So much was packed into this vacation it’s hard to know when to start. I guess the beginning is the best place…know that this will be long and detailed to encompass all that was Maui.
Before leaving for our 6pm flight from Dulles on Thursday afternoon, there was so much to do. I had to finish packing, get Stoli and all of her stuff ready and packed in the car (no easy task since people were moving and I had to carry Stoli and all of her stuff and all of the other stuff I had – whew), we had to finish our taxes. Oh the drama! The guy at Jackson Hewitt said that their phones could not call out so they could not return my call about our taxes. I was livid! I called the corporate office demanding something be done about this socially retarded guy and his lack of delicacy for our taxes. We decided to just get our taxes over with and taking the standard deduction as opposed to itemizing because they had already spent FIVE days on our taxes already (charging by the HOUR). After all that our taxes STILL weren’t done because we needed to go back and sign AND they couldn’t be done electronically. Thanks to Casey’s boss, Joe, we got to the airport on time with just enough time to grab some food before getting on the plane. American on the round-trip from DC-LAX, United on the way to Maui. The flight out there wasn’t worth anything, the movie was ‘Shall We Dance’, even without sound it wasn’t interesting. Note to self: pack own snacks, American charges for ANYTHING other than drinks (non-alcoholic).
Made it to L.A. where it was raining, of course when we get there after 2 months the city is getting precipitation. Justin was nice enough to come pick us up and board us for a night in Santa Monica at his new place on 6TH ST. We had our old standby, Barney’s Beanery (second oldest restaurant in L.A. – a little trivia there) which was highly disappointing but we were back in familiar territory and that was comforting. Our 8:30 departure from LAX made for a quick night’s sleep. Not only did it continue raining (for the next week and cause major flooding and devastation) and we had to wait outside to get in the “fast line” we were suffering from jet lag already. Wouldn’t you know we got business class hoping for the extra room and lack of kids but were bombarded behind us (the worst) and next to me with KIDS. Control your kids people, it’s a confined space. Sedate them if need be. Right then we were determined to get first class upgrades for the way back.
Casey’s biggest fear is drowning. Not only were we near water in a moving vehicle, we were flying nonstop at 36,000 feet over ONLY water for 5 hours. Other than watching Nip/Tuck to warp young minds forever and force their parents into coach next time, we slept. United treated us good. Nice breakfast, which I was one of the first to get, and was specially made – fruit plate, whole grain bagel with low-fat cream cheese, and low-fat yogurt. How awesome is that?! Other people were celebrating and starting their vacations right away by boozing it up at 9 am PST.
After deplaning, we were brought into tropical weather that was close to perfect. We have not felt such climate happiness in such a long time. My parents arrived just as we did and lei’d us immediately (mine, peachy pink and Casey’s orange). Our luggage arrived and we got to what we all affectionately referred to as THE VAN (Buick Rendezvous, some SUV). My parents drove us to our hotel for check-in and drop off all our luggage (and lock valuables – read Powerboooks – in the safe). Casey’s posted pictures of our hotel which was SUPER nice and which would have been perfect had we had WiFi.
Between the hotels facing the Kaanapali Beach (voted number one beach in Maui) there was a walkway to Wailers Village (shops and restaurants). We feasted on fish and cocktails before looking at stores. Casey pointed out Louis Vuitton which we had been affectionately talking about for weeks. He gave me the green light and I purchased my first (and maybe last) purse (Alma bag). I LOVE IT! I’ve alternating between that and my Kate Spade – I’m in heaven and have found no use (since we’ve moved) for my other dozen purses. Alma bag on day one, not a bad start to a vacation.
Since Willie Nelson lives in Hana (part of Maui) and was on my parent’s flight, we decided to make a trek to the town where he would be on Saturday. Mom and I loaded up at the local Safeway (where a gallon milk is $7.00 no joke) for the 3 hour journey (each way). Nothing like Starbucks to get us on the road on an early (6 am) drive. We saw shirts on Friday that said ‘I survived the Road to Hana’ – it’s not a joke the road is something we had never seen on the mainland. Our first stop was a rocky beach where there were tons of surfers. We stopped and took pictures (which Casey posted in the gallery). Our next stop was Twin Falls which was something else. Obviously there are beaches on Maui but we expected something tropical with lush foliage, the road to Hana had this. Surprisingly there was lots of farmland which the airport was nearby so this was a nice change of scenery. We managed to get tons of good pictures between my parents’ and our own camera. After hiking a ways we found the waterfalls where some chick looked like she was filming something erotic for her husband under the waterfall, he was directing her by telling her to emerge from the water with her back arched – you get the picture. To get to the falls was not along a paved or path of any sort, it involved waiting through freezing cold (remember this is jungle here) water over rocks to the freezing cold water of the falls. My mom was brave enough to make the trek across the water in one piece as were Casey and myself, my dad on the other hand, found a super sneaky path through the woods above the waterfalls to join us below. Good experience, good pictures.
After this it was all downhill for Casey. We were initially worried about me getting car sick because I’m notorious for it (ever since I was like 6) so I sat in the front seat but sitting in the front seat I was able to view the road as a driver and see what was coming (hairpin turns and one-way bridges, it’s estimated on a map we read that there are over 500 of these on this road). We stopped for lunch at a park looking place in Hana where the guys enjoyed Macadamian Nut ice cream and the girls had (me – coconut, of course and Mom – Hawaiian Paradise – something like a Dreamsicle). I decided to give up by spot as navigator to my mom and join Casey in the napping position (read – sprawled across the back seat).
