Maui: Day One

It could very well be that no one really cares to read a day-by-day account of the 11 days we spent in Maui last month. But the sake of posterity, and because I’ve been lazy and haven’t documented our trip anywhere else, that’s what I’m embarking on here today, which happens to be the one-month anniversary of our Hawaiian wedding.

Day One: Wednesday

We had an early morning flight, which we usually try to avoid, but when you’re flying 4300 miles in one day it’s necessary. I had crammed my wedding dress into a carry-on suitcase the night before, so we packed Don’s carry-on with in-flight essentials like Pringles, Sour Patch Kids, pretzels and iPads. This proved to be a wise decision. We’re used to flying on Southwest where the in-flight snacks are robust and FREE. Not so on American Airlines. Sure, they filed for bankruptcy days before our flight, but we weren’t offered so much as a bag of peanuts. To be fair, they did offer to sell us a bag of chips for $4.

After a short layover in Dallas and a not-so-short 8-hour flight to Kahului, we picked up our rental Jeep and navigated our way to the south side of the island. We got to Maui around 4:30, so we were treated to our first Hawaiian sunset during our drive.

When we arrived to the Four Seasons, they immediately gave us a taste of what we’d come to appreciate for the rest of our stay. We were greeted with a warm “Aloha!” and flower leis. As we checked in, we were offered washcloths and fresh pineapple skewers.

We were escorted to our room by John, one of the valets that we came to love during our stay. He gave us recommendations for running shoes while he unloaded our bags. Our room was nice – large enough with a private lanai overlooking the croquet courtyard. There was a coffee cake waiting for us (which I immediately dove into) along with a sweet welcome card from the resort manager.

It was dark by the time we got settled and we were exhausted from traveling all day, but we wandered around the resort for a bit, completely unaware of the views we were missing out on in the darkness. We got something to eat in the open-air lobby lounge. There was live music each night there, and we thoroughly enjoyed the fresh sushi and truffled macaroni and cheese. After dinner we ventured down to one of the hot tubs where we desperately tried to hold our eyes open and planned out our agenda for the next day.