Vacation – Dan Crouch Blog

I might be a couple weeks overdue in posting pictures from our trip to Maui, but they may be just in time for the snow that’s expected this Thursday!

Shana and I hit “Big Beach” our first full day there. We had big plans to soak in a lot of sun, and we spent 3 full days just lazing around staring at the surf. We really wanted to unwind and this fit the agenda perfectly!

The obligatory self-portrait on the sand with the warm ocean behind us. Yep, we were drunk on the sun that day!

As we sat enjoying the view I realized that what looked like a boat on the horizon with a sail fluttering in the wind was actually a whale breaching and playing in the water! This is a cropped hand-held zoom, but it was like a spec on the horizon with the naked eye.

The next day we took a scenic drive around the northwestern portion of the island going the long way to Kapalua, Lahina, etc… It was a treacherous one lane road in most parts with blind corners and serious drop-offs. But the reward is the view you get from the helicopter tour but without the chopper.

These ultra-wide images were produced from 8-12 images blended with Photoshop. Shot with Canon 40D and 17-40 F/4L. This lens is hard to beat for capturing the whole scene.

This is where we stayed upcountry near Haiku. A cute little place that was on a nice 2 acre lot. Very bright and airy, and everything you needed to feel at home. The hutch opens to reveal a 42″ LCD that we watched the Superbowl on while sipping Kona Longboard Lager and mimosas with fresh juice — guess who was having what?! Congrats to Aaron Rogers BTW 😉

This is our patio complete with gas grill, washer and dryer, and a hot tub! We didn’t use the tub as much as you’d think. It’s Hawaii and the overnight low was like 70F so why bother?

But I did cook a few dinners at home on the grill to offset some of our more expensive meals: Korean short ribs, Teri Chicken, and Maui Ribeyes!

And the meal of the trip was definitely our last night at Mama’s Fish House just outside Paia. This beautiful fish was stuffed with crab and had a lobster tail draped over the top with asparagus. AWESOME! The bisque appetizer that came with was also to die for. But the dessert at the end was really amazing as the sun set.

So as you can tell we focused on scenic drives, days and days on the beach, and great eats. Maui always makes us feel on vacation, but on this trip we really were. Can’t wait to do it again!

HockenheimRing Museum Pictures from my Trip Last Spring

Here are my pics from the HockenheimRing Museum this past spring. I forgot I had even taken these until I stumbled on this eBayMotors auction for a Ducati 350 racebike. When I saw the pictures (which are worth checking out) in the ad I thought to myself, “that reminds me…”

The reason I forgot though is because my pictures are forgettable. They’re out of focus and poorly exposed mostly. Which is really disappointing because I had the whole place to myself.

I had only a day or two left in Germany and I was determined to fit this trip in. So I got up early and drove the doors off our little Merc so I could get there at 10am when they opened. The plan was to be back by early afternoon. I was pretty proud of my planning as I rolled into the HockenheimRing complex at 10:05. No on-track access in the middle of the week, so it was an easy drive right up to the Museum located just outside the track. Apparently they don’t get many visitors on off race weekends as I arrived to find the doors locked. I actually found this pretty shocking as everything in Germany operates as advertised. I pressed my face closer to the glass door and you could clearly tell the lights weren’t even on yet. I was pretty disappointed as I accepted the fact that they might be closed for some reason, and I had just driven nearly 3 hours to get here on a precious last day of the trip. I was just about to drive away when the nice woman who runs the museum flagged me down and let me in.

A lot of the pics are bad because the lights were still off for most of them and I fooled myself into thinking a tripod would’ve been a waste of space on the plane. But for the next hour and a half, I had the entire place to myself and I had a great time soaking up all the great hardware on display. Probably 80% motorcycles, and they all looked like they were kept in preserved and running condition. Most had drip pans underneath and were very original rather than restored.

Enough blabbing, onto the pics! If you have details on models, please feel free to leave comments on the blog post or click through to the Flickr account for each picture.

An extra special thanks to the Museum employee who not only made sure I got to see the collection, but spent at least 20 minutes with me sifting through original HockenheimRing event posters for my souvenier!