It’s no secret I love to travel and I’m guessing you share my interest as well since you’re reading this blog post. Unfortunately, it may not yet be the best time to hop on a plane or even jump in our car to enjoy a simple road trip. But someday (soon we hope) this will all be behind us and we’ll once again take to the skies to explore this wonderful world of ours. In the interim, I’ll continue to share some stories with you about trips I’ve taken in days gone by so, at the very least, we can all be “armchair travelers.” This post will chronicle our most recent journey to the Aloha State of Hawaii and will tell you all about our visit to Maui. I hope you enjoy it.
After a great stay at the #GrandHyattKauai Resort and Spa, we traveled back to the Lihue Airport for the next leg of our journey. We were booked on another #HawaiianAir flight, this time for the quick hop to the Kahului Airport on the Island of Maui. Since we were flying in First Class, we accepted the agent’s invitation to wait in their Premiere Club located adjacent to Gate 5. This club was very small by typical airline lounge standards but it offered a quiet and relaxing sanctuary away from the crowds that were soon gathering by our departure gate. We gained entrance via a numeric keypad by the doorway since the club wasn’t staffed but it did offer some decent snacks as well as complimentary coffee, tea and bottled water. Our B717-200 aircraft departed on time and the gracious hospitality of Hawaiian Air’s flight attendant serving the front cabin made the 50-minute flight seem even shorter. It was another beautiful sunny day and the window in Row 2 afforded us both picture-postcard views of the ocean between these 2 faraway Pacific islands.
It took nearly an hour to travel the 35 miles to the #RitzCarlton in Kapalua on the Northwest Coast but only because the posted speed limits are rather low. We passed a number of beautiful beaches en route but, I must say, it was an expensive trip to make in a taxi, running us about $114 before the gratuity. But it was worth it. This property is located on 54 lush acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean with endless views of green landscaping from the West Maui Forest Reserve in the distance to the Plantation Golf Course right next door. This stunning, fully-renovated, 5-star destination resort offers 466 guest rooms, suites and Club level- accommodations showcased with warm wood floors, travertine marble bathrooms, flat-screen televisions and Hawaiian-inspired artwork. We were upgraded to a wonderful ground level Ocean View Suite measuring about 900 square feet. The suite featured a spacious and very nice king-bedded room, a comfortable living room with a great work space, a half bath and 2, large and connected outdoor lanais - one off the bedroom and the other just outside the sitting area.
The Hawaiian name for this area was Honokahua. The resort proudly maintains the Honokahua Preservation Site which lies adjacent to the property and serves as the spot where Native Hawaiians now gather to conduct ceremonial rituals. When digging began for construction of the resort in 1987, remains of more than 900 native Hawaiians were unearthed from the sand dunes. The buried remains were dated as far back as between the years 610 and 1800. When the extent of these burial sites became more widely known, native Hawaiians from around the state staged protests. Eventually, a plan was devised in 1989 for the proper and respectful reburial of the disinterred remains. At the same time, the State of Hawaii paid $6 million for a perpetual preservation easement, the hotel was moved inland and restoration of the burial site was recognized as a wahi pana or sacred area. This 14-acre site is now a cultural landmark and the most important historical site at Kapalua.
Believe it or not, both islands of Molokai and Lanai are visible from Kapalua and can be seen from the resort. Although the Ritz is not a beach-front property, it’s not far away and that area lays claim to one of the most picturesque white-sand beaches on the island. Kapalua Bay won the title of “America’s Best Beach in 2018, according to an annual survey by “Dr. Beach,” aka Stephen Leatherman. He’s a coastal expert and professor at Florida International University who has been compiling the annual rankings since 1991. With outstanding views, palm trees and golden sand, this is the kind of beach that comes to mind when you think of Hawaii. Swimming is good here because a coral reef and long rocky outcrops at both sides of the bay protect the beach from strong currents. It’s also good for snorkeling and scuba diving with a great variety of underwater life just waiting to be discovered.
