I went to Maui on vacation a few months back–didn’t even know I was gone-did you? I’ll completely skip all the typical rhetoric about the islands. You’ve seen the pictures, you know it’s a beautiful place. The surf, the sand, the food…

I will put a little nod in here for the little geckos often seen sunning on banana trees simply because most tourists would be ickified by them. I thought they were cool.

I would have to say that being a tourist on the island is a fun thing. I can’t imagine a better vacation if a person just wants to relax and tune out the world. Being a resident of the island is probably not so much fun. Dealing with cranky tourists all day long has got to drive a person crazy. And after talking to some locals, many are working two jobs because cost of living is through the roof. One thing we noticed early on is that most tourists drove rentals like Dodge Magnums and convertible Mustangs, while most of the locals relied on the bike for getting around. Watching traffic, being a part of traffic, this makes perfect sense. Imagine thousands of tourists in rentals cars, with cheesy maps and no idea where they are going on the roads with you. You get the picture? The bike is quick and fast and requires no parallel parking in the crowded Lahaina streets.

There were bike racks on nearly every corner and most were full. And long stretches of the main highways had awesomely large shoulders for the commuters. I have to admit, Maui would be the ideal place to bike to work….as long as you didn’t live on the top of the volcano and worked down on the beach.

Now, I’m sure someone out there on the Islands probably can add to this ramble,(ie, maybe not so nice a commute as I’m thinking) but I’m just going to close with some pretty pictures, courtesy of my personal photographer (husband) Dan.

Thanks for tuning in.

Mongoose chainringpoint beachbikeselectra