Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip To Maui (2018)--Day 2
5/6/2018
Off to Maui!
The alarm went off at 2:30 a.m.--it didn't matter as we had been awake for a while for some reason. I enjoyed some leftover chicken wings from Granite City Grille as an early breakfast--nice snack at 3 a.m.!  After getting ready and making sure everything which came out of our bags was repacked, we sleepily made our way downstairs at 4 a.m. for the check-out. Our shuttle didn't leave for a half hour, so there was time to hang out and chat about the events of the coming day. Certainly, there was an excitement we couldn't really contain. Despite having been to Maui so often, we still get a little of that giddiness when a trip commences.
The shuttle showed up on time and spirited us to the Minneapolis airport. There are only four of us passengers on the shuttle--Patty and I were joined by are two women headed for Nashville. We arrived quickly at the airport and, after checking in our big bag, headed to security.
If you are not one of the fortunate people to be designated as "TSA Pre" on your United Airlines boarding pass, security can be a pain in the okole. It's worse if your extra bag (the one which must fit underneath the airplane seat in front of you) happens to be a camera bag, as mine always is. First, off come the shoes, which are placed into one of those grey plastic bins. Same thing for your belt. Everything in your pockets must be emptied out, as well. If you have a camera bag? A new rule recently taking effect states that your bag must be emptied out into a bin. Cameras, camcorder, it all has to come out. And, of course, if you have a 311 bag, that comes out of your carry-on. Same thing for any laptop computer you are carrying. Get the picture yet? It is not fun.
TSA Pre-check, which we were lucky to have on our last two trips, makes things considerably easier. The shoes and belt stay on, you don't have to take your laptop out of the carry-on, and your camera bag goes through the scanning machine unscathed. That 311 bag stays in your carry-on, too. Your jacket gets to stay on. All I have to do is take out my keys and place them in a small round grey container, and I'm set to walk through the scanner. Nice!
This took all of five minutes, so we were advantaged with a ton of time to kill before our 7:20 flight to San Francisco, so we located our departure gate and then went off in search of a McDonald's. Patty needed coffee, I needed a Sausage McMuffin with egg. With that out of the way, we returned to the gate, relaxed and full.
About ten minutes before they announce the start of boarding, we got in line in Group 3. Being first in line meant that working our way back to our seats was a breeze, other than the few people who always insist on wasting everyone's time by screwing around in the aisle, taking stuff out of their overhead carry-on, putting stuff back. You know, self important people who think nothing of wasting the time of others deemed less important in their little minds.
This flight was on an Embraer 175, which is a more comfortable plane than a 737; the only downside is that the overhead space is smaller than on the 737, meaning our carry-ons had to be turned sideways in order to fit. This meant less bags could fit on this plane, which isn't a problem if you're one of the first people to board! (Ugh, now I sound like one of those self-absorbed people I described in the previous paragraph) It's also a 2-2 configuration, so Patty was in the aisle seat (I had and almost always have enjoyed the window seat), which she prefers so she doesn't have to climb over someone when she has to go to the bathroom.
Waiting at the Minneapolis airport
Taking off from Mpls
In the air over Mpls
In the air over Mpls
East of the Rockies
Over the Rocky Mtns
East of San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco
Landing in San Francisco
The first flight was uneventful, and we rolled into San Francisco at 10 a.m. Finding our next departure gate was as easy as it was in Minneapolis. Once again we found ourselves first in line in Group 3, but this time we were in row 41--the 737 is considerably larger than the Embraer. We've been enjoying ourselves but the fun is soon to temporarily end.
First, there was a family of four in the row in front of us--two parents and two small boys. One of the boys is young enough to sit in his parent's lap. Remember how I wrote of the Swiss Family Screech in my 2007 Hawai'i trip blog, with the screeching kid whose Mom kept smacking him on the leg in the pathetic hope it would shut him up? These four had to be related to them! Mom kept trying to control the two little monsters, to little avail. Dad stepped in a time or two, and it briefly helped, but eventually he retreated behind his noise-canceling headphones.
This went on for nearly three hours.
Second, after the plane was fully boarded, there was a delay while the plane sat on the tarmac. There was some kind of malfunction in some unknown safety device and they were trying to get help in diagnosing and fixing the problem. In the meantime we sat there for a full hour before the problem was fixed and we taxied for what seemed like an eternity before actually taking off. There was a guy sitting about five or six rows behind us who was more upset than I was, and he was verbalizing his displeasure over the situation. I don't blame him--if he had a connection to make at our destination and the time was tight, was he going to have to rebook his next flight? Or, he was just impatient and wanted to get his ass to Maui as we did. The flight attendants disappeared soon after he started his semi-rant and we saw little of them until the drink service started well into our flight.
So, by the time we finally took off, our 1:40 arrival on Maui turned into a 2:40 arrival.
