Spa Time, Beaches, Lahaina - May 31, 2010

Jet lag still in force, I woke up at 4am.  Slowly but surely, my body would get used to Hawaiian time, and probably right when I'm about to leave.

Headed to the spa this morning!  (well, not the guys)  Jennifer was nice enough to make appointments for all 3 of us (her, her friend Natalie, and me) at the Spa at Black Rock, which is located inside the Sheraton Maui hotel.  Many millions of dollars went into a recent renovation of the place, so we decided to check it out.  Since Jennifer and Natalie's hotel was just next door, I picked them up so didn't need to inconvenience one of the husbands to drop them off.  It was easy to find the Sheraton and valeted the car since the spa validates parking for 3 hours.

The Sheraton's grounds are very beautiful, with lush landscaping, green grass, refreshing pool with the backdrop of the ocean.  We head over to the spa, that just opened at 8:30am.  I brought my swimsuit in anticipation of having a steam room/sauna or even a hot tub to relax in before the treatment, but no such amenities were offered. :(  We were led to a waiting room with several cream colored 60's style loungers, fruit-flavored water, hot tea, and magazines to pass the time.  At 9am, three massage therapists came in and took us to our treatment rooms.  My room was actually partially outdoors (not sure about the others), as one of the walls stopped short of the ceiling and was open to the outside.  I could occasionally hear people walking across the lawn outside, but I figured they'd have to be 8 feet tall to be able to see in so I wasn't too worried.  My therapist really worked hard during the 80 minute massage session!  My body was smashed, squished, pulled, stretched.  (though this was nothing compared to China, to be told in a later blog entry)  She definitely earned her tip.  Jennifer and Natalie only had 50 minute massages, so they were waiting for me in the lounge.  Jennifer also agreed that her massage therapist worked hard.  Natalie had a pre-natal massage (5 months pregnant!) so she did not have as fulfilling a massage since they can't press too hard, but it was still relaxing.  We left the spa, walked the grounds a bit more before heading back.  I dropped them off at Honua Kai and then took a trip to Safeway to stock up on more poke and sea salad...

I return to the condo and no sign of Babe.  He comes in a little while later and tells me that he walked all the way from the Westin to the Sheraton and back on the beach path, which included some detours through parking lots and hotels.  He even passed by in front of the Black Rock spa!  (though by the time he did, we already had left)  We have lunch and head over to the beach to snorkel.  There were lots of fish but no turtles.  Until we got out of the water.  I think we saw a turtle come up for air and dive back down.  Oh well.  We looked for some poolside lounge chairs but there were so many people, even the pay cabanas were occupied.  Eventually we locate some chairs by a beautiful koi pond and relaxed.

That evening after dinner, we decide to retrace Babe's morning footsteps.  It was nice that a "beach path" was built to make it convenient to walk between hotels.  It was obvious where our property stopped as the walkway was no longer as impeccably maintained once the property line was crossed, haha.  We passed by other hotels like the Outrigger Maui Eldorado with a golf course, and the Royal Lahaina (the cottages look so cozy!), and eventually to the Sheraton.  You have to walk through the property in order to connect to the rest of the beach walk towards the Hyatt.

We make it to Whaler's Village and look around.  The two restaurants that flank this outdoor mall were full of people inside and people waiting outside.  I'm glad I was staying north of the Sheraton as it is much more conducive to relaxation, with less hustle and bustle.  People who enjoy hustle and bustle will like staying on this side of Kaanapali.  So, the main goal of going to Whaler's was to locate the Honolulu Cookie Company, which I mentioned on my Waikiki trip blog.  We find the place and eat samples to our heart's content, but I did buy a box of cookies. :)  We stopped by a self-serve yogurt place for a refreshing snack before continuing on the remainder of the beach walk.

We pass properties like the Westin Maui and the Marriott Maui Ocean Club (where I stayed last time I was in Maui), and just when we were about to exit the Marriott grounds, Babe sees a credit card lying on the lawn beside the path.  It's an American Airlines credit card belonging to a lady named Sherry.  We decide to cut short our walk and head over to the Marriott front desk to drop it off.  Hopefully they were able to locate Sherry...it probably fell out of a pocket while heading to the beach, and the closest property was the Marriott.  She probably didn't even know it was missing.

With all the walking and the Marriott detour, I wasn't too excited about walking all the way back to the condo, so we returned to the Westin Maui to see the sunset (beautiful!) and then pick up the complimentary shuttle that runs between the three properties (Sheraton Maui, Westin Maui, Westin Kaanapali Ocean Villas).  The shuttle picked up at the back of the hotel, and our hotel was the next stop!  We decided we'd take the shuttle the following evening back to the Westin Maui, and walk to the Hyatt for their Drums of the Pacific luau, where we would meet up with Jennifer, Natalie, and their families, plus Ruchira and Niran (my co-workers) and their family.  I had already purchased tickets in advance through Tom Barefoot's Tours for a great price!

Beaches, Paia, Hiking Adventure - May 30, 2010

Today was slated to be a lazy day...but it didn't turn out to be.

