Sunday Summary
Sunday was our travel day, with a direct flight from Chicago O'Hare to Kahului, Maui. All-in-all, it's roughly a 9 hour flight covering almost 4,200 miles. Compared to last year, this travel day went off without a hitch, with everything from the flights to the rental cars and the check-in at the Sheraton going perfectly.

We have a normal travel day tradition that we've been using for the previous trips. We'd get to our hotel, check-in and get settled by about 5:30pm or so, have dinner at the Sheraton at the Lagoon Bar, sip a cool drink and watch the cliff dive at Black Rock. Afterwards, we'd head over to Safeway at the Cannery to grab some goodies for the week and call it a night.

Well, this year, ended up getting settled about 90 minutes earlier than usual, so things were a little off. We still had dinner and drinks as the Lagoon Bar at the Sheraton, but we skipped the cliff dive and Safeway in lieu of a walk to Whalers and retiring a little early.

Itinerary - Sunday, April 13th

• Direct flight from Chicago to Kahului
• Pickup our rental car and drive to Ka'anapali
• Check-in at the Sheraton
• Dinner/drinks at Lagoon Bar at the Sheraton
• Walk over to Whalers, hit the ABC Store and Ha'agan Dazs
• Retire a little early

Sunday Timeline

5:40 AM CST

Pretending to be awake. Leaving for the airport in about 90 minutes.

We are definitely not morning people, even when we know we're going to Maui. Part of it is my fault, too, for wanting to be earlier than we had to be.

8:32 AM CST

Waiting at the gate for our flight

Early as planned. We had about an hour to kill at O'hare before boarding.

9:33 AM CST

Sitting on the plane during boarding. Will be landing in Kahului in about 10 hours or so.

Our seats weren't that bad, three in the center aisle of five. Still a long flight, though.

1:39 PM HST

Just landed on Maui

Boy, did it feel good to finally get off the airplane. Landed at about 6:40pm CST, making the flight about nine hours long.

4:01 PM HST

Checking in at the Sheraton. Alooooooooooha.

We love this place. Pulling up to the check-in station in front of the lobby and getting our fresh leis. Bell boys are always right there to help, but we have take a pass since we already know where we're going.

That first drive from the lobby over to the reserved parking lot at the very end of Ka'anapali Parkway at the Sheraton is like running down stairs on Christmas morning. :)

4:26 PM HST

Sipping on a Ka'anapali Lemonade

Not the strongest or most elegant drink in the world, maybe even a little watered down. It doesn't really matter though, our time in Maui has officially started.

5:25 PM HST

Walking around Whalers Village

Not much had changed along the walk from the Sheraton to Whalers. The Crocs stand from last year was gone, and maybe one or two stores changed, but still the same Whalers Village that we love. Stopped over at Ha'agan Dazs for desert and grabbed some snacks and water at the ABC Store.

6:43 PM HST

Taking time lapse photos of the sunset. No high hopes yet, just practice.

Nothing really usuable, just verifying that my setup was working. I actually left my camera in one of the auto modes (landscape mode I believe), so as the scene was changing from light to dark, the camera automatically compensated for the difference and the result was a bunch of photos that all looked mostly the same. I got it right later in the trip, though.

7:46 PM HST

Posted the Sunday Photo to the blog. Thinking about going to bed (my body thinks its almost 1am with the time difference).

Took a quick photo with Cindy's camera of the sunset (since mine was doing the time lapse). Wanted something to post on our first night and keep the Sunday Photo series going, Live from Maui. I actually stayed up little later than this, just sitting on the lanai and listening to the ocean.

Related Links

• Blog Post - Sunday Photo: We're Back
• Blog Post - At last, back to Maui
• Whalers Village
• Sunday Photos