Aloha!

Well, Hubby and I just arrived back yesterday from our 2 week vacation to Hawaii. It was wonderful! We had to dodge raindrops and one deluge in Maui, but other than that, it was fabulous.

Background:
We started planning this trip back in the spring. We used our frequent flier miles through Northwest to get us from Detroit to Hawaii. I really started planning activities and dining (via great info from this message board) several weeks before the trip. We were staying in Honolulu for 3 nights, Maui for 7 nights, and Kauai for 4 nights.

Now on to the details...

Day 1: Thanksgiving day (11/27)
Our flight from Detroit left at 9:05 am. We flew to Minneapolis for a short layover there, and then from there directly to Honolulu. Thank God we had first class seats on the way there! It was close to a 9 hour flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu, and unfortunately, I was awake the entire time. I made several laps around the plane to stretch my legs and felt for all the people in coach. Thank god I wasn't one of them!!!

We arrived in Honolulu at 3:45. We picked up our bags and then had to wait a good 20 minutes or so for an Alamo shuttle to get our rental car. Once at Alamo's office, we waited another 25 minutes or so to deal with the paperwork. I was tired, hungry, hot, and getting cranky. Ain't travel grand?

We got our convertible and were off to the hotel, where we would be staying until sunday. I booked the Sheraton - Waikiki for $99/night on Priceline. I know there were quite a few postings about what rooms Priceline people get there. Well, we did not get the so called "manor" rooms (the cheapy rooms that are in a different wing). We were given a nice room on the 17th floor that over looked the mountains, the Halekulani, and with a (very) partial view of the ocean. For $99, I was happy.

We settled in, changed, and went off for our 7:30 Thanksgiving dinner reservations that we made at the Banyan Verandah at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. (We went there because I did not think to make Thanksgiving reservations until the week before. I originally wanted to go to the Orchid at the Halekulani, but they were booked as well as the Surf Room at the Royal Hawaiian.) Well the buffet dinner at the Banyan Verandah was $50/person and was ok. I personally have had much better buffets for less money. We were so tired though, that all we wanted to do was to "scarf and scoot" and collapse in our hotel...which is pretty much what we did.

Day 2: Friday, 11/28
Since we were still on east coast time, we woke up around 5:30 am so we could head out to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling. Breakfast was the first order of business. We did the breakfast buffet at the Sheraton. It was another pricey and ok buffet ($19/person). Nothing spectacular, but they did open at 6am, which is what we needed. After that, we were off to Hanauma Bay. I read the snorkeling was not the greatest there, but we found it to be fairly decent. The park itself is very pretty. We arrived around 8am-ish and had very little wait. I saw my first mongoose while we were waiting. They are so cute! As I said the snorkeling was decent. Snorkeling in Hawaii is a very different experience than snorkeling in the Caribbean. The water s are much cooler in Hawaii, so there much less coral to see. There are more fish however, which was still cool to see. I did manage to see an eel there. No turtles, though. Bummer. We laid in the sun, took a nap, and then snorkeled some more. I think we stayed there until about 12:30 or so.

From Hanauma Bay, we decided to go the back way to the North Shore. Saw some beautiful sights and finally made it to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck for a late lunch. Hubby was very skeptical when he saw the truck, but decided to to brave it and try it anyway. It was very good. And very busy. I think we waited about 20 minutes or so for our food. It was very good.

After that, it was back in the car to get to Sunset Beach on the North Shore to see the Rip Curl Surfing Championships. Let me tell you...traffic is not fun around the area during the surfing championships. Traffic really started jamming up around 2 miles before the beach. It took a while to get through, but we managed fine. We were in Hawaii afterall!

We watched the surfing for about 30 minutes or so, and then needed to get going since we had to get back and cleaned up for dinner that night at Alan Wong's. One thing about watching surfing....bring binoculars. The surfers get pretty far out there, so if you really want to see what they are doing, you'll need binculars. Even without them, the surfing was still pretty cool to see. These people have no fear I tell ya.

Anywho...we made it back to the hotel with plany of time to shower and change. We were then off to Alan Wong's for dinner. After driving by the place three times (gotta love those one way streets!!!), we finally found it. The building outside is fairly unremarkable looking (hence the reason why we drove past it three times), but once inside, the ambiance improved markedly. Everything on the menu looked wonderful and since we couldn't decide, we opted to each get the 7-course Chef's Tasting (I think it was $85/person...but it was well worth it). Wow! It was amazing! I highly recommend a stop here when you are in Honolulu. I can't remember what all we had, I just remember being in heaven with each bite I took. It was that good. Service was very good too.

After dinner, we rolled out of the restaurant and headed back to the hotel to collapse again.

Day 3, Saturday, 11/29
We woke up early and did the overpriced breakfast buffet at the Sheraton again. After that, it was off to Pearl Harbor. We got alittle lost on the way there and ended up on the Naval Base of Pearl Harbor, not the memorial. The guard gave us directions, and we got lost again! While we were Navigating, the rain started. Nothing too heavy, so we were fine. Finally made it to the Arizona Memorial around 8:15-ish and received tickets for the 10:15 movie. Eesh. Too bad our little detours cost us time. It was incredibly busy there that day because Alabame was in town for the football game against Hawaii. Well, apparently the thing to do is to come to Pearl Harbor before the game because it was packed. Alabama shirts all over the place. The pace was overrun by Alabama people. It was a little annoying because there were quite a few large groups of them that made it difficult to navigate around. By the time we went in for the movie, we ended up sitting on the stairs since they were saving seats. I learned later that day that Alabama lost the game. Aww....what a shame!!!

