Maui, 2022 — the trip home and final thoughts

I had to get up early for a Zoom Meeting Service commitment. I woke up to an amazing full moon reflecting off the ocean. Beautiful.

We were already packed except for toiletries. We cleaned up the condo a bit and then hit the road to the airport.

It’s been our tradition to listen to radio station KPOA when driving around the island. It is all Hawaiian music all the time. We listened to a song in the Hawaiian language and we were sure they were singing about “Cow Pie”.

It’s a fun mix of classic Hawaiian music to the latest. It’s not something I would listen to regularly but it sure does set the mood when in Maui.

A final picture from our lanai. Until next time!

Plane nerds, we are flying in a Boeing 717 from Maui to Honolulu. Why? Because we found a deal on lie Flat seats from Honolulu to SFO on this Boeing 777-300er.

Tiny little Hawaiian Air Lounge in Maui.

Much larger lounge in Honolulu, right above our gate! Convenient!

Mike snuck several bags of these into his backpack.

We had a little sandwich and some snacks in the United Lounge. enough to hold us over until the meal on the flight.

Final thoughts.

1. I’ve been coming to Hawaii now for nearly 30 years which means I’ve been here around twenty times. I never had a desire to come here before I came here. My low impression of Hawaii was completely based on the Brady Bunch Hawaiian episode. An ex of mine really wanted to go so I reluctantly went along. I fell in love with the place the moment I stepped off the plane. I love adventurous vacations but I also love our retreats to Maui where we just chill out in a very familiar and relaxing tropical paradise. We keep saying we are going to try the Big Island one of these days. We will see.

2. I didn’t get to swim with a green sea turtle this trip. It may be one of the first times that this didn’t happen. We did see several from our lanai.

3. I’m so glad we got to try several different food places as well and returning to a few favorites. I am in love with Lava Lava Shrimp. Here’s the video that steered us to the great eateries.

4. I am so happy I finally did the hammerhead scuba dive. It feels great to be in good enough shape to do an adventurous and strenuous dive like that with confidence and relative ease.

5. I never need to dive the Cathedrals off Lanai again. I get why people like it. Neat lava formations and all but I want to see sharks and turtles and big stuff. I’ve never seen any of that at the Cathedrals. Glad I did it to refresh my diving skills before the hammerhead dive.

6. Sitting on the lanai with Mike watching whales and watching the sunset is a very special time for me. He is such a great guy to be with and laugh with. He made me laugh and smile so many times on the trip. I am fortunate.

7. Time on the beach under the rental umbrella is so relaxing. I just love it.

8. I worked a little too much on this trip. There were a ton of emails that were coming in for the puppet business. The plus of running your own business is that you can do to admin. work from anywhere. The minus is you can don the admin. work from anywhere. Rachel was busy at home watching our dog and doing lots of shows. Yay Rachel!! I so appreciate her taking such good care of Lainey while we’re gone.

9. I miss our dog.

Here’s our timelapse takeoff and landing from OGG to HNL.

We have middle seats so I won’t be able to video our takeoff and landing from HNL to SFO. We do have comfy lie flats so hopefully I’ll get a nap since I didn’t sleep nearly enough last night.

Just landed in SFO. Watched Jungle Cruise with Mike on the plane. Sooo many dad jokes. Right in my wheelhouse.