Maui -- Day 3 6/8/12

With all the interruptions of the previous night, I actually slept in a little.  I didn’t get up until 6:30.  Couldn’t wait to get out of the room and headed straight for the car.

First stop, Caffe Kihei.  This is a little hole in the wall place that opens early to service the tourists.  I order a Loco Moco, a local breakfast specialty that I didn’t get a chance to try in Oahu.  It’s a big bucket-sized serving of fried rice topped with a saucer-sized hamburger patty topped with an egg topped with gravy.  Not exactly diet food especially with the jumbo serving.  This was taken after I just couldn’t eat any more.

Whenever I eat in Hawaii, it’s always nicest to eat outside and there are always plenty of places with patios and outdoor seating.  But in Maui there’s a problem.  There are these little brown birds that swarm around like locusts ready to pounce on any unattended food.  One landed on my table and I thought ‘oh how sweet, a breakfast companion’. I reached down for my camera and while I was distracted, the little vulture took a peck at my food.  Hey!  Good feelings gone now. Beat it!

No plan for the day, just decided to drive around.  The Hana trip still beckons.  I passed by the road to 

Hana 

on the way back through Kahului.  That’s an all day trip though that requires some planning.  Not ready to be on a schedule yet.  Just driving along and somehow I ended up back on the way to Lahaina.  Oh well.  I do still need to get my Hard Rock shirt.

This time up the hill, I passed by Lahaina and went on to

Ka’anapali.

  There's a road that leads directly to the Sheraton/Westin/Hyatt complex complete with restaurants and golf course.  I ended up following this jeep down a narrow service road to the parking for beach access.  Grabbed my beach gear and started to walk the path between the hotels and the beach.

Ka’anapali is an absolutely gorgeous stretch of sand and the hotels take full advantage of that.  There are plenty of chairs and even hammocks to lie out on, a tented off area for seaside massages (nice), and an info stand for water activities like surfing, scuba, and boating.  The pools are insane.  One has the natural look of a pond and is designed mostly for the kiddies while another has a cave-like formation with a waterfall and swim up bar.  A bridge passes over the water to the rest rooms and the rest of the hotel.

After getting the lay of the land, I settled on the beach for some sea-watching.  Once again I’m struck with the possibility of all the things that can be done, particularly on this beach.  I watched a surfing class bravely surf their way back to the shore (some of them – the rest just floated on their boats by the instructor), I saw a couple of novice divers go out in the water with their red dive flags, and a saw plenty of stand up paddlers (the locals call them janitors because it looks like they are sweeping the sea with their paddles). I still find it hard to balance my need to explore and try new things and my need to just lie on the beach and not do nuthin’.  Ka’anapali is a great beach for water activities but the lying flat on my back part is good too. 

In the end, I pass on the water sports and instead head back to Lahaina.  I’ve been collecting Hard Rock shirts for years now, starting with a Dallas one that I got as a present.  Now, everywhere I go, I make sure to pinpoint the restaurant and do some shopping – no eating most of the time, just shopping.  I somehow missed out on Paris and Myrtle Beach (I’d rather go back to Paris as Myrtle Beach pales in comparison to Hawaii).   Even though I already had one from Honolulu, I still got the Maui shirt.  Had to go with black again as I have such bad luck with white shirts (too easy to stain) and the orange shirt that I liked did not like my skin tone.  At all.

Walked around Lahaina again as there was much I missed from the day before.  Thought about eating at Bubba Gump since I hadn’t had any seafood yet as well as this place called Cool Cat which is supposed to have the best burgers on Maui but didn’t do either.  Vacation mode in full effect and I’m just not hungry.  I was just enjoying walking around and seeing the sights.  These ladies are part of some league that makes leis as a fundraiser.  They sell for a$1 apiece.

My two hours up (parking in Lahaina is interesting at best) I was ready for some more beach time.  Changed into my bathing suit, grabbed some Subway and had another nice little picnic on the beach.  I got in the water but the wind made it even choppier than the day before.  After almost losing my glasses twice in the waves (and I’m completely blind without them so it’s best to keep them intact), I got out and went back to the beach.

