We had an uneventful arrival to Maui. Several of our friends have had airport disasters lately, so I was a little worried. I mean I don’t usually borrow trouble from others, but it was still in the back of my mind. Our only hiccup was waiting forever for the long-term-parking shuttle to swing by and give us a ride to the terminal (it turns out they are short-staffed). But we made the flight. Hawaiian Air’s version of a meal left much to be desired… a box of vending-machine food. As you know, I travel with food because I prefer to eat whole food, but Izzy appreciated the gluten free cookies. Joe and Bill will eat anything.
We had a car rental set up where the owner met us at the airport with a Toyota Highlander and turned the keys over to us. Unfortunately, we had a five hour wait for check in to the condo (Maui Sunset). Not a problem. Right by Costco in Kahului is a lot full of food trucks. We ate at the Mexican truck and it was beyond delicious. Then we walked next door to the Marriott to partake of adult beverages by the pool. Then we headed over to Costco to get set up for the two weeks, and then to Safeway in Kihei for the smaller stuff. And then a little miracle occurred. The condo texted me to say our room was ready two hours early… Yes!
Today started off on the wrong foot. Joe snuck past Izzy and made a pot of coffee in the fancy machine that made lots of noise, but no coffee. All of us took turns trouble-shooting it to no avail. I had given up right away and pulled out our pour-over and made Joe a cup of coffee to tame the beast. All of this woke up Izzy, so she put all her years of higher-education to good use and searched all the cupboards and found a second coffee maker. This one makes coffee not noise… Izzy is currently our hero and may usurp Bill for the queen-sized bed.
Bill and Joe are at the gym now and Izzy went for a run. The designated lap-swimming in the pool opens from 8:00-9:00, so I will head down there now… Okay, I went to swim laps, sort-of. It was the busiest I’ve seen the pool! Mostly dog-paddlers, but I managed to carve out an imaginary lane and got in a few laps. Kind of a bummer that they don’t allow fins—those work as a floaty for me when I’m just working arms and they give me a great leg work-out. Oh well… I got a 30-minute swim in. (post-script; I saw someone swimming laps with fins, so I tried it and no one kicked me out of the pool.)
Izzy discovered the herb garden. That meant she made a gourmet breakfast for us. A win-win. I’m thinking it will elevate one of our dinners soon.
Now I’m sitting in one of those funky cafes that sell expensive pastries and coffee. We, Izzy and I, chose it for its atmosphere, but this is a pretty good cup of iced coffee. We walked from Maui Sunset down a back street and discovered a flea-market. Of course we had to wander through it. We stressed Bill and Joe with our divide and conquer technique. Joe assigned Izzy to Bill and followed me. The guys dropped us here and went in search of beer.
Following tradition, Izzy made chocolate chip cookies for Joe's birthday. She brought the ingredients from home, so we didn't have to buy a bag of flour. The guys really enjoyed that! Her and I have been indulging in wine as our treat, so we're all happy.
We came back to the condo and vegged for the rest of the day. Izzy and I finished a puzzle. Then we walked to the Fourth-Friday street fair in Kihei. That was a blast. They had a band, tons of tables of crafts, and food trucks. Dogs are a big thing here, but one dog really stood out. It was a robot dog. I tried to get a picture but it didn’t turn out good.
It’s a full moon right now. The sunsets here are amazing, but even more magical was the sunrise this morning with the full moon on the opposite horizon over the ocean. You may be wondering how Heidi could possibly see a sunrise, but you forget Hawaii is three hours ahead of California. Sleeping in until 5:30 is 8:30 at home.
This resort has a great hot tub by the pool. Last night, after wandering around the street fair, we went down to soak our sore muscles from our near-death experience on the reef. A pleasant man struck up a conversation. He’s here on contract with the Coast Guard. They are working to clear the harbor of all of the boats destroyed by the recent hurricane and fire. I never thought of that. He said the close-up boats completely burned, but the ones further out were destroyed by the hurricane—apparently their ties were burnt and that set them free. They caught fire also but being tossed at sea the fires were put out. Anyway, there’s a lot of sunken boats out there. The most surprising problem to me was a tour-submarine. It was moored and its battery compartment was exposed because they were charging the batteries over night. The submarine was torn free and rolled out over the reef and now it sits at the bottom with those batteries flooded by sea water. The guy was saying that it was going to be tricky getting it out because of the toxic battery-acid. He’s thinking they’ll suction the water in that compartment out to a container, and then they’ll chemically neutralize it. Isn’t that interesting? He said we could drive through Lahaina, but I don’t want to… I think it would break my heart.
We ended up driving around Lahaina… past a sign that says “Lahaina is not for sale.” Not sure what that’s all about, but I can imagine there’s a lot of raw emotions in Lahaina. I thought the flags at half-mast was heart-wrenching. We went to a snorkel beach, Kahekili Beach. Really worth it to snorkel there. It’s a huge flat coral reef with hundreds of different species of fish and turtles.
Then we went to Round Table Pizza in Kaanapali. The reason we went there is because after the fire, the owners—Christiane and David Mello, started giving out free pizza to the fire victims… and they still do. While we were in there ordering there was a separate line for ‘Fire Victims’. A man and his wife were holding a pizza and trying to understand why they didn’t have to pay. It was endearing to say the least.
Bill struck up a conversation with some lady about turtle sightings. She gave him directions to a nocturnal resting beach for the Arribada (arrival by sea of turtles). So right before sunset we walked five minutes from our place to the beach by the VFW in Kihei and settled in to wait. It turns out there’s a serious etiquette regarding the arribada. First of all, I think you’re supposed to be quiet. Secondly, do NOT go closer than 15 fifteen feet to the turtle. Apparently it’s against the law to get closer. I know all this because one of the regulars sitting in her lawn chair in anticipation of the blessed event came unglued when an elderly lady, who happened to be walking by, stopped to take a few photos. The regular was clearly not a humanitarian along with being a turtle lover because she humiliated this little old lady. I think it would’ve been simple enough to have gently told the lady—such inexcusable behavior! But, we got to see about twenty turtles come in for the night.
Joe and I had a lunch date today. He took me back to Kaanapali to the Duke’s Beach House Maui. Duke is a famous Hawaiian swimmer and surfer from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. He won four Olympic gold medals in swimming and essentially made surfing popular in California.
So we’ve been here one week today. We’ll see what next week brings.
No comments:
Post a Comment