The tree was planted on April 24, 1873 by sheriff William Owen Smith to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Christian missionaries.  It was brought from India, and at the time of planting, was only 8-feet high. It now has a dozen main trunks, and its canopy spreads over two-thirds of an acre between the Old Courthouse and Front Street.  Today, the symmetry of the tree is maintained by volunteers.

The birthday celebration will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 23-24, 2011.  The free gathering will include cake, a clown, piñata games, artist displays, nature artworks, and hands-on art activities for children.

Saturday April 23, 2011, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Arts and Crafts
• Live music all day
• 11 – 1 p.m. Magician Brenton Keith Show
• 1 p.m. Banyan Tree Birthday Cake
• 1 – 3 p.m. Clowns & Keiki Games
• 1 – 3 p.m. Live music provided by Keoki Ruiz & friends, Gilbert Emata & David Choy
• Silent Auction 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. with parasailing, local restaurants, Maui Jim sunglasses, boat rides & much more.
• Food provided by: Cool Cats, Captain Jacks, Famous Dave’s & Local Boyz Shave Ice

Sunday, April 24, 2011, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

• Arts and Crafts
• Live music all day
• 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Easter Bunny, egg hunt, keiki games

We hope to see everyone there!

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Here is the link to see them: Awesome Maui Photos!

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The show begins at 7pm on Friday, May 21st, at the Lahaina Civic Center (1840 Honoapiilani Highway). For more information see the Facebook Event or purchase tickets on Flavorus.

Recently, Lahaina.com was able to chat with Slightly Stoopid drummer Ryan Mora, or "Rymo" to those who are keeping up.

Lahaina.com: What do you look forward to most regarding coming to Maui for the Lahaina performance?

Rymo: I’m looking forward to having a great show. It’ll be our first time playing at the civic center. I’m really stoked to eat some plate lunch and go surfing.

Lahaina.com: Who surfs in the group and do you plan to surf on Maui?

Rymo: About 4 of 7 of us surf. We are planning to get some waves while there. Hopefully there will be some fun ones.

Lahaina.com: What are your plans for your next album? Anything in the works or do you prefer to just tour for now?

Rymo: We are doing tons of recording at our studio in San Diego. We are looking to release something around spring of 2011. We’ll be on the road all summer and fall.

Lahaina.com: This summer you’ll be touring with Steel Pulse, The Expendables, Cypress Hill, and Collie Buddz. Is there one of those in particular you really look forward to touring with? Have you played with any of them previously?

Rymo: We’ve toured with The Expendables a bunch over the years and they are on our record label, Stoopid Records. I have seen Steel Pulse and Cypress Hill a couple times on festivals, I’m looking forward to hanging out and partying with them. I’ve never seen Collie Buddz and am looking forward to meeting and touring with them too.

Lahaina.com: Slightly Stoopid made it to a lot of places with your tours in 2009, including a big European tour. This year is looking to be quite busy as well. What do you enjoy most about the extensive touring and what is the most difficult part?

Rymo: We have been touring heavily for years and at this point we are familiar with the road. It’s part of our work to be traveling non-stop. The thing I enjoy the most about traveling is just seeing the world and trying different foods. The most difficult part is just being away from your family and loved ones, and your house. When you are bouncing from hotel to hotel and city to city, it’s easy to feel spun out and ungrounded. People think it’s all a big party and easy to do, but there are certain pressures and difficulties that aren’t seen by the public.

Please try to make it out to the event and show Slightly Stoopid how much Maui and Lahaina appreciates their visit!

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When on Maui during the whale season, you can pretty much spot the whales from anywhere, whether you are on the beach getting a tan or taking an afternoon rest on your lanai at your oceanfront hotel. However, the best opportunity to see the humpback whales is up close and personal via a whale watching tour.

There are plenty of whale watching boats that leave from the Lahaina harbor, and we have  great deal for you to start the New Year and of course whale season!

Book now for the Whale Watching Cruise for only $24.21 per person. There is no timeshare tour requirement for this cruise.

Mahalo!

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The photo was taken by Diann Corbett who got a beautiful shot of the Garden of Eden Botanical Garden in Hana

Congratulations to the winner and thanks for your submissions! If you would like to take a look at past winners, go to our "photo of the month" page.

If you would like your photo to be in next month’s contest, join Flickr and add your photo to the Lahaina.com Flickr pool or just tag your photo Lahaina.com.

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The photo was taken by Galen Goode who got a beautiful shot of the West Maui Mountains at sunset.

Congratulations to the winner and thanks for your submissions! If you would like to take a look at past winners, go to our "photo of the month" page.

If you would like your photo to be in next month’s contest, join Flickr and add your photo to the Lahaina.com Flickr pool or just tag your photo Lahaina.com.

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All of this has changed in recent years with the city government not allowing the streets to be closed down for the big party. In summary, their explanation, "it is a safety issue."

