MAUI TRIP REPORT

This is the trip report for my trip to Maui, Hawaii in November 1998.

Click on the pictures for the full size versions.

Saturday

I awoke well before dawn in order to catch a 4:40 a.m. ride to the airport. It was still before dawn when the plane took off for L.A. When I arrived at LAX, I met my family -- Ian & Linda, Wendi & Dave, and Julee & Kenny -- at the terminal. We boarded an L1011, found our seven separate single seats, and away we flew.

Aside from being completely packed, the flight was uneventful. By the time we landed, rented cars, drove to the hotel, and checked in, it was time for a late and uninspired lunch at the hotel's poolside bar/grill. Afterwards, I wandered around a little, unpacked, and napped a little until it was time to meet up again for dinner. I think everyone turned in early.

Sunday

We all braved the five minute drive into Lahaina town where some of us wanted to negotiate tours for later in the week. Others wanted to wander around the town, while still others wanted to sit in a bar over the ocean and drink mai tais. Kenny and I made up that last group. When everyone's mission was accomplished, we returned to the hotel to begin preparing the week's agenda. We didn't really do anything Sunday, which was certainly okay by me because that was my plan (mai tais included) for the week anyway.

Monday

We got up early and drove to a nearby harbor where we boarded a pretty big catamaran for our snorkeling trip. We motored along for about an hour and a half, eating the provided breakfast of bagels and fruit, until we reached the small island of Molokini. It's really just the half-ring top of a volcano barely sticking out above the water. We anchored inside the ring and snorkeled around the area. The water was extremely clear and we saw an eel and many fish swimming around the submerged reef. They barbecued lunch for us on the boat and generally took care of all the 30-40 passengers. On the ride back in, we stopped to watch some sea turtles swimming around.

Tuesday

Julee and Kenny taking a picture of Wendi and Dave
The "kids" left early in the morning for the famous Road to Hana, leaving Ian and Linda on their own for the day. The trip took several hours, including stops for bagels and bag lunches. There wasn't much traffic, but the road was slow going due to its famous curves and single lane bridges. That was okay because the drive was actually part of the point of the trip.
A hiking trail in the woods just off the Road to Hana
We stopped once or twice to hike around in the forest that borders the road on the inland side. On the ocean side we were treated to sweeping vistas. We stopped to investigate the legendary general store whose name I forget, but is the subject of some song.

Just past the town of Hana is the Kipahulu Ranger Station and the trail to the pools and waterfalls that were the main attraction. We ate our picnic lunches and walked the half mile to the lower pools. According to another tourist who had a thermometer attached to his wetsuit, the water temperature was
The Kipahulu ranger station. Nice view!
68 degrees. We braved it without wetsuits and found it delightful. After playing in the water for a while, we drove back to our hotel, circumnavigating that half of the island by choosing the *other* road to Hana. I thought the views were just as good as the more famous, and more capitalized, Road to Hana.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a do-nothing day for me, which seemed to me to be at least part of the point of vacationing on the beach in Hawaii. I was not disappointed, and it is probably a tribute to my success at it that I really don't remember what I did at all that day. Some of my family flew in a small plane to the Big Island to fly over a volcano and watch the lava flow. It was a very small plane and this allowed us to maintain our consecutive days streak of talking about barf (boat ride, winding road, plane flight).

Thursday

The day after we arrived, the Maui newspaper ran a front page article about how the park service was re-examining the licensing of tour operators who took people bicycling down from the top of Haleakala volcano. Apparently accidents and injuries are becoming more of a problem and this scared most of my family out of participating in that activity. Instead, we
Julee and Kenny enjoying Thanksgiving Day on Maui.
drove up the road without bikes and drove back down - - but not before spending some time at the top. We walked around, stopped at the ranger station, took pictures from the very top, and in general enjoyed the view. We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Mama's Fish House.

I spent parts of the day fetching drinks for my New York resident brother-in-law to whom I lost a Yankees-Padres World Series wager. He was more merciful than I would have been had he lost. He requested less than ten drinks and half of them were in restaurants where I was only required to pass all drinks from the waiter to him.

Friday

I rented a bicycle for the day (a Cannondale R500 road bike for those of you who want to know and you know who you are) and rode into Lahaina town. It was a short ride but I wanted to pick up some souvenirs. From there I headed back north and rode into Palili, passing many squashed frogs along the side of the road. From Palili, it was back to the hotel to complete my modest twelve mile day. It was windy and a little hilly, and I made a few stops so it wasn't over as soon as you might think, but it was not enough to really say I did any exercising while I was in Hawaii. But who'd want to?

Saturday

We left for the airport at about 11:00 and traveled the rest of the day, so there is not much to report. In general, if it seems like there are blank spots in this report where I wasn't really doing much of anything, it is because that is what I was doing. C'mon, it's Hawaii.