Honolulu to Maui: Day 3 (June 15)

*Make sure to keep reading after this for a post on the girls' first day of school yesterday*

Did you ever think we'd get to day 3?! The funny thing about it is that today was actually our least eventful day ... in fact I only took 1 picture the entire day (but it's worth it - promise)!!! Guess that's what you get when you island hop ;)

We woke up early so we could hit the Honolulu Swap Meet to get some souvenir shopping done. I wish I would have taken my camera - there were some seriously interesting things to be seen! There were more t-shirts, beach towels, luggage, jewelry, and ukeleles than you could imagine! There was one section of the swap meet that looked like the absolute WORST garage sale you've ever seen!!! We had a fun time shopping and got the goodies we needed ... and a few that I'm sure we didn't need ;) We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to get checked out so we could make it to the airport to catch our flight to Maui.

It was so refreshing to have a completely uneventful day of travel after our fiasco trip to Honolulu. We ate at Stinger Ray's in the airport before boarding our 40 minute flight - which left right on time. We arrived in Maui on schedule and called to find out where to pick up our rental car. We decided to rent from a company called Maui Cruisers based on a recommendation from a friend. Their entire fleet of cars are 8-10 year old Nissan Sentras ... SWEET!!! All the rust and plastic floor mats were included at no extra charge. It cost us just over $100 for the entire week rental including tax so we figured we couldn't go wrong! Mike & Teisha rented from them, too. Their car was at the airport parked and waiting for them, but since there were 2 of us renting cars that day and they run a small operation they had to drive us back to their "office" to pick our car up. Little did we know at the time that we were being driven to the most far removed DUMP you've ever seen!! There were literally broken down cars (not their fleet) all around and a completely disheveled trailer on the lot that they used for their office. It seemed like the type of place that someone would go to dump a body they were trying to hide. Lucky for us we felt a bit more "safety in numbers" since there were 4 of us there.

We got our sweet ride, signed our paperwork, and were ready to hit the road (if we could find it from this no-mans-land we were in). Mike asked if he could get a different car because the one that was waiting for him at the airport was pulling to one side pretty dramatically. He tried out a few others and settled on one. We headed out with our 1996 Sentras ready to conquer Maui. We went straight to Costco to buy fruit, muffins, water bottles, etc. to have with us since we had full kitchens in our condos and then we were off to Kahana.

The first thing we noticed about Maui was that it was exactly what we pictured when we thought of Hawaii. We had had a fantastic time in Honolulu but it is more of a concrete jungle than the tropical paradise that is Maui. We *LOVED* every minute of our drive along the coast as we made our way from Kahului to Kahana (just north of Ka'anapali and south of Kapalua for those of you familiar with Maui). The views were spectacular the entire way. Once we arrived at the Valley Isle Mike said that his engine had been smoking. We opened the hood of their car to see that the oil cap had not been replaced, the oil had sprayed all over under the hood, and he had oil smoking all over his engine!!! Long story made VERY short he FINALLY made contact with the owner of Maui Cruisers, they came to pick up the car and gave them a full refund - DUH! We decided to just share a car the first few days and it worked out great since we were always together. We got checked into our rooms, got ourselves settled, and decided to head out for some dinner and a few other groceries. We got pizza at a great place called Pizza Paradiso and took it back to our place to eat. We knew we needed to call it an early night since we were being picked up at 2 A.M. the next morning for our Haleakala Sunrise Bike Excursion.

One of our favorite things about Maui - that we got to enjoy each and every day - was the view from our room. We were on the 7th floor with an ocean view. We could see Molokai and Lanai, too. We didn't close our sliding door to our lanai at all while we were there ... the sound of the ocean was amazing and the cross breeze felt and smelled awesome. While I wish I had taken more pictures today (because there were so many funny things to photograph) I think the one photo I did take is one of my very favorite from our entire trip. It reminds me of how I fell asleep and woke up every day in Maui and why I will FOREVER *LOVE* this place ....