Day One: Back On Maui ...Where We Belong

Dec 29th...

We were going to work till Noon but made it until maybe 11:00; this is the beginning of our trip... Finally driving home and ready to load up the Jeep for our drive to Chicago.

A couple hours later and we are off!!! We will spend the night in Chicago at the Hyatt Regancy. They will shuttle us to the airport in the morning, our flight is at 5:00 AM and we will arrive on Maui just after Noon at 12:30 PM.

We were there 9 months ago but the wait to return has felt like forever!

 The smiles get bigger and cheesier the closer we get, we are boarded on the plane in Chicago and ready to go.

O'Hare is a big airport but with this early flight it was easy to get around, the US Airways Staff as well as the TSA Staff were helpful and we were at our terminal waiting to go in no time and without a hitch.

You can't really tell in this picture but we are now changed into shorts and sandals! We changed at the airport in Phoenix and now boarded and ready for take-off!

We arrived on Maui just after 12:30; the second we stepped off the plane we could feel AND smell the air that welcomed us back home.

It was the weirdest feeling, we had waited and waited with such anticipation and now we were here but where was the big Ta-Dah moment?? 

We picked up our car from Enterprise, a Hyundai Elantra, very nice, new vehicle. It was comfortable and great gas mileage! We were in and out of there in not time at all and on our way.

We had these fabulous plans of getting all stocked up with groceries and headed to Costco; we have never been to a Costco by the way...

Well we were clearly out of our element and while we did find some good deals on ribeyes and ground beef, and a few other items we do not think we will go back.

I would say if you are familiar with Costco and don't mind crowds that there are definitely deals to be had, our steaks were actually fantastic! However, if you or your shopping partner tend to shy from crowds and like a more laid back shopping experience I would stick to the smaller grocery stores on the island. I am glad we tried it and now we know.

We could hardly stand the wait to get to our condo in Honokowai, The Kulakane, we decided we were not hungry enough to stop and eat as we had ate some breakfast in Phoenix, so we just headed over there and were taken away by the views going west, we love that drive.

We walked in the door at our condo and we were blown away! The view from the front door looking out was ten times what we expected from seeing it online; in person was so much better! We were in awe!!!

 The front of Kulakane is pretty unassuming, it is clean and very well kept but you can't tell from out front how amazing it is in the back and it is so private that you are in a fantasy world once you get to the back yard!

 This is the front door to our room; the next picture is what we saw when we walked in! 

Stunning!

This was our view from the Lanai, it is about 20 steps to the ocean!

We had no desire whatsoever to unpack, so we just put away groceries and headed out for a walk to the ABC store.

We received a call from friends that were on Island and made plans to meet in a little while.

We got back to our condo and much to my surprise received a call from another friend! None other than Teri S! Her and Brian were just heading passed Kaanapali  and wondered if they could drop by. So excited to see my good friend here in my favorite place! We had a great visit and managed to take some incredibly silly pictures!

Can you tell how happy we were to see each other?!?!

It was so very windy and that is why the following pictures are so funny!

Our hair was blowing everywhere!

 

 I wasn't really going to punch her...

 ...how do super models do this?

Next is my favorite... Teri with red hair.

I know these are silly and you may ask why they are travel related... well, I met Teri on Maui Trip Advisor and she is one of the best friends I have ever had; sharing time with her and her family on Maui was precious. 

Without the friends I have made on TA I would be lost on Maui, thanks to all who take the time to share their adventures, wisdom and knowledge!

As Teri and Brian were preparing to leave our other group of friends from here at home arrived; we were so excited to share our space with them and visit that we forgot to take a single picture. We actually got rained out on the lanai and had to head inside to visit. We were all starving and drove up the road to pick up L&L Barbeque and brought it back to our place and visited until we were all wiped out.

B. and I were both sound asleep within minutes. We had plans for early the next day and did not want to oversleep. 

What we realized at the end of the day... the reason there was not a Ta-Dah moment for us today... it was because we were back where we belong, it did not feel like we just got back; it felt so much more like we had never left.