Maui wowie [s]

Monday

Some how, some way United managed to bollox my flight from SFO to OGG. That's normally not a problem, I'm well versed in the practice of checking flight info and I never plan to come and go as expected. But in this case my SAN to SFO flight was on schedule and so I found myself with quite a few hours to kill between my 18:30 arrival and 00:30 departure.

It has been said that crappy situations are the mother of ingenuity and indeed this was the case. I discovered that the Japanese restaurant in the food court serves bottles of sake for just five Washingtons. This compares well to the eight wingwangs I spent on Guiness while hanging out with Connie at SAN. Now I've always believed that reading books is for prisoners and vegetarians, so it was a great relief that I didn't have to occupy myself with the pages of Treason for the full twelve hours of travel.

Happily, Ted's car rental choice (Dollar?) has a policy of remaining staffed until the last flight arrives - about 03:30 in our case. I was finally able to hit the fold-out at about 0:600 Chris Standard Time after the drive from OGG to Kaanapali (in the 'resorts' zone of the map below).


The insider's map of Maui with several surrounding islands depicted but not labelled.

Tuesday

Sleeping in was the first order of business, however around noon Ted, Christine, and I headed down to meet the rest of the family at Black Rock. The ocean was a delightful 80ish with endless visibility. There were no waves, however, and this was just the first disappointment for the third of me that wanted to surf (the other thirds set upon riding and diving). Word on the streets was that the best break was at the northwest tip, near Kapalua, however I avoided the area. First, the plantation course was hosting a PGA event and, second, it's simple courtesy to leave the best waves to the locals and settle for their less aggro spots.

Wednesday



The crew headed back to the saddle to check out the north shore, since Ryan would be flying in that afternoon anyway. We checked out Hookipa (above), which was supposed to be a pretty good surf spot. I paddled out on a bodyboard since renting would have taken more time than it was worth. The waves held up well against winds that were not insignificant, and they were consistently waist high. The break was extremely peely, even Del Mar waves would have some face at that height.

I was pleased to find that there were quite a few locals hanging out and barbecuing, although a number of them could have been east county kids both for their excess of branded apparel and obvious lack of familiarity with the water.

Posers aside, the area (above labelled 'beach towns') was the most inviting part of the island. It maintained a fair balance of Maui country club, traditional beach town, and working class. Paia even had a small downtown that served as a refreshing break from the tesselated resorts that offer lavish grounds but fail to provide any semblance of a social environment.



After grabbing the cousin from the airport, the group split based on y chromosomes. The men headed to a golf course over in the seedier part of the island while the ladyfolk did... I don't know, hiked or something. The oceanfront location was unbeatable, the onshore wind was blustery, and the temperature was just right. The five of us split among two golf carts meant someone always had to ride chariot, as such the cooler and fifth golf bag were always in peril. Good fun.



Finishing 18 well after sunset, we drove back to the west end of the island to have cheeseburgers in Lahaina. The bigger, slower, older car arrived well ahead of the PT Cruiser that decided to attempt the north highway. But as we descended from the hairpins and single lane of crumbly asphault I noted the island's small import/tuner/drift community out for an event.

Lahaina is skippable. There are many pleasant blocks of shops that resemble the looped backgrounds of a cartoon. Inland some you can find useful, however unremarkable businesses. East of the highway the scenery becomes very rural.

Thursday

We journeyed to Wailea Thursday morning. This area had to be on par with Kapalua for lavishness. After stopping at three different Maui Dive Shops, Jon and I managed to rent scuba gear for the reasonable price of $35 apiece. Dive people are good people, and the rep that helped us (Ben, I think) was no different.



Jon and I had 3100psi of fun at the Seven Caves spot in Makena. We never found the 'bubble room', but happened upon a large sea turtle in one of the three caves we navigated. We followed the lava reef quite far out but never dropped below 40 feet.

Friday



The morning came early as we took the Pride of Maui boat trip to Molokini and 'Turtle Town'. The first dive was at the mostly-submerged volcanic crater. Divemaster Larry took us down 130 feet of steep reef where we saw white tipped sharks and a large lobster. Apparently there were quite a few eels, I didn't notice any because I was looking closely at the coiled sea slugs wondering if they were eels.



The second dive was back in the Wailea area. Much like the Seven Caves dive, we were navigating a lava reef at about 30 feet. There were quite a few sea turtles, including one sleeping under a rock.

Saturday



One of my goals for the trip was to ride a dual sport around the less accessible portions of the isle. Unfortunately, the one offroad rental company appears to have gone under. I wasn't too disappointed because I had yet to see the 10,000 foot Haleakala summit and it could be reached by common street vehicles. Island Riders in Wailea had a Ducati Monster for the renting so away I went.



