Hamoa Beach

A quick peek at the beautiful Hamoa Beach in Hana Maui. We took our yearly camping trip to Hana and enjoyed a beautiful day w/ calm waves at Hamoa.

Wordless Wednesday - View from my deck

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Wordless Wednesday - Maui Prince Beach

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Wai'anapanapa Video posted online

Here is a quick video I took on our camping trip of the view from the lookout at Wai'anapanapa state park. You can see the beautiful black sand beach :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Fo8x4olFU

Wai'anapanapa - www.jonarablumaui.com - kewego
http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoafMl_2.html

Same Hotel...All Grown up

Well..sort of all grown up..heheh



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Another Close Encounter

We had another close encounter besides the Koi fish while staying at the Grand Wailea. It was our last day, we were done swimming and heading out to our car for our hour drive back home. This egret landed on some bushes along the walkway and did not move as we stopped and watched. I actually had time to get my camera out and snap some pics.



At first I was not as close...so I took that shot and we watched for a while. But then we needed to get going so we kept walking and the bird didn't move..infact he was walking closer towards me as he walked along the top of the bushes. So I stopped right in front of him and took a few more shots. He looked at me....


then turned...




and flew away...



It was so cool! A fun note to end our little mini vacation on.

Quick video of the Grand Wailea Pool

This is just a quick vid snippet while I was relaxing by one of the Grand Wailea Pools...it was cloudy that day..but super hot when the sun would poke out.

A Collection of Hawaiian Palm Trees

Since I was fighting the flu bug while staying at the Grand Wailea..I found myself looking up a lot from my laying down and resting by the pool position. So I snapped pics of the palm trees. Enjoy....









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Tropical Garden Flowers

These are flowers I captured along my walk from our hotel room to the pool area.

Red Ginger I learned something new...I thought these were called Torch Ginger..to me it looks like a torch of fire..esp in this picture..the way the sun shines on the top of the flower lighting it up. However when I looked up Torch Ginger in Wiki...I found torch ginger looks like this



Heliconia



Bird of Paradise



This was a really cool bromeliad...it had growing in the middle what looked like soft grass with a couple of tiny little pink flowers on top.



I believe this is Shell Ginger



can you find the star fruit? on one of the walk ways fruit trees line the path. Different citrus fruits as well as star fruit, cherry guava and these little red tomato looking things (on a tree) that aren't very good. I forget what they are called.

The Pools at The Grand Wailea

These are just a few shots of the swimming pools at the Grand Wailea

This top picture is where the waterslides let out. There is another to the right..the smaller slide. A lot of hotels on the island have revamped thier pool areas and added waterslides, but still none are as fun as the one at The Grand Wailea. This one snakes back and fourth so many times you expect it to end around each turn but it keeps going! You pick up a lot of speed, so much that your body goes up the sides a little.

In between the two waterslide outlets is a water elevator. It takes people up to the small slide, or you can continue to go on to the other pools that all conect by mini slides and eventually take you to the rapids. When the water lets out for the water elevator the rock in the middle of this picture goes off like a volcano...a water volcano.



Here is the view from the rope bridge. You can take this into the caves for a shortcut through the pools rather then having to go all the way around. From here you can see part of the rapids and the beautiful torch ginger growing everywhere.



Here is another view above the rapids.



And this is in the caves...part of it opens up to a pool that you can get to from the other side by swimming through a waterfall. Across this pool is a jacuzzi. Around the other side of the cave accessible from another pool is the swim up bar



Here is the pool the rapids let out into. At the end of the pool is a wide rapids slide.


Here is a view from the other direction that I found online. It's a lot of fun!

Pictures of the beautiful tropical flowers from a walk through the garden grounds soon to come :)

Our Favorite Hotel on Maui - The Grand Wailea

This weekend our little family of 3 stayed at the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa. It was our 20th anniversary and we saved to do something special. We hadn't stayed there in close to 10 years.

It's the funnest hotel on the island as the pools are amazing. We have a few favorites here on the island, others may have a fun waterslide..and even better rooms, but nothing beats the pools and waterslides at the Grand.

I'll be posting pictures of our stay there over the next few days. It's a photographers dream..it's so beautiful there. I had my new point and shoot and so had a lot of fun. I actually got really sick the first night 101 fever..so I was a bit loopy but some of my pics turned out pretty nice considering. It's hard to take a bad picture of such a pretty place.

After you are greeted by the valet and lei greeter ..you are greeted by this friendly bronze mermaid. She is straight ahead as you walk in waiting for people to toss coins into her shell. I came back and took this pic later in the day so the shade is on the mermaid and it didn't turn out so well.



These bronze hula dancers are to the right..the boys are to the left but I forgot to get a picture.



Orchids line many of the walkways as well as clear blue waterways or Koi ponds. This was on the left side of the hotel and a different entrance then the grand front entrance. It's for self parking and still very beautiful. If you get your car back from the valet by 6:30 (valet closes at 7:00)and tell them you want to self park..you will save yourself 20.00 a day for the overnight valet parking. Your room key opens up the self parking area.



Here is when we first arrived to our room..hubby snapped a pic of my son Cameron and I on our balcony. We get a discount for being Kama'aina or a resident of Hawaii..so of course they give us the lowest room type and not the best view. I never care because I'm there to enjoy the pools. However we got a free room upgrade to an ocean view on the 6th floor once they found out it was our 20th anniversary ;)


This is the most dramatic of the pools. It's the adult area..no kids under 18 allowed. Also referred to by the staff as the 'sun worshiper pool' as there are no umbrellas over there for shade...only the 300 dollar a day cabanas.

Swimming in this pool makes you feel like you are breaking the rules and getting into a fountain lol! It's only, I believe, 3 feet deep and it has the huge and very beautiful step fountain running into it. It's actually entitled the Hibiscus Pool as it has a giant mosaic tile Hibiscus flower along the bottom of its 4,850-square-feet. The Hibiscus flower is made from over 630,000 pieces of Mexican glass mosaic tile. The entire pool contains over 2.2 million individual tiles and features two Jacuzzis. It's very impressive.



Just above the step waterfall are these happy little dolphins.



Then just beyond that is this long water way with fountains all the way down. There is a spot to walk out into the middle of it...you can kind of see it at the end..it puts you close to the dolphins but still in the middle of the fountains. As well as the spot I was standing at is another one that puts you in the middle of the waterway after the fountains stop though. All awesome places to take pictures at.



And last picture for today...one of me and my hubby on the second day.(Yay! Happy 20th anniversary to us!) This is dead center of the hotel, we were standing to the side of the mermaid pool. There is a big canoe there too and beyond that is a classy bar area that livens up in the evening. You can usually hear live piano music playing..but it was under renovation right now so we didn't get to enjoy that. The picture is a little blurry..kinda how I felt since I was so sick :\ I felt bad bringing cooties there..but what do you do? They wouldn't let me cancel. And man what a place to rest!



Stay tuned! More pictures to come!



Jonara Blu Maui
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