Maui, HI, 2021 Pre-trip

My first trip to Hawaii was over 20 years ago. I didn’t really want to go. My impression of Hawaii before going was from the Brady Bunch.

Nothing I saw on Brady Bunch was appealing to me. I didn’t want to go.

Also, I learned how to scuba dive before my first Hawaii trip. Before learning how to dive I didn’t want to do that either.

“Contempt prior to investigation” comes to mind. I fell in love with Hawaii the moment I stepped off the plane for the first time. The air, the smells, the ocean, the food. I loved it all. Same with diving. I love diving in tropical water. It feels like I’m flying, only underwater.

My first time to Hawaii with Mike was very special. He’d never been and I was thrilled to get to share the experience with him. Since our first trip together we’ve gone back regularly. It is the place we go when we want a relaxing (vs. adventurous) vacation. I’ve lost track of the number of times we’ve been.

Why Maui?

I’ve been to Kauai and Oahu. Kauai was nice but a little too laid back for me. Oahu was just too busy and too crowded. It reminds me of Santa Monica. Maui is a nice mix of “laid back” with plenty to do if you want. Plus we have our favorite places to stay, eat and enjoy, part of a relaxing trip for us.

Traveling During COVID

Hawaii has wisely required quarantine and COVID testing to help slow the spread of COVID in Hawaii. Now that many are vaccinated they are slowly relaxing the requirements.

COVID testing is a requirement for our trip. (Funny story, if we’d booked our trip one day later we wouldn’t have had to get tested. Ha. Ha. Ha.) We drove into San Francisco to do a rapid test at an approved testing facility in SFO. As a backup we also tested at Kaiser but the odds of getting the results back by tomorrow morning (7/7/21) were slim. (The 4th of July holiday made getting test results back within 72 hours of departure difficult.) Our test at the airport came back negative so we are good to go. (Funny story, our Kaiser test results, also negative, came back around 30 minutes after of SFO tests were completed. Ha. Ha. Ha.)

This is traveling during the tail end of a pandemic. Lots of unusual hoops to jump through. Plus masks and tests and Vax cards and rental car shortages and flight changes. As the planet recovers and reopens things are going to be unusual at times. I can either be grumpy and frustrated or I can go with the flow. I think I’ll just go with the flow.