My family and I are heading to Maui. We haven’t been to Maui since my son was born back in 2008.

Matt was only 4 months old. His hair was so greasy at that age. We stayed at the Westin Kaanapali Ocean Villas North. We got to use out time share for the first time that year. It was a very nice place. For those that know me or read this, DO NOT BUY A TIME SHARE!!!

We are heading back to the same area of Maui and time share, but we are staying at the original villas there. Starwood hotel group gave me an offer to come out and stay at their resort for 6 days 5 nights for $800. You can’t stay in that area in a hotel/villa for less than $300 a night! We had to pay for airfare. A discount of $185 off the cost of the rental car was also included. In the end, what they probably going to do is pressure us all week to do their time share lecture and try to sell me another time share on kauai. Not from this guy! I don’t plan on giving up any time to them nor am I going to fork over any cash! If I were to buy another, I’d buy one on the resale market. They are much cheaper, but the one thing you don’t get to do is convert the time share into hotel points. The hotel points allow you to stay in the Starwood Hotel network around the world, not in areas where they only have a time share.

This trip we are bringing our newest addition to our family, Baby Hayley. Shen is 15 months old today! She was a bit squirmy on the plane, but overall she was very good. Matt stood up for most of the flight watching KungFu Panda 2 with his headphones on.

We were thinking of doing the Hana drive. I want to see the black beach out there. There are also these rainbow eucalyptus trees at the beginning of the drive to Hana. The bark is reddish brown and when it starts to peel, it reveals a bright green color underneath. It makes for a very colorful picture as well as it creates a lot vertical strips, naturally.

My wife and I honeymooned to the island of Maui back in 2006. We stayed at the Four Seasons. It was a fabulous hotel. Of course, I spent all my life’s savings to stay there. It was worth it! Part of the hotel room package, we received buffet breakfast. Oh man! This was by far the best breakfast I’ve had in a long time. The guy at the inlet station made me a fresh waffle every morning! It was crisp and light. Perfect! He also made me fresh scrambled eggs. The first day we had breakfast I asked the inlet chef for scrambled eggs. He looked at me kinda funny and then pointed over to the “pre-cooked” scrambled eggs in the buffet line. I shook my head no. I wanted fresh scrambled eggs and not those rubbery ones under the hearing lamp that were massed produced without care. From that day forward, the inlet he’d didn’t question my intensions. I was very content. One day we accidentally got the bill. It was $28 per person. This was 5 years ago and I anticipate breakfast will be $35+ per person given the times.

Back in 2008, I started photography. I bought my 2nd dSLR camera, the Nikon D300. It was a great camera. I also bought the Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens. That trip resulted in one of my first panoramic shots which included 2 palm trees. If you are one of my patients, you might remember it. It was hanging in the room that I work out of the most. In it’s place currently is my large panoramic of London during a rare, but beautiful sunset. The villa we are staying at is right nearby the same public park I took that picture from. I am going to see if I can recreate it, but hopefully with better colors.

Pictures to come!

~Greg Chong~Greg Chong