Final Days in Maui

Well, the last two weeks have seem to just fly by, and we're on our way back home to Chicago. The end of our trip has been most uneventful, but here's the wrap up for completeness sake.

Friday
Knowing that we had to check out by 11am on Saturday, we decided to get a jump start on our packing Friday morning, and as depressing as packing a day early to go home sounds, that's about summed it up. It was easier on us Saturday, though, since we didn't have to rush.

We spent some time at Whalers on Friday, looking for last minute CDs and other gifts before heading out to Lahaina for our cocktail cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation. This time, it wasn't canceled, although the wait seemed a little long. Part of the delay was because it was "cruise ship" day as the first mate called it, because there was a cruise ship docking near Lahaina Harbor and there was an increased amount of traffic and security checkpoints for the cruise ship that was holding things up.

Back to the boarding process. When they were announcing the boarding was beginning for the cocktail cruise, they called out our names first, which threw us off for a moment (thinking we did something wrong or out of order). It turns out since we were PWF members, we received priority boarding and got to call dibs on the front seats on the upper deck. I guess that part really paid off.

After the cocktail cruise, we stopped back to Whalers for dinner, since we don't really like to eat too much on those smaller sail boats, especially in choppy water. We actually had McDonalds, of all things, as our farewell meal for Friday. We usually eat that type of food about once a year, so that was it. We had to hit Haagen-Dazs one last time before we took that our usually nighttime stroll down Ka'anapali Beach under the stars and clouds.

Saturday
When we tell people about our trip, Saturday isn't going to come up much. Aside from being the most depressing day of our vacation, let alone the entire year, there wasn't a heck of a lot left to do that we had time for or room left in our luggage for. Checkout was at 11am, our rental car was due back at 4:30pm and our flight off the island was at 9:30pm. Bummer on all three accounts.

We drove back to Kahului after checking out and stopped by a few of the malls we looked at last year. The first was the Queen Ka'amhumanu Mall where we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch. We also stopped at the Maui Mall, mainly just to check out the rabbits that they had at the pet shop. Cindy ended up grabbing a few items from a clothing store that was going out of business, so that killed some time, too.

After dropping off our rental car, we've been pretty much sitting here at the airport, eating dinner at Stinger Rays, and waiting, and waiting. I've been hammering away at the site a little bit, so I haven't been too board, but the feeling of waiting and prolonging the inevitable of going home and saying Aloha to the islands seems like torture.

Next week, as we recover from not being in Maui anymore, I'll be putting the final touches on the full website and it should be ready by the end of the month. I'll also throw up another post that pretty much summarizes the highlights of our trip and our plans for future visits (visits meaning plural). I also have a lot of photos and videos to go throw and upload, so I'll be adding those links to the posts from the last two weeks as well.

Aloha Maui, and we hope to be back very soon.

One more Aloha Friday from Maui

It's the second Aloha Friday of our trip, and I thought I'd take a moment to wrap up the last few days here.

Wednesday
Wednesday became another walking day for us, this time bringing my camera along the entire beachwalk at Ka'anapali Beach. It was a little warmer and more sunnier than the last time we took the 1.5 mile walk, which made it a little more of a trek. However, since we knew were everything was this time, it didn't seem like we had been walking forever.

We stopped at Whalers Village for a small lunch because we had the Maui Princess Dinner Cruise later that evening. We at a Leilani's again, but this time we skipped on the Hula Pie. After a little bit more window shopping, we went back to our room and hung out before getting ready for the dinner cruise. Unfortunately, I misread the confirmation email on the dinner cruise and thought we had more time than we really did, but we still made it on time.

Pretty much everything with the dinner cruise was the same as we remembered it last year. This year, we weren't lucky enough to have our own table again (which we pretty much assumed), and it turned out very nice. We met an older couple that just got married the week before and were on their honeymoon, and we had some good conversations.

As with previous nights, we opted for desert at Whalers and walked back along the beach under the stars and clouds. We didn't actually too far because some of the wind gusts were blowing sand so hard that it stung at the back of our legs as we walked. Luckily, it wasn't blowing from behind and not in our faces.

