Maui summed up………Day 1

How about a breakdown of my recent trip to Maui? I’ll give a blow by blow of the trip, and I will offer up some suggestions on things to see, places to eat and stay to those of you planning a trip there.
Don’t worry though, I’ll add to this over the next few days so as not to burn you out on my terrible writing!

Day 1: We left Detroit Metro at roughly 8:05 a.m. and flew for 3.5 hours to Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport. The layover was an hour and forty minutes long (just enough time to make it to the next gate and relax a minute and grab a bite to eat) From Phoenix we flew non-stop to Kahului Maui. That leg of the flight took around six hours. And to me…six hours non-stop is about as long as I can handle! A note about Phoenix Sky Harbor..they offer travelers free WiFi, so use it!
The arrival in Maui was an exciting one. Not so much because it was Maui we were landing in, but because of the turbulence and very short runway. The trade winds that are blowing on the islands coupled with the freakishly short runway make for much conversation amongst passengers as you taxi into your gate! Our arrival time was 2:20 p.m. Maui time.
It was raining and drizzly when we got off the plane and continued to be that way for pretty much the rest of the first day. But even with the rain and clouds the weather was comfortable, around 78° F. We then proceeded to Hertz to get our rental car and headed out onto the road for the condo.
It didn’t take long to realize that we were on a relatively small piece of land as it was only 10 mile from the airport to our condo on the other side of the island. Kahului (home of the airport) is on the northern side of the island, Kihei (home of our condo) the southern end. There is really only one road from north to south connecting these two towns.
The remainder of day 1 was spent un-packing and going to the grocery store. Well, let me discuss the condo and grocery store before I get to day 2.
The condo:
The condo is at the Sugar Beach resort in Kehei and was a nice place. It was a typical small condo, one bed, one bathroom, small kitchen and living room. It was on the second floor (unit #212 if you are looking for some place to stay!). The resort has a good sized heated pool with a smaller elevated heated pool that overflows into the larger one. A hot tub (why a super hot tub in Maui I just don’t understand). There is a small bar/grill to hang out at (great food and a really cool cook and bartender there!). They also have on premises a place to get your island activities arranged. If you want to go to a Luau, snorkeling, or anything else you can get it arranged right on the premises. Oh, and they have 5-6 very nice BIG new stainless steel grills for the residents to use right near the beach.
Grocery Shopping:
One of the factors that led me to rent a condo vs. getting a hotel room was the fact that we would have a full kitchen at our disposal so we could just get groceries and save a few dollars by not eating out all the time. WRONG. We quickly found out that a lot of items that are fairly cheap her in Michigan aren’t exactly cheap on Maui. I mean it makes sense, if it isn’t local it is imported from great distances. Milk for example was nearly $6 a gallon, bread was almost $5 a loaf. Bread, cheese, chips all of it grossly overpriced due to shipping costs. We quickly discovered that eating out was on par with eating in as far as money is concerned, that is unless you only eat local foods.
So my advice? Eat out! And I don’t mean at McDonald’s or other fast food places, I mean eat out at small local restaurants and pubs. The food is priced reasonably and is also locally raised, grown, or caught.

Alright, enough of day one. The remaining days will be a bit more interesting so keep checking back. And remember, I have many pictures up at http://www.flickr.com/sl33stak and more will be added over the next few weeks as I wade through 700+ images I shot while there.

Mahalo for stopping by.