Ive been nibbling at writing this as a whole piece but being as it is taking a bit longer then expected I will start posting here in bits and pieces. As always-feel free to comment.
We made the obligatory trip to Costco for some milk, wine, beer, POG, and croissants as well as stopping by the food stand to feed after the 5 hour flight. The weather wasn’t perfect, it was semi cloudy and windier then I’ve remembered in the past but I was in Maui….how upset could I be?
We got back to the condo and it certainly wasn’t s nice as the Kahana Sunset we stayed at previously. It was probably due to me not being acclimated to the tropical humidity but it seemed mega hot and the design of the condo was as such that our room neither faced the ocean to get a breeze but the breeze we did get was blowing perpendicular to our door and window. Making matters better yet was the fold out couch bed had two huge Bars running through the mid part and the foot end of the bed lurched upwards about 4 inches higher than the head end of the bed. I found lying diagonally and using a couple of extra pillows made it bearable enough but once again I was in Maui….how upset could I be?
The next morning I woke up at 6am Hawaiian Standard Time. I slipped through the back door barefoot and walked the cobblestone foot path the led from our Lanai to the main center court walkway that led past a rock fountain stocked with Koi through a small entry way and out onto the cool dew topped grass fairway that overlooked the ocean by about five feet. It was just me and me alone; the ocean breeze in OC would have meant brisk temperatures but in Maui, and Hawaii, it never seems to get cool enough to need that extra layer of clothing. If I was a guy into meditation this would have been a perfect place to lay out some type of mat and become one with nature. I had to be satisfied with the off chance of seeing a sea turtle and be pacified at the impending cloud covered clearing silhouette of Molokai in the horizon. I stayed 10 minutes, took it in for all it was worth, and went back to make my morning coffee.
Soon the kids and wife were up and after some plain toasted croissants we made our way to the first beach Napili Bay. We set up our ½ tent which is basically a tent that has a zipper that completely opens up one entire side of the tent and perfect for days at the beach but the brisk wind conjured up visions of the one ½ tent on the beach in Maui becoming dislodged and blowing half hazardly across the red sand. I made sure to use all the stakes and fill the pockets with sand…even then the occasionally passerby would stop by with a suspicious gaze and question what you could call the “structural integrity” of the tent. I paid no mind after all, I paid $15 bucks for it at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store and nothing says quality craftsmanship like Big 5.
After 15 minutes of blowing up the kids floaties and playing with them in the surf the wife gave me they thumbs up to go into the deeper water for some snorkeling. The water was very clear and the sandy bottom meant I had to swim out a bit further to get to the rocks, coral, and any other structure that attracts fish. After a swim of roughly 50 yards I approached a nice long reef with swimming with fish. Not as many as I remembered in the past but one can never trust memories sometimes as memories almost always seem to be much better than they really were at the time they happened. The wind still meant for conditions that weren’t exactly ideal but not enough by the same token to not have me go way out and check it out. There was a huge rocky outcrop that I was certain would have Turtles feeding but the surf was fairly high as well and I didn’t feel up to pushing my challenge level up to 11 on the first day of my trip. I took the leisurely route and finally made it back to shore and talked the wife into going out on her own.
Packing up all of our gear we walked back to the same rocky outcrop I felt too rough to check out in the water. On the land we counted no less than 3 turtles feeding. I felt happy I would still have a couple more days to swim with turtles. The trail to that area passed directly below the Gazebo restaurant I plan on eating at once or twice during our stay.
We made it back to the car and stopped by the same shopping center that had the coffee shop with amazing pastries I enjoyed on my last trip. We stopped by a BBQ place and picked up a chicken lunch as well as a pulled pork sandwich. The guy working the counter sensed the tourist haulie in me and copped a bit of an attitude, completely unwarranted I might add. We got back and I chuckled as the pulled pork sandwich was just that-pulled pork on a Hamburger bun with no other accouterments. Just a pile of pork on white bread-no tomato, no pickles, no squirt of bbq sauce even. Back home this would certainly warrant a scathing review on Yelp but on vacation I found it amusing.
I took a nap and woke up to take the kids to the pool, something that I would find myself doing almost every day of our trip. It was made better by the fact that at least the Paki Maui had a nice hot whirlpool that later proved to be brutal on my sunburn initially but felt better after those first few initial moments of enormous skin burning discomfort.
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