Waking up early in the morning any day is a real challenge for me, but when it means I'm getting on a plane I seem to react much differently. Thanks to some thoughtful friends, we received a deal to spend 5 nights at the Westin Ka'anapali villas and coupled with enough Alaska Airline points for one round trip ticket how could we refuse? Oh yeah, the deal also included a free car rental. All we really needed was to buy one plane ticket and cover our incidentals. This was a no brainer....
So early Sunday morning, and I really mean early....3am early....our alarm went off signalling the start of our beach escape to Maui. Despite being so early the security line up was quite long but thanks to Nexus we breezed through that and immigration. All that was left to do was find coffee and wait to board our fight. The Starbucks and Tim Horton's lines were quite long so early in the AM. Timmie's in hand we had time to spare at the gate before boarding our 35 minute flight to SEA. On the next leg to Maui, Z got upgraded to first class. Lucky him, but I had a pretty good seat too in the bulk head just a row behind him on the opposite of the plane though. The flight crew to Maui was fantastic!! AC could really learn a lot on customer service and making the flight experience fun!! Our crew was not only friendly, they were full of wise cracks and even sang to us. Before takeoff while we were waiting for clearance the captain came through the cabin and personally thanked everyone for flying with them. Nice touch!!
Landing in Maui is such a fantastic feeling. You are greeted by the warm sunshine and gentle (sometimes not so gentle) tropical breeze. It provides me with an instant feeling of relaxation and an ability to forget the obligations of real life for awhile. This trip is a little shorter than we've done previously and our plan was to spend as much time relaxing and lounging around as possible - mission accomplished.
The Westin villas as situated on one of what I consider the best beaches in Maui, Ka'anapali beach. The beach stretches miles and has since our last visit seemed to have become a little wider providing more room for beach goers. The beach is a soft white sand and has a gentle slop towards the ocean which is ideal for lying on. We learned from a local that this stretch of the ocean is part of a reserve that doesn't allow for fishing. And it's totally noticeable the positive impact that has on the sea life. The fish were in abundance each time we went snorkelling....more so than I remember from before. You only had to stick your head in the water right at the shoreline to see beautiful, colourful fish of all sorts. What astonished me this time too was the amount of living corral, so much more than I recall. It was vibrant and bountiful. Most of it looked like cauliflower corral and looked yellowish in colour but you cold find some purple and blue corral as well. There was one spot I kept coming back to that was a triangular shaped "mountain" of corral....it was so amazing to see and just made me think about how incredible sea life really is in its natural state and when left undisturbed to thrive. We found the best snorkelling to be in the morning....the water was calm and quite clear. First time out we saw a turtle chilling out and not afraid at all of the people around it. There were different fish this time including a fish with a grey body and with a pinkish fin and line outlining its bottom edge. There was a grey and black spotted fish that seemed to enjoy the ocean floor the most. I found an eel hiding in a rock crevasse much to the disappointed of Z who was off exploring something else and by the time I could tell him the eel was long gone.
Training for my upcoming half marathon could not stop just because we were on vacation. So we went running along the beach boardwalk twice. You have to go either early in the morning or later in the evening because the daytime heat would be overwhelming. We went in the morning because we were up early anyway thanks to the lovely tropical birds chirping. First run was a 9km distance for me, 10km for Z. I somewhat gave up and refused to do the additional 1km for whatever reason was going on in my head at the time....maybe it was the heat or maybe it was just the typical mental wall I hit. Second time was a 6km along the same scenic mostly beachfront boardwalk....oh yeah, going early in the morning is good too otherwise the path gets rather busy and you spend a lot of energy dodging people.
We ate at a couple different eateries this time that we hadn't previously tried before. Pailolo Bar and Grill right on the villas property was great. We ended up there on our first night for a later dinner after Z found out they had an Australian Wagu burger for half price.
Kimo's in Lahaina has a great view of the ocean and is fantastic when timed right with a sunset. This restaurant serves local and we dined on some delicious roasted veggie dip with flatbread and fresh calamari (I tried it but it's still not for my taste) as our appies. For our mains I enjoyed the pork ribs while Z had one of the fresh fish dishes. My drink choice was Kimo's grog which was ginger beer with ginger syrup, vodka and fresh lime- very tasty and refreshing!! Z had a locally brewed beer. For dessert we shared the pineapple coconut cheesecake......oh so good.
We chose the green option at the resort which meant that we would forego housekeeping for the day and in return we got a free buffet breakfast. We did this for three days leaving us with two others where we needed to find a breakfast place. Z in his mysterious ways found us a cool breakfast restaurant called Slappy Cakes. It's about a 15 minute walk from the resort. We arrived to a line up out the door, but they were moving people pretty quick....the unique thing about his place is that you can sit at a table and actually make your own pancakes. Because we were rather hungry we opted for whatever table was ready first and we ended up at a regular table. No big deal and probably better because then we could just enjoy eating our breakfast rather than making it first. We started with a bowl of oh so yummy tasting fruit consisting of blueberries, strawberries, bananas, mango, pineapple and papaya. The coffee was amazing!! I ordered the blueberry buttermilk pancakes with lemon curd and Z had the Hawaiian pancakes (pineapple, banana and Mac nuts). These were the best pancakes that I have ever eaten anywhere.....they were so flavourful and light. They were so amazingly good that I made sure to let our waiter know these were the best I've ever had (in a restaurant)....definitely will go back to this place again and highly recommend it to anyone!!
We had an early afternoon departure and so we had some time to explore after we checked out of our resort. So we took a drive in search of the best donuts in Maui.....not sure how he really finds all these places but he does and every time it's a great experience for me. We made our way inland to the historic town of Makawao, known for its Hawaiian paniolo (cowboys) and the very famous Komodo Bakery and Store. Here is where you will find the absolute best donuts on Maui....now you have to get there early because when they sell out of a type you're out of luck! Trust me when I say, the donuts are awesome. I had a vanilla long john that melted in my mouth. Some of the varieties include: donuts on a stick, cream puffs and strawberry filled donuts, which on the day we went were obviously very popular because there weren't any left. Made for a very tasty breakfast treat.
It's always nice to discover something new and this time around we found a couple new eateries. Maui has become a favourite destination for us.....it just provides such a great atmosphere for relaxation and reenergizing our batteries.
Aloha!
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