Hawaii : July 14 - 22

Kaanapali, Maui: Tuesday July 18, 2006

It was another early flight today and once again we were up at the crack of dawn to catch our plane. Brian discovered that the first inter-island flights of the day were always cheaper, so guess which ones we have been taking. He believed that it had something to do with people on holidays not wanting to get up early. I suggested that maybe we could fall into this category but it didn’t meet with much response. Three quarters of the passengers on the plane were locals so his theory was accurate.

One of the other problems with taking the first flight was that we arrived on the island too early to check-in to our hotel. To kill some time, we went to an IHOP for a late breakfast. It wasn’t Ken’s in Hilo but it was still tasty. Even though we were hungry, the four of us couldn’t finish three meals, two of which were half-size. How do people eat all the food that’s served in American restaurants?

From the airport it was a 50 minute drive to the west coast of Maui and the Kaanapali Beach Resort, north of Lahaina. The first thing we noticed was the increased commercialization and people on this island compared to the east coast of Hawaii. It was extremely busy and slow-going on the roads. Secondly it was very dry through this section of the island, with sharply grooved hillsides the only areas showing extensive green patches. The water however was a gorgeous blue and I knew where I was going to be this afternoon.

We easily found our hotel, the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, unlike our experience in Hilo. This resort is Hawaiian owned and probably one of the original ones in this touristy area. It was certainly less expensive than the neighbouring Sheraton and Westin but still dear. Saying all that it had a marvelous location right on the beach and that was what I wanted. After three nights without air conditioning in “motel-cottage” style accommodation, I thought we’d appreciate a little comfort.

Unfortunately this didn’t turn out to be the case. The kids were in a “we want to be back home NOW mode” and didn’t really appreciate their surroundings. Brian has never liked Hawaii because of all the people and its similarities to the mainland US. So he would have been happier at home too. Issues from work were distracting him as well and we weren’t even back in Canada yet. I just shook my head because this is a dream vacation spot for so many people and every one was too tired, busy or spoiled to enjoy it.

At this point, I decided to walk to the nearby Whaler’s Village to do a little window shopping before heading to the beach. I was looking for a new bathing suit. I found some lovely things but no suit.

By the time I returned to the room, everyone was energized to go snorkeling. Kaanapali is a gorgeous stretch of sand with a rocky cliff at its end. We watched dozens of people jump off the cliffs into the crystal clear waters below. As we snorkeled we made sure that we didn’t get too close to them! There weren’t a lot of fish and as Brennan stated, there were too many bipeds in the water, so it turned out to be just a good swim. I think we will have to drive away from the hotel to find better snorkeling. We had a lot of fun playing in the surf and being tossed by the waves. It did result in a tremendous amount of sand ending up in our suits!

After cleaning up and depositing a bucket’s worth of sand in the tub, we headed off to Lahaina for dinner. We hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and we were starting to get hungry. Lahaina has a long and varied history. Originally it was the capital of Hawaii and the royal family lived here. The first missionaries arrived here in the early 1820s and had relatively quick success after converting two high ranking female royals. They earned the ire of sailors and whalers on shore leave when they stopped the native women from cavorting with the seamen. At one point, the missionaries were fired upon by the ships docked in the harbour. To protect the missions the Hawaiian king declared that a fort of coral blocks be built around them. This stopped most of the fighting and there was an uneasy truce. Now the main town was a shopper’s paradise with many famous brand stores, boutique shops, restaurants and art galleries.

We discovered a hopping place called Moose McGillicuddy’s and got a table overlooking the main tourist street. It was still happy hour and Brian was thrilled to discover that margaritas were only two dollars apiece. We managed to polish off all the fabulous Mexican food that was placed in front of us. However we all complained later that we were just too full! Nobody ate again tonight. After dinner, we checked out some of the shops and then we collapsed back in the hotel.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006: Kaanapali, Maui

This morning we were a happier crew after sleeping in until at least 8:30. What a difference it made on everyone’s attitudes. We were still full from dinner last night and didn’t bother going to the “welcome to Maui” breakfast buffet. So we headed off to the pool and then decided that the ocean was better. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon rolling around in the surf and sand. The amount of trapped sand in bathing suits and hair was exponentially higher than yesterday but it was so much fun. Doing nothing in Maui was a lot of fun.

After lunch in Lahaina, Brian and Brennan left Sierra and I in town to do some shopping and sightseeing. We found the historic Pioneer Inn, missionary houses, the largest banyan tree in the USA, (it covered an entire city block) and royal Hawaiian sites. We had a girl bonding afternoon and a lot of fun. The highlight for Sierra was finding a “Dipping Dots” kiosk as she loves these little balls of ice cream. Brennan almost regretted his choice of not going with us but not quite.

