We woke before sunrise to leave Princeville by 6:00 to be sure to catch our flight to Maui. Along the way, I asked Jeff to pull over at a beach so we could see the sunrise. As our last event on Kauai, it was pretty spectacular.
We arrived in plenty of time, and other than Jeff having our sunscreen confiscated and me having to get my knee brace x-rayed, security was fast and efficient. Again, the flight was smooth and quick, as was getting our rental car. The Hawaiian service industry has been wonderful all the way around.
The first thing I noticed about Maui was how different the landscape was from Kauai, at least in the area around Kahului. Whereas Kauai was almost universally green and lush, this part of Maui was brown and rocky. The second difference was how crowded everything is, which leads to my number one annoyance, lack of parking. Before we left Tennessee, I had looked up places where parking was free, but when we arrived at our first attraction, we circled the parking lot for several minutes before parking in a separate lot and hoping we didn’t get a ticket or towed.
Maalaea on the South Shore was the location of this first merry-go-round. We were hoping to eat at Maalaea General Store as a relatively cheaper alternative to the hoity toity restaurants in the area. A couple of hamburgers and fries with drink was still $34! Anyway, we did plenty of walking between our parking spot, the general store, and Maui Ocean Center, which was our main purpose of coming to this town. TripAdvisor had listed it as one of the top 10 aquariums in the world, so I was a little underwhelmed at its smallish size. Nevertheless, I did see some things and learn some things I had not done at any other aquarium. The colors and variety of species were incredible, so I would say it was worth the price of admission.
While we were in the south, we drove to Lahaina, a bustling small business district that apparently everyone in the state knew about because they were all there with us. Jeff wanted to visit Lahaina Printsellers to feed his love of maps, but we had to park so far down the road, I told him I’d stay in the car while he went to shop. I know I slow him down, so this gave him a chance to enjoy himself without worrying about me.
When Jeff was finished, it was time to check in to Nalu Kai Lodge in Paia, a fairly central location for the things we want to do in the next few days. I thought Paia would be a rural town, but it turns out to be like Lahaina for hippies. The lodge has extremely limited alleyway parking, but we managed to squeeze in. At the office, Jeff saw a note telling us the key was in our room and to let ourselves in. I’m not at all used to how laid-back the hospitality is.
We rested in our room for a little bit, then headed back to Kaluhui for supper and groceries. We ate at Zippy’s, sort of the Hawaiian version of Denny’s. Our food came out quick and was reasonably priced. Then we went to Target for sandwich fixings for lunch and honey buns and orange juice for breakfast, as our hotel room doesn’t have a stove this time. If all goes well, we will only have to pay for two more meals out.
Back at the hotel, we lost our spot, and Jeff had to parallel park on the street overnight. There are no signs posted about when he’ll have to move it, so I hope we don’t get in trouble if we’re too late. We want to sleep in tomorrow before visiting Haleakala National Park.
