Hello Friends and Family,

1983 - Vacation on Maui, Part 5

Link to this year's index by clicking here.

Once the parade ended, the gates were opened and the fairgoers were welcomed into the fairgrounds. And what country fair would be complete without rides, especially the Ferris Wheel?


As a photographer, my favorite ride is the Merry-go-round, AKA Carousel. It is relatively tame thus you don't see many risk-taking teens riding it — mostly younger kids together with adults holding onto the youngest little ones.


But to get the best photos, you have to get closer (or use a zoom lens). For example, this little one doesn't seem quite certain if the carousel is his favorite ride. But once it stops, he will know for sure and want to ride again.


Growing up in Maryland, I remember this same ride at Ocean City, MD, where my family went every summer. There it was called the Octopus but I recall that this one on Maui had a different name — and was no longer there on my most recent visit.


But the Zipper was operating and continues to this day. Truthfully, I dislike rides that turn you upside down. One ride was enough to confirm that this was not my ride of choice.


The Inflated Castle was very popular with kids of all ages, even teens. I enjoyed watching them have fun thus enabling me to capture their joy with my camera.


And there are the games such as Ring Toss. You get three chances — if you get one ring to come to rest surrounding the neck of a Coke bottle, you win your choice of prizes. You may recall that more recently, Johnny won a giant gecko playing this game — the gecko was almost as big as he was. Unfortunately, we did not see any cost-effective way to bring it home to Phoenix so he left it in the condo for the maid to take it home.


One of the special treats is the food court. Many churches and service groups host a stand offering a favorite local food as an annual fund-raising activity. Besides the treats you can see named on the signs, I always looked for chow fun (wide noodles typically stir-fried with vegetables and meat) and malasadas (Portuguese doughnuts without a hole and dusted with sugar). Also, the chow fun booth served as the meeting place for my Maui friends.


Local artisans making and selling local crafts were in the creative arts building. This young woman was crafting a basket out of palm fronds.


A stained glass artist made this exceptional dome with a sunburst at the top, and trees radiating out from the center. Amazing talent!


Another piece of stained glass artistry is this mountain stream and waterfall. If I had had the money, this is the piece I would have wanted to take home with me.


The Air National Guard brought a helicopter to the fairgrounds so attendees could inspect and ask questions of the Guardsmen there. Additionally, one of the local helicopter companies offered rides in their own helicopter for $15, going from the Fairgrounds to Iao Needle, just a few miles away. Since I had never flown in a helicopter, I decided it was worth that cheap price to try it out. The flight was wonderful — my only regret was that I could not photograph the sights below from my seat. Too bad.

Photoshop Note: the recent versions of Photoshop offer a feature that allows you to replace the sky with one built into PS. Since the sky above the helicopter was completely cloudy, I decided to try a sky replacement. I find that sometimes it works great, but sometimes the results are underwhelming. I would give this result a C+ — your grade may differ. Note that none of the other photos had sky replacement surgery.


To be continued...

Life is good.

Aloha,
B. David

P. S., All photos and text © B. David Cathell Photography, Inc. — www.bdavidcathell.com