Matt & Katie's Pages: Honeymoon Updates

The last many people saw of us was following our wedding on December 29, 2007. Rest assured, we made it to Hawai'i safe and sound. What follows is a summary of what happened next.

We awoke at the buttcrack of dawn as we had an early morning Hawaiian Air flight to Maui. Fortunately, the hotel had an in-hotel place to dine. After hopping on a shuttlebus to the airport, we quickly cleared the TSA security checkpoints where we waited to board the airplane. The plane departed Seattle late for the 6 hour flight to Maui.

A word about flying to Hawaii: beg, borrow or steal one of those spiffy in-flight headsets for the movie. While the actual appliance is pretty crummy (we went through 3 of them, and Matt's seat didn't transmit sound on the right side), they're pretty handy. On our return, we're hitting up Radio Shack and using a soldering iron to weld a outlet to them so we can use our own earsets to their jacks.

After some serious turbulance for the first two hours, several in-flight beverages, we arrived in Maui a half-hour late. Immediately, the first thing we noticed was just how humid it was. Arriving from Seattle, both of us had fleece jackets with us (which, with one exception, we haven't needed since). We were shuttled by bus to the car rental stand, and were quickly upgraded to a Jeep.

Sidenote: Jeeps and Ford Mustangs seem to be either (a) all the rage over here with the rental agencies; or (b) the only vehicle the rental folks stock as we requested an economy vehicle. If you go on-line to book, request the cheap-o vehicle, and there's a good chance you'll be upgraded.

After a wrong turn (or two), and an ensuing rainstorm, we were able to locate the condo which is being lent to us. We have the good fortune to be staying at the Hale Hui Kai Condos in Kihei. Promptly after arriving, we changed our shoes and made a mad dash to the Pacific Ocean, which is about 100 feet from our door. After geeking around for a bit, it was time for dinner.

For dinner, we ate at the Cafe O'Lei. It's a bit pricey, but for dinner, it was yummy. Eating there was a wake-up call that we should stop by the grochery store (which we did) and we called it a night.

After crossing 2,500 miles, one can get pretty tired. After waking late, we decided to test our little Jeep with a trip to the town of Lahaina on Maui's west coast. According to Wikipedia and just about every other resource we came across, Lahaina is one of the old whaling towns in Hawai'i and the main economic center. For us, it was a pretty neat-o little town. We were able to find parking (which according to our guidebook, was no small feat) and ventured on foot. It's also the home of what's known as a banyan tree; this single tree takes up a whole city block. Allthewhile, one can't help but wonder what would happen if the locals needed some firewood. After gawking at the tree for a bit, we made our first encounter with a staple of Maui: the gift shop.

One can't swing a dead cat without hitting one of these stores. After going through several of them, they all seem to be the same. They have some shirts, some "homemade" trinkets (check the bottoms -- many are made in Indonesia or the Phillipines) or have a pearl stand where for a sum, you can pay to have them open up a pearl and the clerks attempt to sell you some overprized fitting. We got some trinkets, and ate lunch before turning to the condo in the afternoon.

Lost in all the wedding confusion was the fact that our first full day in Hawai'i was New Years Eve. Thanks to the furnished consierege, we learned that all the good places in the area required reservations (aha, but we learned this as we were attempting to make reservations for a lau, but more on that later). So, we decided to attempt to crash our way into a New Years Eve bash.

Next to our condo (or rather, a few rock shoals over), is some swank 4-star hotel and as they told us, they'd be pleased to have us for New Years without a reservation if a seat became available. A few drinks later and an hour later, we were seated, only to promptly learn that dinner was about $100.00 per plate.

We ordered Dominos instead and called it a night

Undeterred from our prior night's attempts to make ourselves out to be fools, we tried again.
We trundled off for the Maui Tropical Plantation, where we grabbed a nice lunch, next to a nice little park/farm (and we both noted that the full-service lunch was cheaper than the previous night's delivery pizza) and went on a train-aided tour of the farm. The tour cost $11/person, but for a hookey tourist thing, it wasn't bad. And, we got free coffee (with a tourist coupon) out of it.

From there, we went a few miles north to the Iao Valley. The Iao Valley is the site of some great battle, but we were just looking for some other thing to do. For the first time in the entire honeymoon, we remembered that we had a camera with us (in the form of Matt's Treo), and were able to get some shots of the Valley. There's no admission fee and it was great to view some of the more inland areas of Western Maui (not that it's hard to be all that inland, but we digress).

From there, it was back to the condo to prep for dinner at Mama's Fishhouse. Mama's is one of those "must-do," places that all tourists must spend their dollars, but never return. The dinner and the views were faboulous. The bill was hefty. This is a definately do-it-to-say-you've-done-it place. From there, we called it a night.

We started this day at the classiest of establishments -- a Denny's. In a word, don't repeat our mistake. For the same price, you can get a far nicer breakfast elsewhere for the same (or cheaper) price. After gawking at tourist shops for a bit (and acquiring a really cool painted coconut), we were off on a previously booked a trip on a snorkeling/whale-watching cruise. This is definately a must-do on Maui, but watch where you've booked.

We decided to book a trip on the Four Winds. This is was a good trip. However, we nearly didn't make this boat. While we had reservations, next to it on the same dock, was the Spirt of Maui (no, they don't get a link). We got in their line instead. Thankfully, we discovered our mistake (due to a phone call from the Four Winds folks, after we paid, but before we got on (and yes, they did refund our money). Afterwards, in Googling on-line reviews, the Spirt of Maui is simply bad, bad, bad.