That too didn’t last long.  I was getting sandblasted on my right side (I later found sand embedded behind my ear!) so I reluctantly left the beach for the hotel.  The plan again was to shower and dress to go back out to eat … but not so much.  I made the mistake of turning the TV on for some background noise while I was in the shower.  The TV is in a cabinet and when the doors are open they block the view from anywhere but the bed.  It was way too easy to skip dinner and drift off to sleep.

Maui -- Day 2 6/7/12

It’s strange.  As warm as it is in the afternoon, it cools down to a reasonable temp overnight.  There’s no air conditioning on in the room, just a fan over the king size bed.  That and keeping the sliding glass door open are more than enough to keep me cool (it’s a definite plus being on the 4^th floor).  And I love hearing the birds in the morning, loud as they may be.

Hawaii does not recognize Daylight Savings Time.  So when it’s usually five hours behind EST, over the summer it’s actually six hours behind.   Total body clock time screw.  When you’re down at 8:00 that means you’re up at about 5:30 a.m.  I remembered this from my last trip so I wasn’t surprised.  I’d already taken a shower after getting in from the airport so today it’s get dressed and get out the door. 

I take a walk around to get the lay of the land.  There are plenty of other early risers walking and jogging along the beach and sidewalk.  The bike lane is also busy.  In walking distance from the hotel there’s a Mexican restaurant and deli, and the little strip mall housing Subway also has a few souvenir stores and a Denny’s.  The ABC store that was all over Honolulu is here as well.  I picked up a beach towel, a bamboo beach mat, and a bag to put it in for beach trips.  I also notice the gas station just outside of the ABC.  $4.86 for regular!  No wonder so many people walk in this town! 

I crossed to the beach to find the trail that leads from Kama’ole II to Kama’ole III.  It’s a nice trail that winds over a grassy ridge overlooking the water.  There are benches and picnic areas, BBQ pits and restrooms along with a playground and a skateboarding ramp.  Lots of people are out walking their dogs or little kids in strollers. 

All the walking has made me hungry and by 7:00 more of the restaurants are now open.  I find a Starbucks (because of course there is one) so I can use the $5 gift card I got for Christmas and get a chicken wrap and a Chai Tea Latte (love those).  I have a nice leisurely breakfast on the patio before going back to the hotel for the car.

My trusty guidebook, Maui Revealed, says that the town of Lahaina is a must see.  Okay, I can do some driving – in spite of the price of gas. 

The one thing I immediately notice about driving in Maui is that everything is laid back.  The speed limit on

S. Kihei

is 20 mph to accommodate all the foot traffic to the beach.  There are lights and stores everywhere so you also have to watch for merging traffic.  But, being in vacation mode, it really isn’t a bother to stop so often.  People are very polite and there are no honking horns trying to move traffic along.  This attitude continues even on the isolated road to Lahaina.

Once off S. Kihei, there are a few beach spots on the side of the road before there’s nothing but lots and lots of sugar cane.  The first city you hit is Ma’alaea, a one-light harbor town I decide to explore later.  Then it’s up the far side of a mountain with signs for falling rocks on either side of the road.  You can see the nets draped over the rock piles to try to keep them off the road.  Past those, the road continues upward and the view to the left is revealed.  Pure seaside driving with a great view of the mountain further out.  There’s a scenic lookout where you can park and take pictures but I don’t stop.  What’s really trippy to me is that there is a bike lane all the way up this steep windy road that doesn’t end until just before the short tunnel near the top.  And yes, there were bikers going up that hill.  Now that’s stamina for you.

Getting closer to Lahaina, the seaside view gets swallowed up by trees, then by houses.  I missed the turn into the commercial district and had to turn around, finding my way to

Front St.

which is the main drag.  I passed by the Old Lahaina Center where one of the best luaus on Hawaii is held.  I missed out on the luau thing my last trip and I’d love to do this one but the thought of traveling down that mountain at night … not so much.

