Maui
Living With the Other Half, Staying in the Big Resorts
Our water taxi had promised to drop us off on the beach in front of our motel, the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa at Ka’anapali. Whether it was due to the waves being a bit too high, or the fact that there were other passengers, our captain opted instead to drop us off at the old Mala boat ramp in Lahaina. This was about three miles south of our motel. It would have been a bit too far to walk with our bags even had the weather cooperated, but by the time we arrived there was a steady, light rain. We walked up to a public bathroom in a nearby park and looked for options.
We called an Uber, who arrived in about ten minutes. Our driver was in a surprisingly sour mood. He got us to our motel, though, after thoroughly questioning us about how wet we were and whether we were going to make it so he had to return to home immediately to clean out his car. I certainly doubt we were the wettest party he transported that rainy afternoon. He complained about enough other things on the drive to the Hyatt that I doubted it was us he was especially worried about.
We arrived early at the Hyatt, but our room was ready so we were allowed to check in. After resting in our room for a couple of hours and exploring the Hyatt’s amenities, we hiked to the nearest shopping center in search of economical food options. There was a Round Table there, and we had not had pizza in a while. This sounded great, and we could all eat a couple of pizzas for less than we could eat at a food truck, not that there are any food trucks at Ka’anapali. Even the convenience stores in this neighborhood were expensive.
I was up early Saturday morning, and went to use the resort fitness center. That would be the last day it was open and fully operational during our stay. I set up an account and tried out their Peloton machine. It as kind of entertaining. I rode it on free ride through a relatively realistic route in South Korea. The main drawback to Peloton is that you cannot coast. The pedals carry momentum even when you are rolling downhill or attempt to stand up on the pedals to change positions. This completely unrealistic feature is a deal killer for me, and I cannot imagine a flaw so serious on a $2,000 machine.
As Saturday matured, it brought more and heavier rain. Hyatt shut down more and more of their activities, ultimately leaving open only a game room with Jenga, cornhole, chess, and other similar activities. We decided that if we were going to do anything at all on Maui, we’d almost certainly need a rental car. One of Stephanie’s cards had a flexible $300 travel credit that covered well more than the amount of the car, so we effectively got that free. Picking it up required a two hour bus trip to the airport at Kahalui. I took up that job, which also included stocking up on less expensive food at the grocery store. I grabbed lunch at a food truck.
Kahului has a large food truck parking lot across from the Costco with a variety of options. I went to a place that looked like it would have Hawaiian food, rather than the international options. I had heard you should try Kalua Pork, so I ordered this. It came with the standard rice and mac salad. The pork looked like regular pulled pork, but it had a distinctly smokey flavor that I very much enjoyed. After enjoying the pork in the parking lot, I ran the other errands and set out on the one hour drive back to Ka’anapali. By this point, water was covering or crashing over the road in multiple places along the return route. I began to wonder whether I would make it back that afternoon. Several cars turned around in relatively deep water over the road. With a few delays, I was able to get back in time to enjoy visiting with some others in the Hyatt activity room and to walk to dinner at the Whaler’s Village food court.
The food court had a few decent options. Stephanie had Huli Huli chicken, which she liked. Caleb and I had chopped steak, served Hawaiian style, which was good. Kimberly just had some wings. We took some of the food home, and watched the later March Madness games on TV and had an early evening.
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Sunday morning, we headed to church. Church was over near Kahului, so it took about an hour to get over there. I had planned to ride the Peleton in the morning, but the resort had shut down the fitness center. We arrived early at church. During the storm, the church’s sign had blown down, so we had some difficulty finding the building even though we were following Google Maps. The meeting place was behind a fence, with a very small parking lot and an attached residence. The whole thing looked more like somebody’s house than a worship building. The people were friendly, though, and we enjoyed a very informal service with two local families and several other fellow visiting tourists.
The church in Maui operates with locals rotating doing the preaching duties, and they don’t bother with Bible Class. There were other participating families, but some just opted not to come due to anticipated flooding and road conditions. For us, though, it was easier driving Sunday morning than I had seen Saturday afternoon. The fellow who preached the day we were there worked in agricultural seed or product sales in some way as a day job. We invited he and his family to join us for lunch, but they demurred, having some other family obligation. We walked away with enough inexpensive food options to keep us fed the rest of the trip.
For lunch that day, we tried King’s BBQ, which was really more of a call in/pick up type place. Their food was a fusion Chinese/Hawaiian barbeque, with other oriental food. Most of their places were $15-$20, which is pretty cheap for Maui. I had some sort of surf and turf special. Like nearly all Hawaiian plates, my food came with rice and macaroni salad. I had a thin rib-based steak with some sauteed shrimp, all of which was quite tasty. Stephanie ordered the famous loco moco. Loco moco is a hamburger patty and a fried egg covered in gravy and served over rice. Stephanie thought this an odd combination, but turned out to like it. I tasted hers, too, and I also approved.
