With a heavy heart I am back to try to complete my travel blog from our Oct/Nov trip to Maui. My mama went home to Nebraska on Dec 7th and after she left in the morning, we had been in the hospital 24/7 from Dec 7th with Walt's mom til she passed on Dec 9th. The last week and a half has been very stressful and very sad. We had her service on Dec 16th and I really am not in the Christmas spirit this year! I haven't got a tree, or any decorations done, and no baking so far. Christmas has always been "my" time because it is also my birthday! 60 this year.......my am I getting old or what?? It's just not so joyous this year but.........I have lots to be thankful for and I need to keep remembering that every day and thank God for my family and my friends!
I have to get busy because my "adopted daughter" and our little 8 year old Angelina are coming to Nana's for the holidays! I am going to do very minimal decorating this year and probably not a lot of baking but I will do what I can in the evenings to make a nice Christmas for them and us!
I need something to keep my mind going in the right direction, during the day tho, so you guys are it! Thank you for letting me use you as my stress free tool to keep my mind busy with this blog!
So here we go!!!!!
Day 8 is all about upcountry, one of my favorite places on the island! If Walt and I are ever lucky enough to move to the islands, upcountry in Maui and on the Big Island have always caught my eye! I like the country and wide open spaces, not so much of that left in the beach cities. I can dream can't I??
We got up early so we could get to Makawao and go get some of those yummy cream puffs from Komoda's Bakery. Last time we were here we were too late and almost everything was sold out. Not going to let that happen this year!
No need for breakfast since I would be consuming mass quantities of sweet treats today, so off we went about 8 in the morning.
We did not have much traffic and were in Makawao by around 9:30, I believe. We found lots of parking on the street this early and in we went. Oh my goodness, they had full platters of everything! I wanted the cream puffs and bought 4 of them, 2 chocolate and 2 vanilla. Mom and Walt decided on the apple turnovers so we purchased them as well. We trotted our butts out to the area by the library to the benches there and proceeded to pig out! YUMMO is all I can say, we just love this place!
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| YUMMO |
Most of the shops were still closed so I did not get to Volcano Spice to get my rubs and spices. We thought we would have time on the way back to stop or maybe do it another day while in Paia area. Since we had a full schedule, we decided to head on up the road! I never did make it back that way, darn!
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| Makawao |
Next stop was the Surfing Goat Dairy. I had debated if it was something we wanted to do, but those Ocean Vodka cheese chocolate truffles got "my goat"..hee hee and we all said, yes, let's check it out. It was worth the trip. If you have little ones definitely stop for the tour and if you don't, it's worth a stop anyway. We had a really fun time, feeding the goats, learning about how the company was started, watching the process through the windows and the best part of all, samples.
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| Feed Me Feed Me!! |
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| Mama getting into the feeding of these lil guys |
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| Why do I feel so alone?? |
I bought a 6 pack of cheeses in various flavors and 3 boxes of the truffles. The cheeses I chose were the Canada, which is so yummy--cinnamon, cranberry and honey, Ole--jalapenos, artichoke, lime juice and cilantro, Men's Challenge--horseradish, Garden Fantasia--fresh herbs, Diabolic--jalapenos, Thai dragon chili, Bhudda Hand Citron, Malabar peppercorns in olive oil with garlic and Fruit Quark which is fresh fruit of the season..mine was lilikoi I believe.
For the truffles I bought the box with the Ocean Vodka mixture, and 2 small pick it yourself which were the Hawaiian Chili Pepper and Cinnamon Chipotle. I like things on the spicy side.
Why did I buy so much with going home in 5 days? Well.......I found out they give them to you frozen in their own little cooler and it can be put in check baggage frozen. Another thing I didn't know about goat cheese, it can be frozen and refrozen up to 6 times. That is what the employee told me, so having a freezer in the condo, I said why not? Just as a footnote....when we got home they were still all frozen.....the bottom of that airplane is pretty cold and they all made it beautifully! That Canada one is soooooooo good this time of year for the holidays!
