I love the sun, I love the beach, I love the summer. All through college I arranged my work schedule so I could have beach time so when Sue and I had the utter good fortune to get married in Hawaii, on Maui I always expected we'd go back. Well, it took us 10 years to get back there. Those past 10 have been eventful, filled with laughter and the occasional tear, changes and growth, but last September I decided for our anniversary we were going back and the planning began. What started out as a planned week grew into a spectacular three week journey one that was as magical a time as I can remember and a picture I will try to paint as well as I can.
The Disney Vacation Club was happenstance and yet, it was a part of making this so wonderful. When I bought in, what now seems like a lifetime ago, I thought it would be functional for the annual winter trek into the sun, what I didn't know was (a) Sue and I would stop having compatible winter breaks and (b) Disney would build a property in Oahu. Those two events and their rule of "3" (you can bank a year, use a year and borrow a year worth of points) put me in a position to have exactly enough points to book two full weeks in a great one bedroom room at the brand new (and still being worked on) Aulani Resort in Ko'Olina in the far west end of Oahu.
With that possible, I was able to book another full week back at the site of our wedding, the Four Seasons Wailea on Maui so we could not only go back for our anniversary but back to where it all started.
Finally, all the packing done, all the home arrangements done, we got ready to go. By the way, I booked the flights on Continental, pre merger, as they had the best schedules, newest planes and seemed to be a very good choice. I was able to get a nice civilized 11 AM departure from Newark, connect in San Fran with an hour and a half connection time, then off to Honolulu all in first class. Well, about 4 months before the trip, POST merger with United, I get an email informing me that the outbound from Newark is now 6 AM and we only have a 30 minute connection in San Fran, still first class, but now anxiety rising about the connection time and irritation at the top of the scale about having to start a 15 hour day at 3 AM to get to the airport.
The morning arrives, Vinny arrives to pick up up, we get to the airport easily, check in on the first class line very easily, hit the United Club for coffee and a relaxed waiting time, board easily, plane pushes back on time, even a few minutes early....then.......the flight attendant asks if there is a medical professional on board (never good)! Seems a pre teen boy has a panic attack and we have to go back to the gate to get him off. That also means we have to add fuel as they play that pretty close to the vest it seems and end up an hour delayed for take off. Of course that means we miss our connection (by 5 minutes as they were also delayed, thanks United for holding the plane 15 more minutes for those of us, and there were more than a few, headed to Hawaii). The gate agent sends me one place, having been down this road before, I call as we're walking and speak to an agent who tells me we've been re booked on a flight leaving in half an hour (in the opposite direction from where they told me to walk to see a representative) and yes our bags will make it, so we get to the desk, find out our "re booking" is now in coach with no consideration for the mileage used etc. our only other option is to wait a full day for the next flight after this. So on we get with our shoehorns to wedge into coach seats, without even a bottle of water since we assumed we'd be in the front of the plane, and luckily this one takes off pretty quickly. The good news, we are on the two side of the plane and run into a wonderful flight attendant, Wendy, who asks "are you the couple who was supposed to be in first?" when we say yes, she says she'll take care of us as best she can, and when, finally, the "food cart" is rolled down the aisle, she gives up a bunch of food, keeps refilling drinks and makes the flight as comfortable as possible given the circumstances.
Short end to a long morning, we land only 45 minutes later than we were scheduled, head to the rental car desk and after having to wait for the car to be washed (oh yeah, we were not "scheduled" to get the car till 7 pm due to the original flight times but we were there at 2 pm and they would not change the time on the phone or web without doubling the rate) we began the drive to Aulani. It was pretty simple, about 30 minutes, arrived there around 3:30 pm only to find out the room would not be ready for at least another hour (remember 330 pm Hawaii is really 930 pm east coast body time and we've been up since 3 am east coast). So after sitting around for about 10 minutes we go and find a bar and after the promised hour they text us that the room is ready (we already have the keys, just not the room number) and we head up to the 11th floor to find the following views of the room.
Morning finally arrives, we're up at about 7 AM local time and after a bit of stretching decide to head for breakfast. Pure Kona Coffee in a french press, views of the ocean, winds blowing, what's not to like. For the next two weeks we settled into a wonderful rhythm of sleeping, having breakfast, deciding whether to spend the day at the beach or the adult pool (not exclusively adult as it would be in Maui, but nice, none the less), happy hour after the day in the sun and then dinner. With two exceptions, one a day at Pearl Harbor (very moving and certainly a must visit) and a day spent on the North Shore, unsuccessfully searching for Jack Johnson but still stopping by Sunset Beach and having lunch in Haleiwa, the steady, relaxing rhythm accompanied by incredible weather (22 out of 22 days of sunshine, no humidity and gorgeous tropical breezes) set the tone for the trip.
