Let me start this by saying that I am a tourist. I like to be treated like one. I like people to bring me drinks while I lay on a lounge chair and I like to eat. These recommendations are not for people who want to see the locals Maui. I don’t go off the beaten path and I don’t exercise when I am on vacation.

I have been going to Maui since I was 17. I’ve been with big 24 person trips and I’ve been with just the family. I’ve stayed in their cheapest hotels and I’ve stayed in their #1 hotel Honua Kai. So, having tried everything thrown at a tourist to do, next time I go to Maui, these are the things I will do.

Restaurants

Kimos (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17664106948897807648&q=Kimos+Maui&hl=en&gl=us&sll=20.842264,-156.506237&sspn=0.105363,0.418347&ie=UTF8&ll=20.962081,-156.769753&spn=0,0&z=12)

If you only do one thing I have writen here, eat at Kimo’s. I can not stress this enough. We bought a cabin in Tahoe just because it is across the street from a restaurant these same people own, but alas, it is not the same. Order the Kimo pie for dessert. Trust me. Get it and eat some fresh ma-hi ma-hi for dinner. Also, if you ask them for the Kimo pie to go, it holds well, take it back to the room.

Call and make a reservation. Tell them its your honey moon and you want the upstairs balcony along the rail if it’s a calm night. If it is WINDY DO NOT sit on the balcony. You will blow away. If it’s raining and you can come back another night, do so. The food is always great, but when the restaurant is all closed up to keep out the weather, something is lost.

Dukes (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=7787740495402667897&q=Dukes+Maui&hl=en&gl=us&sll=20.944797,-156.691529&sspn=0.322156,0.791128&ie=UTF8&ll=21.184412,-157.219162&spn=0,0&z=11)

Good restaurant, but GREAT bar. Somehow they always manage to hire extremely friendly bartenders here and if you come by in the afternoon, sometimes there is live acoustic music (I think Fridays and Saturdays)

Cheeseburger in Paradise (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=cheeseburger+in+paradise+maui&fb=1&gl=us&hq=cheeseburger+in+paradise&hnear=0x7954ceab8f801641:0xa7a8b9a37d812df9,Maui&cid=339195587244176392&z=14)

The cheeseburger in paradise in lahina is two stories with an ocean view and great beer.  Live music at night.  Could you really ask for more?

Lelanis (Wailers Village) http://www.leilanis.com/

Great ocean front restaurant. High recommendation, especially for a light lunch.

Beaches

Big Beach (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe=&ie=UTF8&q=big+beach+maui&fb=1&gl=us&hq=big+beach&hnear=0x7954ceab8f801641:0xa7a8b9a37d812df9,Maui&cid=3301232621686812671&z=14)

If you are looking for a really really big beach. This is your beach. Keep in mind that cars are broken into often in the parking lot, though after 10 years of going here it has never happened to me, but still, don’t leave anything valuable in the car. I don’t recommend going to the bathroom here, the port o potties are dirty nasty. Save that for the hotel. Also, there are no real restaurants or food stands or anything here, so pack your drinks/food.

Little Beach

This is a nude beach. So if you’re into that sort of thing ….

Kahekili Beach Park (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=15189125326036644026&q=Kahekili+Beach+Park&hl=en&gl=us&sll=20.9364,-156.692811&sspn=0.003602,0.008234&ie=UTF8&ll=20.938204,-156.696931&spn=0,0&z=18)

Great beach for snorkeling in Kaanapali. Also, pretty close to Dukes. Make a day of it and go to the beach, then go to Dukes for lunch or drinks.

Ulua Beach Park (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=6585177751477685451&q=ulua+beach+park+maui&hl=en&gl=us&sll=20.690996,-156.443704&sspn=0.236207,0.245913&ie=UTF8&ll=20.81036,-156.707268&spn=0,0&z=12)

This is a great place to go snorkeling. The also have restrooms and picnic areas. Not much of a beach for laying out though.

Places

Wailea

Wailea is the upscale part of town. It’s basically where you want to be most of the time

The shops at wailea (http://shopsatwailea.com/)

Directly across the street from the Marriott are the shops at Wailea. Great place. First off, there is a cheeseburger island style here which for all intents and purposes is cheeseburger in paradise.

Second there is a lapperts ice cream shop. Awesome. There is also a Ruth’s Chris and Lohnghis for your fine dinning.

Lahina

Lahina has about 3 blocks along the ocean worth going to. Here there are a ton of shops and restaurants, it is where you should do most of your shopping and where kimos and the awesome 2 story ocean view cheeseburger in paradise are.

Wailers Village

Great beach, and two great beach front restaurants.

Go to wailers village and have lunch at lelanis. I recommend the Ahi salad. Then go to the beach. After you’re beached out, go shopping in their open air mall and get your parking validated.

Activities

Molokini Crater

I can really only recommend one excursion and that is the molokini crater. Go with four winds they guy is a lot of fun and they have alcohol as well. The best time to go is in the morning when the water is calm. You have to get up early but it’s worth it. Snorkeling gear is included.

