to temporarily house those who lost their homes.
I’m still in the camp of “no tourists” right now. I feel that as a US state, our government needs to step up (right now! - well actually 2 months ago) and provide all Maui residents financial assistance (think supplemental Covid unemployment funds), and get them off the “tourism” gravy train for the time being, until they can begin building in earnest. I also feel that there needs to be about 3,000 prefab houses sent over, and constructed on the many (many!) acres of open land, with communal kitchens & bath houses…all makeshift until those who have lost their homes can begin to rebuild. Then those prefabs can become lower cost housing - there has been a huge(!) housing deficit on island long before the firestorm. Come on government, get it together!
About 12 years ago I was working in the architecture/landscape architecture world, and we submitted plans for something similar to this housing idea. We designed it to be “pods” of 8 small homes (800 - 1,200 sq ft), in a ring, with the communal kitchen in the middle and 2 fully equipped wash houses (complete with laundry facilities) on the back side. It allows for community to come together (so important), children and families to connect, and feel like they matter. Because they do.
CONNECTING
PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
PEOPLE TO ENVIRONMENT
PEOPLE TO PLACE
CREATING
A SENSE OF PLACE
A PLACE FOR THE PEOPLE
Returned yesterday from our trip to Maui. We had a really good time. Other than a trip upcountry, we spent our time in south Kihei.
H talked quite a bit with one of the men in the condo office. He said they want and need tourism around there. He wasn’t sure how they’d manage rebuilding - construction already takes forever, housing has been a crisis situation for a while, etc. He’d lost friends in the fire and a number of others had lost their homes. From what I read while there, people are having a lot of issues with the reopening approach.
We had no issues with people being unhappy with tourists.
All that said, it was ok in the Kihei area. Definitely fewer cars in the condo parking lot and plenty of lounge chairs by the pool. More people on the beach at the weekend. Restaurants were busy. The place we went to on Wednesday (Gather) noted that they were unable to find a new supplier for shellfish, as the one they dealt with was burned out.
Mama’s Fishhouse was phenomenal. Fully booked - when we decided to take the trip, I had my choice of days and times, but that didn’t last long.
Last night I suddenly felt the need to look at the Google Earth photos of Lahaina. (If you have not used GE you can zoom in to see remarkably detailed and clear 3D satellite photos from every possible angle)
If you have not looked, it is indescribable. Disturbing. Horrific. Unbelievable. Heartbreaking. WAY beyond anything I had imagined. I had previously had a hard time picturing how so many souls-- living only yards from the ocean–could have been trapped by fire.
Looking at the photos though, I could, in my mind’s eye, clearly see and hear the chaos of people trying to escape.
Knowing a little something about the unique combination of cultural issues, decades long labor shortages, profound economic disparities and complicated property ownership laws which intersect in Hawaii, I now fear that dreams of any chance of a relatively quick (a few years?) recovery are hopeless.
I wish I had not looked.
That is profoundly sad. I haven’t looked through Google Earth - yet.