Since we had some time to waste before my massage appointment we decided to head down to the beach. We are by no means the kind of people to lay around on the beach, but we figured we needed to spend some time there considering we were on Waikiki Beach one of the most famous ones in the world!
Let’s just say after about an hour we were bored out of our mind. We just can’t sit around and do nothing!
Finally, it was time for my massage appointment and since we were all checked out Kris decided to tag along and wait in the lobby at the spa. It was on the top floor of the hotel and had an amazing view.
Waiting for my massage:
While I was in there they let Kris go out on the patio deck which he said was really nice. We were both able to change out of our clothes from the beach too. My massage was amazing. Kris joked with me afterwards that he wasn’t so sure how he felt about another man having his hands all over me. My therapists at home are women!
At this point we just had a little time before our shuttle to the airport, so we ran across the street to grab lunch. We just went to a small food court area that was nearby and had Subway. Finally, we made it back grabbed our bags from the bellhop and jumped on our van. The driver had a couple more stops along the way that were closer to downtown Honolulu. At one stop we could see the huge super ferries that had just started service again between the islands. My mom had done this 30 years earlier and apparently they had stopped it for over 20 years because of environmental concerns.
When we booked our trip the only option was to take the plane, but in the last few months they had gained approval to start the ferries again. I actually would have loved to have done the ferry, but oh well I guess next time.
We eventually made it to the airport where we checked in for our flight to Maui. I couldn’t believe that our time in Oahu was already over.
As some of you might remember we were originally flying Aloha airlines that had gone out of business the month before, so now we were on Hawaiian.
Our flight over took about 45 minutes. By this time it was already dark, so we couldn’t see very much when we took off.
They served us some tasty juice on the flight and before we knew it we were emerging out of the darkness to land in Maui. It is so weird flying out over the water like that at night because you literally can’t see anything until you’re approaching the island. I honestly couldn’t believe we had just spent several hours to go such a short distance!
After we got our luggage we made our way to the car rental shuttle. Once we arrived there we went up to the counter where the attendant offered us a convertible. We had originally booked a jeep (there was a free upgrade) and didn’t get the convertible because the mileage wasn’t as great. Since the island is so small and you are not in Hawaii that often we decided to take the plunge.
We stopped for gas and snacks a short ride away. This was before gas was over $4 at home; I think it was still a little over $3 at this point, so I was shocked at the price there. Little did I know we would all be paying this soon. From what I’ve read Maui has the most expensive gasoline in the U.S. We also paid over $2 each for 20 ounce bottles of Coke Zero!
We had about a 30 minute drive to our hotel which was near Lahaina the main resort area. We wouldn’t discover until the next day during the day what an awesome drive we had just passed through. It was actually pretty scary at night because you could just see the giant rock cliffs to one side and hear the water on the other. Plus, there was tons of twisting and turning around the mountain. We made it to where we thought our hotel was and honestly we got lost. We were staying at the Ka'anapali Beach Club which was formerly the Embassy Suites.
We turned into several areas thinking they were the right one, but they ended up being some other version of the Beach Club name. We finally ended up in a more residential area with apartment buildings and Kris ran into a gas station to ask for directions. I was driving at this point and was starting to get hungry. So, after we knew where we were going I pulled through the McDonald’s drive through that was right there. Let me tell you the mango/peach pies they have in Maui are really yummy!
At around 11:30 pm we pulled into our hotel which was still a few miles away from where we got directions. After dropping me off with our stuff, Kris took the car to the underground garage and I went up to the desk to check us in to our room. It was a really nice hotel with an open air lobby where you could see the sky up 10 floors. It had been bought out by a timeshare company, so I was a little leery, but our room was out of this world. The bathroom was humongous and we had a full kitchen, living room, and the balcony branched across the living room into the bedroom.
Each room had a flat screen television too!
There was a full Jacuzzi tub and walk-in glass shower. We even had 2 full sinks on opposite sides of the room.
We finally fell into bed watching our awesome television before we drifted off to sleep.