Other than one night of dinner in Honolulu at La Mer in the Halekulani, where we had a spectacular tasting menu, while overlooking the ocean and the sunset,
dinners were kept close to "home" in Aulani. Surprisingly, Ama Ama their signature restaurant was excellent, we had three dinners there and each one was wonderful. The last night there we met Isaac our server, born in Lanai, and had the pleasure of listening to Teresa Bright sing. Isaac told us how much he loved her growing up and how special it was for him to be working in a place where he could hear her a few night a week. He also encouraged us to make the trek to see the sunrise at Haleakala (which we did) while on Maui. We also ate at Roy's a few times, also good, and had some "smaller" meals at a local place across the street from Aulani, (nothing special but ok). Sue even suggested one night we try the buffet at Aulani, and sadly for her it was typical buffet food, nothing special at all, I feasted on oysters and crab legs which were ok and plentiful but the grand buffet experiment will, I can guarantee, not be repeated!
After two terrific weeks at Aulani, we headed to the airport to join our friends in Maui. On a sidenote, I had been in contact both weeks with someone in Oahu trying to find the filming locations for Hawaii 5-0 so we could go by and maybe see some filming. The couple of occasions that he did know of the location, we were unable to get there, as I'm sitting in the airport on the way to Maui, I get an email telling me they were filming that day at Ko'Olina harbor :( oh well, guess that didn't work out.
The flight to Maui was short (about 25 minutes from gate to gate) and the pick up of the rental car went easily as well. About 30 minutes later we were turning onto Wailea Ike and stopped at a great little place we had been told about by the restaurant manager in Aulani, MonkeyPod Kitchen. We were both hungry so we shared salad and a pizza, bought some wine downstairs in a great little shop, along with some great cheeses and went the last mile to the Four Seasons. It was really like being "home" again. We were greeted warmly, our bags attended to, taken to the check in desk, given some cold towels, some cold juice and up to our room we went.
The room was as large and beautiful as we remembered, we unpacked and headed down for some drinks. Not too long after we were down Amy, Laura and Tracy arrived and checked in, we changed our reservation for dinner from 2 to 5 people as they were up for the challenge of dinner after the long flight in from home! We had a spectacular dinner at Spago! Great food, even better service, terrific wines. At the end of dinner everyone was tired, especially our newly arrived friends from the mainland so off we went to catch some much needed sleep.
The next morning, I got up early and headed down to get online at the Serenity Pool, they open at 7 AM, I got there at 6:40 and was only 10th in line. That turned out to be fine as I got two with an umbrella. It was the start of a beautiful relationship with the Serenity Pool, one that would be replayed each day except for the two we had early morning activities planned and would culminate with being in position #1 on what came to be fondly known as the "group W" bench on the next to last day there. (sadly only #2 on the last day).
The Serenity Pool became a base of operations for most of our stay in Maui. The two exceptions where the two mornings we did things and I was unable to take my seat on the "bench". On Aug 4th, we all got up early and headed to see the sunrise on Haleakala. One funny thing happened on the way, I was pulled over at 4 AM by a local police officer who told me my taillights were not on, (seems the valet did not cycle the button all the way) after flipping the switch for me, the officer asked what we were doing and when I told him we were headed to Haleakala, his response was "hey, you better hurry....hope you make it" When have you EVER been pulled over and then been told to hurry :) The trip was worth it, the sunrise was spectacular,
On the way down, we stopped for breakfast at the Kula Cafe, a recommendation from Lavinda, one of the massage therapists (the same one who had worked on me 10 years earlier) from the Four Seasons. It was a great morning and the rest of the day was spent by the Fountain pool and also swimming on the beach. The other morning activity was our snorkel and snuba trip on the Pride of Maui on the morning of August 5th. We went out to Molokini and then to "Turtle Town". The boat was crowded but well run, the staff great, the snorkeling was frankly, better off the reef at the hotel. Snuba was interesting a nice way for a non certified diver to experience more than just floating on the surface, and had Sue not been tied up by some idiot who was not paying attention it would have been even better for her. We did see some turtles making the trip unique and fun.
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