Due to jet lag, I woke up at 3:30am.  Ugh.  I forced myself to go back to sleep...and woke up at 5:30am.  I figured I might as well get up and start the day, even though it was very comfy in the bed.  It's a "Westin Heavenly Bed", triple sheeted along with a fluffy duvet, and lots of pillows including down-filled ones.

We had breakfast in the villa and ventured out to take a stroll on the beach.  We headed north, passing the Honua Kai and made it up to where the beach started to disappear and get rocky, near a condo complex called Mahana.  The wind was blustery this morning; we were fighting against it when we turned around to head back to our resort.  I was hoping it wouldn't stay windy all week.

We eat lunch in the condo and decide to head into the main town to go to Walmart and pick up some things, as I forgot to pack my beach bag.  We buy one, plus a couple of thin velour beach towels, my favorite dried mangoes (7D brand), and other munchies.  The "Maui Revealed" guidebook said that a really good shave ice establishment called Aloha Shave Ice was in the town of Paia, which was 7 miles further.  We decide to drive out there to partake.  7 miles felt like a long way as we were passing expanses of sugar cane fields.  We get to the shop and ordered the "Jumbo" size, with ice cream on the bottom and mango, lychee and pina colada syrups on top.  (no azuki beans or condensed milk available, boo hoo)  Boy it was jumbo!  The huge ball of shave ice seemed to defy gravity.  "Be the ball."  I forgot to take a picture of it before we attacked it; what is shown has 1/3 of it eaten.  The ice was shaved very fine, and the syrups popped with flavor.  The store had an "FAQ" posted on the wall with questions like "What is lychee flavor?" and the answer was something along the lines that it was an exotic fruit and to stick with "normal" flavors if you weren't sure you were going to like the flavor!  There was another question:  "Do you sell shave ice?"; the answer was something like "Yes, you walked into a shave ice store."  Can't believe people would ask these questions.  I should have taken a picture of the FAQ.

The town of Paia is very hippie-like.  I was not surprised to find a co-op there, called Mana Foods.  We went in to browse the products.  It's like your normal co-op: a lot of organic produce, organic and/or hard-to-find grocery products, incense, spices, bulk foods, energy bars, you get the picture.  The produce section had lychee...yay!  We were waiting to check out with this one item.  The lady in front of us bought around $200 worth of groceries.  She got a free reusable bag for spending $150, but she already brought a ton of them with her, so she gave it to me, how generous!  The bag came in handy for the beach later in the week. :)

We impulsively decide to go on an adventure.  The guidebook mentions a hike to a blowhole up on the north side of the island.  Normally, people would drive there from the Kaanapali side on a nice highway, but we (foolishly?) decided to drive up the other way since we were coming from Paia, along a twisty windy road.  It had looked shorter on the map!  There were areas where only one car could fit through against the side of a mountain.  Not for the faint of heart.  Almost 2 hours later, we get to the trailhead for the hike.  It's 5pm and the sun was starting its descent towards the horizon.  I wasn't sure if we'd make it in and out before dark, but we went anyway.  The clouds were also threatening to drop rain on us.  I was wearing flip flops too, not the best for hiking over lava that looks like an alien landscape, but I persevered.  The hike wasn't too long and we were rewarded with a blowhole show, as it was high tide.  It erupted several stories in the air and I was not comfortable getting to close to it, but Babe was more courageous.  We eventually make it back to the condo in one piece, before darkness settled in.  Whew, what a day, so much for being lazy!  Good thing a spa morning is planned for tomorrow!

Heading to Maui - May 29, 2010

Editor's note:  I've been recovering from major jet lag and busy at work, so the blog entries are a bit late, but I'm working on them!

At last, we're headed to Maui, after counting down what seemed to be forever and a day.  I do what I normally do at 24 hours before departure: check in online at United's website.  You don't have to check in at 24 hours if you're not vying for priority for waitlisted upgrades, but it's become a habit for me.  After typing in my confirmation number, I was rewarded with an error which would have freaked out non-frequent flyers (and to be honest, even frequent flyers):  "We are unable to locate an electronic ticket for this itinerary. Please return to your original place of purchase for assistance and return to united.com for check-in."  The original place of purchase was united.com!  I suspected it was due to the two schedule changes that occurred from when I had bought the tickets way back when.  The outbound flight had switched from an LAX connection to an SFO connection and I suspected that the computer screwed up on this.  Usually most schedule changes involve changing the departure time, not as drastic as changing transfer airports.  I first did a search on the United forum on FlyerTalk to get advice, then called the 1K desk.  The agent verified that it was indeed the switch from LAX to SFO and put me on hold as she fixed the tickets and ensured that my upgrades remained intact.  I now was able to check in online, and all was well.  I had used CR-1's (confirmed regional upgrades) to grab the upgrades at booking time and not risk it with the UDU program (UDU = unlimited domestic upgrades), even though I knew that Hawaii flights are not full with elite flyers.  As it turned out, I probably didn't need to burn my CR-1's as the first class seating map was only half full the day before departure, but it's always nice to know you're confirmed.  I think even if you were "merely" a Premier member, you would have gotten the complimentary upgrade into the first class cabin.  Things to keep in mind.  Maybe you might want to shoot for the 25k mile mark to become a Premier...

