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Why are these The Ultimate Maui Visitors?
Featured: One of 60 tales of remarkable people who visit or live on beautiful Maui from page 43, Voices of Aloha on Magical Maui:
THEY HANG OUT at the Tiki Bar, often after a summer of sailing around the San Juan Islands in the Northwest. Meet them and the realization comes quickly that they perfectly represent the passion so many have for Maui.
Frequent visitors Gary Bodine and Chris Marcotte, often listen to some 300 Hawaiian songs Gary on their iPod on their boat back home in Washington State. (continued below).
The couple, dividing their time between Maui and Buckley, Washington, regularly cruising the San Juan Islands. Other boaters think they are nuts playing Iz and Grammy winner George Kahumoku on their boat, but they just smile and pretend they are back on Maui. In their own words, this is their story:
Gary:
Voices of Aloha on Magical Maui moon come up over the water. It was absolutely beautiful.”
“We loved it so much the rst time we came I wanted to cry when we left. We came for nine days and extended for three more. Normally, we come for a minimum of three weeks and then we extend for a week and then another week.
“And the kids say, ‘Are you ever coming home?’ And we say, ‘Only if we have to.’”
“We have been coming here for 12 years. It isn’t for the pools, and it isn’t for activities. We take ourselves on trips around the island to Hana, to Haleakala, and learn as much as we can. After a day or so, we literally drift into tropical paralysis—we are so glad to be here.
“When we went to the Big Island, there was a woman who taught Hawaiian language. She had Hawaiian letters on a Scrabble board. You had to make a Hawaiian word you knew.
“When you are listening to a song, you don’t know what they are singing about. Today, we can look at a street name and know what it means and how to pronounce it. We still don’t know much of the language, but what we did learn was that if you look at a word, you know how to pronounce it.”
“Our favorite things are snorkeling at Black Rock (Pu‘u Keka‘a, where royalty once dove to prove their valor), Honolua Bay, the 14-mile marker, and at Napili (a resort built by Canadians). We go to the hula shows. I don’t care how many times I’ve seen them.”
“(At home,) I will go on the computer and look at the Napili Kai and Sheraton webcams every day. ( at way) I come here every day.”
Chris:
44
e Visitor Experience
Chris isn’t here full-time yet, because she also loves the San Juan Islands in the summer. But someday, she will be. She movingly sums up her passion this way: “I could live here without a doubt. My heart is here. I want my ashes to be spread here—this is where my soul is.”
Who says reading is passe?
From http://voicesofalohamagicalmaui.com
No iPhone, iPad for her. The beaching is a perfect backdrop for a good read on Kaanapali. Those who love Maui and want to know more will enjoy my new book.
Check out my daily blog.
Getting to know Maui: Why this is the month for showers?
From the author of Voices of Aloha on Magical Maui 
No April showers for Maui (this is not the rainy season) . Instead you can enjoy the blossoms of shower trees, making in this case a sea of yellow on the lawn of the Kaanapali Beach Hotel recently. You can see em, but you do not have to rake em.
Welcome
For visitors and residents, the new book Voices of Aloha on Magical Maui offers daily words and provocative photos on the latest happenings on Maui from an award-winning journalist/author. What makes Maui, Maui are remarkable people of aloha who appear in my fourth book (available for purchase through the link above. at Maui Friends of the Library bookstores and other local stores.
My fourth Book is one of the few that showcases remarkable people who are part of the visitor experience. It also includes fascinating tales of kings, queens, warriors and missionaries and how they transformed thee islands to set the stage for today’s modern Maui.
Described by Maui Time Weekly as a hand guide for anyone who has been on the island 24 hours, Voices of Aloha on Magical Maui provides insights into one of most popular tourist destinations in the world. Maui Time Weekly says the author writings “are intriguing and illuminating.”
Chicago Tribune Rick Kogan in a radio interview said to the author: “you are the voice of Maui and have the same spirit as (Pulitzer Prize winner) Mike Royko. Your writing reminds me of what he used to write”.
The focus is short tales of a bartender who has made 400,000 mai tais, the surfer/hostess who once posed for Playboy, musicians, artists and colorful characters, the king who united the islands, the queen who lost a kingdom, missionaries, sugar and tourists kings who shaped modern Maui.
Readers will also to know and understand Hawaiians, what they do and what they think about the transformation of this wonderful place from monarcjy, to U.S. territory to state. and what they think say for those who want to understand their cultural experience while here.
Norm Bezane, awarded top two recognition for writing one of the top best feature newspaper columns in the State of Hawaii as well as one of the best independent journalists by the the Society of Professional Journalist’ s Honolulu chapter has included the best of 250 short profiles from his popular Maui newspaper column that debuted in 2006.
The unique accounts loved by visitors and “locals” alike are among the few that tell the story of contemporary remarkable people who have made Maui Maui, the greatest place on earth.