We made it to the memorial. It was very moving. I was amazed a how small it was though. You always see it on tv, and you expect it to be so big, that when you see it in person, the smallness of it somehow makes it more solemn. Hopefully that makes sense.

Coming back from the memorial, it really started to pour. We waited it out for a few minutes and then we went off to the Aloha Stadium swap meet for some souvenir shopping and found out that the swap meet was cancelled that day due to the early Alabama football game. Foiled again by those Alabama people, darn it!

So we headed off to Ward Center for some shopping for me, and some video games at Dave & Busters for hubby. A couple a hours later, we headed over to China Town in search of Legend Seafood for some dim sum. It was incredibly good. The selection was great. The frequency that they came around was great. And everything was very tasty. I would definitely do that again. It's worth a stop in Honolulu just for that and Alan Wong's. I bought a beautiful orchid lei while were there as well.

We left China Town and headed back to the hotel again. Hubby wanted to watch football and take a nap, so I left him at the hotel to do some souvenir shopping at the International marketplace. Prices there were definitely the best of the entire trip, but were still more than what we would've paid at the Aloha Stadium. I still managed to get a few things, including shirts for us to wear to the luau in Maui. You'll need some patience when shopping there because it seems like store after store selling the same old junk. I was looking for hawaiian print baseball caps in particular, but only found one store among them all that sold them. Decent prices on most stuff. Don't be afraid to haggle with them because they will be willing to deal to sell their stuff.

I came back to the hotel and met up with hubby, showered, changed, and then went off to Tiki's for dinner. I heard good things about Tiki's from this messageboard, so I wanted to try it out. We weren't horribly hungry though due to the dim sum lunch, so we just had drinks and appetizers. The place itself is cute. Liked the atmosphere. The drinks were ok, and the appetizers were ok. Nothing earth shattering. Perhaps their entrees are better.

We left Tiki's and headed back to the hotel to pack our stuff back up. I still hadn't had the infamous mai tai from the Royal Hawaiian next door, so I went by myself to have one (hubby didn't feel like it and I had to have my Royal Hawaiian mai tai before I left Honolulu). The drink was a little strong, but wow, talk about amazing atmosphere for the bar with the ocean waves and breezes...The band that was playing was very good. They were great with the audience and were incredibly entertaining to watch. I had my one drink and called it a night.

Day 4, Sunday, 11/30

We had a 10:30 am flight to Maui. so thought we'd try Duke's for breakfast. We were unable to due Duke's until now because they don't open til 7:00 am, which was too late for us for the first couple of days. Well, let me tell you, their breakfast buffet was soooo much beter than the Sheraton's...for half the price. I think it was $9.99 person, and it was quite yummy, and even had an omelette station. The atmosphere was also much better. This is what breakfast in Hawaii is supposed to be like! I'm glad we had a chance to try it. We finsished with breakfast and headed back to the hotel (via walking barefoot on waikiki beach...not too bad) to pack up our wordly possesions. We headed back to the lovely Alamo office (no problem (or wait)turning the car in, thank god), and were off to the airport.

Next stop...Maui!!

looking forward to the Maui report.

Aloha-

I'm back with more!

On the previous episode, we visited Oahu; specifically the Honolulu area. Today's episode finds us travelling to the lovely island of Maui...

Day 4, Sunday, 11/30

Hubby and I take the 10:30 am Hawaiian Air flight to Maui. We pick up our rental car (the ubiquitous convertible) from Alamo. Thankfully, it was sooooo much easier than in Honolulu. We were able to secure a great rate for it using that wonderful rate code of "6T", which brought the cost down to near $25/day. We get to our car, and no shockers...it's a Chrysler Sebring (I kept looking for a sign that said "These Hawaiian Islands were sponsored by Chrysler", but never found one...). Got the car, stuffed the luggage in, and we were off...to Costco!

Yes. Costco was our first stop. Since we were spending seven nights on Maui, we decided to pick up some breakfast items, snacks, and a case of bottled water. Shopping at Costco was a blast. Lots of aloha shirts, hawaiian music CDs, board shorts, mac nuts, boogie boards, etc. I picked up a lovely slack-key guitar CD as well some other things. The highlight of the excursion was lunch. I forgot about the pizza from the food counter!!!! Hubby and I had lunch for $7 total. The cheapest meal we had the entire time in Hawaii, and Costco has really good pizza, in case you haven't tried it. My future Costco endeavors will now forever be tainted by the fun that we had here.

After Costco, we loaded up and headed out...to Walmart! Yep, we're in Maui doing the Sunday afternoon shopping run. Well we needed to go here to pick up cereal (Hubby and I couldn't agree on one cereal at Costco and no way was I buying 2 enormous things of cereal there...), diet pepsi, a cooler, and some souvenirs. For those of you that need to stop here and buy a cooler, buy the cute Hawaiian print colapsable cooler. It's slightly more than the styrofoam cooler, but you can bring it home with you. The styrofoam cooler was $7, the collapsable cooler was $13. We ended up buying both...one to keep at the hotel, and one to take with us on our various excursions. It worked out great. We also picked up all the incedentals (napkins, silverware, cups, etc...). We also picked up beach mats for less than a buck. All in all, it was fun and we were able to save both time and money later on in the week by not having to buy breakfast every day.

