Category: Maui, HI, 2021

We usually keep things light on a travel day. Since our plane doesn’t leave until 10:30pm we kept our room so we could do whatever we wanted today and still freshen up before heading to the airport. So we didn’t keep it light today, we packed in a full and lovely day.

I saw at least a dozen flying fish this morning. The light was just right to make them super visible. Here’s a stock photo.

They don’t actually fly. They propel themselves out of the water at around 35 mph and glide. It’s pretty neat to see.

After breakfast (we finished off the last of our delicious Maui Gold pineapple. So good) we headed back out to the beach we enjoyed yesterday.

Once again we simply people watched, relaxed and snorkeled for a bit. There was a nice bit of reef not too far off the shoreline where we saw lots of fish and a red crab.

I haven’t seen too many crabs during my snorkeling and diving so it was a rare find. I think it was a Ghost Crab (pictured above.)

This bird circled us and squawked at us for a while. We named him Squawky.

Mike briefly considered getting a burrito. He quickly came back to his senses and got a couple of fish tacos. So did I.

Lunch on the lanai was quickly interrupted. We both were snapping a couple of photos of the view before eating when we spotted a huge turtle very close to a couple of snorkelers. The snorkelers were oblivious so I whistled down to them and we pointed them toward the turtle which was very close to shore.

She eventually beached itself. And yes it’s a she…

Mike and I decided to run downstairs to see the rare site of a turtle on the beach.

We are too late to catch it on the shore but we did get to see this.

As you can see in the video the turtle was swimming close to the shoreline chomping on algae. Then, out of nowhere a male turtle came up behind what we now know is a female and tried to mount her. His love was scorned as far as we could tell. This was really fun to see up close.

After lunch we packed up our suitcases and prepped for our departure. Then I took a nap. When I woke up we watched the final episode of Loki. (Anyone else watching this show? We’ve enjoyed it!) We headed over to the food trucks and split Broccoli Beef and some potstickers. We freshened up and headed out to the airport around 6:30pm.

We considered staying to see the sunset but both of us prefer getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare. And I wanted to stop by Maui Tropix to get a new sweatshirt. (I left my old Maui Sweatshirt on the flight from SMF to SFO. Filed a lost and found report. I hope I get it back!)

Here’s the new hoodie.

Now we are sitting at the airport, looking forward to seeing our dog and sleeping in our own bed. I don’t care too much for overnight flights but on this one we are in lie-flat seats again so I hope we get a little sleep.

Thanks again for following along.

The day started out perfectly with some coffee on the lanai. I saw a flying fish leaping out of the water for a few minutes then saw a pod of spinner dolphins. Nature really put on a show this morning.

We were both up for another keep it simple day so we walked down the shore 10 minutes from our condo and set up our rented chairs and umbrella in front of a resort that has a Duke’s Restaurant with a view of the ocean. Mike thought we could sit on the beach, play in the water a bit and then grab lunch at Dukes. That’s exactly what we did.

I think we look pretty relaxed in the above photo. We are.

Lunch was delicious. Coconut shrimp, a Caesar salad with ono for me and a island fish sandwich for Mike.

While on the beach we saw the dive boat I went out on returning from their hammerhead shark dive. That dive is on my todo list the next time we’re on Maui.

A quick walk back to the condo and it was nap time. After the nap I ran to the store to grab some more sparkling water and then to the ABC Store to redeem our receipts for free gifts. Who doesn’t need a free coffee mug with a sea turtle on it?

Lunch was sensible so I wanted some fish and chips for dinner. We got two orders but got brown rice with one and split the French fries. We are so healthy.

Sunset was a bit of a bust tonight compared to the last two. It was just too clear for the sunset to really bounce off the clouds. The highlight was just spending some quiet time with Mikey. It’s a lovely thing to sit and just be for a while. We do the same thing a home sometimes in the backyard. It’s just nice.

Did I mention Mike brought along our Apple TV? We haven’t used it a ton but it’s been fun to watch the new episodes of Bad Batch and Loki. Plus we’ve been watching a bunch of Big Bang Theory episodes from season 11 and giggling our butts off.

A lovely last full day. Tomorrow our plane flies out at 10:30pm. I’ve begun to really miss our dog today. Rachel’s been taking good care of her and torturing us with pictures like this.

See you soon, Lainey!

Thanks for following along. ❤️

Here’s a bonus sea turtle for those of you who made it to the end.

I woke up around 5:30am Hawaiian Time (8:30am at home) and hopped on my home group fight club zoom meeting.

The rest of the day can be summarized by this.

A few days ago we reserved a Cabana (simple two lounge chairs with a retractable shade covering) in front of The Kaanapali Beach Hotel. A perfect location to do stare at our toes and the ocean. With the exception of a couple of dips in the water that is exactly what we did for nearly 6 hours. It was lovely.

