Maui (Day 1)
Thursday, March 15: SMF > SFO > OGG
Unsolved mystery... why is "OGG" the airport code for Kahului, Maui??!!
We had a 6am flight (yawn!), so I was up by 4am for a Zumba workout to start off our travel day before our quick hop flight from SMF to SFO, where we used our United Lounge passes to make the 1.5 hour wait a bit more comfortable. Mr. E noticed that I was #1 on the First Class upgrade list with one seat remaining available... Fingers crossed!!!
We boarded our flight from SFO to OGG with Group 1 and took our assigned seats, hoping that no one would purchase that First Class seat at the last-minute. And... success!!! About 15 minutes before take-off procedures began, I was switched to seat 1A in First Class and enjoyed the premium flight experience for our 5.5 hour flight to Maui. Kale, tomato, and egg tart plus fruit for breakfast and later two glasses of white wine and a freshly-baked mac nut cookie prior to landing. Mahalo, Mr. E!
When we arrived, Mr. E got some coffee at Starbucks while I waited for my roller board at bag claim. We then hopped on the Hertz shuttle to fetch our rental car and drove about 50 minutes to reach our hotel, the Sheraton Maui Resort at Ka'anapali Beach on Maui's West Side. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags at the bell desk and went down to the pool area to have lunch at the Cliff Dive Grill, the only eatery on property that's open all day. Mr. E had a burger, and I had a chicken quesadilla. We enjoyed the lovely beach view, although our traveling clothes were a bit warm for the climate.
Our room still wasn't ready, so we checked out the gift shop, Lamont's, and then played a few hands of rummy in the open-air lobby.
We finally got our keys and settled into the room, which was a corner site on the first floor, overlooking the expansive lawn area near the luau show site. One advantage of the room was the wraparound lanai, which was nicely protected along the side by greenery and will be a great spot for outdoor workouts in the morning. We changed into more appropriate Hawai'i clothes and decided to take a stroll south along the Beach Walk to explore the area. We spent quite a bit of time browsing the shops at Whaler's Village and then returned to the hotel for a swim around the expansive pool to cool off. Our timing was perfect to see the nightly sunset cliff dive from Black Rock after we took a quick dip in the ocean.
Once we showered and changed and grabbed our new Sheraton logo tote and Mr. E's backpack, we went back to Whaler's Village to get provisions at the ABC Store and dinner from Joey's Kitchen in the food court. Mr. E had the Kahlua Pork plate meal, and I had an awesome tofu and vegges combo. I'm now a new fan of oyster sauce! We ate back in the room and learned lots more about the island thanks to the Maui Visitors Channel (MVC) on TV. Due to the early morning and three-hour time difference, we were both in bed by about 9:30pm.
Welcome to Maui!
Unsolved mystery... why is "OGG" the airport code for Kahului, Maui??!!
We had a 6am flight (yawn!), so I was up by 4am for a Zumba workout to start off our travel day before our quick hop flight from SMF to SFO, where we used our United Lounge passes to make the 1.5 hour wait a bit more comfortable. Mr. E noticed that I was #1 on the First Class upgrade list with one seat remaining available... Fingers crossed!!!
We boarded our flight from SFO to OGG with Group 1 and took our assigned seats, hoping that no one would purchase that First Class seat at the last-minute. And... success!!! About 15 minutes before take-off procedures began, I was switched to seat 1A in First Class and enjoyed the premium flight experience for our 5.5 hour flight to Maui. Kale, tomato, and egg tart plus fruit for breakfast and later two glasses of white wine and a freshly-baked mac nut cookie prior to landing. Mahalo, Mr. E!
When we arrived, Mr. E got some coffee at Starbucks while I waited for my roller board at bag claim. We then hopped on the Hertz shuttle to fetch our rental car and drove about 50 minutes to reach our hotel, the Sheraton Maui Resort at Ka'anapali Beach on Maui's West Side. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags at the bell desk and went down to the pool area to have lunch at the Cliff Dive Grill, the only eatery on property that's open all day. Mr. E had a burger, and I had a chicken quesadilla. We enjoyed the lovely beach view, although our traveling clothes were a bit warm for the climate.
We finally got our keys and settled into the room, which was a corner site on the first floor, overlooking the expansive lawn area near the luau show site. One advantage of the room was the wraparound lanai, which was nicely protected along the side by greenery and will be a great spot for outdoor workouts in the morning. We changed into more appropriate Hawai'i clothes and decided to take a stroll south along the Beach Walk to explore the area. We spent quite a bit of time browsing the shops at Whaler's Village and then returned to the hotel for a swim around the expansive pool to cool off. Our timing was perfect to see the nightly sunset cliff dive from Black Rock after we took a quick dip in the ocean.
Once we showered and changed and grabbed our new Sheraton logo tote and Mr. E's backpack, we went back to Whaler's Village to get provisions at the ABC Store and dinner from Joey's Kitchen in the food court. Mr. E had the Kahlua Pork plate meal, and I had an awesome tofu and vegges combo. I'm now a new fan of oyster sauce! We ate back in the room and learned lots more about the island thanks to the Maui Visitors Channel (MVC) on TV. Due to the early morning and three-hour time difference, we were both in bed by about 9:30pm.
Welcome to Maui!
posted by jms | 5:00 PM
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