After Walmart, we were off to the Westin. First we passed Puunene Street. I just love the street names here!!! I live in the metro Detroit suburbs, where we have original street names like 13 mile road and 14 mile road. So to me, a street called Puunene is a treat! It just rolls of the tongue. Say it with me now...Puunene.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, we're off to the Westin (with way too much stuff in a little convertible). We get there with no problems and unload (the valet and porter when we arrived had to see us with dollar signs in their eyes since we had so many bags). We check in, and go directly to our room. We had a lovely ocean view room on the 6th floor. The room was lovely, albeit small. Since there was only two of us, we still had plenty of room for our stuff. We just needed to cram our suitcases under the bed since there are no closets in the room. If you have any clothes to hang, there is a medium sized armoire that can be used. Shoes had to go under the desk, since again, there is no closet.

So we've unpacked and explored the resort. It's now off for an early dinner. I had heard wonderful things about a restaurant called Sansei in Kapalua. Well, if you get ther early, they have an early bird special whre you get 25% off all your food, as long as your oder is placed by 6:00 pm. Knowing that there would be a line before the doors open at 5:30, we get there around 4:45. Yep. There's already a line. We waited patiently and met this lovely couple from Colorado and passed the time chatting with them. We overlooked their one flaw; they were Avalanche fans. We, being understanding Red Wings fans, overlooked their misguided loyalty, and of course talked hockey (among other things) for the next 30 minutes.

We finally get into the restaurant and ordered a few appetizers and then the entrees with the help of our server. A word to the wise here. Sansei's sushi is supposed to be very good, but their other dishes are incredible. If you must have sushi, get it as one of your appetizers and try some of their other dishes. It's that good. For an appetizer, we started off with the panko custed ahi with a thai peanut sauce (absolutely wonderful) and the mango crab salad roll (oh my god was it good). My meal was the beef tenderloin over udon noodles (soooo good), and hubby had the pork tenderloin with a fig chutney sauce (also very good). We managed to save room for their wonderful apple tart dessert with a homemade (an incredible) carmel sauce. Sooooo good. I can't recommend the place enough. Our server was great and was right on with his recommendations. We were done by 7:00 and ended up walking out with our Colorado friends, who we happened to park next to.

On the way back to the hotel, I made hubby stop at the Honolua store on Office Rd. I read good things about it in the Maui Revealed book and wanted to check it out since it was still open. Another great tidbit...stop there for their pineaple. They sell it in little bags for $1.75/bag. Each bag has 4 or 5 big chunks in it, and could easily have been a half a pineapple. I bought a couple of things of it, and tried it the next morning...it was so sweet. It was a delight to have that for breakfast for the first few mornings. I also bought some things of moisturizer from there (didn't taste as good as the pineapple, though...)

So we drove back to the westin and looked forward to a night sleeping on our heavenly bed, all the while basking in the knowledge that we still had a week and a half left of our Hawaiian vacation.

Stay tuned to the next episoded titled, "Maui, the desert island?"

Lynne

I need More!!

Keep going! We're doing the same 3 islands early next month, thanks.

Ischrage: Your trip report is wonderful! One quick question: did you feel like it was a lot of traveling to go to 3 islands in 2 weeks? My fiance and I will be honeymooning in Hawaii in Aug. and we have 13 nights, and are planning to go to 3 islands, also (Oahu, BI and Maui). Just wondering if you felt like you had "enough" time on each island.

Aloha, Ischrage, we live here too and flew Northwest to Hawaii out of Detroit in September 2002. I'm enjoying reading about your trip. By the way, how was Northwest's first class? We have first class tickets to the islands in August 2004 (can't wait!!!) I'd love to compare notes with you. E-mail me directly if you have time: [email protected]

Aloha-

Back by popular demand, here's today's installment of HTR...3 Islands (kinda sounds like a new reality doesn't it?...)

Ok, seriously now, regarding the island-hopping question; was it too much time spent traveling? Yes and no.

This was our first time to Hawaii, and we had to fly in to Honolulu, as there were no flights through Northwest from the mainland to Maui (at least using our FF miles). Knowing that, we knew we wanted to stay a few nights in Honolulu to do the things like Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, some reasonable priced shopping, and some fantastic dining. We also knew that we wanted to spend the bulk of our time in Maui, but we also wanted to see Kauai. For us, breaking up the trip the way did (3 nights Oahu, 7 nights Maui, and 4 nights Kauai)worked out very well.

Is 4 nights on an island enough? Depends on what you want to do. We're more active in our travel style...lots of site seeing, snorkeling, wandering around, etc. so Maui was more our speed.

I would have loved an extra few days on Maui, but I was so tired from doing "stuff" on Maui, that the 4 night break in Kauai was a nice transition to coming home. It was our time to veg. As you will read later in my trip report (which at this rate may be some time next week...), except for doing the helicopter ride, we never really left the south part of Kauai. We were just sick enough of driving everyplace, that the last thing I wanted to do was drive an hour and a half to get to the Princeville area.

Plus, by the end of the two weeks, I was beginning to tire of living out of a suitcase.

I guess you need to use the same mentality in planning a trip to Hawaii as planning a trip to Disneyworld. If you want to do multiple islands, you need to manage expectations up front. No matter what you want to do, you can't possible do it all. If you try, you end up doing your vacation "commando-style" like the people who try to do all of Disney World in 3 days...ain't gonna happen. You're so busy doing stuff on your vacation, that you haven't had the time to enjoy it.

So pick your 3, maybe 4 key things that you want to do. Anything else above and beyond is gravy, and you won't make yourself crazy trying to get to it all.

If (or when) we go back to Hawaii, I don't really have an overwhelming desire to go back to Kauai. I'd probably do another 2 nights in Honolulu again, with 7 or 8 nights in Maui, and maybe 4 or 5 nights on the Big Island. I was glad we did Kauai this time, though.

