And away we go

Since I did not bother with keeping up my travel journal last week, I better write down everything I can remember before it all fades away.

July 29, 2006

Everyone was stunned when I told them about how much I was taking with me for my one week in Hawaii. What can I say? I tend to pack the world with me. Four pairs of shoes? A bit much? I didn’t think so, they were all going to serve their own purpose. Hiking shoes for Diamond Head, flip flops for the beach, my trusty Pumas for long walks sightseeing, and some dressy sandals for the flights there and back. We were going to try and dress the part of business class passengers in hopes of an upgrade. It never worked.

Let’s see, what else…at least 10 tops, only one of which had sleeves and those were short (you all know me, I wilt easily in the heat) and one long sleeve yoga zip-up…but I expected to only use it on the plane. A sundress for the luau, two pairs of shorts, and a skort. Forget about jeans, I don’t think I would survive the heat of Hawaii with my legs all covered. More swimsuits than I have ever owned in my life, thanks to some amazing sales and boosted confidence, and a few boardshorts for days when that confidence may wane. My shower wrap, a cover-up top (again for waning-confidence days), two pairs of socks (hiking days), some foot liners (Puma days), several different methods of hair removal (didn’t really want to shave if I could avoid it, and at the last minute I read on my in-shower Veet, which was to be my holiday savior, that you should avoid sunbathing and swimming for 24 hours after application….that simply would not do!). 7 sets of pajamas, more pairs of delicates than I could ever need in that one week, toiletries, my Jack Daniels hat, SPF 50 sunblock, and contact lens solution. All that and I was still anxious that I was missing something. But as I’ve heard someone say: “Pack half the stuff and bring twice the money.” Whatever I was forgetting, if anything, could surely be bought on my holiday. After all was said and done, I had my 25-inch suitcase and my 17-inch rolling carry-on all packed plus my traveling purse. I was good to go.

Contrast that with my traveling companion, Daisy, and her 26-inch suitcase and backpack. The pack-the-world princess versus the backpacking nomad. It would be an interesting 7 days.

So Day 1: off to Maui. Got to the airport and all checked-in no problem. Didn’t get into business class, though : (. They had fake flower leis for us to wear when we checked in. I thought some passengers might find it a bit hokey but everyone seemed to be in good spirits and quite a few opted to keep it on all the way to our destination.

Thank goodness I had Daisy with me. It has been a good number of years since I’ve flown, and even with helping my family on their trip to the Philippines earlier this year I was still caught unaware. I found it kind of odd that they didn’t take our luggage after handing us our boarding passes but it didn’t seem to faze the rest of the passengers so I just shrugged it off. After we cleared U.S. customs there were baggage handlers ready to place our luggage onto the conveyor belt. Assuming that it was the x-ray machine I ditzily handed them both of my suitcases and was handing them my purse when the handler told me to keep it with me. That was when Daisy, all concerned for my carry-on, pointed out that it was the belt for all the checked luggage. Luckily, the handler made a call down and was able to get me my carry-on back. Didn’t I say it was going to be an interesting 7 days? I mean, I had not even left Calgary soil and I was already making travel mistakes! Luckily, after that our wait until boarding was problem-free.

And the flight to Maui? Last time I flew with Harmony they were calling themselves HMY Airlines. Back then I thought they were superb, but that could have easily been due to the fact that they were serving a plane-load of travel agents. I’m happy to note that they are just as amazing as they were when I went to Ixtapa, and I can be confident in my judgment now since we were all just your typical passengers/tourists. They provided us with more food and drink than I could have ever expected. The seats were not jam-packed hip to hip. They even had a nice hot towel for us before our descent into Kahului. Daisy mentioned something to the effect that they operated pretty similar to what she affectionately likes to call “the golden age of travel.” No skimpy service here!

The airport was pretty small, and open-air, too! We found our airport transfer no problem and were the first ones dropped off at our hotel.

Our room was gorgeous and ocean-front as we had asked for. Not only that but it turned out we were right next door to our surf lessons as well as walking distance to all the good stuff in town.

And walk we did. We saw the big banyan tree, we witnessed a surfing competition in progress, a tiny open-air Baptist church (I really dig the open-air things), and other quaint and little-town things. Lahaina (that’s where we stayed) is a lot like Banff, in my opinion, just on the sea. You have one main street, Front Street, with all these cute shops and restaurants, and that’s all there really is to life in the town. Visited Hale Kahiko, which is a copy of an old Hawaiian village with thatched roof huts and tikis and their everyday tools.

As Kool Keith said to me, Lahaina seems to be where all the action is even if it’s a sleepy little town. He warned me that I’d be surprised how early the night wraps up there, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all. Coming from Calgary, where shops close up at 9 except for Wal-Mart and the odd grocery store closing at 10, you could shop for pearls, jewelry, anything you desired until 11-11:30. And everyone was walking the street late into the evening.

We had dinner at the original Cheeseburger In Paradise. I agree with the reviews that it’s kitschy and overpriced, but I would have regretted not checking the place out. But we were pretty exhausted for our first night out…whereas the town just seemed to be warming up. We put up a good fight, I felt, but by midnight we were definitely ready to fall asleep.