DAY 8 Molokini on the Four Winds II. Woke up bright and early in order to get to Ma’alaea Harbor to board the 4-winds 2 to Molokini. On the way we stopped at the Starbucks in the Cannery Mall and picked up coffee for the drive. The guy at the boat had our reservation (pre-paid with the AOA gold card discount) and we boarded about 7:30 if I remember correctly. The trip out was cool, 3 large sea turtles happened to swim right by the boat. They slowed the boat down so we all got a good look. The boat travels much slower than I would have imagined, I guess to minimize the seasickness. Breakfast was great. Had fruit, bagels, rolls, coffee, etc. and plenty for everyone. The morning was absolutely beautiful and the view looking back on Maui was something else. We anchored at Molokini (neat the way they do that without damaging the coral) and were chomping at the bit to get in the water. So off we went. Wow! Unbelievable how crystal clear the water is here. The best viewing was near the face of the crater. Saw a lot of fish but were just as impressed by the clarity. It was really a blast. This was another of the activities we hadn’t done on our first visit so it was all new to us. We were in the water for quite a while and started to get hungry. By that time they had the food grilled and were serving lunch. Once again, plenty of food. Also had beer and wine, but I didn’t feel like drinking. After lunch, we sat on deck for about 15 minutes and they blew the horn for everyone to re-board and head back to port. On the return trip, the wind had picked up substantially and the captain headed directly for Puu Olai and then turned parallel to the coast at that point. We were able to get some great views of the resorts and large mansions along the coast. It was really windy as we approached the harbor, not to worry. Docked without problems. I purchased an underwater camera from the boat to use at the crater. Not a bad deal, $21 including the film. Auto-advance and flash. Took great pictures, much better than the throw-aways.
We docked around 12:30 and returned to the Hyatt to spend the afternoon at the pool. For dinner, decided to hit Sansei. Arrived around 6:30 and were going to have to wait an hour plus for a table. Fortunately 2 seats opened up at the bar and we decided to eat there. Neither of us was terribly hungry, so we ordered off of the appetizer menu. Delicious, probably our favorite restaurant, and we don’t eat sushi (I personally believe no one actually likes sushi, it’s just ‘cool’ to say you eat it!).
Back to the Cascades bar for cocktails. We spent a couple of hours there just relaxing and talking and called it a night.
DAY 9– stopped for our morning coffee and bagel and headed to the Maui Swap Meet in Kahului. You can’t miss it, the place is wall to wall people, great atmosphere. For a change we actually parked without having to pay for it! This place is a blast. We really loved it, lots of tourists but mostly locals from what I observed. We were able to pick up a handful of souvenirs. Great place to people watch. When we finished, it was close to noon so we opted to drive upcountry and have lunch at the Kula Lodge. Stellar view, and the lunch wasn’t bad either. We really loved the pizza oven and surrounding garden that they have constructed on the hillside adjacent to and below the lodge. Looks like a scene from a Tolkien novel to me. I had the fish sandwich and my wife had a French dip, both very good. We walked around the gift shop next to the lodge. They have a large selection of stuff, all pretty pricey.
By the time we arrived back at the Hyatt we were both tired and you guessed it, took a little nap before getting ready for dinner. Rough life.
Dinner was set for Pacific’O around 8:30pm. We had a fantastic experience there last time and decided to duplicate the experience. As an added bonus, there was live music at the park just north of 505 Front Street as a part of In Celebration of Canoes. Got to Lahaina around 6pm and strolled to Kamehameha Iki park. The place was rockin’. The music was awesome, tons of people sitting out on the lawn listening, it was electric. The completed canoes were on the sand or in the water behind where the stage was set up. Ended up listening to the music until just before our reservation. We could still hear it while we ate, which was great. Arrived at the restaurant and had to wait just a few minutes for our table so we took advantage and had a cocktail. Apparently a large, and I mean large, group had virtually the whole place and were just clearing out. We were hoping for one of the tables along the row of bushes outside, and we got one – sweet!. Dinner was fantastic; I think this is my #2 favorite on Maui for this trip. It was very nice to relax and listen to the surf not 50ft from your table. A very romantic place. Another great experience, you can’t go wrong here. It was getting late, so we headed to the resort and crashed.
Day 10 The Drive Around West Maui. Another adventure we hadn’t experienced on our last trip, 4 years ago we had turned around just past Honokohau Bay. Started the morning off with a delicious cup of coffee and hearty bagel from Java Jazz! I love that place, amazing the provocative positions you can put a Barbie doll in! Back to the road! First of all let me say that the narrowest spots on this road make the backside of Hana look like a freeway. Wow! Our plan was to take our time and stop at all the spots referenced in the blue bible, and we stuck to it. We even stacked our own stones along the road, we’ll see if they stand the test of time! IMHO the views from the west end rival anything the road to Hana has to offer, less the waterfalls. Absolutely breathtaking.