Hope that helps.

Lynne

Lynne,

You say you didn't leave the southern part of Kauai and yet if you returned to Hawaii sometime in the future, you don't really have an overwhelming desire to go back to Kauai. In my honest opinion, if you didn't get to see the lush and picturesque North shore, you haven't even been to Kauai yet.

Aloha!

I'm back with more HTR...3 Islands! Today's episode finds our travellers basking in the rain on the dessert island of Maui.

Day 5, Monday, 12/1:

Woke up around 7:00 am-ish as we are now starting to acclimate to the time change. Our big plans today are to tour the west side of Maui per the route described in Maui Revealed as well as to do the Old Lahaina Luau that night.

First, we had to have breakfast (including the yummy pineapple purchased the previous evening from the Honolua store in Kapalua) on our lanai. However, before we left I had a very important mission to accomplish.

You see, for those in the know, there are these live webcams that show you what's happening real time (hence the word "live" in "live webcams") at either the Sheraton and the Westin Kaanapali. You can control the camera (zoom in and out, and move it left or right), so that you can look at the pool, the beach, or the walkway. It's pretty cool. For those that are interested in checking it out, go to: http://www.mauihawaii.org/webcams.htm

Well, before I left work, I made a "date" with my partners in crime at work to "meet" me at 1:00 Eastern Time on the stairs by the pool. They were then to call me on my cell phone so that I knew when they had control of the camera so that I could stand on the stairs. In typical work fashion, they called me 10 minutes late, and then took another 15 minutes to find a computer that would actually pull up the webcam as most of the computers at work are Macs and for whatever reason are very tempermental in pulling up the webcam (don't get me started on the Mac vs PC debate).

Well it finally worked, and voila! There I was, and they could see me ("Yes that's me in the red bathing suit"). We chatted for a bit and exchanged various bits of meteorological data ("It's 15 degrees here in Detroit now." "Really? It's in the upper 70's here on Maui and overcast. Oops, It's now starting to rain. Ok. It's now starting to pour. I'll talk to you when I'm back as I'm getting really wet.")

After the 5 minute escapade that turned into 45 minutes, I high tailed it to the room to stay dry.

Well, it was still pouring about 30 minutes later, so we decided to scrap the plan of driving the west side of Maui and opted to head to the Maui Ocean Center to keep dry.

The Maui Ocean Center kept us entertained for a few hours. The admission there is $19.95/adult. They have some very nice aquarium systems there as well. While most public aqauriums use the concrete simulated coral in their big tanks, the Maui Ocean Center uses real coral. It is one of the few aquariums where I've seen an abundant use of real coral. They even have a display featuring the rare black coral. Most of the fish displayed here are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands (perhaps all, although I couldn't say for sure).

The shark and ray exhibit is very nice as well with fiber glass tunnels that you can walk through while the very large rays gently hug the ceiling as they float above you. If you can, find out when they feed the rays as it's very interesting to watch them eat while you are standing "below" them.

The Maui Ocean Center also has a very nice turtle display which is outdoors. Since it was still pouring out, we opted to skip that particular area.

Finally around 1:00, we left the Center and headed out to Lahaina to pick up some excursion "passes" from the Activity Savers office as well as to get lunch at Bubba Gumps. Whern we left the Maui Ocean Center, it was still pouring (keep in mind that it has been pouring non stop since 8:30 am). Hubby went to get the oh-so-useful-at-the-moment convertible, while I stayed behind at the front door to keep dry (sometimes being a girl has its advantages). In the 10 feet that I ran from the front door to the car, I was soaked. It was bad.

We drove to Lahaina in our leaky convertible, and found the Activity Savers office with no problem (it's in the "mall" area behind the Hard Rock Cafe on Front St.), picked up our kayak excursion tickets from Tim, the owner. We mentioned that we were headed to Bubba Gumps for lunch, so Tim gave us a coupon for free appetizer that he had from there. Thanks Tim! I had mentioned that we were supposed to do the Luau tonight, and Tim suggested that we call them ASAP to see about rescheduling for later in the week. I heeded his advice then and there and rebooked us for friday night. Thanks again Tim!

Finished at Activity Savers, we ran/swam to Bubba Gumps which was right around the corner. We had a lovely indoor table (of course) that over looked the water. Our view was of a cruise ship that was in port. I really felt for the people on the cruise. How much would it suck to be on a cruise and to be in Maui the day that they get their yearly rainfall in a single afternoon?

The meal was fairly unremarkable. Bubba Gumps is Bubba Gumps; but they do have a wonderful chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert that I highly recommend. It was still fun, and more importantly, dry.

We headed on out in the pouring rain to do some brief souvenir shopping and then headed on back to the car and then on to Long's Drugs to pick up hubby's prescription that he had his doctor phone in since he forgot to pack his drugs. While he was picking up the drugs, I was picking up moisturizer and other souvenirs. He still was at the pharmacy counter, so I headed over to see what was up. Apparently, they didn't have his drugs in stock. They were having the drugs shipped from the other side of the island, but the roads were flooded and closed in spots, so they couldn't get them in. Could we come back tomorrow instead? Sure. Don't really have a choice in the matter now do we?

We sprint back out to the car and head back to the Westin. It's now after 5:00 and it's still pouring. To give you an idea of how hard it's been raining, the portion of the road before Lahaina where you're driving through the "cliffs" (you know...where there's fencing that covers the cliffs to prevent falling rocks) which is normally very dry is now flooded. There has been so much rain that there are waterfalls coming off the cliffs over the main road. It was kinda cool to see, in a freaky sort of way. The water was red, thanks to the red clay, but it was still funky. Even in the pouring rain, hawaii is beautiful.

