Pineapple Juice, Music and Dance on Maui

Maui is gorgeous, even when its pouring rain.
And it was
Most of the day
When I lived here we'd tell tourists it was just pineapple juice

I worked on Deadly Resemblance on the deck watching the rain. Although they didn't need to be, my friends were quiet until I took a break and suggested we drive north to the Lighthouse to look for whales.

The rain let up once we reached the Nakalele Lighthouse pullout so we walked the uneven rocky ground with JoJo happily trotting alongside his owner. Neither Lynn nor I had ever seen people walking around way up north like this but there were large groups of them, heading towards the blowhole. In the rain.
Having lived here thirty years ago when there were only four stoplights on the whole island, it's hard to see Maui so busy, every inch of it open to exploring people now. I understand how we all want to experience the wild parts of Maui but it's still hard to see this beautiful island so overpopulated with visitors. We knew when they started building so many mega hotels, it was headed this way, thirty years ago. We talked about the impact it would have on the island. How the road would get so busy and clogged, it would take more than the usual 40 minutes to drive from Lahaina to Kahului.
It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes yesterday to reach the other side of Maui.
We'd gone over to attend a tribute to a wonderful musician and person who'd recently passed away--Fulton Tashombe. Maui Arts and Cultural Center's outdoor pavilion was the venue for the event from 5-8. We went a little early to visit with our friend Neida who runs the gallery at the MACC.
I used to sing and travel interisland with Neida in a band called The Brown Sisters and sisters we were back then. It was incredibly heartwarming to see my friend over a glass of wine as Fulton's tribute began on the stage. The speakers kept the tone light as a rolling photo essay of Fulton's life played at the side of the stage. When three baskets of white doves were released and flew away in a flock, Neida, Cresty and I worried about that one dove that didn't get out and took to the rafters to fret and wait. There were four bands over two hours, many musicians I knew from the old days and the whole 300-person event was filled with musicians and people Fulton had touched as a musician and lovely person on Maui.

During the song, Riders in the Storm, there was an enormous BOOM that had us all going for our cell phones to see if a ballistic missile warning had come in. Some said it was Fulton, some said thunder, but we couldn't explain the noise. Thunder and lightning began soon after that sounded nothing like the BOOM.
We danced, we laughed, we hugged people we hadn't seen in years and Cresty drove us back to the west side in the pouring rain.

JoJo received us like we were zombies, come to eat his brain because Lynn was at work and couldn't protect him. Bill was able to feed him chicken but Cresty and I were not allowed within ten feet of the little guy. Rescue dogs have baggage sometimes and we tried to tread softly and give him a wide berth.


Today we might try to get out scuba diving. The ocean looks calm.