Maui

Honolulu

 On September 28th, 2011 Eric and I went to Maui, Hawaii! We went with his team from Google. They were very nice to invite significant others and families. The hardest part was leaving our baby Mia for six days, but my friend Emily was a lifesaver. She offered to stay with Mia at our apartment and take care of her while we were gone. Mia was fairly well behaved and they became the best of friends. Our new friends Lindsey and Jason drove us to the airport so Emily could stay with our anxious Chihuahua.

Courtyard in Honolulu Airport

We had an early flight to Honolulu, and a three hour layover there, which got us there later than everyone else. The flight to Honolulu was kind of awful. We had only achieved a few hours of sleep the night before so we were tired and achy, and the flight was very long. The plane was also full of crying babies and a toddler kicked my seat the entire time. When the in-flight movie started we were in the worst position to see the screen, and the parents kept walking past with the crying babies, so we heard X-Men First Class more than we watched it. But at least Eric and I got to sit together. They even fed us. The Hawaiian music was nice to listen to, and we learned Aloha and Mahalo before we landed.

Drive to Grande Wailea

When we got to Maui, the travel agency Pleasant Holidays gave us real flower leis and put us on a shuttle to the  Grande Wailea Resort Hotel. There were no two seats together so Eric got to sit with some coworkers and I had to sit up front with the driver which was a little awkward.


Our hotel was amazing! There was a huge man made waterfall at the entrance which I regret not getting a picture of, and the staff greeted us with more flower leis upon arrival. It was huge, like it was its own little community, with bars, restaurants, shops, spa, water park, fitness center, and beach. The grounds were very extravagant and the rooms were beautifully furnished and spacious. We had our own private lanai that looked over the gardens and the ocean. Our bathroom was something I could only dream about previously. It was more space than we needed and extremely comfortable. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was also a discounted price of $300 a night. Hey, we just started out here.

Our huge bathtub 

Walk in shower with seat :-)

Making ourselves at home.

Our ocean view lanai.

We had two beds--we each took a nap on one since we were exhausted.

We got to the hotel pretty late in the evening, so we didn't have time to do much else except explore. We met coworkers, walked all over the resort, got some food, and then had a couple fruity drinks at the bar.

Anyone want to plan a destination wedding?

The Hibiscus Pool-adults only

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a--the pricey restaurant.

The Spa

We had a great first night stay, although the excitement and new place/new sounds made it hard to sleep, so I got up early to watch the sunrise from our room.

We spent the entire day at the hotel, first getting a big breakfast at the hotel cafe and then heading for the water park and pool area in our swimsuits. 

One of the many hot tubs, perched on top of a "volcano."

Rope swing--all the kids were doing it.

There were tons of mini water slides connecting pool to pool.
If one pool was too crowded you could just go to the next
one. We tried them all of course.

This was the water elevator that took us to some more pools and slides at the top.

There were a couple of tube slides that were really exciting.

And of course, one pool had a bar in it, with a waterfall. It was closed every time we went though.

Hawaii has a thing for full figured women.

After playing at the pool we went to the spa. Eric got a terme bath and a hour long massage as a reward for working so hard at Google. Since the massages were over $200, I settled for a couple hours in the term bath which was only $55--a series of different Jacuzzis and scented warm baths. There was a roman hot tub that was almost as large as a pool, five hydrotherapy baths, a waterfall massage, a Japanese hot tub that was extremely hot, a sauna, and it came with a two minute body polish. I still don't really know what that was, but I guess it was cool. The spa was really neat, but most of the women were naked, so it was a little uncomfortable and impossible to talk to anyone. I have a hard time sitting still, so after a half hour I was pretty much done. It was lonely, and really warm. I made myself stay for one and a half hours, not wanting to be sitting alone while Eric was getting his massage, but I just couldn't sit in that heat any longer. I think next time we skip the spa and do something together instead. I would have really enjoyed it if I had gone with a friend.

We watched one sunset together and then parted ways again. Eric went with his coworkers to a grand luau, and all the guests went off to fend for themselves. I went out with Eric's coworker's significant others to a pizza place nearby. It was very nice hanging out with the girls, especially after being by myself in the spa.

Me, Laura, Michelle, and Maggie

The guys got back really late, so Laura and I had drinks at the bar until they all slowly came back. I am really glad I had her to hang out with. It was great getting to know each other and flirting with our young waiter--who told us he is a usually a cabana boy (Collette) ;-). Our men were the last to return. And we couldn't do anything after that because the whole hotel shut down at 10pm. We talked with the guys for awhile, but then got to bed, since Eric and I had to leave early the next day. We had a great breakfast from Google in the morning, but we were rushing to catch our shuttle to the car rental place. Our time at the Grand Wailea was very rushed and tiring, so when we left, we stopped at Costco for some groceries, took a quick dip in the hot tub and napped in our hotel for the rest of the day at the not very grand Maui Coast Hotel. We should have stayed there first because it wasn't anything special after the Grand Wailea, but it was quiet and relaxing, and therefore better in a way. It was nice to just relax and not have to go anywhere or try anything. This was probably the most sleep we got since the day before we left.

Our lanai

Hotel Lobby

That's all that's worth showing--they did have a nice gym
though and a bar by the pool.

                      

In the evening we drove out to Lahaina to eat at Star Noodle, a recommendation from the kids I babysit. 

