Rotary at Kihei-Wailea

I went to Rotary yesterday at the same club I have attended the last two years. Besides doing make-ups, it is a great place to learn what is happening on the island since they have some very interesting speakers.

The Rotary meetings are held at the Diamond Resort, which is a "5 Star" Japanese owned hotel/spa complex about 10 minutes down the road in an area known as Wailea. Wailea is the most expensive hotel area of Maui, in fact the average room rate in August/2006 was $430. We haven't heard any current rates. The lunches are very good and reasonably priced since the owner is a Rotarian in Japan.

Yesterday's speaker was the Mayor of Maui County and that is her in the picture (besides Maui, the county includes the neighbouring islands of Molakai & Lanai). It was a kind of "State of the Union" speech, but she dealt with a couple of controversies and ended with a spirited question and answer session. I had a chance to speak with her after, but she showed little interest in Canada, probably because Canadians are statistically low spending tourists compared to mainlanders and the Japanese.

The other lady in the picture with me is the current Rotary President. It was nice to renew some old friendships and it was nice to see the club is growing. In fact there was over 70 people there yesterday, few of whom were visiting Rotarians from the mainland.

Tomorrow is the end of work week two, so time is flying already.