Aloha, Elaine

In late 1989, I met a wonderful woman, and in the summer of 1990 I wanted to introduce her to my mother, who lived in Honolulu, so we planned a trip to Hawaii. We visited the Big Island for 3 days, Maui for 3 days, and Oahu for a week. On Maui, we stayed at Maui Kaanapali Villas, in a first floor studio in the Banyan building. We both loved MKV, the peaceful serenity, the beach, everything about it, and at the end of our three days, we were sorry to be leaving. As I walked across the lawn to the lobby to check out, it occurred to me that people owned these. At the front desk, I asked for contact information for a realtor who did business at MKV, and they gave me Toby Hay’s card. I tossed it in my bag and we resumed our trip.Once home, the card surfaced when I unpacked, and I called Toby. This was before the internet, so Toby mailed me a list of everything that was for sale, and then called me to tell me about each unit. He told me the truest thing I have ever heard about MKV: “There is no perfect unit, there is no horrible unit. Every unit has good points and bad points. You just have to find one that has the good points you really like, and the bad points you can stand”. Jane and I settled on 508. Toby sent Carol into the unit to take photos which he sent me, we made an offer, and soon we owned 508. We waited another 21 years for a north-facing one-bedroom on the second floor of the Emerald building to come on the market. When it did, we bought 293, and now we enjoy staying part of each visit in each unit.

George McDowell

On Friday, February 21, 2020, Chris Bounds wrote:

Hi Barb,

Great job on this and appreciate the great coverage of the golf tournament. I’d love to get the shuffleboard shuffle posted. If you are still on property, let me try to send this to you again via an airdrop.

Best,

Chris

Hi Barb

Harold & Margarets Mobbs MKV story. The first time we came to MKV was in January of 1992. It was our first time to Hawaii, and we came at the urging of friends/clients who had been coming to MKV for years. To say we fell in love with the property that first time would be an understatement. We met Charlie and Mary Mayrs on that trip and found out that they were owners here, and that started little wheels turning in our heads. Two years later we came to MKV with our 3 young adult children for a family Christmas holiday. We started to “look around” the property, found out what units were for sale, not really sure if we could afford to buy our own little piece of paradise. We left Maui dreaming that maybe one day we could own here also. On our 3rd trip in March of 1997 we started to look seriously at buying a unit. By that time we had met a few more owners, Dick and Sally Thorpe, and Bob and Wendy Thompson. We got good advice from Bob, knew we wanted to buy in the Coconut building and looked at a few places. Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short due to a family emergency, but did make an offer on #C258 before we flew home. We sat on pins and needles for a few weeks before our offer was accepted, and the rest as they say is history. We have loved being at MKV for the last 23 years, spending 3 months here for the last several years now. We have made wonderful friends, and have traveled across Canada and the US to visit some of them. We have also been fortunate enough to have had some of our MKV friends visit us at our home in British Columbia. We will always consider MKV our second home and we treasure the time we spend here, and knowing so many wonderful owners and staff and consider many to be our dear friends. We hope our children and granddaughter will continue to come here and love MKV as much as we do. With lots of Aloha, Harold and Margaret Mobbs

Mark and I are both from LA – he was born in Los Angeles and me in Lower Alabama. It’s fairly easy to get from the west coast to Maui so a lot of his family had already visited there. Neither he nor I had ever been to any of the Hawaiian islands, but his brother kept telling us we should go. Living in TN, we can get on a plane and be on gorgeous beaches in Mexico, Key West or the Bahamas in 2 or 3 hours so every time we looked at Maui or any of the islands they looked so hard to get to and so far away.

In 2015 we were planning a river cruise in Europe and the dates we wanted were filled and honestly we couldn’t agree on a destination. I had been looking for weeks and was exhausted so I finally gave up and said to Mark – you wanna just go to Maui? He said sure! I told him to start looking then because I was tired at trying to plan something. Being the obedient guy that he is, he did just that. He bought a package deal that included flights and accommodations on the island. When it came to hotel/condo options, there were about 4 places listed. One of the options was MKV and Mark said he thought we should stay at this one because it’s not some big operation and it looks like “old Hawaii” and really laid back. So he picked MKV.

We had a rough start leaving Nashville. On Monday morning we got to the airport to fly out and an ice storm hit. Our plane taxied out on the runway after being de-iced but eventually the pilot came on and said we had to go back. We went back home and were rescheduled to fly out on Wednesday. On Wednesday we went back to the airport to try again. We were supposed to get to Dallas then on to LAX but we had to be de-iced again in Nashville, left two hours late and missed our connecting flight from Dallas to LAX. We had to spend Wednesday night in a Dallas hotel. At that point, Mark looked at me and said we should just go back to Nashville. We considered it thinking this wasn’t meant to be, but continued on anyway. Our Dallas flight to LAX on Thursday morning was late leaving, so we missed our connection at LAX and had an 8 hour layover there before finally boarding to Maui. We were fit to be tied! We finally got to MKV at midnight on Thursday and of course we were posted as no-shows at the front desk but got it straightened out and were given a free upgrade to a villa in Banyan and two extra nights.

