Wednesday, December 25. We arrived in Maui, local time 6pm (9pm to our bodies). Received a Lei Greeting, just like in the movies! Forgive me if this is old hat for you. It's my first trip. We picked up our rental car and drove the 35 minutes to our lodging: the Makena Beach and Golf Resort. We had a lovely late dinner, consisting of grilled shrimp and fruit salad appetizer, fried potato and lobster salad entree, and bouillabaisse entree, all shared between the two of us. It was too difficulty to choose just one thing to try.
Thursday, December 26. The next morning, we awoke to song birds and loud ocean waves. We enjoyed fruit and eggs at the breakfast buffet. We did a little shopping at the resort boutique, drove into town for lunch, then out to La Perouse beach for a few hours. The area is made up of the last lava flow on Maui (circa 1790) with black lava rocks, white coral, and a few smatterings of sandy beaches. After a short rest in the hotel room, we strolled the private beach until dark and then headed indoors for dinner. Dinner consisted of Caesar salad, sashimi, filet mignon with lobster, and creme broulee.
Friday, December 27. We breakfasted at the in-house buffett again. We had a snorkeling refresher course in the hotel pool. Then we started the drive to Hana. The Highway to Hana is considered one of the great scenic roads of Hawaii. It takes about 2.5 hours to get to Hana from our resort, and a full day to go all the way around the island. After about 1.5 hours, we decided against the full drive, considering the amount of time we had left on Maui and our essential dislike for driving. We stopped at a roadside grill called Da Best, where the owners were "smoking" while cooking. The food is served in a ti tree leaf with sliced bamboo stalks for chop sticks. We laughed about the safety of eating there. It is highly doubtful that they would pass any type of inspection. They walked on mud and used a home grill for cooking. No dishes were used, so we weren't worried about the cleanliness of the dinnerware. On the way back, we had fruit from the Hana Highway Fruit Stand. We bought alpha bananas and a papaya that they sliced for us. We rested and showered, then participated in the reception fundraiser and had sushi for dinner. The in house sushi restaurant, Rare, is only open for 14 days per year, so we were exptremely fortunate to be able to take part. the sushi chef (Ivan) has a groupy type following and people came from all over the island to eat. It was fantastic!
Saturday, December 28. We started the day with a boat ride to a world class reef and nature preserve. we saw some fantastic sea life, including a reef shark, moray eel, and the Hawaiian green sea turtle. we took a multitude of pictures, but they werent worth much. We might need to invest in a true underwater camera to get pictures worthy of the sights. These multi functional ones don't quite do it justice, never mind the iPhone!
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