The police are also out directing traffic around the heavily flooded areas. It's just bizarre.

So we finally get back to the Westin and make the mad dash indoors. We camp out in the room for a bit and watch some television. The rain lets up somewhat, so I brave it for a dash to Whaler's Village next door.

It's a cute little shopping village. I pick up some sandals from the Sandal Tree store and browse through some other stores, including Tommy Bahama's. They have some very cute stuff in there, but nothing on sale, which means it's out of my budget. So with a few bags in tow, I head back to the room.

We veg out in the room and it's now past dinner time. Hubby's not hungry, but I could use a light bite to eat. I grab a bowl of soup for me as well as an order of pot stickers for hubby from the Asian Noodle Cafe in our hotel and get it as carry out and schlep it up to the room. The soup was so hot that I had to let it cool for close to a half an hour before I could even eat it! It was perfect for what I wanted and was quite appropriate for the damp strange day that we had.

After that, i changed into my jammies, curled up in the heavenly bed, and read for a bit. Before I fell asleep, I made sure to set an early wake up call as we had to be at La Perouse Bay the next morning by 7:00 am for our adventure with Maui Kayaks, assuming of course that it was still happening.

Stay tuned for tommorow's episode titled "How many times can you flip a kayak?"

You went to Kauai w/o going to the NoShore or Polihale!?!?!

That's like going to DC and not seeing the Cap Mall!
Rome w/o the Sistine Chapel.
Paris w/o the Lourve.

OK. I guess I can stop sounding like a SA.O

I hope you get to the Kauai part before I'm actually there because I wanna know what kept you in the Poipu area for those days!

It's VERY easy to get Kauai fever and just "plant it" for a few weeks.
My barstool actually started to take root one trip.

Hey Kal...

When do you leave for Kauai? That way I can see if I can time my trip report so that I can get it done before you leave

By the way, we did see the North Shore of Kauai...via the helicopter ride!

Lynne

And now, back to our feature presentation...HTR - 3 Islands

Day 6, Tuesday, 12/2

The day started early with a wake up call at 5:30 am. We snarfed down a quick breakfast and left the Westin with a destination of La Perouse Bay for our 5 hour snorkel excursion with Maui Kayaks. We booked this primarily because of good reviews we had heard on this message board...especially the review that Roxy did a few months back (Roxy, if you're reading this, thanks for the advice!!!)

Rich, the owner, picked us up from a little gravel parking lot and drove us to our starting point in La Perouse Bay. Our group consisted of 8 people; hubby and I, another (rather boisterous couple who were quite amusing), and 4 girls who showed up about 15 minutes late.

For this trip, Nitzan (I'm guessing that's how you spell his name) was our guide. While we waited for the other girls, Nitzan gave us the drill on how to kayak in the ocean, how to get in and out of the kayak when we've anchored, and all the rest.

La Perouse Bay is a spot frequented by spinner dolphins as it's a very calm area of water, which makes for ideal conditions for the dolphins to sleep. Unfortunately, the dolphins are not there all the time, and today's trip prooved to be one of those times, possibly due to the strange weather from yesterday. Bummer.

The late girls finally showed up, and Rich and Nitzan both went through the drill with them so that we could get on our way. They get everybody situated and we're off to the first snorkel spot.

Or not. The boisterous couple tipped their kayak about 50 yard from the shore, so we have to wait for Nizan to coach them on getting back into the kayak. Lovely, I'm thinking to myself, because it doesn't look so easy and I'm dreading having to do it in a little while.

Now we're really off. The kayaking prooved to be more of a workout then I thought, primarily due to abnormal winds which we were fighting on the way to the first stop.

We get to The Aquarium after about a half hour or so, and venture out into the water. The snorkeling there was amazing. Clear water, a ton of fish (I've never seen that many fish snorkeling before... a ton of triggers, moorish idols, and tangs...gotta love those achilles tangs!), and a lot of space, too, so you didn't need to feel crowded by other snorkelers, which there really weren't that many of...just us and one other kayak group. Nitzan gave us about 45 minutes to check it out. It was awesome.

Except for getting back into the kayak.

Well, believe it or not, I made it into the kayak the first time. It's not so bad when you still have your fins on as it gives you more momentum to push yourself up. Nitzan, our guide then gave me some juice and a granola bar as a snack. Life is good, I thought to myself before I started with my snack.

Then it was hubby's turn.

He made it in with no problem.

Except he managed to tip me out.

Yup. I'm back in the water. Since my snokel gear hadn't been secured in the kayak yet, it proceeded to go back underwater to visit the bottom, with my unopened granola bar as company. The unopened juice box went for a bit of a sail. Nitzan was kind enough to put his snorkel gear back on to gather my belongings, which he put in his kayak temporarily until we were situated.

So I get up on the kayak again (which was more difficult this time without fins) and proceed to roll the kayak all the way, dumping hubby in the process. Serves him right!

So now we're both back in the water. Let's try this again, shall we?

Hubby gets on again. Then me. Yay! I'm on! Oh, wait! Too much momentum. Ack!

And we're both back in the water.

Who's brilliant idea was this anyway? How about I just leave my snorkel gear and you just tow me to the next site? It's a win/win for everyone, afterall. I could snorkel and see the sights, and they wouldn't have to wait until we're both situated.

No dice.