Upset about the changes? Want to do something about it? Voice your opposition to rule at the Maui Police Town Hall meeting tonight at the Lahaina Civic Center. The town  hall starts at 6:00pm and will end around 7:30pm. Hope to see plenty of people in attendance!

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I thought it is a good article to share and give an outsider’s perspective to what to do on Maui. Here is a highlight:

Don’t miss: #53 on Lahaina’s self-guided walking tour - Hale Pa’Ahao, the 1850s prison. Still serving time are several African Grey parrots, the "jail birds." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/16/TR8P1A2JKC.DTL#ixzz0UPORCfFY

You can check out the rest of the article on Just back from: Maui at SFgate.com.

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Originally, in the pre-internet days, there were two widely accepted hotel ratings in the US – AAA’s diamonds and Mobil’s stars. Just to be listed in either guide, even with one star or diamond, was considered an honor. In fact, I like the way AAA’s guide says “AAA approves and rates only hotels and restaurants that are clean, well-maintained, and offer a level of features to meet basic expectations of AAA members. As a result, properties at every AAA Diamond level meet and uphold favorable quality standards. A One Diamond hotel differs from a Three Diamond hotel in that it will have a simpler level of design features, amenities, and often a much lower price — ideal for travelers seeking a clean, comfortable, no-frills, budget-oriented accommodation. Likewise, a One Diamond restaurant could be that unassuming, order-at-the counter hamburger joint that just happens to serves the best burgers around!” The strength of this system was that a humble accommodation’s one diamond could still be considered positive in that they met AAA’s one diamond standards, so no matter your budget, you still had options that had been inspected, met a specific set of criteria and were rated accordingly.

Hotel ratings involve both the facility and the service. AAA’s ratings start with the initial reservation and run through the checkout process; in between, every aspect of each hotel is scrutinized. Take a look at AAA’s website regarding the meaning of each set of stars. What you don’t see here are the pages and pages of requirements that AAA has developed to delineate these simple explanations.

These days, anyone with a travel-related website can and does rate hotels. These ratings are different than the AAA or Mobile ratings in that, generally, someone from the website reviews the hotel’s attributes and makes a decision about what that property’s rating should be. Expedia, for example, uses a star rating system. Take a look at Expedia’s rating criteria.
Notice how Expedia uses a half star step system, not to clarify the difference in quality but to differentiate between lodging types. Expedia’s ratings are based solely on the type of lodging, and leave plenty of wiggle room by using terms such as “usually”, “may” and “typically”. Compare this to AAA’s much more definite terms regarding a property’s quality; you get the feeling that a hotel is not going to sneak anything past AAA while Expedia, well, as I said, is more subjective.

For Maui, here is the current list of 4 and 5 star/diamond properties:

AAA 5 Diamond
Four Seasons – Wailea
Ritz Carlton – Kapalua

Mobile 5 Star
Four Seasons – Wailea

AAA 4 Diamond
Hotel Hana - Hana
Hyatt Regency – Kaanapali
Westin – Kaanapali
Grand Wailea – Wailea
Fairmont Kea Lani – Wailea
Wailea Beach Marriott - Wailea

Mobile 4 Star
Ritz Carlton - Kapalua

You can see that both AAA and Mobile agree only that the Four Seasons is worthy of their top star/diamond ratings. Beyond that, they disagree on pretty much every other Maui hotel.

Ratings do serve an important purpose in the guest’s hotel buying decision. It is imperative, though, that prior to making assumptions (“all five star ratings from every source mean the same thing”) the guest know exactly what criteria those ratings follow, how the data was gathered, who wrote the review and how reliable the data is. Yes, there’s work involved in determining the meanings of the ratings criteria but it’s your vacation and your vacation dollars; don’t you want to be sure that you’re getting the best value for your time and money?

Bill Rees is the General Manager of the Outrigger Maui Eldorado Resort. He has been in the hotel business for longer than he cares to admit and he has the anecdotes and nervous tics to prove it! When not at work or exploring Maui, Bill, who is a Honoapiilani Highway road warrior, spends time working on his historic Wailuku home. Bill can be reached at bill.rees@outrigger.com

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At the same time, Continental will be offering a new flight between Los Angeles and Honolulu and begin a Honolulu to Orange County run four times a week. All of the new flights Continental is offering will almost double the airlines presence in the Hawaiian islands.

"Hawaii continues to be a popular travel destination for our customers," Jeff Moken, Continental’s Honolulu general manager, said in a news release today. "We continue to see good demand for travel between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and are pleased to offer expanded travel options to the islands."

The new daily flight from Maui’s Kahului Airport (OGG) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to will depart at 9:15 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 5:45 a.m. the next day. The return flight will depart Los Angeles at 5:05 p.m. and arrive in Kahului, Maui at 7:45 p.m. Continental will operate the flight with a Boeing 737-800 with 160 seats.

Anytime the airlines increase the number of flights to the islands it adds to the supply that is available, thus reducing the travel costs for vacationers. Hopefully, the more flights to Maui will help pick up tourism and help this local economy.

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