NM visitors - Maui, part one

On Sunday, July 30 we all flew to Maui. I was the lucky one—my bag went to Lihue (Kaui) instead of Kahului Airport (Maui). We were flying on the new Go airlines and apparently just two days later they would have their electronic baggage checking and tracking up and running. In the meantime, it seemed I was not alone in having a problem as there were quite a few other people in line filing their reports. Paranoid traveler that I am, I had the bare necessities, but by the time my bag arrived at the condo late morning the next day, I was getting a little tired of my outfit.

The most amazing thing about my luggage misadventure was that I’d (insanely) chosen to wear a white t-shirt to travel and…I made it 24 hours with nary a spill! The real nuisance was that we did have to wait until the next day to go snorkeling as all my gear was in my checked bag. That was all right though, as we had plenty to do finding the closest place to get a drink and dinner. We found a place with giant beers and decent “Mexican” food (Fred’s).
We watched the sunset from the patio (lanai!).
With our giant beers.
(I know, you want to see the giant beers, but we were faint with hunger and thirst and forgot our cameras for this outing.)

We stayed at a timeshare at Maui Hill in Kihei. Our friends have done this sort of thing before, but it was the first time for the Qs. It was amazing. We stayed for a whole week for what you could stay anywhere else for three nights. Two bedrooms, two baths, and a full kitchen. Our unit was spacious, nicely located so we could see the ocean from the lanai (that's the top photo), and very close to lots of very good restaurants and to a number of excellent beaches and snorkeling spots. The condos have a pool, which we did use, and a concierge service that books tours and whatnot. They had barbecues which we did not use (even though our friend, Burpy, is an accomplished grill-meister). The tennis courts were being resurfaced, but of course the Qs could not understand why anyone would play tennis if you are within spitting distance of the ocean (don’t ask how we know that) so it wasn’t too much of a letdown. There was shuffleboard as well, but there were no takers for this either.

The highlight of July 31 was that it was our friend’s birthday. He turned 36. We began the celebration by, you guessed it, going to the beach. (That is what you guessed, right?) Then, the resort had free mai tais at the pool (photo of B and LK with poolside mai tais above), and then we went tearing out to try to get in line at Sansei in time for the 50-percent-off dinners.

We’re talking sushi here (for everyone but barfy me), so half price is a big motivator. We got into a line that looked very long, but as we are all the optimistic sort, we thought we’d stick it out and see how it went. We wait and wait and the line is creeping toward the front door as folks get seated. A host comes out and says that the party in front of us is the last that will get seated. But, he tells us, there is a chance that seats will open up at the sushi bar, so we figure we might as well wait a little longer. I mean, 50 percent off! So, here we are, standing in line, expecting to get shined, and we get to the front of the line and here’s where our buddy’s birthday luck kicked in: We became the last table to be seated!! Dinner was ab fab, and we would have thought the same even if it wasn’t half off. Sansei in Kihei. We highly recommend it. Even my non-sushi veggie dinner was excellent. (Although I learned a valuable lesson—don’t eat fettuccine with chopsticks. It’s too heavy or something. And if you have a sauce it is kind of splashy when you drop the noodles...)

This seems like enough for one posting, I think. Maui, part two, coming soon.