Maui

Maui by far was the most beautiful and lush of all the islands we visited. Isn’t it always the way of things that hindsight is always 20/20. I wish we had planned for a few more days on Maui. There were many things that we really would have liked to have done but there simply was not time.

Plus let me just say that this down home southern girl in her Wal-Mart blue jean shorts and Kohl’s white tee shirt felt a bit out of place surrounded by the five star resort wear that some of the more upper crust clientele at the Grand Wailea had on. Can y’all say “The Land of Rich People!” I expected to see Paris Hilton lounging at the pool. I was told by the hotel desk clerk that she does stay there when she finds herself in Maui. I guess if ma and pa owned a hotel I’d probably want to stay there too! Sadly our paths did not cross nor I did not spot any celebrities sequester in the pool side cabana's.

I did see a movie poster set up in the lobby for an upcoming movie with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler called Just Go With It. It was filmed at the Grand Wailea…kind of cool. I am not a huge Adam Sandler fan but I am looking forward to this movie so we can relive a bit of our vacation.

My other observation was that if we thought that the Big Island and Oahu were expensive, well on Maui the prices were twice or more what they were on either of the two previous islands. YIKES, not to mention that being at a five star hotel lends itself to being super expensive. I guess if you can afford to stay at a five star hotel then you don't mind paying $16.00 for a poolside Mai Tai. This thirsty girl refilled her water bottle from the free water fountain they provided. Y’all would have been shocked at the folks who simply seemed to be ordering from the pool side waiters like they had money falling from the sky.

On Sunday, our last official day on Maui, the hubs took off for the clear blue water on a half day snorkeling excursion and I took refuge under an umbrella at the pool. The day before we had stopped at a local grocery store, and to my surprise I found that there the prices were expensive but not outrageous. I picked up a few things for us to have for breakfast and lunch.

This was my Sunday Breakfast Buffet.

Y’all want to know how much they wanted for one adult for the Champagne Sunday Brunch Buffett?

$48.00, that’s $48.00 for ONE person. My head bout fell of my neck when I saw the price! Needless to say I enjoyed my fresh pineapple, banana and bagel and cream cheese in my room and saved my $50.00. Thank you Jesus for our in room coffee maker as well!

Can y’all imagine paying $100.00 for breakfast? Me either….

The rental car that previously on the Big Island and Oahu had cost us about $22.00 a day cost us $80.00 a day AND if we wanted to park it at the hotel (which we did not) it would have cost us an additional $30.00. Let’s just say that for the few hours we had that rental car we tor it up as we took our life in our hand and hit the road to Hana!

So my advice if your headed to Maui…take wads and wads of cash!

We had many asterisks on our Maui highlights list but with only half a day to spend exploring the island, well we really had to be selective.

Several folks had recommended this “The Road to Hana” which is a scenic route to a small town on the southern coast of Maui. Under normal circumstance I am sure it is a breathtaking experience. There were many amazing vista’s and a few very beautiful waterfalls that we encountered along the way. However if you are making the trip you might want to check with the locals to find out if they are experiencing any drought conditions. We found that we passed by multiple stream beds that were nothing but dry rocks. It was a bit of a disappointment.

What we were able to see was amazing but I can understand that if the water had been running there would have been even more amazing sights all along the way.

The other draw back was the actual road you were driving on. Rugged and a bit on the wild side would best describe it. The Road to Hana would rival any twisty and tuning road in San Francisco X 10. It really is an all day kind of thing if you want to really take your time. It takes about three hours to drive to Hana and then another three hours to drive back. The other draw back is that it really is a case of “You can’t get there from here!”

I have taken the liberty of accurately depicting the extreme driving condition on the map below. So take my advice, pay no attention to those wonderful and straight dotted lines on the map….BIG FAT LIE!

You either had to turn around and retrace your steps or make a wide round about circle cutting back through the center of the island to make it back down to the costal area. The roads are mostly single lanes in both directions with multiple bridges that all narrow down to one lane. It was also very comforting to drive by huge piles of fallen rock from the steep cliffs the road was cut out of. So there you are driving along and you can either get pummeled by falling boulders or plummet a gazillion feet down the side of a mountain. Yea for us!

Some of the roads were not even paved. There were parts of the extremely rural areas of Maui that were so rural that there were no public utilities, no power lines, no phone lines, no nothing. So good luck if you have car trouble and no cell service. It was a lot of stopping to make sure you were not about to crash into someone head on. The hubs is an experienced driver and prides himself on his ability to drive defensively and he ever remarked how difficult some of the stretches of road were to navigate.

Hard to navigate…yes, awesome to look at, well these were just some of the sight was saw along the way!

 

 

This kind of reminded me of a Hawaiian Grand Canyon don’t you think?

If you missed any of my South Pacific Vacation posts here are the links to them.

The Big Island

Oahu

The Five Star Treatment

A Luau

I can tell you we really pulled out the stopper on this vacation. We will defiantly be sticking close to home for the foreseeable future. Vacations are way fun and a necessary thing from time to time, but it’s good to be home and getting life back to normal. I keep telling myself that anyway…

But I will share that in my many peri-menopausal moments you can bet I will be focusing on stepping out of a steam shower, wrapping up in a nice clean bath sheet, then crawling into a freshly made bed that has a sweet smelling orchid blossom placed upon my pillow and drifting off to sleep listing to the sound of the ocean and the breeze blowing through the palm trees.

Y’all it was a good vacation!

Blessings & Mahalo

R