We fell in love with the island and MKV immediately. We knew it was definitely meant to be even after all the struggle to get there. Mark reconnected with waves which are almost non existent if you go south from TN and I reconnected with just how much I love the sunshine and warm weather, skipping winter as much as possible and being around lots of people.

For the next 3 winters we rented at MKV and gradually met some of the owners. Mark is not a coffee drinker so I enjoyed going down to coffee in the lobby and talking to people. I ended up having coffee most every morning with Joe, Roy, Karen(so surprised to meet another Bama girl on property), Bruce and sweet Louise. I mentioned one morning that we were going to look at MKV units with a realtor and Joe told me that his unit might be for sale since they were purchasing another. I learned that lots of sales went on behind the scenes so felt fortunate to be in the loop. We visited C153 and loved it with it’s sweet ocean view. In February, we went back to Nashville and negotiated with Joe and Roger and did all the finalizing of the sale remotely and happily became owners at MKV. It was so nice to go back in January 2018 and have our own little spot among the Coconuts! We feel so fortunate to be a part of the MKV family. I can’t tell you how much fun we’ve had getting to know a lot of you. MKV and the owners we’ve met have truly enriched our lives. Maui and MKV are definitely our happy place and I can’t believe it took us so long to get there!

Mahalo

Cindy & Mark D. Sanders

We first arrived in Maui on our return from visiting Barb’s parents in Australia on our honeymoon in 1970. We stayed at the new Marriott which was part of the Surf hotel chain in those days. We have so much history with Maui. When the airport was at the beach. Whalers village so much smaller. Fewer restaurants . Less crowds. Beach empty. Pineapple hill.

MKV being the last development of Kaanapali it was quiet. We had to catch the trolley or walk to the night life on the south side of Black Rock. Trying to not step on the frogs or snails in the dark on the way.

We were friends of Helen and Henry Weil in San Francisco. Playing bridge with some of the top players in the world for pennies.

We visited Barb’s parents in Australia every other year and rented one of the Weil’s units on our way back. We also made visits to be there for fireworks on the 4th of July- with some years having a pig parade. Some years we were there for the easter bonnet competition and our grandkids enjoyed Easter egg hunts. After 27 years in 1997 we finally purchased Unit 211. Our stays on property had lengthen to months at a time. Multiple trips a year. We had started playing in the shuffleboard tournament, partied at the shuffleboard awards, valentines and Oscar parties and swam with the nooner swim crowd. We joined in all the activities that made you part of the ohana (the family). We partnered with Fran Mertins to invite all owners still on property In March to a breakfast or dinner taking over a restaurant to do so. Many stories abound about that function.

Ken was nominated to the MKV board of directors from the floor by Don Turner. He served on the board for 18 years. He started the MKV shuffleboard underground news letter as the phantom reporter. (Barbara became the publisher and editor who was not responsible for any inaccuracies or untruths).

Being one of the owners of the Chancellor Hotel in San Francisco Ken was instrumental in getting support to implement the morning lobby coffee tea service. He pushed for the Mai tai party which has proven to be a good advertising expense. Meanwhile Barbara

was fighting to get Barbecues (which she was told would never happen in our life time) and more flowers and color in the landscaping of the property.

One year, when Sally and Ken were tournament directors of the Annual MKV Shuffleboard Tournament, they made a decision (that everyone said could not be done) that the sign up sheet would be on the Annual Board Meeting table and would encourage and allow all owners on property to play. This has continued to be a big hit and instrumental in bringing owners into the family Ohana at MKV. Barbara has tried from 2000 till 2017 with MKVonline.com to keep a record and photographs of events and happenings on property. A new more modern version of this was created in 2018 and available to all to participate in at mkvonline.net or send on anything you would like to add to Barbara.langendorf@aol.com.

I think you will agree after viewing our Artists work and others participation in Elaine’s project that we now need your participation. Take out the pen or start typing and send in.

Ken did sponsor “Free Dinner on the Beach (Bring your own food) every year on February 29th”. Every 4th year he would change it to February the 30th.

Kens abetting of the shoe thief, Judge Lew and then with Parker Fritschle scouring on their walks for an appropriate Judges High Chair which when found Don Turner promptly decorated with umbrella and Judges bribe cup. Judge Joe then came on the scene and promptly wrote the unwritten rules.

We love our property – our friends (being owners and some returning guests) – our staff – we enjoy meeting new owners and getting them introduced into the family. We spend 5 1/2 months a year on property.

Barbie & Ken – on property 1973 through 2020 and on.