Maui
Just arrived - Sandy enjoys the view from our patio
Although Sandy and I have been to Hawaii quite a few times, we hadn't gone there in quite a while. Our last trip was to the Big Island, before COVID, in early 2019. Last year Sandy wanted to go back, so we planned a trip to Maui in fall 2023. As we got close to the time for leaving we changed our minds. We had been traveling a lot, particularly Sandy going back to the Midwest to help with the new Grandbaby. So we decided to cancel the trip and spend some time at home.
This year we got another chance. We had some other trips planned, but Costco Travel offered a great deal. If we booked a trip to Hawaii, we got a certain percentage of the cost as a travel credit against a future trip. We already were thinking of a South Pacific trip late in the year so we could use our travel credit against that. Plus when Sandy checked, she found availability at the Napili Kai Beach Resort. It's a relatively small resort in the far northwest of Maui that Sandy has always wanted to visit. Usually it is booked way ahead of time but we were able to get spots this time. It seemed that the stars were aligned so we decided to go.
From our patio - rocky shoreline and Lanai in the distance
We had an Uber pick up at 5 am so we could make our 6:40 am flight to San Francisco. That meant getting up when I am usually just going to bed. The good news was that with the early start and the time change, we arrived in Maui before noon. We didn't lose a day for travel. It had taken a while to get there and with only airline pretzels to eat along the way, we were both starved by the time we got our rental car. We stopped for lunch at the closest place we could find, The Ale House, only a five minute drive from the airport. It was nothing fancy, just a sports bar/pub, but when you are hungry everything tastes good.
After lunch it took us about an hour to drive to our hotel. We took the road that used to go through Lahaina, which passed through the areas hit worst by the wild fires of the previous year. Now a temporary bypass goes around most of the town because the entire downtown area is still completely destroyed. Eight months after the fires, most of the badly burned area has not been cleared. Hazardous waste disposal is slowing the cleanup because Hawaii doesn't have the infrastructure to handle it. On top of that there are lots of restrictions, regulations and political disagreements about how to rebuild. That is slowing things down a lot as well. Everything from preservation of ancient burial sites to concern about developers coming in and displacing locals has to be considered. At the rate that they are going it will take many years before Lahaina is restored, if ever. It's too bad because we both remember it as a nice little town to visit.
A morning walk on Napili Beach
Fortunately the area north of Lahaina hadn't been affected by the fires. We were staying at the Napili Kai Beach Resort. It is near the very northwest corner of the island, on Napili Bay (never would have guessed that from the name of the place, huh). Since the prevailing winds are from the northeast, the bay was calm, sheltered from the high surf that pounds the north and east sides of the island. Although there were high rise hotels south of us in Kaanapali Beach, and north of us in Kapaloa, there were only small hotels around Napili Bay. That meant that no high rises were visible to spoil the view and there were far less people than at other spots along this stretch of coast. There was a beautiful beach nestled along the innermost part of the bay. Our room was at the very far end of the resort, which started at the beach and stretched along the northeast side of the bay. Our patio was only a few feet from the ocean and faced southeast. Napili Beach was on the far left. Straight ahead we looked across the bay and then open ocean to the island of Lanai, about ten miles away. The island of Molokai was also visible far off to the west. It was quite a spectacular view.
My knee survives all the steps to reach Punalau Beach
We didn't have any special activites planned for our vacation. The idea was just to take it easy and enjoy where we were staying, although we did do a scenic drive one day. The island of Maui is basically two big volcanoes that stick out of the ocean with a low valley connecting them. So the island has two large lobes. We were on the smaller, western lobe. The main road that we had taken to the hotel went to the south, clockwise, about half way around the western side of the island. To explore, we continued going clockwise around the northern side of our part of the island. There was no coastal plain on the north side. The island rose steeply out of the ocean. Only a few minutes after leaving our resort, the road became very narrow and winding. It was slow going, plus there were a lot of scenic spots to stop at. Most of the coast was steep cliff. Since the winds come from the north, it was constantly pounded by big surf. There were no towns or businesses along the road and almost no houses. It was an impressive stretch of coast.
Impressive blowhole along the north coast
We stopped at a number of scenic viewpoints. At one, there was an impressive blow hole. Everytime a big wave came in, the water went through a gap in the cliff and blasted out through a small hole high into the air. At another stop, a steep stairway with about two hundred steps led to secluded Punalau Beach. It was a pretty spot. I wasn't sure how my knee would hold up on the stairs but it did just fine.
