Rock Chalk Maui Invitational

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and it’s time for a mid-Maui update.  The condo we were in was pretty sweet but sadly, Tam and Sophia flew home today so Stacy and I switched to another condo near Kihei.  To say goodbye, however, the original condo gave us a nice rainbow.

 

So long and thanks for all the fish!

After getting in late Saturday, we spent Sunday checking out Whaler’s Village (where all the teams were staying as well as shopping).  We had lunch at Joey’s Kitchen which was super highly rated.  Turns out it was in the food court!  But those reviews were right on.  My Ono tacos were awesome and their Brussel sprouts were incredible.  We then wandered down to the beach to see if we could find any super tall dudes (aka basketball players).  We did see some Wake Forest guys, but no KU.  At the Sheridan, Tam just got done telling us that he really wanted to see Danny Manning when we turned a corner and saw Danny Manning sitting on a bike right next to Bill Walton.  Actually, to give credit where it is due, Stacy kept saying “is that him?” for every tall black dude we passed and she finally was correct.  Tam squeaked out “hi” and Danny said it back so Tam’s day was made.

Pretty funny, we saw them going up and down this lightly traveled road in front of the hotel and it was pretty obvious they were filming Walton doing an interview of Danny.  Tam the stalker got some good shots of them.

We went down to the Weston where KU was staying and saw there would be a pep rally the next day at 1:30 before the first game.  We decided we needed to attend.  I rock chalked a grubby looking guy wearing a KU shirt and Tam happily informed me I just Rock Chalked Greg Gurley.  All I can say is: he is bigger now than he was when he was playing.  Nice guy tho.

The next stop on Sunday was at the Lahaina Civic Center where the games were going to be played.  We wanted to verify it was sold out (it was) and also determine if there was any way we could get tickets.  I had read about a van in the parking lot where local “ticket brokers” would sell you tickets so we were trying to scope that out.  Well now I am probably letting the old cat of the bag but they actually do standing room only tickets for each game.  They cost the same as GA tickets and you are NOT guaranteed a seat but the security company dude we talked to said they do try to find everyone a seat because they don’t want you clogging the aisles.  I searched all over the internets before coming here trying to find some way to get tickets outside the packages and never heard a peep about SRO but talking to people in line, they have been around for a while.

They hand out tickets at 5:45 AM with numbers on them to set your place in line for the SRO sales that happen at 8.  Sucks to get up that early, but that is how we got tickets to the first and second games (getting up at the ass crack of dawn and waiting in line).  For the championship game, after Indiana lost, they opened up GA ticket sales for that finals game.  My only guess is: based off the fan sales for the remaining (non-IU) teams they determined how many GA tickets they could sell to fill up some seats.  We branch predicted before game 1 that they would make it to the finals and spent the money to get tickets rather than waiting.  That allowed us to sleep in on Wednesday rather than doing the SRO thing.

 

SRO bracelet for game 2 (click to embiggen...if you want to see a bigger shot of my hairy wrist)

Another interesting (to me) bit about SRO is the number available per game varied.  Even though all the games were sold out, they had ~100 tickets for Chaminade game, which went down to around 75 for the UCLA game and we heard the finals game only had 30ish SRO tickets available.  I would have thought sellout = sellout no matter what, but I haven’t been putting on a basketball tournament for 32 years either.  The bonus of it all was we got seats for each of the games.  Pretty sweet ones too.

On Monday we enjoyed the sun and met a friend of Sophia’s for lunch.  He used to work for Intel, but decided to semi-retire here so he sold all his stuff, bought a small condo in Kihei and then moved here.  He works as a valet for the Sheraton enough hours per week to get benefits and just enjoys life the rest of the time.  Super nice guy. 

We then went to the pep rally.  I am not sure what I expected….I guess to be honest, I was picturing a high school kind of thing where the coach comes out to talk up the fans and maybe a player or two or three.  Yeah…none of that happened.  There were snacks out with a cash bar and then the cheerleaders did some cheering before the alumni association president got up to thank us for being there (don’t forget to join!) and then the Williams Fund president got up to cheer us on (don’t forget to keep donating!) and then it ended.  Lame.  I guess it was nice to see all the KU fans in one place…and they did have Jayhawk stickers but otherwise…yeah, no need to go to the next one.

After that we went to the game.  The game started at 4 and they brought the SRO people in about 5 minutes before it started…basically after everyone else should have been in.  As you may or may not know, we killed Chaminade.  Ded.

 

View for game 1.  About 3 rows up.

Tuesday we did the SRO early morning fun before heading to breakfast.  After that we went to the Blowhole out on northern Maui.  It’s a hole in the rock where the surf shoots through.  It was pretty cool and the scenery on the way there was sweet.  We cleaned up and hit the game against UCLA and again, we killed them.  Our seats for that were right behind the UCLA bench!  Pretty cool.

Blowhole in action

Spooge!

View along the coast

View from the parking area.  Waaaaay down there is the blowhole

 

Game 2's view.  A nice back shot of Coach Alford

Wednesday, we went into Lahaina to visit the dive shop we are going on a dive with on Friday.  We had to check in and see when we needed to be there Friday morning.  Tam and Sophia also wanted to get gifts for people and what not.  We got back to the condo and I went snorkeling for a little while until it was again time to head to the game.  We actually sat in the same seats as we did for the UCLA game except this time we were right behind the Jayhawk bench!  We were making (quiet) jokes about Self needing to sit down so we could see better.  It was interesting to hear him yell and drop f bombs from time to time.  Definitely gave a different perspective to the game.

 

Banyan tree in Lahaina

View for game 3...we are going to run the #1!!!  Anyone need some gatorade?

Yes, we were part of the huddle

Token Traylor photo for Sophia....she likes his delts

Today Tam and Sophia left in the morning and we shifted over to the Maalaea condo we will be in for the next couple of days.  A nice relaxing Thanksgiving before going to dive with hammerheads tomorrow…if we are lucky.  So one more blog on that one before heading back to reality.

Until then, remember: Our time, the people’s time

Love to all!

Jim