Thursday
Our anniversary, four years, was on Thursday, and it got off to a slow start. We slept in and didn't do breakfast as we had been the rest of the trip. We somewhat went off on our own for the day, and Cindy spent a few more hours by the pool while I took some more photos, worked on the website and did some last minute anniversary shopping at Maui Divers.

It might have sounded a little odd to be spending time doing our own things on our anniversary, but it was okay because we had reservations for Dinner Under the Stars at the Sheraton that night, which was absolutely perfect. It was a five course meal in our own private cabana right along side the beach, and it made for a wonderful and memorable night. Even though we're not planning to come back for our anniversary next year (opting to come back in July instead), we definitely want to do another dinner like that again.

I could go on and on about dinner and the rest of the night, but I'll leave it at that.

Friday is out last full day on Maui, and we're taking the red-eye back to Chicago on Saturday. We're enjoying every last minute we have on this trip, and already talking about our next two trips.

Aloha.

The Sun Returns

Our second week in Maui has begun as the first one started, with the sun shining bright in the sky.

Monday

Monday was another driving day, so we jumped in the car and drove down to Wailea. It was about as long of a drive as we expected, but it was a nice drive. We ended up going down the Piilani Highway and not Kihei Road, which would have likely been more scenic.

Our main goal for driving down to Wailea was to check out the Shops at Wailea and get a little bit more familiar with the area, not necessarily a beach trip (although the weather was cooperating for one). The Shops seemed like a nice mall, and we were a little surprised that it was more crowded or busy as it was, like we had seen at Whalers Village. We ended up walking around for a little bit, took some pictures, and didn't stay too long.

After coming back to our hotel, we decided to walk over to Hula Grill for a late lunch / early dinner. Another walk through Whalers Village followed dinner, and we found our way back to the hotel to taken in the Black Rock Cliff Dive one more time. Our night ended by making one more trip over to the Cannery and Safeway to pick up some snacks and other things we needed for the rest of the week.

Tuesday

With the sun back out, it was time for another beach day. So after breakfast, we jumped in the car and drove up to Kapalua. This time, we found it. :)

Kapalua Beach was a little smaller than we had expected it, and it was a lot more crowded that D.T. Fleming Beach that we went to last week. We were able to find a spot on the sand and I started taking photos while Cindy enjoyed the sun. There was some construction happening in the background where they were building new residences, but it didn't bother us as much as you think it would when you see it.

There were a number of people snorkeling and scuba diving at Kapalua, and after looking through the polarizer on my Canon to deflect some of the sun off of the water, you could see reefs and rocks just hidden under the water. There was also a canoe lesson going on right there on the beach as well. All-in-all, it was a pretty nice beach.

As I walked around the lawn just north of the beach, I was able to see some of the snorkel activities going on in Namalu Bay, where the Teralani and Gemini boats were docked. There were also some interesting rock formations out near the snorkelers, which I just had to take photos of up until my memory card filled up.

We picked up subs for lunch again on the way back to the hotel. Cindy went back for a second helping of sun down by the pool while I stayed behind and worked on the website for a little bit more. I also was going through some of the photos and videos that we've taken thus far. After Cindy returned and freshened up, we took a quick trip out to Front St. and did a little bit more shopping at Whalers. I had another craving for some Hawaiian Pizza, so we ate dinner at the food court, picked up desert and came back for the night.

Cloudy Weekend in Maui

I guess you can't have perfect weather every day in paradise, can you?

We hadn't been paying too close attention to the nightly weather reports, so when we woke up to a cloud-filled sky Saturday morning, we were a little surprised. We had planned on the weekend being somewhat of a downtime weekend and staying local to our hotel rather than fighting weekend traffic, and were counting on the sun to provide some fun by the pool and the beach.

Saturday

Aside from the clouds, we did spend quite a bit of time outside on Saturday. We started off with a walk to Whalers like usual, but instead this time, we kept walking south all the way past the Hyatt. Back and forth, it was about an hour long walk, and it was neat to see the different hotels and condo units up along the beach. We noticed a few of them (more south on the beach) actually didn't have that much sand and beach of their own. The sand was only 4 or 5 feet wide between the lawn or walkway and the ocean, and usually not the golden sand you see on the postcards. It made us appreciate our choice of staying at the Sheraton that much more.