Mike was able to pre-order lunch to-go from Hula Grill (one of our favorite restaurants in Maui) and so at noon he went over and picked up lunch.

Way too much food so fortunately we had a cooler with us so we ate some and put the rest in the cooler for dinner.

Notice the guy with the red umbrella. He struggled getting that umbrella up for what felt like 45 minutes. The for the next several hours he adjusted it, had it turned inside out and unadjusted again. It was pure comedy gold and the best entertainment we could have asked for.

We headed back to the room and I ran over to the store to get some veggies to go with our leftovers. The leftover dinner was nearly as good as lunch.

Mike watched a Mandarins drum corps fundraiser while I watched a movie. And that took us right to sunset time. we were not disappointed tonight.

Wonderfully peaceful day.

Thanks for following along.

What a full day! We woke up at a reasonable time (6:45am) and had a bite of breakfast. I attended a 10am (PDT) fight club zoom meeting and got my batteries recharged. We then headed out for a walk along the beach. We walked to the first place we stayed together here on a Maui, the Kaanapali Villas. On our walk back we walked by three or four big houses right on the beach and fantasized about living there. Since we can’t bring our dog to Hawaii we nixed the idea of buying one of the multimillion dollar properties.

When we returned from our walk we headed over to Maui Fish Company to see if the overdone fish tacos we had in day one were just an anomaly. They were. We had some yummy tacos. While eating we saw several turtles swim by our hotel. Mike got a close up of one.

I had a scuba dive session reserved for 12:30pm so I headed out after lunch to Lahaina Divers.

I’ve gone on boat dives with this company for several years. Today we dove at a collapsed pier. If you look closely you can see part of a pier behind the sail boat.

The rest of this cement pier is underwater due to it’s collapse decades ago. The pier stretches under the sailboat to well beyond where I am taking the photo. The debris from the pier has created an incredible place for coral to grow, for sea life to inhabit and for divers like me to explore.

We did two dives 30-40’ deep, each lasting around 45 minutes. The time flew by since there was so much to see. Large schools of various fish, a large moray eel and several sea turtles in various sizes. A couple of young ones had shells that were large plater size and an old giant turtle with a shell around 4-5’ in diameter. Perhaps the largest one I’ve ever seen. It’s common to see a reef shark or two at this location but none were to be found this time.

Here’s video highlights of the dives.

Here are some shots from the dive boat (tug boat?) in between dives.

The group on the boat was friendly and the crew was great. Not an easy job. I saw a fish that I’d never seen before. Here’s a picture from the internet.

A good dive master can usually tell you what you saw if you describe it well. It told my dive master, “I saw two little light blue fish about 2 1/2” long, about the width of a pencil. When I got close they darted into a hole in the sand. Do you know what they’re called?”

She said, “they’re called dart fish. Because they dart into a hole when you get close to them.” I thought she was messing with me until she showed me in a Hawaiian fish guide book. I’ll be damned. They’re called dart fish.

With the dives completed I headed back to the condo. Mike and I headed over to grab some food truck dinner, this time from…

We split a very flavorful beef and broccoli and a yummy stir fried red snapper and ginger over rice with some potstickers. All delicious.

This brought us to sunset time. Not as spectacular as last nights’s but just as relaxing to enjoy.

For any tech nerds who are wondering how I’m getting the time lapse videos of the sunsets here’s the rig I’m using.

We are in bed by 8:30pm and ready for a restful night’s sleep after a really lovely day.

Thanks so much for following along. ❤️

Woke up around 6am and had some coffee and relax time on the Lanai.

Our plan for today was to head out to a snorkeling spot for the morning. Mike rented snorkel gear, a couple of cool backpack beach chairs and umbrella at a shop that sends out an email every morning with a “snorkel report.” In the email they rate the popular snorkel sites and this morning they rated Kapalua Bay an 8 out of 10.

The last time we were on Maui the waves here were huge. This crescent shaped bay was very smooth today. Way to go “snorkel report”!

We swam out into the left side of the of the bay and the along the left edge of the crescent. I wanted to see a sea turtle so we decided to swim across the width of the bay where it was deeper. Mike spotted a medium sized green sea turtle about 3/4 across the bay. We swam with it for 15 minutes or so just watching it swim and surface for a breath (which for some reason is super cute) and swim some more. It’s a real treat to get to swim with these cool creatures. (Videos to come as soon as I get the footage off my GoPro underwater camera.)

After around 45 minutes of snorkeling we relaxed on the beach for a bit. By this time it was getting very crowded so we decided we were ready to head out and grab some lunch.

