Category Archives: travel

Lisa Fittipaldi and Ursula in Lahaina Banyan Court Park

Front street in Lahaina is a lot of fun.  From art galleries, to jewelry stores, places to grab a bite, and enjoying the pure beauty of surf pounding against black lava rocks, there is just much to see and do here.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Yes, you can get deals here on jewelry if you shop and haggle.  Ursula managed to snag for an incredibly low price a beautiful and rather massive 14-carat gold bangle at Lahaina Jewelry at 845 Front Street.  Later research online revealed that the bangle was manufactured by Hawaiian Gold Jewelry, and that the MSRP was nearly triple.

Pounding surf

To the west of Lahaina is the impressive ridgeline of the West Maui Mountains.  This is the eroded remnants of a once massive shield volcano that has lain dormant for over 300,000 years.

Eroded remnants of Mauna Kahalawai shield volcano

Eventually, though, one has to turn from the scenery, the shops, and the beauty and head back to the tender.  Here are two last shots of Banyan Court Park:

Tai Chi in the Park

Arts and Crafts for sale

Largest banyan tree in the United States — Shades ⅔ on an acre

The Crown Princess’ next stop on this 28-day Pacific voyage occurred on October 24, 2015.  We anchored off the coast of Maui and tendered in to Lahaina.  Anyone who has followed this blog for at least a couple of years will know that this is far from our first trip to Lahaina:

• Arriving to Lahaina, Maui
• Walking Downtown Lahaina
• Fun Photo Friday — Lovely Lahaina

Nevertheless, this is one stop I always enjoy.  And if you click on the links above you’ll see that the weather on this visit was much sunnier.

Mauna Kahalawai

One of the first sights you’ll see leaving the marina is Lahaina Banyan Court Park, home of the largest banyan tree in Hawai’i.  This particular tree was planted back in 1873, and at the time it was only eight feet/2.4 meters tall.  Today it reaches 60 feet/18 meters and covers .66 acres/.27 hectares.  It’s main branches are supported by one main trunk, 16 major trunks, and many aerial prop roots.  Very impressive.

Aerial prop root

Beneath the tree you’ll find not only many tourists, but also vendors selling arts and crafts.

Lahaina Banyan Court Park

Artist selling his wares

From here we trekked northwest along Fork Street for views of the ocean.

Lahaina