Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to Maui (2009)--Days 1 & 2
4/20/2009
About These Pictures
Pictures in this review were shot using a Nikon D50 and a Nikon Coolpix S500. The Coolpix is a great "carry around anywhere" camera, but has limitations compared to the D50, of course. Some shots taken with the D50 utilized a circular polarizing lens. By clicking an image, you'll access a larger version.
Restaurants
To view our ratings for the restaurants we visited on Maui, click here.
Prologue
Our sixth trip was, as last year, a 15-day trip to the wonderful island of Maui. It was yet another reaffirmation of why the Valley Island remains our favorite vacation spot.
Day 1 (and 2!)
Getting There...problems, problems
When flying to Hawai`i, uneventful is good. Uneventful is exactly what you want. No delays at security, no delays in take-offs or landings, none of that. You want things to go exactly as your itinerary states.
This wasn't to be the case on our trip. Getting to the Duluth International Airport well in advance of our 7:00 a.m. take-off bound for the Twin Cities, we breezed through security - other than the TSA agent being slightly "suspicious" of my camera bag and taking everything out and inspecting for trace elements of explosives. Other than their interest in my camera bag, nothing out of the ordinary happened until we arrived in Minneapolis. I realized in the airport I'd forgot to pack the hotel confirmation notice and hoped it wouldn't be an issue.
Flying from Duluth to Minneapolis
After our traditional McDonald's breakfast at the airport, we had over an hour to kill, so we found our gate and kicked back. A half hour later, they announced that the plane we would be on had broken down and they were "looking at options". This problem was eventually solved by diverting a plane (these were Boeing 757's, by the way) which had come in from Orlando. However, that 1.5 hour cushion we were to have in Honolulu was now cut down to, oh, nothing! We were hoping that the refueling and cleaning of the plane when we landed in Portland would go quicker than expected and we'd have time to get from the overseas terminal to the inter-island terminal in Honolulu. On the plus side, our bags were checked through to Maui and we had our boarding passes, so it was just a matter of catching the Wiki-Wiki (wiki is "quick" in Hawaiian - if you believe anything pertaining to an airport happens quickly!
Little did we know this was just a precursor to Murphy's Law Bites Us In The Ass. Upon arriving in Portland, we asked if we could change our Oahu-Maui flight to a later time as a precaution and were told that we'd be in Honolulu by 4 p.m., which would give us plenty of time to make the connection.
So, here we stood in line, watching the minutes tick by until it became apparent at 1:00 that there was no chance we'd be leaving on time. Soon came the next announcement that they had mechanical problems with the engine which fires the AC on the 757 and they were trouble-shooting the problem. An hour later, they give us an update - they need a replacement part and are flying it down from Seattle! At this point, they don't even know if we'll be leaving today or will be stuck in Portland overnight. A nearby traveler heard me grousing about this and asked "what do you have against Portland?", kiddingly, of course. My response was simple; it's not Honolulu.
"Northworst" Airlines, at this point, gave each passenger a $10 food voucher (mighty big of 'em, I must say  ), so we walked a great distance to find Gustav's Restaurant. Pretty good BBQ beef sandwiches there, and bye-bye to the $20 "gift". Back to our departure gate, our new (and final) update was that we would be flying out at 6 p.m.. That ****** actually managed to sound magnanimous when he asked "Who wants to go to Honolulu?" Gee, I don't know; maybe everyone who's been sitting in this crapping terminal for the past five hours? At this point, my overwhelming thought was "I hate this farging airline and their crap planes". So, we wouldn't be arriving in Honolulu until 9 p.m. and would have to rebook our inter-island flight for tomorrow morning.
Portland airport
Patty trying to take a quick nap
The Portland-Honolulu flight was just under six hours but felt longer. The highlight, if there was such a thing, was seeing a gorgeous sunset from my window seat. Finally the plane landed in Honolulu, and we had to find a Northwest agent so we could get our hotel voucher. They put us up at the Best Western The Plaza hotel near the airport...I have no idea why it's called The Plaza, considering it's locating pretty much under the H-1 freeway. But, it was a place to crash for five hours before our 3:30 a.m. wakeup call. Employees at the Best Western were nice enough, and the room we had wasn't really bad. For the quoted price of $79, you get a microwave, mini-fridge, two comfortable double beds, free continental breakfast (which we wouldn't be here to avail ourselves of in the morning). After watching a bit of TV, we crashed.
The next morning came full of promise. Sometimes you have to look on the bright side and after what had happened yesterday, getting to Maui alive would be a bright side. We were tired as hell after being up for 23 hours yesterday and only getting five hours of sleep - Best Western runs shuttles every half hour to the airport so we were at the inter-island terminal at 4:45, in plenty of time to get through security and secure our boarding passes. With time to kill, we milled about a bit, watching the early morning light and listening to the birds waking up. My seat (25A) was a window seat, but the view was of the engine. It didn't matter as clouds obscured nearly everything on our flight to Maui.
Meantime, while we were holed up in Honolulu, our checked luggage continued on to Maui and was awaiting our arrival. After getting our bag and checking out our car (a Chevy Cobalt with over 21,000 miles), we were finally on our way to Lahaina. It was somewhat drizzly on the isthmus but had mostly cleared by the time we had hit the leeward side of the island.
Arriving at the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort, Allison was at the front desk to greet us, and was she a welcome sight! Ten minutes later, we had our bags in the room and had started unpacking a few things. We headed off to Foodland to stock up on provisions which would carry us over the next two weeks. If you've been to Hawai`i several times as we have, you are no longer shocked by food prices. You do what you can to keep the costs at a reasonable level. Foodland has a Maka`i card which allows you to take advantage of some specials. We ended up spending $94 on what would cost us $60-65 back in Duluth.
Our room at the Lahaina Shores
View from the lanai--construction on the north end of the hotel is visible
Lahaina Shores
Near the Lahaina Harbor
West Maui Mountains from Front Street
As I said in previous reports, walking the beach in front of the hotel in the early morning had become one of our favorite activities, and it held true on this trip once again. The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent checking things out and sleeping.
Aroma d'Italia
Our first dinner destination Aroma d'Italia in Kihei, a restaurant we'd really liked last year. Patty had the Linguine with sausage and peppers - very good! I had the Chicken Parmigiana, which I found to be equally tasty. Their specialty, if you haven't guessed, is Italian food. Portion sizes are good, quality is excellent, and the prices are very fair. We did a little cruising around the Kihei and Wailea area after dinner and returned to Lahaina just after sundown. Our bodies hadn't adjusted to Hawai`i time yet so we crashed by 10 p.m. Thank God we're finally here!
Previous: 4/10/2009--An April Snowstorm
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