Eric got garlic noodles.

I got Star Ramen. And we shared steamed pork buns and hot tea.

On Saturday, we went to check out the beach by the Maui Coast Hotel before joining Google again for a free sunset cruise on a catamaran. The beaches were short and rocky. The rock was volcanic, very black and porous. The water was nice but we didn't really get a chance to go in. The sunset cruise was at Buzz's Wharf. It was relaxing, and Eric got to hang with his Google buddies. They had a few things for us to eat, most of it seafood, but there was also a veggie tray, grilled steak with pineapple, and chocolate brownies. They also served everyone alcohol during the cruise. We got some great pictures. Afterward, we went into Lahaina to watch a free hula show that might or might not have been actually scheduled to happen because Eric didn't want to pay for a real Luau. 

The free hula show was in Whaler's Village. It was a tourist shopping mall surrounded by resorts and hotels. We just made it to the show, but we were a little bummed to find it was a children's performance. It was still neat to see them perform, but also kind of weird because they were really young kids wearing revealing clothing and dancing seductively. We were not really sure what was going on there. Maybe we will go to a real Luau the next Hawaii trip. There were a few food places around here that were on the list of good places to try, but it reeked of tourism. We were just overwhelmed by the amount of tourists and the long waits for nothing special foods like burgers that you can get anywhere. So we went into Lahaina again and found this small restaurant/bar called Lahaina Coolers. It was not crowded, there were some Australian's there watching the Rugby World Cup. This was the place for us. We watched a little bit of it and it was very violent. Eric ordered a specialty pizza and I ordered a spicy pasta dish with tofu and vegetables. We also tried some Hawaiian beer--I think it was called Lava Man or something like that. After that we went back to our hotel and crashed.

This little guy was so cute though.

On Sunday, we got up just in time to watch the Steelers game, which was broadcast at 7am. We didn't wake up until 8:30, but we caught the part where they lost. Then we finally had a day that was all our own--and we had a blast! We traveled a little on the road to Hana, which was a beautiful drive, and we stopped at some look outs to watch the surfers.

On our drive, we came across a lot of cars by a fruit stand and stopped to see what was going on. It was a small hiking trail that led to a couple of waterfalls. The fruit stand was called Twin Falls Farm Stand, and the property was apparently owned by this farm. They sold whole coconut drinks that they hacked open with a machete to give to you, huge bags of sliced ripe, juicy, pineapple, coconut candy, banana bread, and fruit smoothies. My mistake was eating half a bag of pineapple and then hiking with my coconut into the stagnant creek of the first waterfall. I was bit at least 20 times by mosquitoes on every part of my body in the first few minutes we were down there, even through my clothing. I had bug spray on but apparently it was not strong enough. So I put the coconut in the back pack and sprayed again, completely drenching myself in bug spray. We had a great adventure, though, and I had more fun on this excursion than any other Hawaii event.

Bananas!

 The second waterfall we found was a lot bigger, and there were some boys jumping from the top, but it wasn't really that deep. It looked like it hadn't rained in awhile. It was very cool though, and we had a great time climbing underneath it and catching tadpoles. We also met a very nice couple that offered to take our pictures if we took theirs. We saw them again at the airport on the way back to San Jose.

When we finished the trail we decided to head back to the hotel and look for a place to eat dinner. We drove back to Wailea and caught the sunset at a beach next to a bunch of shops and restaurants. There we finally saw a sea turtle! He poked his head out of the ocean close to the shore. He did this very quickly so we didn't get a great picture, but at least we caught him on camera! A woman pointed him out to us. She was there with her family and dog, and there were lots of puppies swimming in the ocean. It made me miss my Mia. Someday I will take her to a warm ocean to swim in.

Sand crab.

^                                               There's the sea turtle's head!

We ate at a restaurant/lounge called Three's Grill: Hawaiin, Southwestern, and Pacific Rim Cuisine. We were attracted by the outside seating, but there was a cover band playing inside so we sat in the lounge area. I ordered a burger with advacado and sweet potato fries, and Eric ordered Jambalaya. We wanted some comfort food after all that hiking.

After that, we hit the jaccuzi and pool one more time since it was our last night. I had a Mai Tai from the bar and relaxed while waiting for Eric to join me. We got up in the morning to pack, then we drove to the car rental place to drop off our car and take the shuttle to the airport.  We had to fill it up with gas first--in Maui gas is at 4.45 a gallon!!  We also saw some wild chickens on the way. They roam around like pigeons. At the airport we got some souvenirs and Eric misplaced his luggage because he was on his Droid and not paying attention. Nobody knows this back home, but Eric is constantly on his Droid. He is completely addicted and any down time or chance he gets he's got it out reading emails, looking at news, or playing games. It controls him. We didn't realize until the plane started boarding that he didn't have his suitcase. Luckily, no one had picked it up, so it was right where he left it near the bathrooms, but that could have been really bad.

All in all we had a great adventure in Maui, but it completely wiped us out. Next vacation, I would like to sit on a warm beach and tan the entire time. All of the Hawaiian tourism was also kind of exhausting. It seemed like there wasn't much in Maui except tourism and wilderness, so maybe Honolulu next time? It was a great opportunity and a great experience nonetheless, and was definitely fun. I was very grateful for being invited along, but I think we definitely want a vacation with just the two of us next time around. Aloha!