welcome to lana and dave's website

The day began with a short drive to the Spices Restaurant in Kihei. Since our honeymoon was booked via Pleasant Holidays, the package included a morning orientation to help poor saps like us figure out what we want to do with our time on the island. Just a side note, if you ever decide to book through Pleasant Holidays, try to book the activities part of the vacation yourself. Or at least ask someone who's been to Maui to help you plan out your days. Let's just say the activities we participated in weren't as spectacular as advertised or what we hoped it would be. But at least we still had fun!

Since Lana and I aren't water people, we decided to try a few "dry" activities. We booked a submarine dive (to view the "amazing sea creatures of Maui"), a romantic dinner cruise with "outstanding food and a beautiful sunset view", bicycle riding down Mount Haleakala, a "dormant, not extinct" volcano, and of course, a luau at the Marriott, the "best luau on the island of Maui". In case you were wondering, all quotations are from our excitable and spit-friendly Pleasant Holidays host. We would later discover all quotations are highly exaggerated, but at least we still had fun!

After an "outstanding" continental breakfast (again with the exaggerated quotations), we stopped by Hilo Hattie to buy some gifts and souvenirs. Hilo Hattie calls itself The Store of Hawaii, which is apparently Hawaiian for empty your pockets for cool, touristy crap. Clearly, stores like this are strategically placed by government officials near hotels and attractions so tourists like us can single-handedly fuel the Hawaiian economy, spurring the continued expansion of money-sucking "souvenir-shop" locales and providing thousands of summer jobs for pimple-faced teenagers who are trying to save up for an iPod. It's a vicious cycle with dire repercussions and consequences that we can't even fathom... and Lana and I happily contributed $200 to the worthy cause. Hey, why fight progress? Besides, they gave us shell leis at the entrance and provided complimentary kona coffee (vanilla macadamia and dark chocolate). When it comes to freebies, my morals can take a backseat.

For dinner, we decided to stay in the hotel again and ate at the Pacific Grill. We had delicious tempura tiger prawns for an appetizer, and the Hawaii Kai for our entree, which is filet mignon with a lobster tail. We topped the night off with a kona coffee creme brulee and a couple of Rolaids back in the hotel room.



day two		Our second day was pretty much like our first day: we didn't accomplish much other than getting some more rest, wandering around the hotel grounds, and checking out local shops. Sounds just like what we do in San Francisco, except we're paying more here. We received a complimentary newspaper each morning and had our choice of either The Wall Street Journal or the local Maui news. The younger, immature, and somewhat dazed and confused me would have picked the local Maui news for the comics and sports pages. Fortunately, the older, more mature and distinguished me picked The Wall Street Journal for its excellent reporting on current events and business tips. I hadn't seen so many words I didn't know since high school SATs.


	The day began with a short drive to the Spices Restaurant in Kihei. Since our honeymoon was booked via Pleasant Holidays, the package included a morning orientation to help poor saps like us figure out what we want to do with our time on the island. Just a side note, if you ever decide to book through Pleasant Holidays, try to book the activities part of the vacation yourself. Or at least ask someone who's been to Maui to help you plan out your days. Let's just say the activities we participated in weren't as spectacular as advertised or what we hoped it would be. But at least we still had fun! Since Lana and I aren't water people, we decided to try a few "dry" activities. We booked a submarine dive (to view the "amazing sea creatures of Maui"), a romantic dinner cruise with "outstanding food and a beautiful sunset view", bicycle riding down Mount Haleakala, a "dormant, not extinct" volcano, and of course, a luau at the Marriott, the "best luau on the island of Maui". In case you were wondering, all quotations are from our excitable and spit-friendly Pleasant Holidays host. We would later discover all quotations are highly exaggerated, but at least we still had fun! After an "outstanding" continental breakfast (again with the exaggerated quotations), we stopped by Hilo Hattie to buy some gifts and souvenirs. Hilo Hattie calls itself The Store of Hawaii, which is apparently Hawaiian for empty your pockets for cool, touristy crap. Clearly, stores like this are strategically placed by government officials near hotels and attractions so tourists like us can single-handedly fuel the Hawaiian economy, spurring the continued expansion of money-sucking "souvenir-shop" locales and providing thousands of summer jobs for pimple-faced teenagers who are trying to save up for an iPod. It's a vicious cycle with dire repercussions and consequences that we can't even fathom... and Lana and I happily contributed $200 to the worthy cause. Hey, why fight progress? Besides, they gave us shell leis at the entrance and provided complimentary kona coffee (vanilla macadamia and dark chocolate). When it comes to freebies, my morals can take a backseat. For dinner, we decided to stay in the hotel again and ate at the Pacific Grill. We had delicious tempura tiger prawns for an appetizer, and the Hawaii Kai for our entree, which is filet mignon with a lobster tail. We topped the night off with a kona coffee creme brulee and a couple of Rolaids back in the hotel room.

	click on the image once to enlarge and once again to... well, "un-enlarge"



	day one \| day two \| day three \| day four \| day five \| day six \| day seven \| day eight