After the 3rd attempt (or was it the 4th...I lost count), we're finally both in the kayak at the same time. Round of applause please.

And then we're off to the next site; The Fishbowl. Thankfully, we were coming on shore for this one, so no need to have to get back in the kayak from the open water.

It took us about 30-40 minutes to get there, and was even more strenuous since the winds were a little stronger and we were farther way from shore. We did pass a turtle on the way. Hi Crush!

We get to the site, and Nitzan takes us to the top of this look out area made up od volcanic rock. He talked for about 20 minutes about the various islands that we were seeing (Molokini, Kaho'olawe, Lanai, and Molokai...normally you can see the Big Island, but the clouds were too thick that it wasn't to be seen today), he also talked about the last lava flows from the foot hills of Haleakala, and how the area formed. It was very informative, and very nice.

We walked back to the little beach and promptly had lunch. Nitzan provide boxed lunches which consisted of turkey croissant sandwiches (which even had sprouts!), applesauce, string cheese, pringles, and a Mrs. Field's cookie. The main dessert was an entire Maui Gold pineapple which was fantastically sweet. It was a very good and satisfying lunch.


We talked for a bit, and then headed off into the water for snorkeling. The snorkeling was still very good, but was not quite as good as the first stop. The current was slightly stronger, most likely due to the stronger winds that we were encountering.

After about 30 minutes or so of snorkeling, we were going to head out to the site where the turtles are. Unfortunately, it was not to be as the winds were too strong, so Nitzan headed us back the way we came so that we could go snorkeling where we saw Dude Crush on the way here. Unfortunately, we still had to battle the winds.

We get to that spot, and only a few go in the water; namely the boisterous couple and my hubby. I stayed in the kayak and told hubby to holler if he saw any turtles. If he did, then I might think about coming in. I just didn't really want to deal with getting back in the kayak again!

Hypothtically, it was a great idea. Until I realized that hubby had to get back in the kayak again.

Unfortunately, no turtles were spotted, so it was time to move on. Hubby got in the kayak with no problem.

And I got dumped in the water again.

By now, I've mastered getting in the kayak with no fins, so I make it up on the kayak the first time. Hubby stays in the kayak, too. Now we're getting somewhere!

We head back the way we came and see another turtle. Nitzan offers to stop to let us snorkel in that area, but we all pass. No thanks. We just want to go back. We finally make it back around 2:00.

While we didn't get to snorkel with either the dolphins or the turtles, it was still an amazing adventure. The weather was not cooperating fully, but we still had a blast. If/when we go back to Maui, I would book with these guys again. They were great.

We get dropped off to our car by Rich, talk to him for a bit, and then head to Long's Drugs in the Cannery Mall to pick up hubby's prescription, and then back to the Westin for a much needed shower in our heavenly shower (westin's showers are pretty darn nice by the way...love the showerheads!).

Hubby stays in the room to watch some hockey and I head off to Whaler's village to pick up a pair of sandals that Sandal Tree was having shipped for me.

I get back to the room with my oh-so-cute new sandals, and get hubby motivated four our evening trip into Lahaina for a visit with Warren and Annabelle.

I had heard really good things about this show from the Maui Revealed book, so I booked it a few weeks before online. Not really knowing what to expect, we show up. Just as an fyi, people who book online typically get the early 5:30 show, so if you want the later show, you may want to call and see if there is one offered.

First off, it's a much more intimate environment than I thought. The Annabelle portion was kinda cheesy... we could have showed up a half hour later and been fine. It was still enjoyable, though.

Then we head into the "theatre". The theatre seats maybe 100-150 people. Note: the air conditioning is turned up high in here, so if you go, make sure to bring a sweater.

The show was great. I was expecting just a magic show, but it's more a magic/comedy show with Warren really working the people in the "hot seats". It was hilarious. I laughed so hard I was crying. Warren's magic is simply amazing as well. I gave up trying to figure how how he was doing it. He was wonderful. I would highly recommend this show.

The show ends around 8:30 and we decide to head over to Hop Tomatoes for dinner, since Maui Revealed gave it good reviews. We go over there and discovered it's closed (as in no longer in business). Bummer. Instead we head over to Kimo's to grab a burger from the bar. If you want a burger for dinner, you have to sit at the bar because this something that is not offered at a table. The burgers are ok. Nothing worth making a special trip for, but they are served with very yummy mashed potatoes; not fries. All in all, it was fairly decent for a cheap dinner in Lahaina.

Exhausted from the day's activities, we opt to go back to the hotel so that we can get some sleep, since we're planning on getting up early to do the road to Hana.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes Day 6 of our trip. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode entitled "Where exactly is the Blue Pool?"

Here's the next installment!

Day 7, wednesday, 12/3

Woke at 7:00 am to do the road to Hana.
Took our time eating breakfast on the lanai and then packed the cooler with pop, ice, and pineapple.

We stopped to gas up. Beware of "sticker" shock on Maui with gas prices. Gas was about $2.37/gallon when we were there. We then headed over to Safeway at the Cannery Mall to pick up some sandwiches for our lunch.

After that, we were off to Hana. Despite the later start (we were in Kahalui around 9:00 am), traffic seemed to be fine and we never really hit any snarls along the way.

Drove through Piaia, whcih looked pretty funky, and the passes Hookipa beach. Shortly after that, the road really starts feeling like the "Road to Hana".

We stopped at quite a few places to see the various waterfalls (can't remember them all...they all start to look the same after a while...). I just remembered that we followed the Maui Revealed book, which was dead-on again in terms of its recommendations. We drove all the way around in our convertible. Except for a few blind turns on the backside, all was fine. The last 10 or so miles on the dirt/gravel raod get really long, but the scenery is amazing.