I find a paid parking lot and get out on foot.  Located right next to the shore, Lahaina is full of restaurants, souvenir and clothing shops, galleries, jewelry stores, and theatres.  There’s so much to see and do and so many ways for Maui to spend all your money.  And I spent plenty on souvenirs and in the Lush store.  I was looking for the Hard Rock because I collect the t-shirts but I missed it.  Didn’t get to the pier either.  I would have to come back.  Even though the guidebook said that many of the best restaurants were in Lahaina, I wasn’t actually hungry.  I did get some pistachio gelato (in remembrance of the last time I had some in Rome) and ate while continuing to walk around.

With my two hours of parking up, I was on the way back to Kihei for food and beach time.  I ditched the car, put my bathing suit on under my clothes, and walked to nearby Café O’Lei.  I ordered a macadamia nut encrusted chicken sandwich with salad at the bar.  While I waited I chatted with the man sitting near me.  He looked like the typical haole (white man) who’s been in Hawaii for a while; long graying hair in a ponytail, deeply tanned, and always smiling.  He asked where I was from then told me that he had lived in Georgia for several years (Wow! Two former Georgians in two days.).  I asked what was becoming my standard question; is Maui better?  He said that the locals have a saying that means nothing is better than Maui.  Hmm.

Grabbed my sandwich and headed to Kama’ole.  The sandwich was yummy.  It hit the spot and you can’t beat the view.  I allowed a few short minutes of digestion before climbing into the surf.  This part of Maui gets pretty windy as the day progresses so I knew I’d have to keep it short.  But short turned out to be more than enough.

The water was still cold at first, then gets warmer.  I love standing in the waves and once again just staring at the sea.  Nice.  Stayed in for a while but the time change was getting to me.  Before I ended up swallowing a gallon of sea water while yawning, I went back to lie down and plan my next move with my trusty guidebook.

So many options.  There’s biking, hiking, beach-hopping, driving the road to Hana (a big deal here), windsurfing, regular surfing, stand up paddle surfing (see a theme here?), and tons of other stuff.  I’ve always wanted to get dive certified and Maui is a great place to learn.  But here’s the thing.  I had read about all these activities before the trip and was excited to try everything but hesitant to book anything.  I found that I just didn’t want to be tied to a schedule of any kind.  I have never liked group activities and I didn’t want to struggle with a slow learning curve with anything.  I didn’t want to be running from one activity to the next.  I just wanted to take my vacation nice and slow and see how it would develop. 

The one thing I hate about salt water is how badly it dries my skin.  The longer I laid out the ashier my skin got.  Yuck.  I decided to skip this sunset and get back to the hotel to shower and slather my ashy skin with lotion.  It was my plan to get dressed and go back out for some dinner but boy does the bed look inviting.  Ended up half-comatose in front of the TV for a while before finally calling it a night. 

Then, not an hour after turning in (around 8:00) The Party Girlz!^© moved in next door.  I instantly dubbed them that because they were so excited! To be in Maui!  On vacation!  They were very loudly talking to each other, slamming doors and laughing/screaming in the hallway.  It never fails.  If there is an idiot within a two mile radius I will definitely end up living/rooming near them.  It’s just my luck.

I spent most of the night thinking they would settle down any minute now but it took a really long time.  Then they were out on the balcony which shares a wall with mine.  Then one of their phones kept going off every few minutes.  Just what I needed on my vacation.

Maui -- Day 1 6/6/12

I’ve wanted to go back to Hawaii since – scratch that.  I never wanted to leave Hawaii when I visited Oahu five years ago.  Lying on a beach is my happy place and Hawaii = beach = J!  So the decision on where to go for vacation was a simple one this year – so simple the choice was made sometime last year.  Since I didn’t get a chance to island hop to Maui in 2007 it was finally time to visit this island.

