Maui 2024 Part 1 (of 3)

I doubt I’ll be able to put up daily recaps of this trip, so I’ll have to settle for installments. Let’s see if I can get up the first one!

Saturday 7/27

Our flight was at 7am. I wanted to leave about a half hour earlier than my husband. We compromised on 5:15. The Lyft driver was late and then missed Terminal 1 and had to circle back. The check-bag drop off line was crazy and TSA was more crazy. Luckily my husband was able to add Pre-Check to his ticket so he checked the bag and got through the faster line in the time it took us to go through the regular TSA line. We got to our gate right when our group (F, so not an early group) was boarding. I do NOT like cutting it that close. No thank you. Next time I will not compromise on when we leave the house, even if it is that early.

Luckily the flight was fine (after the first hour when my son had his head in an old air sick bag I’d saved from another flight – a ginger ale made him feel better) and we landed without issues.

Rental car pick up also went well, especially when we saw that the SUV I rented at the last minute was a beautiful 7 seater with leather interior and all sorts of other fancy accoutrements. The lumbar support alone is worth the extra $100 (how was it only $100 more than a mid-size sedan?!), even if our friends don’t end up driving anywhere with us (that is why we got a car with extra seats).

When we arrived at the house we were greeted by friends with drinks and presents for us.

Saturday was a long, languid day (we arrived at the house at 10am local time!) of hanging out and greeting friends as they arrived. We swam in the ocean and hung out in the hot tub. Then we all ate dinner together outside, to the sound of the crashing waves.

The first night I was so tired I felt like I was hallucinating, so I headed to bed at 8pm. I was up super early the next day, so I headed out for a run.

Sunday 7/28

This was my first run in Hawaii. I’m not sure why I’ve never gone out before, probably because it’s always warm here and I wasn’t quite sure where to go. But this is our third year here so I knew where the bike paths could take me and at 6:00am it was cool enough to head out. I’m so glad I did. It was awesome to be up right after sunrise. I love experiencing a beautiful place on a run. It’s the best.

Back at home, we took advantage of our first full day to go snorkeling. As always, it was amazing. It was especially fun to show our friends our favorite places to snorkel.

We stopped for lunch on the way home, and saw this bird just walking on the stop of a bush by our table.

We had another dinner together at the house on Sunday night. Then there was Olympic Games viewing. I went out to the hot tub to look at the stars, which were marvelous.

Monday 7/29

A lot of the adults at the house had to work on Monday, so the families with kids went to “Tommy’s pool” as we call it, because well, it is Tommy’s pool. And it’s magnificent.

This whole trip is predicated on the kindness of a few individuals who have tremendous wealth and love to share it with others. And I’m so happy that they do. I mean, look at this freaking pool. That is just at someone’s house. (To be fair that someone designed and built the pool so…)

We stayed there all afternoon, playing in the sun and water. It was a beautiful day.

In the evening we went to the Maui Brewing Co to eat dinner. Then at home we watched more of the Olympics.

Monday was a very clear day. Even Io Valley was clear! This morning (Tuesday) we woke up to rain and it reminded me how lucky we’ve always been with the weather here. I hope that keeps up after today!