Snorkeling

If you want to go snorkeling at a beach you can rent gear reasonably at one of the Boss Frogs locations

Surfing

If you want to learn how to surf, the best way to go about it is to rent a padded long board from Boss Frogs and then go to one of the beach out crops along the highway, there will be locals offering surfing lessons

The road to Hanna

Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. I don’t care who told you it is. If you really want to waste an entire day you could have spent at your hotel pool drinking pina coladas in the car instead then pack a lot of food and alcohol, (no glass bottle) and go on the road to Hanna. 7 pools is extraordinary and the black sand beach is gorgeous.

Maui Winery (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=14639008492252961535&q=Maui+Winery&hl=en&gl=us&sll=20.791103,-156.555176&sspn=0.231737,0.527&ie=UTF8&ll=20.906927,-156.818848&spn=0,0&z=12)

This place is fun. It’s a bit of a long drive. You can either go there on the way back from the road to Hanna, or you can just go straight there and avoid the road to Hanna all together. It’s pretty much all fruity wines so make sure your sweet tooth is ready. There is a nice deli across the street. Do NOT by any wine here. They carry all of their wines at the general store in Lahina for like $6 a bottle. I felt like an idiot.

Mulligans on the Blue (http://www.mulligansontheblue.com/)

Fun Irish pub located at the Wailea old blue golf course. Go around 8 and see the Celtic Tigers and party your face off. Check the website for their schedule, but I think they usually play on Sundays and another band follows. I’ve only done this once with another couple and we had a great time.

The Air is an incredibly well thought out, well engineered feat of computer hardware. I worked as a technician for a few years and I can tell you that the most common problem I saw in laptop hardware was the DC jack. People would constantly jam the plug into their laptops and over the course of a few years it wears away the connection to the main board, making the laptop useless. It can be repaired, but most often when this occurs people just bought a new laptop rather then deal with the cost of soldering a new jack to the main board. The Air’s DC jack is magnetic. You don’t insert it, you don’t push on it, it will not disconnect from the main board. This one feature is probably overlooked by most owners, but it was not lost on me.

The boot time of this laptop and the battery life are both ridiculous. When you turn on the Air, it’s on, it’s that fast. My phone doesn’t turn on that fast. The battery on this thing is also impressive. I haven’t been using it long enough to tell you if it will degrade over time, but I will use the lap top on and off throughout a day and I won’t need to charge it. This is with the wireless connection turned on. Again, my phone can’t even do that and I have never owned a laptop with such great power management.

The only notable con on this laptop is that there is no convenient way to right click and drag. The Air handles right clicks by touching two fingers on the touch pad, it take some getting used to and you can imagine how problematic it is to place two fingers on a touch pad and drag them around your army if you play Starcraft II. If you have a USB mouse handy, you can configure it to counter this, but then you have to carry a mouse around.

I was worried when I first bought the Air that unless I loaded windows on it I wouldn’t be able to use it for anything, this did not end up being the case. As far as my day to day uses go, I’ve been just fine on the Apple OS. I don’t particularly like the way programs are organized or how it auto assigns things I’d never use to the tool bar, but for the most part the options can be changed or you learn to manage it over time. I now use it for the bulk of my web browsing and word processing (Microsoft office has an Apple OS version). When I need to do something serious I remote desktop into a Windows PC, but I’m not doing that nearly as often as I thought I would.

Given the chance again, I would still purchase the Air. It’s the best thing out there if you want something mobile. Before you buy it I recommend you search around on the web to see if compatible versions of the software you use is made for its OS and that the printer you are currently using has drivers for it. As far as the hardware goes, you will be impressed.

Most likely, I mailed the registration card to Asus, because I do fill those out, but for whatever reason they did not get it, I can’t prove it though.  You would think that after spending that much time on hold, they would just cover it regardless, but they did not.  I ended up fixing the laptop myself, it wasn’t very damaged, and all that was needed was some cleaning and a new keyboard which ran me about $50.  In retrospect, I’m sure ASUS would have spent the $50 to keep a happy customer, but it is what it is and my business will be spent elsewhere. 

Below is a copy of the ASUS chat transcript for your reading pleasure.  I’ve never been disconnected (the online equivalent of hung up on) by customer service before, it’s a first for me.  

ASUSTech – Stephanie> Hello

Bruce> HI

ASUSTech – Stephanie> How may I help you

Bruce> I spilled coffee all over my laptop. I am still under accidental damage coverage, but I don’t know how to proceed

ASUSTech – Stephanie> did you register your notebook

Bruce> I went to the accidental site and I have a case number, but it wants me to mail my proof of purchase to them.

Bruce> i just did online a little while ago

ASUSTech – Stephanie> just mail the copy of your invoice with your RMA. when did you register though?

ASUSTech – Stephanie> did you registered within 60 days from purchase date?

Bruce> I have no idea

ASUSTech – Stephanie> well can you look at your receiept and tell me the purchase date.