The airport wasn't too bad on Saturday morning.  Checking in bags was a breeze since we got to use the 1K line.  It's not always a get-out-of-jail-free card though.  There was a security line offered for elites, so we went into it, but the regular line seemed to move faster.  There was only one TSA checking ID's in the elite line, and three of them in the regular line.  By the time I realized this, it was too late to switch lines to make a difference.  We had plenty of time before boarding, so I wasn't panicking.

This was Babe's first flight on United.  How could that possibly be since I fly United so much?  When we went to Kauai last year, we flew Hawaiian since the price was a lot cheaper.  Went on American to Cancun, and USAir/Southwest for most other trips.  It's good to travel with a 1K member, as UDU is offered for the 1K member plus his/her companion!  So in the end, he doesn't need to maintain a high elite status; he just has to travel with me.  Him having 1K status would help a lot with waitlisted upgrade requests on transoceanic flights.  But we don't fly those often, so we only needed one person to have status.  It would be a different story for a family of 3 or 4; both parents would need some status to upgrade the entire family.  One day perhaps.

Our connection was in SFO, then onto the flight to Maui.  It was a midday flight, so lunch was served.  Everything is served at the same time on one tray:  salad, entree, dessert.  The food wasn't spectacular:  salad was meh, my entree of chicken and noodles was bland, carrot cake sub-average.  Babe had the mahi mahi and it was decent, washed down with a couple of cans of wheat beer.  We play the United "Halfway to Hawaii" game, where the pilot gives you the total number of nautical miles from SFO to Maui along with the airspeed and the headwind and you get to calculate what time (to the second!) the airplane will hit the halfway point.  The player closest to the exact time wins an "Iz" CD of Hawaiian music. (he is known best for his "Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" compilation)  I was off by 10 minutes. :(  The game piece came with a couple of coupons, $10 off a luau at the Hilton in Waikiki, and also $10 off a spa treatment at the Grand Wailea in Maui.  I saved the coupons as my friend Jennifer and I were contemplating going to the Grand Wailea spa.

We arrive in Maui late in the afternoon...bags came out fast; by some miracle, the baggage handlers offloaded the "priority" baggage first.  Took the Alamo rental car shuttle located behind the rental car desk area, as I already had a reservation from Priceline.  Got a great deal too; a midsize car ended up being ~$150 for the week including all taxes.  We got to choose any car along a row of midsize vehicles.  I immediately noticed a Sebring Limited Edition, so I made a beeline for it before other customers behind us realized its existence, even though I wasn't crazy about the gold metallic finish.  I always check the interior of the car for smoke odor and I got the unexpected smell of what seemed to be "new car".  We get in, I turn on the engine, and I notice the display says "7".  "7" what?  I push buttons to change the display...nope, it's not "Trip A" or "Trip B".  It's the actual odometer...a brand new rental car!  The employee at the exit booth proclaimed that I will be the first driver to put scratches on it, haha.  I told her I would drive carefully.

First stop?  Costco of course.  What trip to Hawaii would be complete without a visit to this mecca?  The prices are practically the same as on the mainland, so loaded up on essentials like eggs, lunchmeat, cheese, bread, papaya.  Yup, papaya is quite essential.  Second stop was to the Safeway in Lahaina for some poke (poh-kei) and local libations.  Poke is diced raw ahi tuna (or other kinds of seafood) marinated with different ingredients like shoyu (a kind of soy sauce) or seaweed, onion, etc..  We picked up some tuna poke, octopus poke, and sea salad (aka seaweed).

Final stop for the day was to the Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas (North), our home for the next 6 nights.  The check-in date was Friday May 28th but I wasn't too picky with the choice 2 weeks before trip departure.  Turns out that Jennifer was staying right next door at the Honua Kai, very convenient as I was picking up her and her friend Natalie to go to the Black Rock spa Monday morning!



This timeshare is one of the nicest I've stayed at.  It can be hard to trade into here unless you are trading another Starwood week (this property is part of the Starwood Vacation Ownership program), have a high-demand week to trade in return, or wait until very last minute to trade, like I did.

The 1 bedroom villa was decorated with a contemporary touch and spacious with a full kitchen, stack washer/dryer, living room, king-sized "Heavenly Bed", and a HUGE shower ("Heavenly Bath")!  Free wi-fi.  Nice toiletries too.  First time I've seen soap shaped like a leaf at a hotel.  The location of the villa was away from the pool and closer to the road, but I didn't mind, as the walk to the pool and beach wasn't that far and it was very quiet.  We even had a view of a bit of ocean from the patio, despite it being a "gardenview" category.  Once a developer builds another timeshare or hotel in the empty lot between us and the Honua Kai, then the villa will truly be a "gardenview".

We settled in, had dinner, and watched the sunset from the patio with local Hawaiian beer in hand.  Great start to a vacation in paradise!