Entries about maui

Went to the airport and got lunch at Maui Snackbar, then boarded the plane for Kaua’i. Our plane, which was Hawaiian Airlines, was called ‘Amakihi

Some beautiful views of Maui as we flew for Kaua’i.

Our car for Kaua’i. We were pretty excited to be able to rent the two most quintessential Hawaii cars for this trip.

We saw Daniel’s family at the house where we are staying. It is very nice, and they had already gotten checked in. We were planning on going to Hanapepe for the street fair, but Daniel’s family decided to get pizza so we went alone. Hanapepe is famous as the town that inspired the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch, which Catherine especially loves. As we came into town, one of the booths had some children hula dancing and they were playing “He Mele No Lilo,” (the title of this blog post comes from the translated lyrics of the song, and also describes the weather). A better welcome to Kaua’i couldn’t be found.

Except, perhaps, in the form of malasadas, which we bought from one stand to have for dessert.

Our dinner came from Chipwrecked, a food truck with Hawaiian-inspired nachos. We got kalua pork with crispy spam and jalapeños, lilikoi-habanero hot sauce, and cole slaw. Catherine called it the best nacho she’s ever had.

Some pictures showing the street fair.

Catherine got this baseball cap, and designed the image on the hat herself.

We found an amazing store in Hanapepe, which was very similar to Lahaina Printsellers. They had reproductions of old maps, including original prints from the 18th century. It was an amazing store, and we had a long conversation with the salesperson and ended up buying something!

Daniel’s parents dropped us off at the San Jose airport, where security seemed especially tight (we all had to walk in twos by a dog, etc.) We got on the plane and began our journey to Maui.

We bought these delicious snack-packs on the plane. They really were good. We had them with the free drink that came with our “premium” economy: we chose Prosecco to toast our trip.

When we got to Maui we went and got our rental car. We had arranged to have a Jeep, but when we got to the counter they said we could pick whichever Jeep we wanted from the lot. There were three grey ones and one red one. Daniel guessed correctly that Catherine would choose the red one.

We drove to the food trucks near the airport, where we had hoped to go to the Thai food truck (Thai Mee Up). It was closed on Sundays, so we went to a different nearby place that we had planned to go to during our trip: Tasty Crust in Wailuku. It’s a wonderful, welcoming, and delicious restaurant that we highly recommend. Daniel got a waffle and Catherine got the banana pancakes. We split the linguiça, hash browns, and corn bread. Everything was wonderful and a great start to our time in Maui.

After our brunch we drove to Ka’anapali, where we are staying. We have a beautiful view of the ocean and the island of Lana’i, and our room is wonderful.

We went to mass at Maria Lanakila church in Lāhainā. It was a nice mass, and a beautiful church. Lanakila means “victorious,” and Maria Lanakila is thus “Our Lady of Victory.”

We looked at the graveyard next to the church and prayed for the people buried there. It was interesting seeing the mix of last names: Hawaiian, Portuguese, Italian, Filipino, and more. One grave belonged to a man who (assuming he was born in Hawaii) would have been born in an independent kingdom and died in a US State.

When we got back to our hotel we went swimming in the pool (while it rained) and then had dinner at the poolside bar/restaurant. Daniel had Maui onion soup and Catherine had kalua pork sliders. It was a delicious dinner and a great end to our first day in Maui.

Our flight was at 10:20, so we had to get up early to get to San Francisco and get through security on time. Daniel's mom drove us to the airport, and we made it just in time to get a couple of coffees and get on the plane. Hawaiian Airlines names its planes after stars or constellations that were important to ancient Polynesian navigators. Ours was called Keali'iokonaikalewa, which is the star Canopus. Daniel appreciated the astronomical connection.

Catherine arranged for the lei greeting at the airport. Kahului Airport is interesting: very open and outdoor-feeling. It was very hot and humid and extremely windy. The palm trees were bending in the wind, and everything looked like the quintessential tropical destination.

We landed at about lunch time, Hawaii time. Catherine's parents had not yet eaten, and we had only had a little food on the plane. Catherine used Yelp to find a parking lot with several food trucks and a place to eat, very close to the airport. We all found food to eat from the various trucks, and enjoyed a delicious first meal in Hawaii.

We were especially excited about "Thai Mee Up," a Thai food truck. The spiciness scale went from 1 to 10. We asked for a seven. It was spicy but edible, and delicious. Both of us thought it was some of the best Thai food we've had. After we finished, we headed to our hotel in Kaanapali.

Catherine's dad thought he had found such a good, empty parking space. At first he couldn't see why we all objected to him parking there.

Some pictures of the hotel where we're staying. It has a similar open design to Kahului airport, and seems very comfortable. Currently, only Catherine has spotted lizards. Her current count is two.

The view from our room. No ocean view, but the side of the mountains and a beautiful double rainbow (which isn't technically permanent, but was present for most of the day today.

Catherine and her mom with matching leis and matching hats on the balcony.

We went to the beach to wade into the water, and saw a lot of people snorkeling. Since we had, courtesy of Daniel's parents, all of our snorkel equipment in the room, we went back to the room and got it, then went snorkeling. We hadn't expected to do so much on our first day, but it was a fantastic experience. Catherine's dad went with us, and we saw (judging by the "Snorkel Bob's" fish guide available in the room), a couple coronetfish, many varieties of butterflyfish, a humuhumunukunukuapua'a, a few redlip parrotfish, some unicorn surgeonfish, and some others that don't seem to appear on the card. And this was in the later part of the day, when the hotel staff said there would be lower quality snorkeling.

After this, we decided to go to the store to pick up some supplies. We went to the parking garage and got in the car. As Daniel was about to sit down on the seat, he noticed what he thought were flower petals from the leis. He went to pick them up, and they moved! As it turns out, they were small, flying cockroaches. Catherine was especially disgusted, and screamed when she saw how many there were. We decided not to go to the store tonight, and we will call tomorrow and hopefully get a new rental car. Rather than going to the store, we walked to the hotel bar/restaurant for dessert and drinks, then back up to the room to write our blog for today. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a non-bugged car!