The farther we went on the road, the more it deteriorated. Eventually we decided to turn around, figuring that it was quicker than to try to continue on to Lihue.
Every day we went for walks. A section of coastal trail started right from the parking lot of our building at the resort. It went north to Kapalua Bay, continued on to Namalu Bay and then around to the north side of the island and Oneloa Bay. It was a beautiful walk along the ocean but being at the extreme northwest of the island it was always very windy. While the walk was pretty it wasn't always pleasant. We did it a couple of times but never went all the way to the end.
Linner at the Hula Grill on Kaanapali Beach
We preferred another walk that went inland. It climbed onto a ridge behind the golf course that was across the street from our resort. The views over the golf course and out to the ocean were less wild than rugged coastline but still very pretty. This route was more sheltered so that the walk was more enjoyable. A bonus was that at the crest of the ridge there were several restaurants and a general store where we could get groceries, and more importantly, tshirts. We did this walk a lot.
Food was an important part of this vacation and we tried a variety of restaurants. The Seahorse Restaurant at our resort was good and we ate there twice. We also had dinner at Taverna Maui, an Italian restaurant at the Kapalua Golf Club. We went to Maui Brewing Company, which was a big disappointment for me. The food was ok, as was the beer, but they had terrible tshirts. I don't care about the beer. I expect a craft brewery, especially someplace like Hawaii, to have cool tshirts and these guys did not. Fortunately Sandy went to Bad Ass Coffee Company and I did find a tshirt that I liked there. And Sandy said the coffee was pretty good too.
Spectacular rainbow seen from our patio
A couple of days we drove down to Kaanapali Bay. We have stayed there on past trips but I liked where we were better. The hotels were bigger and there were a lot more people. But it was fun to go to Whaler's Village and wander around the mall. Lots of tshirt shops there! And they had some good restaurants right on the beach. One time we ate at the Hula Grill and another day we ate at Leilani's. Both were good. And there was a good gelato place conveniently located right next to the restaurants. But just to show how expensive Hawaii is, two ice cream cones were a little over $20. Wow!
Although our lunches/dinners/linners were all good, the find of the trip was Papi's Ohana. It's a bakery and their specialty is cinnamon rolls. We read that they were popular and sure enough when we got there the first day, there were about twenty people in line. We had to wait fifteen minutes to get in but we had been warned and were willing to wait. We took the rolls home and they were fantastic. They were eight inches in diameter ($10 apiece!) but they were absolutely amazing. The bakery was closed over the weekend but I said that no matter what, we were going back again before we left the island.
In line for cinnamon rolls at Papi"s
Our second time Sandy suggested that we go early to beat the rush. Good idea but it didn't work. When we got there a little after 7am, there were at least fifty people already in line. Well, we were on vacation so we just waited. It took an hour. While we were waiting, Sandy was lamenting that Papi's didn't have coffee so I checked my phone. Turns out there was a coffee place about a hundred feet down the street. So it was a happy ending. Sandy got her coffee and we got amazing cinnamon rolls, again. If I ever go back to Maui, the one place I will make sure that I go back to is Papi's.
Although we took walks, went on scenic drives and ate lots of good food, the thing we did most was sit on our patio and enjoy the view. Every morning we had breakfast there. Every evening we had happy hour and enjoyed a glass of wine. Often we would just sit out during the afternoon and watch the ocean. The surf always pounded the rocks just below our room. Once we had a spectacular rainbow as a rain shower moved across the bay. Sunsets were always beautiful and at night the lights would come out from the resorts around the bay. It was just a fantastic place to be.
Watching the sun set behind the island of Molokai
We had a late night flight home so we had a whole day to kill after we checked out. We drove to the other side of the island and went to Wailea Village. We didn't find anything there that we hadn't seen before. There was a Tommy Bahamma restaurant where we stopped for lunch but that didn't work out. We wanted a late lunch but all they had was a dinner menu with fancy stuff on it. It wasn't what we were looking for so we just left without ordering. It was just as well as the table next to us had a large group of young people that were loud and obnoxious. Instead we went to Black Rock Pizza, which was good. We ended up at the airport fairly early, but Maui has a very nice, new airport and we just hung around there until our redeye flight left. The trip back was uneventful and we were back home before noon the next day.
An excellent vacation. We both agreed that we would go back to that resort again.
