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Maui Bound - Sunday, July 24, 2005
Wahoooo, finally off to Maui! Our flight was pretty early so we did the park and fly option again at the PDX Airport Holiday Inn. Considering International Hotels Group (the folks that own Holiday Inn) threatened to sue me for promoting their hotels (go figure), I hate giving them the business, but it runs about the same as long-term parking at the airport for 10 days - the length of our trip, I got a free glass of wine for being part of their travel club and nothing really came of their cease & desist letter, so why not?The flight set off a little late, but not too bad. I was surprised that they didn't even offer pretzels though. Airlines are getting tighter and tighter (Sheesh, Northwest!). Unfortunately we didn't want half the items offered in the $5 snack box, so we contented ourselves with Cheese-Its and Nilla Wafers that we brought with. We brought too much stuff...
The movie was Fever Pitch (the American remake of an English football film, only with baseball instead). It was okay and kept me distracted when I wasn't reading the new Harry potter.
We landed in Honolulu and took the Wiki Wiki to the inter-island terminal. Riding the Wiki Wiki is like getting punched repeatedly in the kidneys. Each bump is somehow amplified to maximum torture.
We caught our connecting flight without trouble. Next time we'll book earlier, but we were using airline miles from my Alaska credit card, so it might've been tough to get direct flights regardless. The hop to Maui was literally like 15 minutes of air time with great views and mild turbulence. The only real downside was we had forgotten to call to secure seats in advance, so we had to sit apart. My site was great (exit row), my wife's not so great (the rear row with no window).
They run the flight from Honolulu to Maui so often they seem to just load whatever bags they have and send you off. Those of us who flew in from Portland had to wait 45 minutes or so for the next flight to come in and unload to get our bags. They were all on the next flight though, so not a big deal.
We had a car reserved through Word of Mouth, a company offering low rates on slightly older cars (ours had 75,000 miles on it). We called and they picked us up in about 5 minutes, took us back to their lot and we drove off in a lovely, late '90s Corolla. It wasn't bad at all. I'm happy to sacrifice new car smell for $100 savings...
Next stop Napili Shores, which is about an hour away. It's a mellow little complex of condos with a couple pools and nice views of Lanai. Most of the units are owned by Outrigger, but quite a few are privately owned as well. We were crashing on the hide-a-bed in the living room of one my Mom was renting up near a small fountain. I believe she's stayed in the same one before. It's owned by a nice lady in Canada.
Two cool features about the place are the Gazebo Restaurant down near the lower pool and the gas grills and picnic benches near both pools. The restaurant is cash only, but generally has a line halfway around the pool from before it opens until it closes (free coffee avail while you wait). The breakfasts are tasty and plenty for two (mention you're sharing and the meal will come on two plates). There are gas grills available for guest use near both pools. They're busy, and great for socializing, but we never had trouble getting space to cook and spent several evenings munching kebabs/ahi/whatever, sipping wine and hanging out at the nearby picnic tables. There are lights on timers, so no worries if you're eating late.
My next entry should cover snorkeling, sailing, skim-boarding (and the injury involved), biking down Haliakala and more. I'll probably do Hana as a separate entry too.
- Created:
- Wednesday, August 10, 2005 at 4:58 PM
- Last Modified:
- Wednesday, August 10, 2005 at 5:14 PM