The timing was a little interesting for this trip.  Usually I try to arrange my trips in April around my birthday which coincides perfectly with tax refund and my work bonus.  But I knew from past experience that Hawaii water in April is too cold for comfort.  So this year I pushed the trip back to June.  It meant I had to have a staycation for the week of my birthday – not ideal but at least I took some well-needed time off.

Then there were other issues on the home front.  My eldest cat Jonah was starting to show his age.  In the past year he’d started having these strange sneezing fits where he’d bat at his nose and make it bleed.  This led to him completely ruining his nose and making his breathing labored.  Couple that with some weight loss and I had to come to terms with the fact that he was indeed very old and wouldn’t be around much longer.  One of the sucky parts about being a pet owner, I know, but it didn’t make the decision to have him put down in May any easier.  Now it’s just me and Beata staring at each other – the first time I‘ve had a single animal in my house for 16 years.

And it looks like we’ll be staring at each other in this house for a while.  I’ve been trying to sell since 2007, first with a realtor for 6 months then with Buy Owner with zero luck.  Then I found I was upside down on my mortgage.  Then Buy Owner went bankrupt.  Sigh.  But it looks like the housing market is starting to get better.  There are new townhouses being built in my community and I started to think that maybe escape was in sight.  I began to freshen up the interior paint and make minor repairs in the hopes that I could have the house shown while I was away.  I finally decided to scrap the Buy Owner listing and contact a realtor again … who promptly told me that unless I could bring at least $10,000 to the table there was no way I would be able to ask enough to pay off my mortgage.  Maybe in another 2 years …

So.  Yeah.  It was time for a change of scenery.

I got a package deal on expedia.com for hotel, flight, and car rental.  The Purrfect Nanny would once again be sending a sitter to the house to look after the cat.  One of the benefits to moving to the new work location was that it's not far from Sandy Springs MARTA station and, with advanced notice, I could leave the car in the work parking garage.  Cool.  More money to spend in Maui.  I had booked a condo for six nights with the intention of cooking my own food to save even more money.

45 minutes on MARTA, an incredibly long line for security (though it moved pretty steadily), and I just make it to the gate a few minutes before boarding my 8:55 a.m. flight.  I wedged myself into a very cramped seat for the 2 hour flight to DFW.  No food served on the flight so I scrounged around the Dallas airport and found a McDonalds.  $7 for a so called combo chicken nugget meal and you don’t get any fries?  What the --?

On to the next flight, an 8 hour one from Dallas to Maui (Kahului).  Ended up next to a woman named Colleen who was returning home to Maui after visiting her daughter.  She was a pastor’s wife travelling with her husband back to her other daughter who had just gone through surgery to remove gall stones.  She’s telling me this all in a rush then suddenly asks my age.  I’m surprised but tell her that I’m 41.  I then got promptly hit with her Sudoku book for daring to go to Maui by myself.  Could someone please tell me why I keep meeting women who want to mother me despite my advancing age?  Why is it that on all the plane trips I’ve taken only once have I met a hot guy?  What’s up with that?

She later apologized for asking my age (but not for the hit) and we spent the rest of trip in relative silence.  For that I was grateful.  I’m not too fond of the overly-chatty.   I did wonder if this was the reason why she wasn’t sitting next to her husband.

Eight hours is about my limit for a flight.  Any longer than that and I risk going stir crazy and this flight was pushing me to the brink.  Didn’t help that I was incredibly cramped and had a hard time falling asleep.  I think I preferred my last trip to Hawaii where I had two layovers instead of one.  They make the trip longer but at least I get to get up and stretch my legs.

But the one thing that was better on this trip over the last -- I didn’t get pressure sickness!  Yay!  On two separate trips over the West Coast (once on the way to California and once coming back from Hawaii) I’ve felt extremely off.  Not vomit-ill, more dizzy and flushed, but still bad.  The first time it happened, I fainted in the aisle  and had to be taken off the plane in a wheelchair.  Not the memory I wanted from my first trip to Cali.  The second time this spell hit me, I recognized the symptoms and didn’t even try to stand up for fear of falling down.  But this trip … nothing.  Maybe it had something to do with flying to Hawaii out of Texas instead of Cali.  I don’t know but I was thrilled that the flight was uneventful.