We drove by the little village at Honokohau Bay and I swear the same guy in the same pick-up truck offered us some pot that did so 4 years ago. Virtually everybody we passed offered to sell us pot through this stretch! The blow hole was active, but not terribly so. This was the first time we had ventured as far as the Olivine pools. It was a neat hike getting down to them. We actually discovered there are several sets of ‘pools’ along the coast there. We happened to hike down to the easiest and apparently most popular, based on the number of cars and people. I guess I have mixed feelings about them being “discovered”. I heard a couple of locals cursing the Blue book while we were on our trip, everyone seems to have one.
Anyway, the pools are beautiful and a blast to walk around and explore. I did notice some local d-bag “cemented” PVC rod holders into the lava – nice touch – thanks!. Spent a while there and then hiked back up to the car and continued our trip. Stopped at the self proclaimed world’s best banana bread stand and picked up a loaf. They certainly can’t claim they are the world’s friendliest banana bread stand. Several attempts to strike up a conversation were ignored. I almost told them where to stick their bread, but retained the aloha spirit despite them.
The narrowest part of the road is literally one car wide, with some turnouts every so often. We only had to back up once for an oncoming car. It was actually a lot of fun. I don’t understand why the state hasn’t widened that part of the road, but I am glad they haven’t. Probably be as developed as Kapalua by now. Kahakuloa Head is really majestic, quite a site. The adventure went without a hitch, and we dumped into Wailuku.
Took Hwy 30 back and stopped at the Maui Tropical Plantation. Their gift shop is pretty cool and the grounds around the gift shop are very nice. Actually had to make a bathroom stop and they were convenient. Grabbed something cool to drink here and relaxed for a bit. Once back at the hotel we spent some more time at the pool before getting cleaned up for the nightly trek to dinner.
Tonight was going to be something special. It was Sunday and the Celtic Tigers were playing at Mulligans! The bartender had clued us in the other day when we had stopped for beer. We were really glad we came back, the band was excellent. We ended up buying a CD (Kevin, one of the owners that also plays in the band, knew of a popular Irish owned bar in St. Louis). We got there about 7pm, but before very long, the place was packed. Were able to scam two nice seats at the bar and sat there the whole night. Ordered a couple of appetizers off the menu but primarily sustained myself on Guiness. (Can you see a pattern developing here Mulligans-Guiness, Mulligans-Guiness Mulligans-Guiness). If you happen to be on Maui on a Sunday, you gotta plan on visiting Mulligans to see the Celtic Tigers. I believe they played until around 10pm or so. We hung out another hour and half and headed for the hotel.
DAY 11 Couldn’t muster enough energy to do anything but hang out at the resort all day. Started out with some good Kona coffee and a couple of scones in the lobby. Read the paper and enjoyed the breeze. Changed into our suits and headed to the pool. We never had a hard time finding lounge chairs. Ate lunch at the hotel restaurant near the pool, and it was very good. Oriental chicken salads. Then back to the lounge chairs. I alternated between the shade, pool and the chairs. Can’t handle just laying in the sun sweating for the hellatiously long periods my wife can. Ended up staying poolside until late afternoon. Retired to the room and had a couple of crowns on the lanai. Decided to stroll down to Whaler’s Village for dinner.
Got there about 8:30 or so and grabbed a pager for the Hula Grill. While we waited we had a couple of beverages at the Rusty Harpoon bar. That is a great option, BTW, since their bar never seems to gather the crowd that Leilani’s and Hula do. Still has a great view though. Got the page and were promptly seated. Had the spicy coconut calamari appetizer, very tasty. For dinner the Cheeseburger for my wife and the Kapulu Joe sandwich for me. Finished and had another enjoyable oceanside stroll back to the Hyatt.
DAY 12 Today we were checking out of the Hyatt and into the Ritz (for the duration of our stay). That morning we slept a little later than normal and drove to Java Jazz for the routine bagel and coffee. Returned and started packing. Had the bellman come up around noon and loaded the convertible. Since we were swapping rental car companies also (as part of the Ritz deal) we decided to head to Kahului and did some shopping since we were making the trip anyway. I dropped my wife off at the airport with our bags, dropped the Sebring at Alamo, and walked to Hertz. Within about 20minutes I was picking her up in the Explorer. Nice to have the cavernous back end for the luggage. Headed towards West Maui and detoured into Lahaina for some souvenir shopping since we were a little too early for check-in. Stopped at Hilo Hatties and picked up virtually everything we needed for friends and family back home. Got to the Ritz at 2pm and the room was ready! As I stated before, we were beyond happy with this property. By the time we checked in and unpacked it was time to get cleaned up for the evening.