The Four Winds was an okay boat, and from what we understand, one of the better boats. Pulling away from the pier at Maalaea, we encountered some sea turtles (which are known in these parts at "Hono" and are on all the touristy things), saw some whales frolic and headed to a place known as the "Coral Gardens," to snorkel.

From what we gathered afterwards, these Whalewatching/snorkeling tours are mostly just boats where they take tourists out to snorkel and hope to catch a whale along the way to dub it a "Whale-Watching Cruise," but it's still kinda cool nevertheless. After some prodding, Matt even got in the water and both of us snorkeled and saw some fish ('tho none were caught). The boat also had a BBQ on it and lunch was had on the way back to shore.

We started this day off to a roadtrip to the local Italian place in Kihei (Don something-or-other). The food was a bit overpriced (but cheaper than the Denny's from the day before). From there, we decided to hit the upcountry in Maui.

We decided to take the Jeep for a spin to the Ulupalakua Ranch where one can find the Maui Winery. The trip was a bit odd as we misplaced the map which we were using. Nevertheless, after asking for directions, we were able to find the Ranch. The Winery has free tastings (4 wines per person) and the wines were pretty good (as it turned out, we had previously bought one of their wines, the Maui Splash, the day before, and it was Matt's favourite during the tastings -- and the cheapest). There's also a free tour. We've been on some of the free tours in Washington's wine country, and this one seemed as through they stretched it out to even come up with a tour. Missing from the tour was the usual bit about how the wines were made and the process in harvesting the fruit. Sadly, due to labour laws, we didn't see the pesants pressing the pineapples with their feet. We bought some touristy stuff and headed across the street for lunch.

You haven't lived until you've had Elk bratwurst for lunch. It's like sausage, but only different, and it doesn't taste like chicken.

Coming back into town, we stopped by the local K-Mart. K-Mart is the place to go for gifts. There's a several dollar savings on tourist knick-knacks compared to just about every place we've seen. Also, across the street from K-Mart is a Krispy-Kreme. Matt was driving, so we went. It was good.

After coming down the mountainside where the winery is, we went to our only Luau at the nearby Marriot. In a word: go. We were told that there's a better luau in the area, which we couldn't get reservations (they were booked until after our departure (and we inquired our first day)), but this was pretty good. The food was a bit dry (Matt was a bit ill), but the performances were great.

This is by far the longest day of our honeymoon. While all days have 24 hours, this one seemed longer.

The alarm clock woke us up at 4 a.m. for the trip to Mount Haleakala to catch the sunrise at the summit. It took us about 2-2.5 hours through narrow roads in the dark to reach an elevation of over 10,000 feet. If you go, learn from our mistakes, bring warm clothes. Shorts, flippers, and an aloha shirt do not consitute warm when the tempature is a brisk 40 degrees and the wind is blowing about 30 mph. We brought our fleece, but that didn't help. Luckily, the gift shop at the top (we wonder: is that a record for the highest gift shop in the world?) opens at 6:30 a.m. -- 30 min before sun rise, so we were able to stay warm. After heading down the mountain, and grabbing breakfast, we were off to Hana via the infamous "Road to Hana."

The Road to Hana^tm is touted in many guides as a sort of Paradise on Earth. It's pretty beautiful, unless you're the one driving a vehicle where the posted speed limit is 15 mph and you're stuck behind some bloke doing 10. Worse, many of the truly beautiful areas have limited parking, and if you're unfortunate to be hitting them when a tour bus has just stopped there, the experience with some of these fab. waterfalls is simply lost. Still, we were able to see some great sights along the 2.5 hour drive to Hana.

Arriving in Hana itself is a bit of a letdown after the drive. It's really nothing more than a wide spot in the road. But, at the harbour, there's an ice cream stand which is not to be missed. We had intended to continue driving to see more waterfalls, but once you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all, so we turned around to avoid driving the road after dark.

On our way back into town, we stopped at the local Costco. Matt had been clamoring to top there. It's not a bad idea. We picked up some of the local Macademian Nuts on the cheap, together with some flash-dried fruit. We also noted that they have the cheapest price on lei's (at 3 for $10.00) that we've been able to find.

After arriving back in town, we drove around trying to find some booze (after the trip, we needed it). While we didn't find any, we did find Matteos Pizzeria in the high-rent district of Wailea. It looks expensive, but it's not, and we felt underdressed, but we weren't. It was real yummy, better than Dominos, and cheaper than it too.

After the previous day's driving binge, it was time to sleep in late (it's not going to be good for recovering from the inevietable jet lag, but we needed the sleep).

The day started with a swim in the Pacific, before Matt realized that he neglected to put on some sun screen. Returning to the condo, he got the bright idea for this web page. Fortunately, Katie realized that we hadn't spent all of our money and decided that today would be a good day for shopping. Because Matt made a right-hand turn out of the condo complex (instead of the left-hand turn which Katie had requested), we drove into the high-rent district of Wailea and smack dab into the Shops at Wailea. Where we prompt oogled at stuff we couldn't afford, bought some stuff which we could afford (like earing backing's which Katie had lost) and coffee and decided that we had enough and decided to hang out more with our peeps in the lower rent districts in Kihei

We wandered a number of open air markets and located the holy grail of our search: a Tiki necktie for Matt. Once back on the mainland, the criminals which he prosecutes will feel worse since they'll be in jail and not Maui. Sucks to be them.

Back at the condo, an evening walk of the beach was had (which didn't start out that way -- Matt wanted some shots in the sand for these webpages).