Sunday we took it easy and enjoyed Wailer’s Village once again as well as the beach taking lots of pictures. i’ve become recently aware that I’m hypoglycemic (the opposite of diabetic and suffer from low-blood sugar). If I do not eat on a regular basis then I will get first bitchy and then very ill. I did this to myself on Sunday and ended up not being able to enjoy the tasty sushi in our hotel (lesson learned again).
Monday was dedicated to whale watching. My mom did tons of research on Hawaii for the two years prior to us leaving and picked the best whale watching tour on Maui. It was estimated that there were over 1500 whales in the waters surrounding the island while we were there. The cruise had stadium seating (luckily that’s where the kids were) and we were in a more secluded area on the back in an open-space with a great vantage point. We got tons of great pics and a whale family swam right under our boat (the mama has turquoise on her, even apparent in some of Casey’s pictures) – it was awesome!
Tuesday we took it easy before going to a luau. We visited the Fish & Game Brewery and enjoyed the local brews (nothing spectacular but worthwhile). We went to the Feast at Lei Lei which was probably the best one on Maui. It was mostly adult and had several courses (unlike the buffet style at most luaus) and had an open bar! We were leid at the door and were feeling good on the way out as well. My mom even got pictures of Casey with a real hula girl and me with a fire-tosser!
On Wednesday Casey and I decided to sleep in as we were on vacation. We hung out around our resort until my parents got done with their sight seeing around the south tip of the island. We enjoyed happy hour at the Rusty Harpoon before hitting the beach and enjoying the intense sun. Except for Casey and Jim’s heads, no one got burnt. I can’t say I’m entirely happy with my color but at least no burn means less chance of skin cancer. Before heading to dinner, we had seen signs in Lahaina (big tourist area) that touted the Marriott luau for $19/person – what was the catch. We went into the Activities 4 Less to find out and of course, it was a time share. We ended up getting it free and were scheduled to be at the Marriott’s luau the following night and would take the complimentary shuttle from our hotel to their time share property where we would be given lunch and view their 1.5 hour presentation. Didn’t sound like a bad deal so we signed up. My mom met a lady on her plane (with Willie Nelson on it) to Maui that said her son was the head chef at the Lahaina Fish Company so that’s where we had reservations for Wednesday night. Our waiter was a cross between Jerry Lewis and Jim Carrey and the view can’t be beat – we were actually over the water with a plexi-glass retaining wall protecting us from the glow of lights on the ocean floor. After my parents dropped us off we spent some time on our balcony over looking the swaying palm trees and noise of the incoming tide and enjoying Hawaiian cigars and beer.
Thursday we had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise (yes, like the Jimmy Buffet song but surprisingly not owned by him) which was unspectacular and ridden with kids but you couldn’t beat the open air restaurant overlooking the water. Casey woke up feeling ill and only felt worse after eating lunch. We said our goodbyes with my parents, who were off to the Big Island for the second leg of their trip, while we took a nap so Casey could sleep off this funky illness. Before falling asleep I knew we wouldn’t make our scheduled luau so I began phoning the customer service number I was given, no answer for more than 8 minutes on the line. After waking, i began calling three other times, no such luck. The luau started at 4:30 and we weren’t gonna make it. Casey slept into the evening as I ordered room service (pizza and gingerale for him) and watching Survivor.
On Friday morning Casey was feeling better but was insistent upon not going to the timeshare presentation since we had not enjoyed the luau because of his what we deemed, food poisoning. We lounged in the room as long as possible, until our 1:30 check out time, and then braved the open breezeways of the hotel to the front desk. We checked our luggage with the bell captain and went out in search of food. We sat at a sports bar on the other end of a golf course and enjoyed some sandwiches and beer before venturing out again in the rain. The rest of the time we spent in the open atrium of the hotel awaiting our $40 “shuttle” at 6:45 that evening (our plane didn’t leave till 10). We braved the invasive winds off the Pacific, it felt like we would have blown to sea, if we weren’t already on an island. The water sprayed off the pool and waterfalls and we were thankful at least some parts of the hotel were covered. Our “shuttle” (turned out to be a limo) arrived on time and we were off for the airport. We passed the agricultural check and the TSAs and had a beer and nachos at the airport bar before getting on the plane at 10 pm Hawaii time (5 hours from EST) on a full flight. We fell asleep almost immediately and slept until LAX where we ended up landing almost 45 minutes early. Unfortunately as I said before, we were on United AND American so we had to wait for our luggage from United and then board a shuttle to American checking our luggage again and waiting through the Gold Member line (lucky us for all that traveling Casey did) and waiting for 4 hours on a layover before boarding for D.C. We both slept restlessly for the entire flight and I’m still adjusting to this 5 hour time change. We land at 5pm EST, a long time from when we started.
We missed Stoli and worried about her so much while we were gone we were in a hurry to pick her up. But we had just flown from Hawaii and L.A. where the temps were not less than 60 degrees into a climate where it was around 40 and getting dark. We stopped by our apartment, dropped off our luggage and changed into cold-weather gear before venturing out for food and to pick up our baby. She missed us lots and was eager to get back to familiar surroundings. She knew she didn’t have to sleep in her crate any longer because we like her with us. Although she tests our patience we were happy to see her again.
It was a good, albeit long vacation. Next time hopefully we can take Stoli with us (hoping there’s no quarantine period). We’re a week back into things now with work, school, and a puppy. This weekend we’ve spent relaxing and chlilling out for the most part. Today, however, we went and bought some curtains for our living room and visited the Crate and Barrel outlet for some great buys. We just finished eating BBQ Chicken pizza and watching last week’s ‘Amazing Race’ featuring our favorites Boston Rob and Ambah!