After grabbing "junk food" for lunch by the pool, we cooled off in our room and then actually headed north of the Sheraton and walked the beach towards the Royal Lahaina and other hotels along the beach there. We actually didn't know that was still considered Ka'anapali Beach until reading a few things while we're here this trip. It was definitely a different scene with less shops and booths along the beach as there is south of the Sheraton, and it was a little less crowded as well (but again, it was cloudy).

We finished the evening with a small dinner of Chinese food at Whalers, taking in the free Hula demonstration they had there at 7pm, and getting our ice cream fix at Haagen-Dazs once again. As before, the only way to head back to our hotel from Whalers at night is on the beach, and that's what we did.

Sunday

There were still lingering clouds on Sunday, but we already had planned on doing laundry anyway, so we didn't have too many plans. Yes, laundry in paradise. That's what happen when you vacation for two weeks and don't want to bring four suitcases with you. It wasn't that bad, actually, as I stayed near by and worked on the site while Cindy sat out by the pool.

It did consume a few hours, though, and after that it was time to get ready for our dinner cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation. At least that's what we thought. We drove on our to Lahaina, found parking near the Banyan Tree and went to check in. Little did we know, the ship we were expecting to board for our dinner cruise was sent out to Oahu two days earlier for scheduled maintenance. They were pretty nice about it and we got a refund on the spot. Cindy was actually able to pick up a few pictures and other souvenirs at their store while were there, so it wasn't a total loss.

Seeing that we were already in Lahaina and paid for parking, we thought we'd make the best of it. We walked down Front St. and decided to have dinner at BJ's Chicago Pizzeria (maybe feeling a little homesick). It wasn't exactly the deep dish pizza that we were used to back home, but it was still good none-the-less. The drinks were pretty good, too.

After walking around, watching the sunset from Lahaina Harbor and doing a little bit more shopping, we called it a night and came back to our room to say Aloha to the weekend.

Aloha Friday in Maui

Aloha Friday is the mainland's equivalent of TGIF, and it was pretty good for us yesterday.

Friday was our first venture out of the beautiful beaches of Ka'anapali to beaches up north in Kapalua. We originally hoped to get to both D. T. Fleming Beach Park and also Kapalua Beach, but only go to the first one.

D. T. Fleming Beach Park was nice in many aspects. It was smaller than Ka'anapali, which we expected, and it was a lot less crowded for a late Thursday morning. It was a gorgeous day, with the sun beating down and heating the golden sand almost making it too hot to walk on with your bare feet. The only drawback weather-wise was that the winds had picked up rather briskly for much of the time we were there.

The water was nice, though, and the waves were a little bigger than we had seen in Ka'anapali, but that didn't stop people (Cindy included) from heading out in the ocean to cool off and enjoy the water. We stayed for little over an hour before we packed up and moved on.

We headed south again to try and find Kapalua Beach, but didn't have the best of luck. We found Kapalua without a problem, yet after driving around for a little bit, didn't see any clear signs for where to head out to the beach. It was a very nice drive and some stunning views and villas, and we'll likely give it a more educated try next week.

Heading back to our hotel, we stopped at a Subway in Napili and grabbed a few sandwiches that we enjoyed on our lanai outside our room. It was a good chance to cool off and freshen up before heading out to Lahaina for the evening.

Our Lahaina plans for the evening consisted of a stop at the Cannery, and stroll down through Lahaina down (Starbucks included) and then heading out to the Taste of Lahaina over at the recreation area. It was a nice, small festival with about two dozen food booths set up, a kid zone with games and activities, a beer garden (which we passed on) and a stage with live music. It was a fun evening with a lot of people from across the island coming to celebrate, making it not too much of a tourist activity and therefore had more of a true island feel.

It is a two night affair, but we'll likely pass on the second night and opt for something more quiet and local and enjoy more of the atmosphere of the beach and stars.

That's all for Friday.

Thursday's Highlights

Thursday meant jumping back into the car and driving down to the Maui Ocean Center. We weren't in too big of a hurry to see giant fish tanks last year, but we decided to add it to our itinerary this year and we had a good time.

