Here Today, Gone to Maui – Photo Op

by Bob Sparrow

1st Sunset

 

 

Sunday: We arrive on Maui in the afternoon and had made dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants on the Kaanapali strip, the Hula Grill – right on the beach, feet in the sand, and one of the best ribeye steaks I’ve ever had.  I know I’m supposed to eat fish here, but this was too good to pass up.

 

 

 

Kaanapali strip

Monday: Stroll the ‘Kaanapali Strip’ seeing who has the best Mai Tais – started small umbrella collection.  Got in front of a TV early enough to watch the Alabama-Georgia championship game.  The game was over by 6:00 Hawaii time, so went to dinner at Monkey Pod, right behind Hula Grill.  Yes, I had fish . . . tacos!

 

 

As promised, a sunset and dinner on our sunset dinner cruise

Tuesday: Golf at the Kaanapali Royal Golf Course on a perfect day then a sunset dinner (fish) cruise – seeing lots of whales and a beautiful sunset.  After the cruise we wandered Front Street in Lahaina and settled in at an upstairs bar called Captain Jack’s.  We sat at the upstairs bar next to two guys from Rhode Island; one of them got up to go to the restroom and while he was gone, a restaurant employee came by and asked if anyone was using his bar stool.  We said yes, but he took the stool anyway.  When the guy returned from the bathroom, he was surprised that his seat was gone and asked what happened.  We told him and he looked around for an empty stool, found one and threw it off the balcony onto the street below and walked out.

 

A Sparrow on the ceiling

 

Wednesday: Free day, no golf, no tours, but still mai tais!  Drove north up to Kapalua and Napili, had liquid lunch at Duke’s.  Back to Lahaina, strolling Front Street, stopped at Cheeseburger in Paradise where I found my name on the ceiling. Continued on for dinner at The Lahaina Fish Company, yes, we had fish!  Then we went to Warren & Annabelle’s Magic Show and saw two great acts – John George, who was a great magician and pretty funny, and Chris Blackmore who was a good magician and very funny.  A very fun evening!

 

 

Sunset at Humu Humu

 

Thursday: Golf at the private course, King Kamehameha Country Club, awesome golf course and another perfect day.  The club house was designed in 1957 by famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, although he originally designed it as a house for Marilyn Monroe (long story).  Today, as the solitary structure on the hill, it looks like the start of a lunar colony.  After golf, we continue south to the Grand Wailea restaurant and my favorite bar in the world, Kumu Kumu (real name Kumukumunukunukuapua’ha – it’s a fish!).  I had a fish with a shorter name, Linda had a $100 ribeye, and said she should have ordered the fish!

 

Bob looking good. No, not me, the parrot’s name is Bob – he kept calling out my name, or was he calling out his name?

King Kamehameha Golf Club House

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast at Mala Ocean Tavern. We were so close to the water we got ocean spray in our coffee

The trip was too short, but sweet – sorta like many of my Mai Tais!

Buffett Philosophy

M Casino & ResortNo, this isn’t about how billionaire, Warren would invest your money, but rather about another Buffett, one who has a decent net worth himself – somewhere north of $450 million – and invests so little in his concert attire that he doesn’t even wear shoes.  Yes, I’m talking about Jimmy.

I got a chance to see Mr. Buffett for the umpteenth time two weeks ago in the Hollywood Bowl and once again came away totally entertained by this man whose voice has been likened to that of a carnival barker.  So what is the attraction you ask?  A little history is probably in order . . .

scan0540-1

———–Don———-

I was turned on to Buffett’s music by my late, great best friend, Don Klapperich, back in the 80s when he was in Saudi Arabia, and prior to the common use of the Internet, we regularly  communicated by exchanging cassette tapes filled with music and patter.  Like most casual fans of music, I was familiar with the songs Margaritaville and Come Monday, but probably couldn’t have told you who sang them.  Don sent me a Buffett song called Somewhere Over China, a song with interesting lyrics that I asked him about, which apparently was his cue to start sending me more Buffett.  He did, and implored me to listen to the philosophical lyrics.

Philosophical lyrics?!!  To me, and perhaps to most casual fan of Jimmy, philosophy and Buffett didn’t seem to go together – what deep meaning or life lesson was I supposed to garner from “wastin’ away again in Margaritaville” or “having a cheeseburger in paradise”?  But between the songs Don sent me and the ones I subsequently purchased, I started to learn and appreciate the ‘Buffett philosophy’.  Now don’t get me wrong, he’s no Confucius or Descartes, but he is a fairly accomplished individual.

Serious Jimmy

Businessman Buffett

fun Jimmy

Balladeer Buffett

At 68, Jimmy not only still plays over 20 U.S. concert dates and several foreign locales each summer, but he is the head of a juggernaut business enterprise.  He has turned the brand ‘Margaritaville’ into resorts, casinos, restaurants, clothing and record labels, tequila and more.  You can thank Jimmy if you’re ever had a Landshark Beer in a Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant. He’s written numerous books and appears frequently on TV and in movies, and does a ton of charity work.  He’s a veteran pilot who occasionally ‘buzzes’ his concert parking lots, which are filled with partying Parrotheads, prior to his concerts in his seaplane, the ‘Hemisphere Dancer’.

So here’s a primer of his philosophy from the songs and books of this Renaissance man . . .

On a general philosophy of life . . .

“Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. ”

Hemisphere Dancer

‘Hemisphere Dancer’

On staying young and living life in the ‘now’ and not worrying about how you’re thought of after you die . . .

“I’m growing older, but not up, my metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck, let those winds of time blow over my head, I’d rather die while I’m living than live when I’m dead”

On self-inspection . . .

“We are the people our parents warned us about”

On keeping a good attitude when life brings changes . . .

“It’s those changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes, nothing remains quite the same.  For all of our running and all of our cunning, if we couldn’t laugh and if we weren’t all crazy, we would all go insane”

On being in the right place with the wrong person . . .

“The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful”Landshark

On birthdays . . .

“It’s just another trip around the sun”

On why you should travel . . .

“You do it for the stories you can tell”

On looking back at a full life . . .

“Through 86 years of perpetual motion, if he likes you he’ll smile and he’ll say, some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all the way.

On rationalizing a drink before the cocktail hour . . .

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”

104.3 WOMC partied with Parrot Heads at The Loungin On The Lagoon Beach party before the Jimmy Buffett concert at Comerica Park on Saturday, July 28th 2012 (Photo by Steve Wiseman / 104.3 WOMC)

Pre-concert parking lot party

From the mouth of Buffett . . .

“We’re all somewhere over China, heading east or heading west.”

“Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late.”

“If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.”

I will admit that most of his philosophical stuff gives way to Fins, Cheeseburgers, Volcanos and Margaritas during his concerts, and that’s OK, as having a good time is a very big part of Buffett’s philosophy, but in a rare quiet moment, I still enjoy putting in an old cassette tape and listening to Don introduce a philosophical Buffett song.

Fins up!