The majority of the highways in Maui are one lane. The speed limit is about 45-55mph. There are MANY car accidents. The issues are that tourists drive along the ocean side highway, see a whale, a big wave, or just the ocean and slam on their breaks. Or they veer off. Or slow down extremely. You can imagine how detrimental that can be to the flow of traffic. Aside from the distracted tourist issue, people stop in the middle of the road to turn off onto a beach along the road, or to do a U-turn or something. Another issue is that the locals are driving too fast ( a select few drive extremely fast, but most mosey along with the speed limit), and also Maui has an insane amount of DUI’s.
When there is an accident, there is usually a major slowing since there are usually only one lane each way. When there is a BIG accident, the road will completely close down anywhere from one hour to… well it’s endless really. Longest has been like 6 hours that I’ve heard of. It seems like recently I’ve heard of a really bad accident every couple of weeks with someone I know being involved or a friend of a friend was involved.
Unfortunately, on February 26 a darling hostess from Hula Grill, who is like the little sister to the whole staff, named Cristina, got into a VERY bad car accident late at night. A lady veered into her lane and hit Cristina head on. Cristina was taken to Maui Memorial Hospital and had surgery on her arm. Then was airlifted and flown in a helicopter to Oahu for surgery on her pelvis. Later she was flown to Seattle where there were specialists to conduct surgery on her leg (I believe) and is still in and out of surgeries. They are trying to get her home to Chicago with her family to undergo physical therapy, working towards being able to walk again, but because she can't fly on a commercial airline in her condition they need to transport her under special circumstances. She was extremely healthy, in the gym twice a day and eating very healthy so her body seemed to be prepared for this. She is recovering extremely well and quickly, surprising all of her doctors. They are now in a bit of a hurry to get the major surgeries out of the way before her insurance expires.
What is amazing is how awesome our Hula Grill family is. Not only do we have a donation box for her, but they are putting on a car wash, raffle, and bake sale for her next Saturday. A bunch of her Hula Grill friends got together and made a song for her. Our friend Ola had just started his own recording studio so some of us came in one night to create a song dedicated to Cristina. Ola created a beat, and we all made a up a rap to go alongside of it. He added some auto toning (digitally enhancing our voices) and we made a chorus. Ola is putting it on Itunes so that every download goes straight to helping Cristina. We sent it to Cristina last week and she lovedddd it!!
Please go and download the song. It's only .99 cents!! C'mon. It's a dollar... going towards a long and hard recovery for our dear Cristina. Hear my rap in it! Go to Itunes store. The song is called "Kokua Cristina" by The Hula Grill Hulagans
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| Recording the chorus |
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| Dancing |
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| Recording my rap inside the recording studio. There's a first time for everything X-) |
A Charity event was put on by her best friend at a restaurant called Lulu's. The cover charge was $25. It had a silent auction with fully donated prizes, which were really nice! There were a few hotel stays with an ocean view, a gym membership, $100 priced jewelry from the store Cristina worked at, local photographer's art, massages, hair treatments, chiropractor visits, etc. I was really impressed with the auction prizes. I out bid one lady for this Thomas Barbey photo, a Lahaina gallery based artist who takes the photos themselves and then layers them manually to turn them into insane art. They also had a raffle which you could buy more tickets in addition to the one you got at the door. Those were some desirable prizes as well, Volcom hats, shirts, slippers (flip flops), a private designer's swim wear, etc. The evening was definitely a success with all who showed up and with the various ways to give to Cristina's cause. From what I heard, they raised about $5000 for her from this event :) :)
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| My girlfriend Toni and I order the same glass of wine, and also got another round. Here is an overview of all the different glasses that they were given to us in. Lulu's isn't a very fancy restaurant but by how much the wine pour and glasses varied for the same exact glass of wine... was pretty hilarious |
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| "The Nut Tree" by Thomas Barbey. A photo somewhere in Hawaii with beautiful mountain tops in the back ground with a massive banyan tree growing out of the ocean |
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What's funny is I typed up this post a week ago and waited for our internet to get installed to finish and publish this post, within that time I got into a car accident (yes another one). If u don't know my car history, let me bring you up to speed.
Cars like to hit me. I've been T-boned and shoved into a fence, rear ended in rush hour traffic, and T-boned from someone driving through the residential stop sign and onto the main road- right into me. I got hit again, a side swipe, but this time I was at fault. Not from negligence and not from not paying attention, I literally did not see them while yielding on a left hand turn. Basically I could have been demolished because the guy was going 45mph, but our swerving aided in only totaling my tire, leaving me safe, with a little whiplash. I must be cursed to always be hit every year or so...
Luckily things went smoothly with the car insurance. Because my Honda came back totaled, Progressive wrote me a check for what my car was worth minus our deductible. Ergo, new car, "Yessss"
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| '04 silvery green Nissan Altima |
Another funny thing is these past two month we have had pretty bad luck with our cars.
~~Prepare for a photo montage~~
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| My honda's battery fully died because the brake lights wouldn't turn off. Had to buy new battery, had to fix the break light problem |
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| The Honda continued to have electrical problems and would shut off in the middle of traffic |
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| Got side swiped |
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| Getting towed after the accident |
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| And TODAY Jon's Dodge Caliber's car completely died, to the point of needed a new one with giving us no warning. The same guy helped me today from AAA as when I had the accident a few weeks ago. |
April 1st we moved into a 6th story fully furnished condo across from a prime surf location with a gorgeous view of the surf spot, ocean, and neighboring island Lanai. The first few nights felt like we were on vacation in some hotel with how awesome the view is, and every piece of furniture being foreign to us. Being up so high right next to the ocean, it gets pretty windy up there. There’s a low howling of wind on a windy day even with the windows closed. There is an elevator but its pretty far away from where our room is, but the stairs dead end into our place, so we take the stairs up and down multiple times a day. Say hello to some new toned legs and more cardio everyday. My glutes are permanently sore haha! The cats love it, with all of the extra room to play and we have a ladder that goes up to the loft that has become a bit of a playground for them :)
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