The M1000 was noticeably lighter and easier to manage than my Supersport. Power comes in spurts though, I would often remark that the gears were tall and promptly bounce hard off the rev limiter just after shifting. Maybe I misjudged the bottom of each gear, stock pipes and a wet clutch tend to mute an engine's ability to communicate with the ears.

The road up to the crater is a glorious ribbon of winding tarmac. It is well maintained and hazard free, save for the unfenced cows that occasionally stray onto the road. The scenery at sea level is tall cane that quickly gives way to eucalyptus trees and large houses. A little higher up is a brief patch of rainforest followed by low shrubs that thin and disappear into red rock as you summit the dark beast. Each 15 mph cutback affords a fantastic view of the island below save for the thousand foot band of clouds swirling and parting around the shoulders of the mountain.



I was happy to see very few cars on the road up, and even passed a couple of Yamaha riders with leathers and knee pucks. The temperature dropped from a toasty 80 to a chilly (when riding) 65. The summit was quite spectacular with terrain as colorful as it was desolate.

Sunday

My penultimate day on Maui was a relaxing one. Sleeping, reading, watching football, swimming, and playing Settlers of Catan were the primary activities. I took a casual ride into Lahaina as well.

Monday

The departure was an unhurried gathering of things and drive to the airport for a 14:00 flight. Unfortunately, the United desk was an ugly mass of frantic travellers. The airline personnel spent an inordinate amount of time explaining that the situation wasn't their own fault. One industrious rep split the travellers into an LAX 14:00 group and an SFO 14:30 group with the goal of expediting the earlier flight. My SFO-bound family easily beat me to the counter. Of course the screens told me - and those behind me - that the gate was closed but miraculously the plane waited up for us and our baggage.

Brawl [r]

Smash Brothers Brawl is pretty good. At first the game appears to be little different from the previous installment. The controls and mechanics are the same, in fact you can play with a GameCube controller. The canon of characters, moves, and levels has been preserved but with quite a few additions.



I imagine the first thing people look for is motion control, as it is synonymous with the Wii. There is none. And that is as much a relief as it is a disappointment. I dreaded the possibility of a difficult control scheme (and I don't doubt the developers experimented with more than a few) simply to exploit the Wii's trademark feature. I expected something simplistic like shaking the controller to perform an attack, as in Mario Universe. But the controls are 100% old school and that adds some approachability to the game.

Brawl highlights one major drawback to the nunchuk controller scheme; it's difficult to be consistent with the analog stick. The game requires momentary up/up-left/up-right/... thrusts but this is hard to do reliably since the nunchuk is detached. In contrast, the Cube controller is held and steadied with two hands so 'up' is always the same direction. A great many unnecessary falls can be attributed to this, but (for me) not enough to warrant using wired controllers.



The most important gameplay change is that they restored some of the flow that was lost between the original and the sequel. The original Smash Brothers featured slow, fluidic motion. In Melee the character movements became very jerky, perhaps because opponents' movement was very easy to anticipate in the previous game. But this diminished controllability - even a seasoned veteran could accidentally double tap the stick and run off a cliff. Brawl is somewhere between the two, less frustrating than the Cube version, less predictable than the N64 game.



True to the series, most of the game content is unlockable. I was gratified to find that characters, levels, soundtracks, and such could be opened just by playing multiplayer skirmishes. The new unlockable characters include Ike (Fire Emblem), Pit (Kid Icarus), Snake (Metal Gear Solid), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog). It's a refreshing contrast to the traditional cast of goofy Nintendo creations. If Smash Brothers were a five on the nostalgia-mometer and Melee were a seven, Brawl would be sending glass shards and mercury all over the place. Everything from the characters, items, and levels to soundtrack revivals and remixes is an acid trip to the past. Good memories (except for anything involving Luigi).

Game modes...

• Versus: The fighting game staple. Humans or AIs, online or offline.
• Classic: Haven't played it yet, I'm guessing this is either tournament style or a remake of Melee's platforming segment.
• Subspace Emmissary: An entertaining solo or co-op platformer. Offers some brief and amusing cinemas, varied levels, and a Metroid-style world to explore.
  
• Events: Lots of brief scenarios for one or two players. Some original content here, not just instances of normal gameplay.
  
• Level Builder: Haven't tried it yet, but eager.
  

The visuals are a definite step up from the last game. Sure I'll always wish for the Wii to have hd and better hardware, but it'd be a crime to say the game looks anything short of first rate. The levels are colorful, active, and not nearly as treacherous as in Melee. There seems to be an enormous wealth of detail to every frame.