ASUSTech – Stephanie> I’ll check

Bruce> The purchase date in 12/2/2009

Bruce> I entered the purchase date and serail number into your accidental damage website, like i said, it says I’m covered,

but to finish I have to mail them the receipt

Bruce> I was wondering if I can fax the receipt

ASUSTech – Stephanie> unfortunately you must registered within the first 60 days

ASUSTech – Stephanie> and it wont let me approve it since it shows you registered it today

ASUSTech – Stephanie> let me double check

Bruce> well, I had to, I didn’t have an online account and it asked me to regist the product

Bruce> when i created the account

ASUSTech – Stephanie> ? if you have access to a computer after purchase you should be able to register right away, let

me check real quick one moment please

ASUSTech – Stephanie> I’m sorry I just checked with management as well, and it does not qualify since you were not

registerd after your purchase within 90 days

ASUSTech – Stephanie> our system wont even allow me to approve it

ASUSTech – Stephanie> 60days sorry*

Bruce> I do not see anything, even on your website, that says it must be registered within 60 days in order to have the

accidental coverage

ASUSTech – Stephanie> let me find it for you

ASUSTech – Stephanie> one moment

Bruce> it does say f you purchased an ASUS notebook on or after September 10, 2007 from a selected retailer, your

notebook is eligible for the warranty

Bruce> and then it says I should register it within 60 days

Bruce> should

Bruce> not have to, not anything about losing a warranty, which is why i bought the laptop

ASUSTech – Stephanie> the question itself

ASUSTech – Stephanie> says when do customers need to

ASUSTech – Stephanie> need*

Bruce> it does not say anything about not getting a warranty I paid for with purchase of the laptop

ASUSTech – Stephanie> you are intitled to manufacture warranty but ADW must be registered within 60days for approval.

ASUSTech – Stephanie> so any physical damage wont be covered but you can send the notebook in for repair for a fee?

Bruce> that is unacceptabe

Bruce> unnacceptable

Bruce> *

Bruce> There was no hard copy of a warranty card in the box, or it was sent out

Bruce> I have proof of purchase, your website says I’m covered, so who do I need to talk to in order to use the warranty

that I paid for.

ASUSTech – Stephanie> well you can call 888-678-3688 for further assistance, and check our adw.asus.com. ASUS has to

follow policy.

Bruce> i went to that site first, filled out the form, it says i’m approved

ASUSTech – Stephanie> I just went on our side and it says deny cause of today’s date of registration.

ASUSTech – Stephanie> Either way I tried to approve it for RMA service and it will not allow me to for ADW. I’m sorry

Bruce> it says to mail my product registration and receipt to your address case number (REMOVED FOR SECURITY)

ASUSTech – Stephanie> yes, it says that because we have to verify the date and then the online registration date

ASUSTech – Stephanie> when we receive it they will deny it either way.

Bruce> that just does not make any sense

ASUSTech – Stephanie> it clearly states on this website “You need to register for the Accidental Damage Warranty within60 days of purchase”

ASUSTech – Stephanie> http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx

Bruce> well, asus just lost a customer

Bruce> also, that website was not shipped in the box

Bruce> obviously

ASUSTech – Stephanie> the registration card in the box should have that information.

Bruce> the box did not include a registration card

Bruce> or that card was mailed out

ASUSTech – Stephanie> who would have mailed that card out? we send it out with all our notebook units, please check

withyour reseller to make sure they include it

Bruce> ithin 60 days

ASUSTech – Stephanie> who did you purchase it from again?

Bruce> VENDOR NAME REMOVED

Bruce> they mail have mailed it out for me

ASUSTech – Stephanie> on the ADW it says Materials must be post marked within 60 days of the original purchase date

Bruce> may

ASUSTech – Stephanie> it should have been within the units contents

Bruce> I have the box and all of its contents

Bruce> software, adds, etc.

Bruce> no registration card

ASUSTech – Stephanie> Well I’m sorry to hear that but we include that card with ALL notebooks that are eligible for ADW,

so please check with your reseller and see why your unit did not come with one?

Bruce> it’s an sus box

Bruce> asus box

Bruce> if it’s not in there, you did not put it in

Bruce> i don’t think there is some conspiracy where they opened the box, stole the registration card, then re taped it

ASUSTech – Stephanie> I don’t want to argue whether its in the box or not. I know that they come with it and havent ever

had a case where the card was missing?

ASUSTech – Stephanie> if you want to proceed with your case you can call our support line

ASUSTech – Stephanie> and I can give you a case #

Bruce> I have been on hold with your support line for 45 minutes

ASUSTech – Stephanie> case# (REMOVED FOR SECURITY)

Bruce> also, you have alot of problems with your registation card, just do a web search

Now to decide what to do with it.   I think I will simply use it to voice my support for what I am calling the Colbert initiative.  If you were watching his show you probably already know that I am talking about his plan to automatically nuke North Korea and Iran if America comes under nuclear attack.

Here is a link to the site you may have been looking for nucleartippingpoint.org

This site is going to consist of a hodgepodge of things that come out of my head.  I design software for a living so for most of my posts are going to deal with my thoughts on video games or on some random pc tip.