Hawaii 2010 - Days 1 & 2

We met Mom and Dad at Ma & Bob’s in Arlington the evening of January 12th and headed out early the next morning to catch our flight from DFW. We ran into our first minor snag at the airport – when I booked the tickets, we were on American flights to Honolulu and then a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Maui. I was told by someone at American (and various other places online) that we would be able to check our bags through to Maui. When we went to check-in, we were told that our connection in HNL was too short – just under an hour, and it had to be an hour and 15 minutes for a codeshare flight. Information that would’ve been nice to have earlier… This meant that we would have to get our bags in HNL and go back through security to catch our flight to Maui. At least we knew that there were multiple flights and we should be okay.

After check-in, the flights were long, but pretty uneventful. We didn’t buy Claire a ticket since she is under 2 and able to travel as a lap child, but we had an extra seat in our row on both American flights that they blocked for us at the gate (our trick of booking the window and aisle seats worked again!). She fussed some, but did as well as could be expected.

Our flight from LAX to HNL was delayed slightly – enough for us to miss our connection. Fortunately we were able to get on the next flight without any problems – and all of our bags made it with us!

Once we arrived in Maui, we got our minivan without any fuss (a necessity when traveling with 4 adults, a toddler, and all of our stuff!) and headed for our condo in Kihei. I’d heard about a fried fish place that was close by, so we picked up dinner on the way to the condo. We settled in and ate (the meal was pretty forgettable, but at least it was cheap and convenient) and got Claire settled in before Robert and I ran to the grocery store. I’d rented a pack & play and booster from a local child equipment rental agency, Akamai Mothers, and the items were waiting for us when we arrived – so much easier and cheaper than bringing our own. Even with the 4 hour time difference, Claire wasn’t too fussy and went to bed around 7, which felt like 11 to us. She adjusted so quickly to the time difference – I think it was easier on her than any of the adults!

On our first full day we didn’t really have an agenda – I didn’t want to plan much to give us a chance to adjust to the time difference and see how Claire was doing. We all got up fairly early and drove up to Iao Valley State Park. The park has an important landmark in Hawaii’s history, the Iao Needle, which is a chunk of volcanic rock that was a lookout for Maui warriors. The valley was very peaceful and lush and had several easy walking trails.

We were all ready for a good meal after exploring the park and drove into Wailuku. The downtown area is pretty small, and we were on our way to one restaurant mentioned in the guidebook when Café O'Lei caught our eye. They have another location near our condo that was on my list after reading several good reviews, so we gave it a shot. It ended up being one of our favorite meals of the trip. If you ever go, I highly recommend the quinoa salad with roasted vegetables and the crab salad sandwich!

We drove back to the condo, stopping for shave ice on the way (the first of many!). Claire was immediately a big fan.

After a nap we walked across the street to the beach. Claire wasn’t sure what to think of the ocean, and she did not want to walk on the sand but was okay with all of us getting wet. I held her and waded out and would run from the waves or “chase them”, and she thought that was hilarious. She just laughed and laughed!

Dinner that night was pizza at a place in Wailea called Matteo’s. It wasn’t on the beach but had a great deck with perfect views of the sunset. Great way to end our first day in Maui!


Note for my fellow photography buffs: Photos are from four cameras - mine, Robert's, Mom's, and my iPhone, and are all SOOC except for a little cropping on a couple of them.