Okay… you’re probably
wondering HOW in the hell are these two cheapos in Hawaii! It ain’t easy. For
us on the east coast it is a long costly flight and truthfully this is the
first time I’ve traveled to Hawaii for pleasure AND had to pay for my air fare.
In times past I’ve had free travel from frequent flyer miles, but not this
time. UGH….
It's certainly NOT cheap here
in Hawaii, gas right now is around $4.40, and I just purchased a $7.22 4 oz.
bag of potato chips (for Janet) from the Maui Potato Chip company….Kitch’n
Cook’d!!!! I want to buy stock in this
F-ing company. They are at 295 Lalo Street, Kahului, Maui if you are so
inclined, although I don’t think there is much of a tour.
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| EXPENSIVE |
The only way Hawaii
became a feasible destination for us was through the kindness of Janet’s
step-mother and her father who gave us a timeshare at a resort for a week. We
are staying in west Maui. The resort is one of a string of places north of
Lahaina and home to a golden stretch of sand called Ka'anapali Beach. This place
is a lot more expensive than we could ever afford and not really our way to
travel, but it is bright and airy and pink and right on the water. We don’t have an ocean view, but when the clouds roll in from the mountain and rain comes in the late
afternoon we are blessed with rainbows.
Because this is a time
share we somehow got tangled into a presentation. They dangled $200 worth of
vouchers for spending in many area establishments. Burgers are roughly $14 here
and well, if not burgers, there’s a lot of Mai-Tai’s, or at least a couple of
bags of Maui Potato Chips in that $200, so we winced our way through the 2 ½ hour
hard sell presentation and then used that money to go to Kimo's in Lahaina for a nice
seafood dinner, telling ourselves between bites that we earned it.We sipped Mai-Tai's and watched a brilliant sunset as we ate dinner.
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| PRICELESS |
We are bracketing our
week stay in Maui with two smaller trips, a few days on the north shore of Oahu
and nearly a week on the Big Island. We got our places through a new website
called Air BNB. Through Air BNB we rented a room in a lovely couple's home in Waialua and in the Hilo area are getting an entire place on an acre of land for just $75 per night.
Although AirBNB is new, renting homes/rooms in Hawaii is
not. In years past I have rented a bungalow near Lanikai beach in Kailua, Oahu,
an entire house at Malaekahana Bay and a room in a mansion in Hilo through a
bed and breakfast network listing.
Some people like
resorts, some people can’t afford it…. We are both!
It is very different traveling this way. I have to admit it's impersonal, there is not a lot of Aloha Spirit, in fact we have not seen a lot of Native Hawaiians since arriving to this resort on western Maui. It reminds me of last year's trip through South Carolina's lowcountry which finished up on Hilton Head Island. All of it was beautiful, but the resorts of HHI were faster paced and catered to a vacationing crowd rather than a traveling crowd. Ka'anapali is like this. From our pool and personal beach we have a spectacular view of Molokai and you never have to leave for the week. The culture of Hawaii is secondary to the "downtime" people seek when they vacation. I love it and yet I know there is much more out there. It's like saying Waikiki IS Hawaii. It's beautiful with spectacular views and you really never have to leave it, unless you want to experience Hawaii. Truthfully though the pool at the Ka'anapali Beach Club is lovely and vast with plenty of chaise lounges the beach part is very poor. Not really much of a beach and there's a lot of coral. If you want to see good beaches, you'll have to get off campus. Ka'anapali is a perfect, very luxurious home base from which to explore Maui and with $200 dollars of hard-earned bucks it's that much sweeter.
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| Our personal rainbow |
Mahalo, thanks for reading. Come back to follow our antics on the Valley Isle.
love
Janet and greg
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