The few things that I do remember:
- The banana bread at the stand by the boys camp. Very yummy. The "owner" also sells coconut pieces that were quite yummy to snack on. Lowfat, I'm sure.
- The waterfall where you look down on it...That was cool to see a waterfall from that perspective.
- The (and I can't remember if I'm spelling this right) Nihuku Road "excursion". It's very pretty and the sight at the end (of what seems like a road that goes on forever) is just breathtaking. The pictures that we took just can't even do it justice.
- Blue pool...another road that went on forever. If there's not a lot of people around, you may think you're in the wrong place. When we arrived, there was another couple that was leaving that couldn't find it. Another couple happened to arrive just after us and we started talking with them. I grabbed the Maui Revealed book and read it verbatim. We went to the coast line an looked left and saw a few people down the way a bit. Bingo. Must be it. Crossed the little itty bitty stream and scrambled (a la Golum from Lord of the Rings) over the rocks for a bit, and found the most breathtaking waterfall of the trip. Since it was gray and drizzly, the water was too cold for me to brave. Hubby went in and said it was one of the most amazing experiences he's had. I can only imagine what it must have been like to go under the waterfall and look up. The water was just too darn cold and I was too much of a wus to try it.
- Black Sand Beach...This was the place where would have our picnic. Except it's pouring again. Our picnic on the beach became the picnic in the car. We tried to wait the rain out, but it never let up...just rained harder at times. So we brave it down to the beach in the rain, and just checked it out for a few minutes. It looks like it would be nice if the weather cooperates.
- 7 sacred falls...well, it was so so. We stopped, checked it out, but it was just to cold there along the coast to appreciate it. Again, if it was sunny and warm, it might be a different story. Damp and overcast with a lot of wind, it wasn't that spectacular.
- The view along the coast on the way back. Wow. There was one spot where the light green grass is blowing in the wind, the sun shining down (it stopped raining fairly soon after 7 sacred falls), and the coast. It was amazing. The smell was wonderful and the sound even more amazing...just the sound of the wind whistling across the land.
-The one place where you can see all the rolling foothills of Haleakala. It gives you sense of just how immense Haleakala is.
-The backside of Haleakala. Desolate but cool.

It is incredibly tiring to do the road to Hana in a day. Plus, by the end, you just feel grimy and gross. But it was definitely a do it at least once kind of thing.

Before we left for Hawaii, I had made 7:30 reservations at Mama's Fish House. Since we were early, we stopped in the McDonalds in Kahalui to change out of our suits and to clean up somewhat. It took about 10 minutes or so to drive to the restaurant from there, so we were still early. It was raining again so we ran from the valet to the lobby. The valet provided complimentary umbrellas to use, which I thought was nice.

Dinner at Mama's was good. Not worth the price, in my opinion, though. Their foo foo drinks were quite yummy ($10/each). The appetizer was mediocre for the price (2 shrimp wontons for $15), and the meal good but not great (I had the Opah which I believe was around $35 0r $40). The atmosphere was great, though. It was still not worth the money though, in my opinion. We spent only a little more for the 7 course chef's tasting at Alan Wong's in Oahu, which was amazing. We also had an amazing dinner at Sansei (including an extra appetizer) for half the price as what we spent at Mama's. If you go to Mama's, just know you're paying for ambiance and location, so it may not make sense to eat there after the sun goes down like we did.

After dinner, the rain finally stopped. We were exhausted from the long day and had to look forward to the 45 minute drive back to the hotel. That was hard. I couldn't keep my eyes open on the way back, despite trying to fight the sleep off. I have no idea how my hubby mamaged it. I'm just glad that he did.

Back at the hotel, I made a bee line into the jammies and was sound asleep before my head even hit the pillow. We slept easy knowing that tomorrow was a "day off".

Who knew that vacation could be so tiring?

ischrage: We wanted to eat at the 4Seasons on the day we do the Maui Kayak trip but we are stay at the Sheraton at Black Rock - would we have to go all the way back to our hotel to get ready or do you know of somewhere on the southwest area that we can clean up?

Do I have this right - you left the northeast side of Maui at 9 am, drove all the way around Hana and the backside (in the rain) and you were back at Mama's by 6 or so?

By the way..... you are a great story teller. I've enjoyed your journey!!

We stayed at the Westin on Kaanapali, so I guess that would technically be the "west" part of Maui. We left kaanapali at 9:00 am and completed the road to Hana and were back near Kahului around 6:45 or so. The rain didn't effect the driving portion of the journey...you can only go about 20/25 miles an hour in most places even in ideal conditions. The only thing the rain effected was the duration that we were able to stay at places like the black sand beach.

As far as places to clean up after your Maui Kayak excursion, I would think that you could probably stop at the Grand Wailea. Since they have that elaborate pool, I'm sure they have to have decent sized facilities that you could use.

Hope that helps!

Lynne

I'm baaackkkk!

Here's today's episode of HTR...3 Islands:

Day 8, Thursday, 12/4

Today is a much needed day off from our vacation.

I wake up around 8:00 am and have breakfast on the lanai. Hubby is still asleep, so I leave him be.

I have to go back to Lahaina to visit Tim at Activity Savers to pick up our whale watch tickets through the Pacific Whale Foundation. We scheduled the 9:15 excurion on the Ocean Explorer the following morning, so I needed to pick up the tix today.