It was off to Warren and Annabelle’s. Got there around 6pm or so and got seated in the “Parlor”. The ghost thing was a little hoaky, but it passes the time as you wait for the show to start. Around 6:30 we were funneled into the theatre and got excellent seats in the 2nd row. I am glad we didn’t get picked to sit next to the stage. Warren rides those people like a stepchild. I agree with every post or review I have seen. This is a must-do. It is hard to explain, but basically it is sleight of hand combined with a hilarious comedy routine. He really brings the audience into the show, and especially the poor people sitting right in front of him. He gives away a gift certificate for $50 to David Paul’s to the person that can answer a trivia question – and I won it! It was based on the old Andy Griffith show, I am not sure if he uses material from that show every time or not. Anyway, his magician skills are unbelievable, and the comedy is just as good. Money well spent.
After the show we headed back to the Ritz and hung out in the bar. Had a few cocktails and struck up a conversation with our bartender. Seems he was thinking about moving to the MidWest in a few years and was curious about the cost of living in St. Louis compared to Maui. Stated the median price for a home on Maui was $.75M. Quite a bit less than that here – I don’t know how the working people survive there honestly. Went to bed in our very quiet room. The HK staff here seems to have figured out how to time their visits when you are gone.
DAY 13 Today we decided to re-visit the Olivine Pools. Specifically, we stopped about a quarter mile sooner than the location where everyone else had stopped. On our first visit, we had spied a similar set of pools a little farther south and somewhat more remote than the ‘popular’ pools. We blazed a trail down to them and spent a couple of hours exploring and swimming. It was awesome; we were the only ones there the whole time. We could see the more popular pools in the distance, and they were loaded with people. The surf was really pounding so the waves crashing up and onto the pools were spectacular (the blow hole was pumping also). After some time we said farewell to the pools and took another route up the hill and back to the truck.
The afternoon we decided to sample the pool at the Ritz. Very nice. Really great service, plus the lounges are padded. Once again we spent the afternoon laying out and swimming, sampling a few cocktails. Wonderful place!
For dinner, we really didn’t have anything in mind. I saw a place called Cilantro in Lahaina that advertised authentic Mexican food so we decided to try it. It was ok, but not what I had expected. Pretty much a fast-food atmosphere. The food was very good though and the price was extremely reasonable, especially for Maui. From there we strolled around front street a while, people watching mainly. Then headed back to the Ritz and bed.
DAY14 Today we decided to snorkel Black Rock, so we headed that way about 9am. Of course we stopped at Java Jazz on the way! Parked at the Hyatt’s self park lot, since we know about it, so we didn’t have to pay some where to park. It was a nice walk up the beach to Black Rock and the water was still pretty calm. The snorkeling there was really good. Lots of fish and lots of variety. Went around the point and just to the edge of the back wall. Lots of fun and it wasn’t really crowded. On the way back to the beach, a really fantastic thing happened. In the shallows, a little kid started yelling he saw a turtle. We swam over and right at our feet was a huge sea turtle. It was 3 to 4 ft long and was only in water about 6ft deep. It kept circling something on the bottom, so we got a great view and were able to observe close up for quite a while. It was the highlight of the morning.
We finished and rinsed off at the shower by the Sheraton. We called the kids from my cell phone and decided to see if they could connect to the Sheraton’s webcam and see us while we talked. It worked! We had linked to it before we left and my son connected no problem. They were really tickled to be able to see us live while talking on the phone. Technology is amazing! What a trip! We walked back to the car and stopped off at Aloha Mixed Plate for lunch. Very good spot, at least for lunch. Very economical, although their iced tea tasted like instant – yuch. Then headed to the Ritz where we spent the remainder of the afternoon at the pool.
We had a really special dinner that night at The Pineapple Grill (at the Bay Course). I had wanted to try this place.
So...dinner was fabulous. The bar is really nice, very contemporary and open as is the rest of the restaurant. The staff was all very attentive. From the pupu menu my wife tried the Crispy Calamari; I had the Kona Lobster Coconut Thai Bisque and both were terrific. For dinner my wife had the Crab and Macnut Crusted Mahi Mahi and I had the Pan Roasted Giant Prawns, both excellent. For dessert we split the Maui Gold Pineapple and Apple Crisp.
Afterwards, we returned to our lovely lanai, had a few drinks, and lucky for me the wife felt ‘frisky’. Great day!