We decided to see if we could avail ourselves of any resort activities that afternoon. The pool was usable, and the weather was a bit better in the afternoon, so wTe went for a swim. I lingered in the room to watch basketball for a while, but once it was clear Texas Tech was headed for an ignominious departure from the NCAA tournament, I joined Stephanie down at the pool. Our resort had a few very nice pools. We swam, then rested. Since the Peloton machines were still out of commission, I went for a run at about sunset. The scenery was beautiful, but every person at ever resort wanted to use the beach walk to take selfies in front of the sunset. The first part of my run was a real human obstacle course. I shifted out to the golf course and had smoother sailing, but more climbs and less ocean views.
We also inquired about whale watching Sunday afternoon, once we saw that the weather had cleared a bit. Not all of the whale watching vessels were running Sunday afternoon, but those that were had already sailed. We collected information on how to join the early ride Monday morning. Monday would be a busy day. After whale watching, Stephanie and Caleb caught the bus back to Ka’anapali to play in the pool and lounge at the resort, while Kimberly and I tried to wedge in a golf round to keep her in practice for the upcoming high school contests.
The whale watching venture was a solid success. It cost about $60 each. It would have been quite a bit more had we booked online, but calling the office directly or buying the pass directly at the store saved about $100 in additional booking and other fees. Our ride departed at 8:00 a.m., and was scheduled to take around two hours. During the first part of our trip, we saw a few whales off in the distance. As the trip went on, our sightings were more numerous and closer. We ended up with several great photo opportunities, a chance to hear the whales calling one another, and just some generally good watching. Our ship was Quicksilver. It was not fancy, but it served the purpose and was inexpensive by Hawaiian standards. We all found this quite enjoyable.
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Kimberly and I waited around a bit at the Maui Nui golf club for a break in the showers. They were light, but fairly persistent. We got a break in the afternoon and got ten holes in. They charged us for nine, but the other eight holes were being repaired from flood damage the week prior. Maui Nui is the closest there is to a municipal course on Maui. The prices were reasonable, but the course was in much better shape even with damage than any muni I’ve played on. There was sand in the bunkers, and you could take a divot out of any of the fairways. It was a nicely maintained course. Further, they rented us new looking Calloway club sets. We didn’t play our best golf, but it was a lot more enjoyable than the pasture track we played on Molokai.
We were back in time for me to enjoy a nice sunset stroll with Stephanie. The crowds were smaller that evening due to the threatening weather. It was a pleasant, short walk. We were back before long, and resting in the room. I think the kids watched all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that day. They enjoyed the activity room some. It had been a good day.
We decided we would drive the Road to Hana as our grand finale. This is one of the “must do” things on Maui, and it fit in well with our schedule. Haleakala Park was closed, and there was not going to be an opportunity to snorkel. We were slated to fly home Tuesday evening, but our flight didn’t depart until 8:00 p.m. We needed to check out of the motel in the morning. I got up and ran at sunrise. The paths were completely clear at that early hour. I ate some breakfast. We cleaned up as much of the remaining food as we could, and checked out of our room at about 9:00 to make our way toward the village of Haiku where we would embark on the 32ish mile road to Hana. We could leave all of our baggage in the car through the day, and just end up at the airport.
The road to Hana is sprinkled with beautiful views, fruit stands, waterfalls, road side parks, an arboretum, rainbow eucalyptus trees, and a few other stops. Most people select a few of these to visit as they drive out to the small town at the eastern (windward) end of the island. We hit about three stops each way. Some of the waterfalls and all of the swimming sites were closed. We stopped for pictures and just to enjoy the scenery. The road often narrows to one land, and it takes quite a bit of concentration to navigate. I think we were fortunate that there was less than the usual amount of traffic due to the weather. I thought it was interesting that we saw about an equal number of signs imploring us to slow down as we saw asking us to pull over and let locals pass. In the end, I wasn’t sure if they thought we tourists were going too fast, or too slow.
I mailed Kirsten a post card from Hana, and we stopped at a little general store there for some souvenirs. We got back to Kahalui in time to change, fill with gas, turn in our car, and check in at the Delta desk. We had a few minutes to rest waiting to board the plane. We had an overnight flight to Salt Lake, followed by a four hour layover, and a connecting flight to DFW. I was able to sleep a couple of hours on the plane and a couple of hours in the lounge at Salt Lake. The kids slept on both flights, in the lounge, and on the drive home from DFW. Stephanie cannot sleep on planes, and so just slept some of the ride home from the Dallas airport.
All in all, we were a bit disappointed about how many things were closed during our stay in Hawaii. We were really looking forward to snorkeling. I truly thought there would be some rain each day, but that there would be plenty of breaks allowing us to do the things you normally do on a Hawaiian vacation. We saw many beautiful sights, though. We tried some great food. We saw whales, Pearl Harbor, and the Road to Hana. We experienced the uniqueness of Molokai. It was a good trip, leaving us a number of things to do if and when we return some day. That’s the beauty of booking trips with points and miles. A trip like this would have been a once in a lifetime experience had we been paying with cash. Booking with points, we can do this again whenever we like. It’s a nice set of options that opens the door to so many possibilities.