We did manage to make up a little time during this flight (funny how you almost always land sooner than they say you're going to land--I think these airlines "sandbag" the arrival times because it makes them look good when you do arrive earlier than expected), and we landed in Kahului at 2:15. We got off the plane, walked past Stinger Ray's restaurant, through those double doors and out into the warm, tropical air. That smell, that tropical smell! We will always love that regardless of how many trips we make to Hawai'i. Between that sensory experience and knowing that we're about to embark on an 18 day stay on our favorite island, our moods were quite perky at this point.
Walking down to the baggage area, it took a while for our new bag (a 29" American Tourister spinner--very nice!) to show up on the carousel. While we miss that easily recognizable copper color bag we used to have, the new cranberry colored one is fairly easily spotted when it comes rotating by. It was made easier to spot since Patty tied a red ribbon to the handle. All baggage secured, he headed over to the Alamo/National car rental pick up spot.
About that spot; by the time we return a few years from now, the new centralized car rental place will be open. All the rental car companies doing business on Maui will be in one very large building. A tram will carry people over the roadway to the building so there will no longer be the need for all those shuttle buses running back and forth from the airport terminal to the rental locations. This will alleviate traffic congestion on the airport access road quite a bit.
While Patty stood on the sidelines, I got through the line at Alamo rather quickly. The clerk/salesman tried to sell me on the Fuel Option but I'm wise to that particular scam. We did opt for the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) as we almost always do. Convenience and peace of mind have their price. On Maui, that price is $29.99 per day. Ouch.
Once we got outside and start looking for a car to grab, Patty noticed a nice Corolla and we headed for that one, but another woman has already secured it. She told us she's waiting for her husband before they decide if they want it, but they almost certainly will. But there was a nice looking grey colored Nissan Sentra just two cars away, so we grabbed that one.
I couldn't find the keys! I went back to one of the attendants who responds "they're probably on the dash". Duh.
I couldn't find the ignition! I went back (again) and was told that there is a Start button to start the car.
The Start button didn't work! A third time back and the lady attendant smiled as they told me "Hon, you have to depress the brake first". Damn new technology!
We really liked this car--it had a back-up camera (the first time I've driven a car with such a feature) and has only 6,500 miles on it. The acceleration was impressive enough, and I quickly fell in love with the stereo. It played CD's and, as I discovered a couple days later, it also had a USB input. I had burned five CD's before the trip and had also burned the 600+ songs to a USB flash drive.
The pleasure and excitement of driving from the airport to our hotel in Lahaina for the first time on each trip cannot be overstated. It was Sunday, so the beaches were busy with locals. You have your whole trip ahead of you, you endured whatever ugliness needed to be endured on the flights across the country from Minnesota and over the Pacific, and now you can relax and just enjoy what's to come.
Encountering some light sprinkles as we wound our way along the coastal highway past Ma'alaea, we eventually were forced to turn onto the new section of the Lahaina Bypass just north of Olowalu. I had read much of the problems people were encountering on Trip Advisor prior to this trip, but traffic was flowing smoothly enough. But this new roadway is no faster than it used to be on the old coastal highway. If there is no resulting improvement, why are they doing this?
We arrived in Lahaina, turned off on Front Street and were soon pulling up into the driveway at the Lahaina Shores Beach Result. What a sight! The sun was out and it was beautiful here, for the first time in a week, I'm told. We got out the bags out, rolled into the hotel and found Bill working the registration desk with Chassidy (or is it Chelsea?), who wasn't working in 2016 when we last visited. Ann was no longer there, but Allison and Kaulana were still working here. Nice!
Bill welcomed us back and after chatting with him for a few minutes, we got our key cards and headed up to Room 533. It's a very nice room, but not as nice nor as well appointed as Room 505. But, for a $60/night savings, this room seems to be worth it.
This and the next five pics show our room at the Lahaina Shores
We unpacked some of our stuff. I was cranky from travel and in need of a shower. With this taken care of, we drove over to Pi Artisan Pizza, finding free parking on Waine'e Street, just a block away. Walking here would have been easy under normal circumstances, but we're both hot and feeling slightly ugly, so driving here makes sense.
What a fantastic pizzeria! By the time we left, we were in agreement that this was our favorite pizza place on Maui (an assertion which would be tested twice at other places during this trip). We then headed over to Foodland, just a block away, and dropped $105 on groceries. Foodland features a Maka'i Card which entitles you to discounted prices on certain items. You don't have to complete an application as you do at Safeway. You tell the cashier that you want this card, create a ten-digit security code (in this case, our cell phone number) and you're all set.
Back to the hotel, we packed away our groceries and got settled further into the room.
There was no hot tub tonight; Being fried from the day's events, I was in bed by 8:00. It was a very long first day.
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