I pick up the tix, and then head off for more souvenir shopping along Front Street. I probably spent a good 2 -3 hours shopping.

It was a glorius day, too. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and it was the perfect temp outside. It was a tad crowded, however, thanks to a cruise ship coming in to port today. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was a Norweigan Cruise Line ship, but I could be mistaken. As I tripped over all the cruise passengers on Front St, I did stumble across a very cool find at one of the stores. I managed to find a very cute orange (more like tangerine actually) hooded polar fleece sweatshirt with an understated embroidered "Maui" on the the upper right hand area. the sweatshirt was only $19.99. It was so cute, and it was only $19.99! I've worn it twice since I've been back and it's so fuzzy and soft that it's a treat to wear. If anyone is interested, I found it at the Maui Outlet. The address there is 699 Front St and it's near crazy shirt and Sgt. Leisure on the "ocean" side of the street. I believe they had them in pink, green, red, and some other colors, although not all of them were hooded.

I also picked up various shirts, and a cute "I survived the Road to Hana" shirt for hubby at Crazy Shirts. I also bought a few xmas tree ornaments, and some cool refrigerator magnets.

After a lovely morning shopping, I make it back to Westin around 12:00pm. Guess who's still in bed? What? You're still in bed? Get the heck out of bed!! It's after 12:00 and you're missing prime time pool action!!!

After hubby's rather rude awakening (literally), we grab our snorkel stuff and walk down to the Black Rock for some snorkeling. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk down there, which gives you a chance to scope out the other hotels. From the ones that we passed, I can definitely say that the Westin has the nicest pool.

We get down to the Black Rock and stake out a spot under one of the trees past the main part of the beach. Then it was time to head in the water.

The snorkeling there was very good. Lots of fish to be seen. Lots of people, too. Since it was around 1:00, it was "rush hour" around Black Rock. Lots of people! We still had fun, though. I did manage to see a huge lobster. It was kinda sad actually. You see, lobsters are found in deeper waters, not so close to shore. Well the reason why this one was so close to shore was because it was badly hurt, and must have been washed in from the deeper waters. You could tell that it was badly hurt because it was not moving the way it should and would flip upside down in the current without being able to right itself. Since it was badly injured, it was also falling victim to the crustacean-loving opportunistic triggers. Since I have a salt water tank and have a trigger (this is my second one since my first one was the victim of this past August's massive power failure), I can tell you that triggers are alot like dogs, a piece of prime beef falls on the floor, it will be gone before you can pick it up. Well triggers are the same way with shellfish. So if a defenseless shellfish happens to fall in a trigger's vacinity, you can say adios to Senior Shellfish.

That's what was happening here. I had to look away because I couldn't watch it. I have no problem seeing a dead lobster on my plate with a thing of drawn butter, but show me a half dead lobster being eaten by a fish, and forget it. I'm out of there.

So moving on from the National Geographic show happening below me, I venture out to around the Black Rock. The snorkeling improves ten fold when you make it a point to go around the bend. Looked in the deeper areas, but never saw a turtle. Oh well.

We spent about an hour snorkeling, and then then came out, washed off the sand, packed up, and headed back to the Westin.

Then it was time for some quality pool time. Ahhhh. This is the life. Bright sun, a good book, the sound of the ocean waves, a chlorinated pool nearby, and a Lava Flow in your hand. Does it get any better than this? We chilled on our lounge chairs for about an hour and a half and then decided to break up the "monotony" by playing in the ocean waves.

Note to self for the future: NEVER wear a tankini when you're playing in waves that are bigger than a foot high. I found myself literally being washed ashore several times. We're talking bathing suit top and bottom getting re-arranged and sand everywhere (and I mean everywhere). My skin received a complete "exfoliation treatment", as did my suit, even though it didn't need it.

I remembered to take the waterproof camera in the water with us, so I did get some great "action" shots before I was swept away. The pictures turned out quite funny.

After our adventures in the waves, it was time to chill out in the pool. We styed poolside for the next hour or so, and then headed up to the room to get showered and changed for dinner.

Tonight's dinner found us traveling far; next door to Leilani's at Whaler's Village. We timed it so we were there a little bit before sunset and were fortunate enough to get a table along the rail overlooking the beach. The atmosphere was great. There was an acoustic guitarist playing non-Hawaiian music (Van Morison, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens, etc). There is nothing like sipping on a Lava Flow, watching the sun go down past Lana'i, and listing to an acoustic version of "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison. It was heaven.

For dinner, hubby had the filet, and I had their ribs which were pretty tasty. We split the dessert, whcih was the most enourmous pice of Hula Pie that I have ever seen. It was very yummy, too. I hate to say it, but this meal was just as satifying as the mean that we had the previous evening at Mama's Fish House, and again for a fraction of the cost. Can you tell that I was not impressed by Mama's?

After dinner, hubby went back to the hotel while I checked out a few more shops in Whaler's Village. I lucked out and found a really cute white tank from Sgt. Leisure that was on sale for $9.99. I ended up wearing it several times during our vacation.

I grabbed my bag, and headed on back to the Westin. I changed into my jammies, grabbed the portable DVD player that we brought with us (that this guy I work with was nice enough to loan us for this trip), and plugged in "Finding Nemo". I watched about 30 minutes or so of it and then fell asleep to the sound of Dory singing "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Ischrage, I need a vacation just reading about all you did! I can't wait to hear about Kauai. This has been one of the most enjoyable trip reports I have read in a while.

Lschrage,

I enjoyed reading your trip report. I have such a great sense of humor and know how to tell your story.

Wish we could go to Hawaii next year.