Jan 10th to 12th - Maui HI

Jan 10th - Tues
Yes, I know there is a gap before this entry but things weren’t all that exciting and I am not going to fill in the pieces.
Our plane left at 7 this morning on the first leg of our trip to Maui. We had a stop in San Francisco on the way to Seattle. Alaska Air changed their flights after we made our reservations so we had a 5 ½ hour layover in Seattle instead of 3 hours. We talked to someone at the Alaska service desk and got permission to use the “Boardroom” (VIP lounge) while we were waiting. We had coffee, salad & soup there and then had fish & chips in the concourse shortly before we left for Maui at 5.
We had good weather and a tail wind so we landed early, got our bags and were picked up by Terry’s brother Skip and his wife Kathy who asked us to join them here. We didn’t stay up too late as we had a long day and were dealing with a 2 hour time change.

Jan 11th - Wed
It’s a good thing that our internal clocks were still 2 hours ahead as we had an 8 o’clock tee time this morning. We were joined by 4 friends of Skip & Kathy’s. Just as we got to the golf course, it started to rain lightly which produced a beautiful rainbow. The rain stopped after a couple of holes. The course was tough but we had a great time and then we all went to the restaurant at the golf course for a nice lunch.
We stopped at a couple of stores looking for dill weed - no luck! - and came back to the lovely condo on the beach where we are staying. We relaxed on the patio and watched the ocean before our golfing friends joined us for a drink. We had a late dinner and called it a day.

Jan 12th - Thurs
We had enough time for a nice breakfast before heading out for another adventure. We joined 5 members of the family who joined us for golf to go zip lining. We drove over an hour to get there and ended up at an elevation of 4200 feet. The web site suggested wearing long pants and the cool weather at that height almost made us wish that we had taken their advice.
Our group of 13 people got fitted with harnesses and walked less than ½ mile to the first zip line which was short but a good introduction to the whole process. A short walk brought us to the second line (across the same gully) which had a much steeper drop off. The third line was a little longer and fast enough that the fence behind the landing area was padded in case you didn’t get stopped quick enough. At each line, there was one employee at each end to hook you to the line and to stop and unhook you at the other end. The fourth line was longer yet and required the employee at the finish to stop you with a wood block on the cable. Then we had to cross the gully on a narrow suspension bridge to the final line which is unique in the zip line companies on Maui and is called the pendulum. You go very fast across the gully, past the landing dock and up the line which is fastened very high on a large tree. Some people actually hit the block on the end of the cable just before the tree. Gravity takes you back down past the landing dock again and part way back over the gully. After a pause, you head back to the landing dock. The employee grabs the feet of taller riders and has shorter riders grab a long pole to stop them and direct them to a rolling ladder to unhook and climb down. Whew!! A van picked us up for a short ride back to where we started and we got rid of our harnesses and helmets. The whole adventure was wonderful!
We stopped in Paia for lunch, stopped at a couple more stores, finally found dill weed and came home. We had time for a drink on the patio before Skip & Terry left for the airport to pick up their friend Larry who lives on the Big Island. Terry, Skip & Larry were teenage friends so they had a lot of fun reminiscing - which requires quite a bit of alcohol to keep the throats lubricated! We had a late dinner and the guys finally called it quits at 1:30