Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

On the West Side of Maui

Aloha It’s getting close to the end of our trip so we decided to book into one of the resort hotels on the West side of the island for a couple of days. Needless to say, the views were spectacular. Among other things, we were able to sit on our deck and watch the whales […]

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Going to a Luau

Aloha A trip to Hawaii necessarily means an outing to a Luau. We went to one in Lahaina complete with a pig roasted on a fire, native deserts and a Mai Tai or two. The highlight is a show with native dancers performing traditional rituals and dances, including the hula. Here are a couple of […]

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Sunset Cruise in Hawaii

We all decided to go on a sunset cruise sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation, of which Mary Anne and I are now members. The PWF has guides on the boat who act as spotters and teach everyone about how the whales live and behave. Not to mention that they serve cocktails and appetizers during […]

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Gardens of Maui

Maui is an explosion of primary colors. At first, it looks like one of those planets that Kirk, Spock and McCoy get beamed onto where the plant life constantly and rapidly regenerates—except that there are not any devious Kling-on traps waiting for us.   There are gardens pretty much everywhere. It turns out that plants […]

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Sightseeing around Maui

After taking a day trip to Oahu to see Pearl Harbor, we spent the next few days sightseeing around Maui. From wide expanses of green farmland, to meadows and beaches, mountains and volcanoes there is no lack of stuff to see. Including Makawao, a town about 5 miles away that it is, believe it not, […]

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Haleakala

We went on a mildly terrifying drive up to the summit of Haleakala, a shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the island of Maui. The summit is about 10,000 feet high. The road leading to the summit winds around the side of the mountain, with no shortage of death-defying hairpin turns. (OK, maybe […]

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Aloha to the Whales

It’s been pretty busy. We caught a spectacular sunset Sunday evening—from our backyard. One of the U.S. observatories is only about 20 miles or so away on the top of the mountain, so that gives a hint of the vantage point we have about halfway up the mountain. We also did some whale watching, and […]

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In Maui

We finally landed in Maui yesterday after 11 hours in the air. And we were greeted this morning (around 5:30) with an earthquake on Honolulu. The tremors were strong enough to wake us up. The quake measured around 4.5 on the Richter scale, but was not big enough to stir up a tsunami. Anyway, the […]

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Beautiful Day in NYC

Yesterday, February 2 was a beautiful day in Manhattan–although a bit in the brisk side. A stroll around Central Park provided some nice photo opportunities–see below. We will be in Hawaii in a coupe of weeks, so we will be posting from Maui pretty soon. JFB  

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