This Ritz-Carlton has 6 different restaurants on site and one of our favorite evenings took place at the Montage Cane & Canoe. The restaurant’s architecture is reminiscent of an actual Hawaiian canoe house. These were traditional community gathering places where locals and artisans would socialize making sails, shaving wood and weaving baskets. Here we were able to feast our eyes on the magnificent Kapalua Bay scenery while enjoying modern Hawaiian cuisine. The restaurant offered fresh catches of the day and top-quality meats reflecting the best of “surf and turf,” complimented by fresh produce from local farms. I can still remember the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake I chose as an appetizer and the Ahi Tuna selected for my main course. They were both delicious! The wine list was no less impressive with multiple offerings by the glass as well as an extensive roster of fine bottles sourced from California, Europe and South America.
One day we ventured into Lahaina, once known as Lele, meaning “relentless sun” in Hawaiian. Lahaina is an historic town that has been transformed into a “Maui hotspot” with dozens of art galleries and a variety of unique shops and restaurants. Once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the early 19th Century, Lahaina was also a bustling whaling village during the whaling boom of the mid-1800s. Up to 1,500 sailors from as many as 400 different ships took leave in Lahaina, including Herman Melville, who immortalized the era in his classic novel “Moby Dick.” Today, Lahaina is on the National Register of Historic Places and about 55 acres of the old town have been set aside as historic districts. Strolling down Front Street, ranked one of the “Top Ten Greatest Streets” by the American Planning Association, gave us a feel for old Lahaina. We were pleased to see the Cheeseburger in Paradise Restaurant was still in business and recalled dining there for lunch one day years earlier with our 2 boys on a family vacation to the island. On this trip, any number of boutiques and galleries called us inside to browse, leading to our discovering the town is also one of the world’s largest markets for scrimshaw, the whalers’ art of carving on ivory.
What’s a visit to Hawaii without going to a luau, right? With this in mind, we made our way to the #HyattMaui Hotel late one afternoon for their luau show called “Drums of the Pacific" which is presented right next to the ocean. An “all-you-can-eat“ buffet was offered with traditional island fare and an authentic imu ceremony. The imu itself is an underground “oven” that uses a combination of hot coals, stones and layers of leaves and cloth or mats to steam food. Basically, the “ceremony” took place at the beginning of the luau before dinner was served and consisted of removing the layers of cloth and leaves from the pit to expose the cooked pork. The kalua pork, a luau staple, was next removed from the pit and taken to the hotel kitchen for shredding. Though there is really no pomp and circumstance to this ceremony, it’s always interesting to see the very ancient cooking process in action. The real fun began after dinner when the cast had their audience mesmerized as they expertly performed a number of songs and dances originating from several Polynesian Islands. The highligh of the show occurred during the finale when a 3-man troupe performed an enthralling Samoan fire-knife dance.
I’m never anxious to leave Hawaii so, while neither of us were looking forward to the return flights signaling the end of our vacation, I can report they came off without a hitch. Our final Hawaiian Air journey of the week was an on time and flawless flight back to the Honolulu International Airport. Once again we traipsed from the Interisland Terminal back to Terminal 2 for our #Delta Airlines departure. But first, we had to complete Agricultural Inspection. All baggage bound from Hawaii to the US Mainland is subject to an x-ray, pre-flight inspection by the US Department of Agriculture. Restrictions on the movement of fruits, plants, live snails and other items from Hawaii to the Mainland are enforced to prevent the spread of fruit flies and other hazardous insects and plant diseases.
With that behind us, we soon boarded the Delta A330-300 and once again happily settled into the center seats in Row 2. Shortly after takeoff, our Delta One flight attendant served drinks and took our dinner order. Following the meal service, we enjoyed a smooth flight back across the Pacific. In fact, I even managed to get more than 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep! What a blessing as we landed in Atlanta a bit early, shortly after 6:00am local time the next morning. Our connecting flight home was leaving about 2 hours later so we had time to visit the Sky Club in Concourse B for some more coffee and a bite of breakfast. Our last flight back to the #RDUAirport was another good one. We arrived home on that mid-February morning to greet another sunny North Carolina day with fond memories of our special week in paradise.
Until next time...stay safe.
Another great review of the Hawaiian idyll .... shame we live so far away ;-(
Keep on posting