We found a little strip mall with a restaurant called Fond and grabbed a couple of decent burgers togo and headed back to the condo to eat on the Lanai.

After a nap I wanted to run over to the ABC Store to grab a new water bottle since I lost mine at the beach. Or so I thought. I found it in the Jeep this evening.

Did I say Jeep? Why yes I did.

Rental cars are scarce on the island (and pricey) so we reserved the “manager’s special” where they choose for you depending on what they had. I was secretly hoping for a Jeep. Tada!

Anyway, we went to the ABC Store and got a few things to bring back along with a second water bottle. I now have two.

We headed down to the pool and played darts. Mike hustled me good. He didn’t even hit the board with our practice round and then did this at the beginning of the game.

He ended up creaming me.

A quick dip in the pool and soak in the spa and we were ready for dinner.

We returned to this food truck for the third time. One might say we were…hooked…? One did say that. It was Mike. And then his brother used the same joke. I’m pissed they both beat me to it.

We had Grilled Island Fish with Kula Greens and brown rice. Overall it was tasty despite the fish being overdone.

Bellies full it was time to watch the sunset. It was slightly more cloudy tonight which sometimes can make for a pretty sunset. This was the best of the trip so far.

Nice ending to a fun day.

We slept a solid 8 hours last night with the windows open and the ocean singing us to sleep. This morning birds came into our condo as we made breakfast. We found the screen door and began using it.

Eggs, bacon, toast and Maui Gold pineapple was breakfast along with some crappy coffee. (I got better stuff today. Whole bean 100% Kona.) we at on the Lanai.

We headed out to run a bunch of errands to set us up for the rest of the trip. Nail clippers for Mike, better coffee for me, snorkel fins, beach chair and umbrella rentals, cabana reservation for Sunday, and new drawstring backpacks to carry glasses, sunblock, hats glasses, etc. So, essentially, purses. We bought purses.

Our favorite restaurants are all booked up for weeks as are many activities like snorkel cruises. As tourism returns to the Island the tourism machine is slowly coming up to speed. We just have to think ahead a bit more and be flexible with our plans. Which frankly isn’t too hard considering we keep it pretty simple while we’re here.

Lunch was a simple Caesar salad with grilled shrimp and this view.

Dinner was more shrimp, this time sautéed in pesto, garlic and olive oil over brown rice. We split this and the island fish and chips.

We went for a swim and played Cornhole and Ping Pong. (Mike won at Cornhole I won at Ping Pong.)

Which brought us to tonight’s sunset. Every evening in Kaanapali (and probably other parts of the island), people gather on the beach and enjoy the sunset. I love this relaxing tradition and it’s likely that we’ll do it every night we are here. Tonight’s wasn’t too great but we did enjoy being able to see so much of Molokai. The top of the island (the one in the right of the picture and video) is usually covered with clouds.

With the sun down Mike had a hankering for some Gelato. Fortunately there’s a place less than 5 minutes from us where we were able to get some delicious Nutella flavored gelato. Delish!

And that is a day on Maui. Life is good and I am grateful to be here.

Up at 3:15am today in prep for our first of two flights. Our first flight was a little puddle jumper from Sacramento to San Francisco. For plane geeks like me it was a CRJ-200.

Our flight to Maui is on on a 777-200 with the newer lie-flat Polaris Class Seats.

Smooth flight from Sacramento to San Francisco. At SFO we scanned our QR code that proved we tested negative for COVID and the boarded the plane with our wristband.

This allows us to skip a very long line in Maui.

We made it to Maui Kai, our condo for the week, and then hit our favorite fish taco joint. We were a little disappointed since the fish was overdone but we’re hungry enough not to care too much.

Our room wasn’t ready yet so we spent some time in the pool and walked over to see if the restaurant at The Kaanapali Beach Club still had good happy hour appetizers. Everything there is a bit stripped down since table service isn’t back in full swing.

Our room was ready for us by around 2pm (2 hours earlier than check in!) so we unpacked and took a quick nap.

The view is the main purpose of staying at Maui Kai. You have to look straight down over the edge of the balcony to see where the waves are crashing. It’s that close to the water.

After our nap we did a quick run to Times Supermarket to grab some stuff to make breakfast, coffee and snacks. We also got two Maui Gold Pineapples. Yum!

It was dinner time and so we ran over to our favorite little mixed plate hole in the wall only to discover they’re only serving breakfast these days. Fortunately there was a parking lot full of food trucks so we went there and got some pretty satisfying fish and chips.

The evening’s sport was watching the sunset.

It is only 8:40pm here but it’s 11:40pm at home so it is bedtime. Tonight we’ll be sleeping with the slider open so we can hear the ocean. Goodnight!

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.