Maui Re-Re-Re-Re-Revisited

Thursday evening we arrived for our 6th visit to the valley isle. It was a long day of travel. We left home at 7am CDT and flew 4½ hours to LAX and after a 2 hour airport layover flew another 5½ hours to Kahului where we landed at about 9:30pm Chicago time. But we successfully upgraded our seats to 1st class on both flights, so I don't really have any complaint about the flight.

Our vacation package from United included an economy car rental, but on arrival we splurged for the extra amount to upgrade to a Mustang convertible. Cruisin' the island in style. We made it to the hotel in time to check in, grab a couple of MaiTais from the Tiki Bar, and sip them while enjoying the sunset from the lanai of our oceanfront room. After sunset we took the short walk along Ka'anapali beach to the Barefoot Bar at the Hula Grill where it has become almost a tradition to enjoy our first meal on Maui. We had island fish & chips and bbq pork along with a couple more MaiTais while enjoying the live Hawaiian music. We got back to the hotel in time to catch some of the nightly hula show in the Tiki courtyard, then headed back to the room to turn in at about 3am Chicago time.

Friday we relaxed around the hotel for a while, enjoying the Hawaiian singing and dancing in the lobby, and shopping some of the art and craft vendors set up there. Janet found some more jewelry she liked from Stephanie and from Gigi's. After sipping a couple more MaiTais from the Tiki Bar, we headed out to an early dinner at Mama's Fish House. Janet had 'discovered' this restaurant while reading online about area restaurants and it turned out to be an exceptional find. The restaurant is situated on the beach of a small cove on the north Maui coast, and offers breathtaking views of the huge surf crashing over the rocks. But the view isn't all this restaurant offers. The food was out of this world. Not long ago, I wouldn't eat fish, but I learned a couple of trips back that fish in Hawaii is excellent, and the fish at Mama's is as good as it gets. Not to mention their MaiTais (how many is that now?) and their desserts. The bill was a little pricy, but it was an unforgettable dining experience.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where I caught 40 winks while Janet caught up on Facebook. Then we headed out to Kimo's in Lahaina where we had found out that Peter deAquino was playing. Peter is a talented singer and uke player that we first heard at the Napili Kai slack key concert a couple of trips back. We listened to Peter and had (you guessed it) some more MaiTais before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel around midnight.

Saturday brings a keiki ukulele contest at the Hula Grill and more tropical treats I'm sure.

(Check back to this post later. I hope to add some pictures if I can.)