Well having shopped til I dropped at the Surfing Goat it was time for our next stop. Next on the list...Ocean Vodka.
Ocean Vodka just began opening their facility to small tours this year and they actually let you taste the vodka. We went on a mini tour which only involved information about the facility, and a bit about their processing. I am not sure if they had a tour of the processing area, we were not offered it at the time. This vodka is made from sugar cane and very pure water which is what they say sets it apart from other vodkas. I am not much of any alcohol drinker, more of a wino (see where I live?), and a straight shot is something I would really not do usually, but again...we're on vacation, so down the hatch!
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| Ocean Vodka Grounds |
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| Tasting Area |
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| Distillery |
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| Tasting |
The grounds were very pretty and they have plans to extend to community events and private parties in the future they said. Once we were done with the tour they had a free gift for us which was a shot glass, a nice touch we thought. They also sell their vodka truffles in conjunction with Surfing Goat but I was full up on those items. I did buy a vodka bottle lei, how-ever, to give as a gift back home.
Next on the plans for the day was Alii Kula Lavender Farm, so after a little relaxing on the vodka grounds, we were off. We chose not to do a tour we just self toured the area ourselves. First stop was for a lavender scone and tea in their porch area. It was yummy. Mama was a little too tired to do the up and down hilly paths in the farm areas so she stayed on the high road and Walt and I wandered around the grounds looking at different types of flowers, herbs, even a pumpkin patch! What a lovely place to relax, with beautiful views.
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| Tea and Scones anyone? |
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| Pumpkin Patch at Alii Lavender Farm |
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| What a view! |
After a few purchases in the gift shop (lavender brownies for Walt, some lavender essential oil as gifts for 2 of my friends, rose-lavender soap for me, along with lavender gardeners salve and hand lotion for my favorite gardeners) we were off for Tedeschi Winery. By the way..if you purchase at the lavender farm, be sure to give them your Hawaiian Airs Mileage Number..they will turn it in to Hawaiian at the end of each month and who can't use more miles, right?
As we were driving to the winery, we were watching the clouds forming more and more over Haleakala. We had debated if we should take mama up there because she had a recent ear and eye surgery, even tho her doctors said it would be ok. She was getting kind of pooped out with all the walking today. Walt and I had seen sunrise and were curious to see sunset, but from the looks of it, there would not be much to see, clouds were everywhere. We will see how mama felt after the winery.
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| Maui winery |
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| Tasting Room |
The winery was very busy but we bellied up to the bar and tried a few tastes. I had been here and was not a real big fan of most of the wine, however, I did enjoy the Maui Blanc wine and the Maui splash wine on occasion. The splash is quite sweet but I like to add some sparkling water to it in the summer for a nice refresher. Mama didn't care for anything but the Splash. Again, we had to check out the gift shop...my credit card is scorching right now, I better slow down! Ha!
Another look at the skies and we decided we would probably bypass the trek up Haleakala. Walt and I can do it another time and mama was tired and ready to eat. We decided that we were in the mood for pizza and I had been told by my TA friends, that the Kula Lodge has good pizza so that is where we headed.
Walt and I shared the BBQ Chicken Pizza and mama ordered I think the tuna melt or reuben. (This is the trouble with doing your blog so late in the game, you can't always remember things exactly. Next time I will take better notes)
The service was fine, but it sure took a long time for that pizza. The waiter kept apologizing saying there were overloaded with pizza orders. It really was no big thing, we enjoyed the view and I enjoyed a glass or two of wine. It sure is beautiful up here.
The pizza was very good, you could taste the wood oven taste for sure, but it was over an hour before we got our meals, so if your in a hurry, you may want to inquire about the wait time for pizza.
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| Kula Lodge Waiting for Pizza Pie |
Well folks, it's another day done and I will see you all for Day 9 and 10, which are basically shop, shop, and shop til I drop or my credit cards and cash disintegrate in a poof of smoke!
Aloha!
Cin
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