Maui - Day 9 - Leaving

I managed to get up after only one snooze. I am not ready for vacation to be over, but I am looking forward to being in my house, sleeping in my bed, eating regular food, seeing the dog and catching up with Becca (who was on vacation when we started our adventure). After unzipping the extender on my suitcase I can fit in most of the souvenirs.
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The lei ceremony is nice. I like the history our hostess includes and I tear up when she talks about how the 9/11 events stranded people on the island and changed tourism. One old guy next to us, who was late to the ceremony, whispers to his wife that he thought they were getting a special lei and that this is a boring, typical one. I guess I am too gullible and soft because I leave less inclined to be grumpy about the little things and add-ons which have been annoying me so far (no wi-fi in the room and Internet charges are $10/day, parking is $9/day, etc.). But I also remember the beach rental guys letting us use an umbrella and chairs late one afternoon free of charge and extending our snorkel rental from 2 to 24 hours without charging us the extra.
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We leave the hotel on time and have no problems getting to the gate. We have time for one last drink and lunch before the plane boards. Our plane is late taking off and we once again are trying to connect to the last flight of the day with a 30-minute window. We didn't do the research to know we were taking "last flights of the day" and we figured that if American Airlines would sell the flights then they were reasonable layovers. We will know better next time...not sure how today will turn out...but I am sure it will all be fine in the end (just not maybe exactly as we planned it).
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Aloha!

Maui - Day 8 - Luau

We realized sometime yesterday that we hadn't figured out when to go to the luau and that we had only one night left here on the island. While we fear that this is simply a tourist trap we feel sorta obligated to participate. Not knowing what we missed out on would bug me after we left. So the first order of business today is to see if there are any last minute spots available at any luau on Maui. As luck would have it the Royal Lahaina Luau, just a 15 minute walk from our hotel has spots open. So we swallow our objection to the price and buy the tickets.
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We spend the last afternoon unintentionally burning ourselves in a short beach layout/swimming session and going back to Leilanni's on the Beach for individual portions of those fabulous pork nachos (diet to start in T minus 2 days and counting). The waitress comments that we must've been here before since we ordered so fast and starts to walk away after I order my nachos. She is a little surprised when Iggy orders his. I tell her, "I am not sharing this time!" She laughs and says she likes my style. Back in the hotel I start organizing the scrapbook we have brought along (my first/paper anniversary present from Iggy that we didn't use since we canceled last year's anniversary trip). I had only put stuff in for day one so far and I did that on day three. So I feel a little bad for making Iggy pack it for the trip. (But I also packed 2dresses and 1shirt that I didn't end up using. Either packing isn't my strong suit or I like having options...). I don't paste anything else in but I do get my bits torn our of magazines/brochures and put in between the pages where they go.
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It isn't long until its time for the luau. We arrive later than we wanted to because I am dilly-dallying. There are maybe 20 people behind us in line and we hear someone say that there are 600 people in attendance. The women taking receipts and handing out table tokens skip us, but we figure it out and ask them before we get to the seating area. Once there the hostess tells us to go to a certain person in costume for seating. We do, but when we get there he walks off. (I think he was trying to find 2 seats for the couple in front of us.) We wait for a bit then try to chase him down. I am irritated and not looking forward to the crowd. I ask Iggy if we can just ask for our money back. I debate asking him this again after we are seated at a table where they sorta split up a family to fit us in and there are 5 adults with 6 children on our other side (2 of which seem to be screaming or crying at any given moment - the kids, I mean, but a couple of the adults don't look too far away from some sort of outburst themselves). I am not particularly hungry since we had lunch a little late. At one point the mom of family next to us with 4 kids sends the dad off again to the restroom with one of the little boys and the dad says, jokingly, "Boy is this fun! We should have another one! Oh wait! We are!" ai yi yi.
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The dinner is pretty good, but the uniquely Hawaiian items like poi and the coconut dessert we have already tried at other restaurants. The big hit for me were the chicken nuggets and mac'n'cheese that I took off the kid's buffet. Just kidding! At one point the mom i mentioned earlier asks her oldest boy if he ate the icing off her chocolate cake. He vehemently denies it, and she asks me if he did. I actually have no idea since I have been watching the rest of the crowd and am working on my 2nd or 3rd mai tai. The sorta split up family on Iggy's side is interesting to talk to. They were on their family vacation to the big island earlier this summer. But his work sent him here for a conference, so he brought the family again. He tells his teenage boys they are spoiled and they laugh good-naturedly.
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The show is good; the emcee is mildly entertaining and the dancers are good. There is considerably less belly-aching from the kids next to us now that they're fed and the show has started. The guy who seated us is introduced as the Polynesian Prince during one dance. Iggy jokes that he's disappointed that a prince has to do a menial job like seating us. I like the New Zealand dance where the dancers wear face paint and do all the posturing intended to intimidate strangers. I especially like the parts where they make their eyes wide and crazy-looking while sticking their tongues out. There is one dancer who reminds me of The Rock who seems to really be getting into it and there is a lady close to the stage with a big camera who seems to particularly like taking his picture. The fire dancing seems pretty good but with all the hype I was expecting more (supposedly this show has the most). I guess the other shows must just walk a torch across the stage and call it good. (kidding) All in all, I am glad we went but I don't think I would go again unless I was with someone who had never been or a big group of people that wanted to go.






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Back at the room I am not interested in packing...so uncharacteristically I decide to get up early tomorrow to do that.