It's down the road back Lahaina near Ma'alaea Harbor in Wailuku, which was a nice drive and a test run for where we had to go next week for our cruises with the Pacific Whale Foundation. It is actually a combination of outdoor displays and indoor aquariums, which made for a good mix because it was a little more cloudier than it was earlier in the week.

The main attraction that Cindy wanted to see was the sea turtle exhibit, which was unfortunately under rehabilitation and not fully accessible. They did, however, have their sea turtle "Ku'uipo", in a small tub close by. The tub looked very small compared to the large habitat that was being worked on, but he still seemed to swim around and entertain his visitors.

I got a big kick out of the shark tank in the Open Ocean exhibit. It wasn't just sharks, but sting rays and all sorts of other fish. But back to the sharks, there was one pretty decent sized tiger shark, as well as a few other great white and hammerhead sharks. The were just swimming around and coming right up to the glass. Unfortunately, the lighting was pretty low and not the easiest to take pictures in, but it was cool none-the-less.

After the ocean center, we checked out the shops over near Ma'alaea in the same general area, picked up a few goodies and headed back to Ka'anapali. We stopped over at the Cannery for a few shops and some lunch. Cindy did indeed find a dress she liked, and that part of our trip now has a happy ending. She has yet to decide where or when she'll wear it (knowing very well there won't be too many days left in Chicago to wear it this year), but as soon as she does, I'll have a few pictures to post of her in it.

After that quick stop, we headed back to our hotel to cool off a little bit. Cindy had another craving for the Mocha Espresso drink over at Haagen-Dazs, so we went off to Whalers to get her fix. While we were there, we spent almost an hour at Na Hoku looking at jewelery. Cindy found a new anklet (another one of her missions for our vacation) and it's white gold with a honu (sea turtle) on it. That took all of about 20 minutes, and the rest of the time we spent looking for a ring for me. I have had my eyes out for something either silver or white gold with a streak of black (onyx or something) in it, but had no luck. No biggie.

With it almost time for dinner, we made the walk back to our hotel and grabbed a bite (literally a bite) to eat over at the Lagoon Bar at the Sheraton. I say just a bite because the waiter misunderstood our order, so instead of us each getting a cheeseburger, we both got half of one. Oh well.

Dinner ended with the Black Rock cliff dive again, this time Cindy was taking her shoot at the video camera. I had the wrong lens on my Canon, so I didn't have much luck either, but it was still a nice night. We spent time on the beach afterwards and watch some of the stars and the first sliver of moon come out in the sky before calling it a day.

More Fun and Sun

Aloha from Maui,

Wednesday was our first official "sun" day, heading out poolside after breakfast. There were a few clouds here and there, but nothing too devastating to a sun worshiper like Cindy. We were out by the pool for about two hours or so, and trekked back up to our room to cool of and clean up.

Lunch was a walk away down at Whalers. I had a craving for some good ol' Hawaiian Style pizza at Nikki's, which of course consisted of pineapple and Canadian bacon. Even though I've been eating pineapple for 10+ years now, it still tastes better in Hawaii.

We also did a little more shopping while were we at Whalers yesterday, picking up a few new things at Del Sol. We resisted buying another Sol Bear (seeing that we already have two), but did receive yet another tote bag with our purchase. Cindy also peeked her head into a few other stores in search of a new dress, but didn't find anything at Whalers. Another trip to ABC and we were back on our way to the hotel.

The main event for Wednesday was the Ka'anapali Sunset Luau right on the ocean lawn of the Sheraton Maui Resort. Compared to the luau last year, I personally preferred this year's luau much better. It was a great show, but even before that, there were a few activities and games to participate in, and with a much smaller number of attendees, it was less cramped and more friendly. The food was pretty good, too.

As for the show, it was just as good as last year. It didn't seem to be as grand scale as the one last year, but it was still a great way to spend the evening. It was definitely something to do again next year (as long as I'm not picked to go on stage).

Just like the previous nights, we just had to finish off the night on the beach. So after the luau, we ran up to our room, grabbed the camera and tripod and shot back down to Black Rock. It took a few more tries to get everything right with the lights of the hotels on the shoreline and the torches on Black Rock, but it was worth it. The torches themselves were a little trickier to shoot than I had imagined, and I think I might be able to do better next time. I'll post the photos soon and you can judge for yourself.

