@jtba and
@chunkymonkey Here's my Maui mini TR!
I'll try and keep this brief because it's not technically Disney-related! lol I'll try and add photos at some point as well but I digress.
Sunday May 22: Since our flight didn't leave until around 6pm our time we had pretty much ALL weekend to pack. Usually we are running around until the last minute. Not this time. By 9am on Sunday our bags were packed and we were sitting around wondering what to do! Having done online check in the night before with both the airline and Alamo car rental we really had everything in place. We left the house around 2:15 and dropped the dog off at the dog kennel en route (it's far from our house but only 10-15 minutes from the airport and she's been going there for years). We'd had some issues with our boarding passes with online check in so we figured we'd just print them at the Air Canada kiosk once we got to YVR. Well the kiosk was also giving us issues so we ended up in line anyway to check in (albeit a shorter line for those of us that had done online check in). Airport was uneventful,flight over was uneventful. Landed in Kahului about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Getting off the plane we walked through the gate and saw all the serious, sad Canadians waiting to go home - neener neener!
Luggage came down quite quickly and then we found our shuttle bus to Alamo (which came in about 30 seconds) and whisked us away to our rental. Thanks to the online check in tip courtesy of
@jtba we did NOT have to wait at the check in desk like the 20 other people on our bus but instead we walked straight on the lot where a very helpful young man pointed to a row of Camero and Mustang convertibles and told us to pick! Hubby was in heaven
We did have a small issue in that the trunk was a bit small on the mustang (though bigger than the Camero) so one small suitcase had to ride with the girls in the backseat and then we couldn't find the keys. Helpful Alamo guy pushed the starter (push button starter!) and the car started so he reasoned the keys had to be in the car somewhere. Eventually we found them under drivers side seat and after getting lost briefly (it was dark after all lol) we finally found our way out of the airport and off we went to West Maui, with the top down!
Drive was about 45 minutes or so, found our condo easily, opened the door and .....it was HOT
No a/c (which we did know about beforehand). Turned on all the fans and opened the lanai door.....hoping it would cool down overnight. Now, it was probably about 10:45pm Maui time (which is 1:45am our time) so everyone was pooped. We quickly put sheets on the pull out sofa for the kids, got them settled and then fell into bed ourselves (it WAS a comfy bed!).
Monday May 23: Not sure what time we got up but it was probably around 7:30. Got everyone dressed and then hubby tried to get the wifi working. Ooops....there were issues. Of course. Finally after about 30 minutes he figured out what the issue was (can't possibly NOT have wifi on vacation
) and then we did a search for breakfast places close by. Turns out just down the road from us was a strip mall with a grocery store (Times Market), several other shops and banks, and several restaurants. So we decided on Slappy Cakes (a fancy IHOP, really). And thus brings us to our first (but not last) we paid HOW MUCH TO EAT??????? moment
Food is not cheap on the Hawaiian islands. We were fully aware of this fact coming into this but still........
Waited about 15-20 minutes for a table (doesn't anyone work?? lol it was 9:30 on a Monday morning haha!!) So the cool thing about Slappy's is they have a griddle at each table (like Teppanyaki) so you can make your own pancakes at your own table if you wish. We thought this would be a good idea for the girls so we ordered them a bottle of chocolate pancake mix and they each chose one dish of fruit to add in/put on top. Can't remember what hubby got but I ordered this breakfast burrito type dish was that delicious and HUGE!!! We were stuffed by this meal. Couldn't finish mine so we took it back to the condo (think hubby had it for lunch lol). The bill was nearly $60US before tip
Yeah, see the high prices aren't just the issue. As Canadians we have to add another 30% on to all our bills. Once the credit card statement came in I think that breakfast cost us $88.
It was getting hot so at this point we thought we'd go back to the condo, change and go to the beach and then grocery shop later in the afternoon once we needed a break from the heat. Good plan. Seeing the beach and water for the first time from the back of the property was breathtaking. Amazing views. The water was just so gorgeous, so many shades of blue and teal. NOW it felt like we were on vacation!
Our beach was protected by a small reef so the girls got to paddle in ankle deep warm water if they didn't want to go too far out which mean hubby and I could go swimming/snorkeling. And yet the rest of the water was quite shallow so it really was the perfect beach. Oh that first swim was heavenly!
This is also where my husband discovered that he now loves snorkeling!
Me, not so much (not a fan of putting my face underwater lol).
Had a hard time pulling everyone away from the beach! On our walk back to the unit we checked out the pool and bbq area (right by the beach) and found the laundry rooms (this would come in handy later in the week, though at that point on Monday I had no intention of doing laundry). Everyone got dried off and changed and we went to Times Market for supplies. Tried to be economical because...yeah.....prices
The funny this is is that when we shopped we tried to be frugal but for the rest of our food purchases (as you'll find out) we were splashin' the cash about lol Case in point: on the way back from Times Market we stopped at a fish market and got a huge piece of Ahi tuna, some tuna poke and shrimp ceviche and I think the bill for that was about $40 lolSoooooo good though. I will say that we tried to take advantage of eating 'locally' as much as we could so we had a LOT of fruit (pineapples, mangos, papayas, etc) and a lot of fresh seafood that week.
Had a late lunch on our lanai and chilled for a while. I can't remember if we went back to the beach or the pool later that afternoon but I'm fairly confident we did something! Around 6pm we headed out to Costco, which was back in Kahului, with the top down....
Got a few more supplies for groceries (not too much) and then bought some souvenirs to bring home (a 6 pack of chocolate covered macadamia's for sure!) Also got a 24 pack of locally brewed beer for $23.69! This was on top of the two bottles of wine that we had purchased earlier at Times so we definitely had some nice evening libations every night once the girls were in bed
The food court at Costco was very reasonably priced (as it is here at home) and for about $20 the 4 of us ate quite well for dinner AND had leftovers for lunch the next day! Finally, some wise spending
By the time we got back to the condo it was probably at least 9pm so time for bed for the girls and we caught up with Game of Thrones from the night before (hubby brought some Chrome streaming device thingamabob that enabled him to hook it up to the tv and stream HBO from his free membership
) He's pretty handy to have around!
Ok I've got some errands to run so I'll end it here for now and hopefully I won't take too long finishing this!