Maui - Day 7 - Exploring the Island

We tried snorkeling in the morning, but the current was strong and it was hard to get anywhere. Plus the people who were out were oblivious. A paddle boarder almost ran into us, one woman that couldn't swim and was using a wake board to help her float while snorkeling was all over the place, etc. We did see a couple of eels and a ton of fish. Where the current was strongest it looked like a fish parking lot -- they were all hovering on the ocean floor a couple of inches away from each other.
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The first stop on our island adventure was The Maui Tropical Plantation. It was more of a tourist trap than I wished for, but it was cool to see all the different plants and the coconut husking demonstration.


We had lunch on site at a BBQ place - good food, but the chickens wandering around were a bit unnerving. The highlight of lunch was listening to a teenage girl talk about how cute the baby chicks were before ordering her chicken sandwich. We left before she got her food - I was afraid Iggy would ask her if her sandwich was also cute.


We took the train ride, but probably could've seen all the sites walking. It was fun to see the zip line stations on the plantation. They seemed positively tame compared to the zip lines we did in Jalisco, Mexico...wonder if the safety regulations are different?
A couple of shots from the plantation:






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The second stop on our island exploration was the Ali'i Kula Lavender farm. This was less tourist-y and more off the beaten path (read as the roads leading there were narrow, windy, and we were not really sure we were on the right path). I wanted to see the purple fields like you see in pictures from the French lavender fields (which we did see) but the bonus was the view. The farm is at 4000 feet and you can see the "skinny" part of Maui with ocean on both sides.












We had lavender scones at the gift shop before continuing on our adventure.
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Next was a little random driving. We stopped at a farm stand to buy bananas and a papaya for breakfast tomorrow. We drove through Paia (cute town - maybe a place to stay next time), stopped at a scenic overlook and drove a little bit of the Hana highway.





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Last stop was Mama's Fish House for dinner. It was highly recommended and lived up to the hype. It was even worth the hour drive back to the hotel. We were early and didn't really get to watch the sun set from our table, but we did have a nice beach view.


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Back at the hotel we watched the Olympics again (Michael Phelps 3-peat! Gabby wins gold!) and then the local news. Local news is an adventure regardless of where you are. There was some news on a guy who got his foot bitten by a shark while surfing (minor injuries, he'll be back out there again ASAP he says) and a beach where some palm trees were mysteriously cut down. The beach regulars blame the guy across the street and made a sign saying so. The guy across the street took the sign down and says the forest service cut down the trees. The forest service says "not us." Wheeeeee!

Location:Maui, HI

Maui - Day 6 - Beach Day

Snorkeling in the morning - we say 3 spotted rays and a huge turtle! I was pretty surprised because we went in the late morning and there were probably 25 other snorkelers in the same area. (Luckily it is easy to spread out a little and the first bend in the shoreline weeds out most of the snorkelers.) It was so good we extended our equipment rental from 2 hours to "all day" so we could go the next morning too!
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Lunch at Leilanni's on the Beach - this time we got the nachos! Surprisingly they surpassed our expectations after thinking about them for 2 days! They had a chipotle sour cream and a habernero salsa (not overpowering) and we added the shredded pork option. I would recommended it (if you like nachos).
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Beach time
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Dinner at Paradise Grill. The opposite of our dining experience last night. I asked for a glass of cabernet. The waitress brought me the cocktail menu (which says "ask your server for seasonal wine selections"). I decided a cocktail might be safer. The waitress was difficult to understand, flighty and made me nervous. The pizza was great, though, and we got to watch the olympics on the TV near our table as we ate.

Maui - Day 5 - Anniversary!

We started the day with cheerios in our room (to avoid the expensive and over-indulgent buffet downstairs) and a quick "swim" in the ocean but then got ready for our big plans. We were taking a helicopter tour of west Maui and Molokai! Plus we had dinner reservations at a local up-and-coming restaurant.

It took just under an hour to drive back to Kahalui where the airport is. Once there we had to weigh in (eek!) so they could balance the helicopter. We had to go through some safety items - similar to when on an airplane - but this time it felt a little more real. I'm not sure if that was because I had to wear a life vest in a pack around my waist for the whole trip or if I think helicopters are less stable or if I just actually haven't heard 100 times how to jettison helicopter doors in case of a water landing.

Our pilot was Shaylan. Iggy thought that he "just looked" like a helicopter pilot. Since I was sitting next to him he started by showing me the controls on the floor and making sure I knew not to bump them with my legs. He told us about what we were seeing as we flew over it and often told jokes that only he really understood. He would ask us questions and try to read our lips as we answered (he was the only person miked).
The views were spectacular - so many waterfalls and so much green in the landscapes and blues in the water. It was a little hazy since there seem to be clouds sitting on the tops of the mountains here a lot.


As we were driving back to our hotel, we got a little lost, but had the happy accident of stumbling across Wow Wee Maui - a local sushi and burger place. We stopped in for lunch and bought a Wow Wee Maui Potato Chip and Milk Chocolate candy bar (yum!).
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After a little nap and looking through our photos and a little balcony time, we got ready to head over to dinner at David Paul's Island Grill in Lahaina. We sat on the patio facing the street and the beach and had a nice view of the sunset. We watched the couple at the table next to us argue and the lady at another table complain that the tart she ordered for dessert wasn't a pie. There was a table 10 people close to us that had one guy who seemed to constantly be talking louder than anyone in the restaurant. And the table next to us was a quiet family with 2 kids (maybe 3 and 7) who were really well behaved. We tried the sashimi (paca paca) bruschetta as appetizers. Iggy had the steak oscar and I had pork 3 ways. We had the signature berry pie (not tart) for dessert. The food was really good and our waiter was nice - knowledge about the wine I wanted, knew the menu, and was all about the ambiance (when he saw me taking a picture of the sunset through the shades he ran back to the switches to open them).


It was a nice anniversary - a little adventure and some fine dining!

Location:Maui, HI