After the torches went out, there was still a few good shots left. It was very beautiful, watching the stars over Black Rock and the ocean, scenes that we can't see from the lanai in our room. With the extended exposures, you can actually see a lot more of the details at Black Rock than you can with your own eyes at that time of night, and the stars above the trees at the top of the cliff made for a great shot to end the night.

Spas, Stores and Stars

Aloha,

Tuesday in Maui was pretty relaxing and low key, with us just hanging out locally and not having to drive anywhere.

Cindy's day began after breakfast with her spa day at the Westin Heavenly Spa. After dropping her off, I took some photos of the Westin and along the beach before stopping at Whalers to pick up a few things. My day of relaxing was hanging out at the hotel, shooting video of the sea turtles from our lanai, and working on the website.

When Cindy called me on her way back from the spa, she sounded a lot chipper and energized, so I think the spa treatment is probably something she'll be adding to her regular regime back on the mainland. She was trying to talk me into going next week, but right now, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

A light lunch was next at the Lagoon Bar, only really consisting of nachos and some pineapple wedges (nice combo, eh?). We didn't stray too far from the beach because we were heading out to Leilani's for dinner, which was around 6:30pm. The sun set while we were waiting for our food, and we got to watch about two dozen people scramble for position along the grass lawn outside of Whalers Village to snap a picture of the sun just over the horizon. We enjoyed it just fine from where we were.

We finished our ono eats at Leilani's a little after 7pm or so, and enjoyed a nice stroll on the beach all the way back to Black Rock. It was nice taking our time and teasing the waves as they ran up the sand. As much as I tried, however, I could not get any good shots of the torches lit on Black Rock with just my camera and no tripod, so that will have to wait for another night this week.

As we were watching the sunset, the clouds started to roll in over Moloka'i and we thought for sure that the stars would not be out to play tonight. Luckily, we were wrong, and they were just as incredible as the night before.

And my luck didn't stop there, as far as the stars were concerned. Not having any success with photographing the stars on Monday, I went back to look at some of the photos I took of the stars last year on my laptop. Man, do I love technology, because all the camera settings that I used to take those photos last year were all saved in the photo files themselves, so I was able to dial in my Canon and point my tripod to the sky once again.

That's where I came out big. I must have gotten over twenty good shots of the stars from all different parts of the sky. Most of them were 30 second exposures, so you can pretty much guess how long I was out there. :) My next task is to try to identify have those stars and constellations after I post them on Flickr and make them available here. That's my kind of homework.

That pretty much wrapped out our Tuesday for this week.

Monday in Maui

Monday was our first full day in Maui this year, and it was great.

We didn't quite hit the beach first thing Monday morning, however, it was a rather productive day. We had breakfast down at the hotel restaurant, Keka'a Terrace, which was a buffet style that was included in our vacation package.

After breakfast, we headed out towards Whalers Village, mainly to hit the ABC Store and get a few things we didn't get at Safeway the night before. We didn't spend too much time shopping, knowing that we'll be back there more than a dozen times over the next two weeks. I also had to stop at Ritz and pick up a new polarizer for my Canon SLR since I left mine at home (d'oh). All these beautiful colors, the blues and greens, the flowers, the clounds, all get lost in my pictures without a polarizer, so it'd definitely worth it.

After Whalers, we headed out further south to the Westin, where Cindy made reservations for a massage and a facial. Actually, she's there right now. It looks like a beautiful hotel with a large pond area and waterfalls near their pools. I took a few pictures while we were over there and will post those soon. If it wasn't for the fact that the hotel was stuck in between two other resorts, it might be worth a visit some day. That's one of the things we love about the Sheraton is that it's the last one north on the beach, only sharing the land on one side.

After the Westin, we headed back to the room and cooled off on our fourth floor balcony, watching the clouds float gently over Moloka'i. For the most part, we have pretty much the same view from our room as we did last year. But even though we're only six rooms down this year, being closer to the reefs near Black Rock offered up a view of something we didn't see last year ... sea turtles.