By dinner time, we couldn’t muster up a lot of energy to go out to a restaurant to eat. So Brian and I picked up some delicious BBQ in a small resort area north of Kaanapali. I was rather proud of myself for finding Mama’s Ribs and Rotisserie after throwing away the magazine in which I had first read about it and in the dark! I think we are getting into this relaxing, holiday mode thing……

Thursday, July 20, 2006: Kaanapali, Maui

Try as much as we could, we weren’t able to sleep in this morning. So we rented some flippers and headed south of Lahaina to find some fish. We found reefs but not that many critters. So we returned to the hotel and snorkeled from our beach until it became too crowded with other swimmers. The kids spent the rest of the morning rolling around again in the surf and sand. This was our pattern for the day with several showers thrown into the mix. Ho hum to write about but lots of fun to do. Later we had dinner on a patio by the ocean and then watched the sun set. What a day!

Friday, July 21, 2006: Kaanapali, Maui

Happy Birthday to me…… It was an unusual start to my birthday this year. I was awake by 6:30; now this wasn’t different but snorkeling with Brian by 7 am certainly was. It was a lovely time to be in the water and we had the bay to ourselves for a while. As well as the water being clear and calm, we saw a small eel hiding in his hole, a flounder and many of the brilliantly coloured Hawaiian state fish humuhumunukunuku a pua’a .

The rest of the day was spent playing in the surf, suntanning, hiding from the sun in the shade as we started to burn and in general just lazing about. It was another do nothing day in paradise except for the final pack up to head back to Canada tomorrow. We are all so excited about returning home.

Saturday, July 22, 2006: Honolulu, Oahu

Yesterday was a sleep-in day compared to this morning. We were up at 4:30 to make our flight from Central Maui to Honolulu. Once again we made our connections with time to spare; why break our habits on the last day! This was even with a stop for doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. Brian thought we didn’t have enough time but we rebelled and directed him into the parking lot. We haven’t had any for over a year and they were coming out hot off the cooker. Who could pass up this?

We had a little bit of a kafuffle on the airplane before takeoff. Brian’s seat was triple booked! Fortunately there were some extra seats and he was able to sit down. After that the flight was smooth sailing and we arrived in Oahu without any more trouble.

Our plan was to visit the Battleship Missouri next to the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour. However as we pulled into the parking lot and saw all the cars trying to double park and the massive line of people waiting to get inside, we did a quick u-turn and got out of there. It was only 8:30 and yet it was hopping.

Our next choice was the Dole Pineapple Plantation, northwest of Honolulu. It didn’t take us long to drive there and in short order we were racing through their garden maze. It was constructed of high hedges of hibiscus and really tricky. The object was to find six posts, mark a score with the stencil found at each post and then race out as quickly as possible. Initially the kids and Brian wanted to split up for some serious competition but soon into the maze Sierra and I hooked up, with Brennan joining us intermittently. We didn’t see Brian again until much later. None of us had stellar times because we all missed at least one post and had to retrace our steps. Brennan was thrilled to post the best time at thirty minutes. It was only a minute quicker than Sierra and I but he figured that counted. However we all were faster than Brian by over ten minutes and just had to rub it in a little bit. Mr. Direction didn’t beat us!

After sweltering in the still air of the maze, we enjoyed a cool and tart pineapple whip cone. It was a combination of pineapple and a yogurt like soft ice cream. Outside the maze, we wandered through the display of international pineapples and by a pond filled with extremely ravenous koi. The fish were jumping on top of each other to get to the fish food. In the pineapple garden, we learned that this delicious fruit was a native of Paraguay. However it was the ingenious work of Mr. Dole that introduced it to a worldwide audience with the development of the canning process.

By this time I was ready to hit the outlets in Waikele. We did some back to school shopping while we had Brennan as a captive. (Unless the store sells music or electronics, it’s always impossible to get him to go shopping.) After a couple of hours, we had two very bored males and so Sierra and I gave up. This was hard for us because most of the stores had huge discounts of 60 to 70% on already low prices. To appease everyone, (and to cool down), we decided to see a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: DeadMan’s Chest, after grabbing a bite to eat. It felt like a “holiday” day.

Next we had a mad dash on the freeway to the car rental return and then a long wait in the food court at the airport before boarding. It was a jam-packed fun filled way to end our adventure. Aloha! Goodbye to Hawaii and Hello Vancouver….( NEXT PAGE )