Whaler's Village, Ka'anapali Beach

     There are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet - 5 vowels and 8 consonants.  There is also a glottal stop called an 'okina.  This makes the area we went to this evening ka-an-a-poli. Not kaan-a-poli.  Once you get the hang of it the names are pretty easy to say, unlike English which has many different sounds for the same combination of letters.  With fewer letter combos to choose from some of the words get really long. I find it an interesting and musical language and repeat some words just because I like how they sound - Waianapanapa Park for example!

    We had a quiet day today, just enjoying the warmth of the sunshine, the rhythm of the waves and the scent of flowers.  We finally got ourselves off the lanai this morning and took a good walk.  I saw another tropical bird - a Java Sparrow.  They are purple and yellow instead of our brown Minnesota variety.

    The surf is still high with warnings everywhere.  We went to the nearby Honokowai Beach park, but were diappointed to see lots of rock ledges and a warning of severe undertow.  Instead we relaxed on our patio, watched the sea turtles on the rocks and dipped in the chilly swimming pool.  

    Ka'anapali Beach is the fancy part of north west Maui.  We went to an outdoor upscale shopping center, Whaler's Village, to stroll around, people watch, and have dinner at the Leilani Beach bar.  Some of the "beautiful" people who hang out at this mall are indeed fahionably dressed folks, others have an appalling lack of understanding the difference between fashion and  "yikes."  It makes for good entertainment, though.  We had fresh fish and jicima slaw as we watched the sun set.  We topped off dinner with some java chip ice cream.  I looked at the weather report for Minnesota and just savor every moment we are here.