And then, Maui.  It was a gorgeous afternoon and very hot, even moreso to me because the plane was absolutely freezing.  So glad I brought a jacket as recommended by Amanda and Chere for my possible biking trip down Haleakala.  I had to shed it quickly once off the plane while lugging my gear to the shuttle that would take me to the Alamo office.  The guy who checked me in saw my license and told me that he used to live in Gwinnett.  He was working for Verizon and they transferred him out here.  That job ended and he decided to stay.  Better here, I asked.  Uh, yeah.

Outside again, a pretty native woman checked my paperwork and guided me to the three economy cars at the end of the lot.  I could pick whichever one I wanted, keys were already in them.  They were all 4-door sedans; one brown, one silver and one red.  Guess which one I took.  What can I say?  If I can’t afford to rent a convertible or a 4WD jeep, a red sedan is the next best thing.

Exiting the lot proved a little tricky, not because of traffic but because of chickens.  There were three exit lanes and two were occupied.  The third was clearing up but the aforementioned wild chickens were blocking the way.  The attendant waved me forward, assuring me that the birds would move.  I told her I hoped so; I just got this car I don’t want to have ‘ran over some chickens’ be my first Maui memory.  She tells me not to worry, we could just eat any that got squashed.  No thanks, I told her, couldn’t bear the thought of cleaning it.  She agreed, marked down what car I’d taken, and wished me a good trip.

I had printed out directions to the hotel from MapQuest before leaving but they turned out to be much more complicated than they needed to be.  It was pretty simple getting out of the airport and on the road to Kihei.  I passed a lot of stores and businesses on the way out of Kahului, making a note to come back later and check them out.  Then I turned out of the city and onto the roughly ten mile road to Kihei.

I just had to giggle.  Finally out of that plane, in my zippy red car, passing mountains and fields of sugar cane , on my way to the beach.  Awesome.  I missed my turn off to

S Kihei Rd

but quickly realized my error and turned around.  I wasn’t even sure I was on the right track as the beginning of S Kihei is a bunch of residences and a couple of larger hotels.  And then I spot my first beach on the right hand side.  It’s rocky and not the most inviting but things get better. 

I passed a bunch more hotels and condos, still trying to find the Aston Maui Banyan.  It’s just when I’m passing the best beaches I’ve seen so far that I see the hotel sign on the left.  Even though I didn’t plan it, my hotel is right across the street from Kama’ole Beach II.

The hotel itself was nice.  Several buildings housing both residents and renters, two pools, a parking garage, and even a movie rental kiosk in the office.  My room unfortunately didn’t have a kitchen like I’d hoped (there was a door leading to an adjoining room and I think the kitchen was in there) but it was a minor thing.  I unpacked and got changed as quickly as I could then went straight to the beach.

Ahh.  Kama’ole.  My guidebook says that this is one of the best beaches on the island and I have to agree.  Having it be in walking distance makes it even better.  The beach is actually split into 3 separate beaches divided by outcroppings of black lava rock.  I love watching the water splash against the rocks, love the feel of warm sand under my feet.   The water is initially very cold but I got used to it.

Just walking along the beach and staring at the water is good for me.  I don’t even feel like a complete dork for just standing and staring – there are plenty of other people doing the exact same thing.  The power of the ocean …

Beyond hungry (I’d slept right through the overpriced boxed meal on the plane) I walked to the nearby Subway for a sandwich.  Then it was back to the beach to join the growing crowd of people coming just to watch the sunset.  Can you blame them?

The long trip, the time change and all the excitement meant that I got to bed early like around 8:00.  There’d be plenty of time to explore tomorrow.