DAY 15 We hadn’t really explored Wailea much, so decided to drive down (after stopping at Java Jazz) and do just that. Perused the shops and generally just walked around until about 1pm when the idea occurred to me that we were awfully close to Mulligans. So up to the bar we went for lunch.....and beer. Chilled away a few hours there and headed to the Ritz and the pool for a couple more.
About dinner time, we both thought of Sansei! Got there about 7 or so and this time decided to wait on a table. We got the sushi bar after about a 45 minute wait, which was no problem. I wish you could see the guys as they prepare the sushi, beautiful looking for such a nasty, nasty thing. Once again, we ordered a number of appetizers....delicious. Tomorrow night we were flying out so it was with some trepidation that we headed back to the Ritz and went to bed.
DAY 16 Our last day, bummer – but we were both missing the kids. The good news was we weren’t leaving until 10:30pm that night. We would have our final coffee and bagel at Java Jazz..boo-hoo. We had an appointment at 11:30 with the timeshare people at the Marriott vacation club and were honestly dreading it. Both of us knew we would never be interested, but we had to attend as a condition of the Ritz deal. SO.....our salesman sat down and started chit chatting. He found out I work for Boeing and turns out he was a private pilot. We spent the next 30 minutes talking about airplanes, he was really cool. He finally got back to the timeshare spiel, breezed through it, and asked if we thought we would be interested. We said no, and that was the end of the presentation. He gave us a $50 gift certificate to use at the Ritz and we were off.
Drove into Lahaina and walked around some more. I bought some cigars (Big Kahuna) for the heck of it. We lunched at Cheeseburgers, had an awesome table. The surf was pretty high and the waves were braking on the seawall big time. About 3pm we headed to the Ritz to shower, clean up, spend our gift certificate on t-shirts, and check out. Left the resort about 5pm and after we stopped to gas up, got to Kahului about 6pm. I am paranoid about being late. We stopped at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center – don’t waste your time. Drove up to Pa’ia, but not much open there either.
Ended up in the food court of the Maui Marketplace for dinner, the same thing we did on the last visit. Food is actually quite good, which was corroborated by the entirely local clientele that was eating there.
We got to the airport and checked-in about 8:30 and breezed through. No lines for American. Some of the other airlines were wall to wall. Ended up killing the next two hours at the gate. Flight home was un-remarkable. Work the following morning even more so.
Another fabulous vacation on Maui. We definitely spent more than we had planned, but who cares. Next time we will most likely try the Big Island for a bit and Maui. Hopefully we’ll be back in ’08! The flight and jet lag are a killer for sure and it takes some coordination to get sitters lined up for the kids. No regrets – none – we did all we wanted to do. I will try to post some pics but it may take a couple of weeks.
Trip Report - Long - Part 2
Great review. Thanks for posting this. You%26#39;re a hoot!! Sounds like you had a wonderful trip!
Trip Report - Long - Part 2
WOW! Great report! I think my husband has a long-lost twin brother. I thought I was reading his trip report for a second there, you have the same sense of humor. Hilarious!
So now I%26#39;m re-thinking the Warren and Annabelle%26#39;s thing. I didn%26#39;t think my husband would be real keen on the idea, but it sounds like he might actually enjoy it.
Question- Do you remember what time you left in the morning for La Perouse?
Thanks for the report!
Wendie
Wendie
Thanks for the post!
I definitely recommend Warren and Annabelles.
If i remember correctly we left the hotel around 8am for La Perouse, but as a rule we stopped for coffee and a ';scone'; like the rich folk do. The drive is a good 45minutes, and then the walk which is at least another 30 to 45 or so........
Thoroughly enjoyed reading both part 1 and 2 of your reviews except for the part of trying to swat a native bird with the Maui news but that%26#39;s just the bird lover in me talking.
Sounds like you both had a great time. Mahalo for sharing
can you share us the details on how you book the timeshare package for RITZ accomodation
Really laughed at your report. Mahalo.
I can%26#39;t believe you didn%26#39;t use your $50.00 Gift certificate at David Pauls! I was anxiously waiting to read your review of that place.
You%26#39;re a great writer...very funny! You sound like someone we would like to hang out with
Oh yeah...where is Java Jazz located? I couldn%26#39;t find an address on thier website.
Ref d-pauls-we ended up giving the $50 to a young couple that looked newlywed.
Pay it fwd so to speak.
Java jazz- I don%26#39;t recall the exact address, but it is north of the blk rock area on the lower piilani I think.
That bird actually snatched a bite from my wife as she was putting it up to her mouth.
Thx all for the feedback, biker
Typing this on the road so sorry for any errors in punct.
I was called by marrott vacation club and they offered the deal at the ritz-owned by them. Was a great deal and relatively painless