We had overheard someone at breakfast talking to one of the wait staff about them, and we just had to scope them out for ourselves. Sure enough, we walked out to our balcony and there they were, swimming with the snorkelers and bobbing their head up above water every now and then. This morning I got to use my telephoto lens and got some great closeups. Zooming in with Photoshop, you can even see one of the turtle's entire head above water, eyes mouth and everything. Those will be posted soon as well.

Back to yesterday, we drove down to Lahaina and walked around Front St. looking for another dress like the one Cindy bought last year. We didn't find anything yet, but we still have plenty of places and time to find something. While in Lahaina, we stopped back at Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner like we did last year. Burgers and views of the ocean out at Lahaina Harbor, what more could you ask for?

We finished the night off back at Ka'anapali Beach, taking in the sunset and the Black Rock Cliff Dive Ceremony. This year, we brought our new video camera and I can't wait to get some of that footage online. Seeing that it's a nightly event, though, I'm planning on getting more shots from different views and angles.

After the ceremony, we hung out on the beach until the stars began to fill the sky, still one of my favorite things about being here. We walked around the beach a little bit and let the ocean waves bring the water up to our feet before heading back to our room for the night.

Even from our balcony the stars were incredible, and I realized the main different this year from our balcony was that there is not a full moon like our trip last year. I tried set up my camera to get some of those night shots of the stars, but had no luck thus far. I was able to get a few good shots last year, so I think I'm just rusty.

That pretty much wraps up Monday, and once I can get some of those photos and videos up on the site, I'll add a few links.

Aloha.

We're Back, Finally

Well, it wasn't exactly the most streamlined travel day for us, but we're back on Maui and loving it like we never left.

The Flight

It sort of started two months ago, when we found out that our direct flight to the islands had been changed to add a connection. Bummer. It became a factor yesterday when we our flight out of Chicago was delayed for about 45 minutes because of a mechanical issue with the cargo storage area that had to be repaired. We were told initially that we'd be missing our connection in Los Angeles.

Fortunately, we got some good news closer to landing that they were holding open our connection (along with 40 others going to Maui from Chicago), so we didn't miss it after all. It would have been nice to actually have stopped and stretched for a little bit, grab something to eat and not have to run from gate to gate like we had to, but it's over and done with.

The Rental Car

Picking up the rental car seemed to be a little more straightforward and not have too much room for error, right? First, we opted to upgrade from our mid-size car to a full-size car, which at $15/day didn't seem to be that big of a difference (forgetting temporarily that were staying for 2 weeks).

That aside, we lugged our bags out to the spot on the rental care lot that were told and instead of a Grand Prix as we expected, we found a Miata (whoops). So we went back in and they apologized, got us the right car and brought it back to us. We throw in our bags and getting situated. Cindy, while trying to get comfortable for the 45 minute drive to Lahaina from Kahului. The problem was, however, that her seat wouldn't move back ... at all.

Rather than spending two weeks driving our Maui with her knees in her chest (or getting charged for it later), we brought it to their attention once again. I guess the third times a charge because the car the manager brought us next was a Cadillac STS at no extra charge, which blew our minds. It is a little overwhelming to be driving a car like that (which we know we'll never own), but it's fun none the less.

The Hotel

We're back at the Sheraton Maui Resort again this year. Why would we switch, we love it here? It was fun being able to drive out from the airport to the hotel without needing directions or maps, and traffic wasn't even that bad for 5:30pm on a Sunday.

The first room they gave us had a few "issues" that I wouldn't bother to go into. To cut to the chase, we were able to switch rooms to one that's on the fourth floor in the Hale O Ka Moana building again. Actually, we're on the same floor and only six rooms down the hall from the room we had last year. :)

We ended up having dinner down at the Lagoon Bar around 7pm last night, and we missed the Cliff Dive ceremony (not to worry, though). We wrapped up our travel day with a stop over at Safeway ($70 later), and turned in for the night without really unpacking everything.

We're getting ready to head out today for our first breakfast at the hotel this trip, and then heading out to Whalers Village. Cindy is also looking to schedule a spa session for tomorrow, so we're going to look into that (she deserves it). We're planning on heading out to Lahaina town down at Front St. this afternoon as well, so that should be fun to see again.

Aloha for now.