The Travelling DesRosiers: Maui

Up at 6AM to catch coach to airport for our flight to Maui. In spite of the fact that the tiny airport is on America’s western-most outpost, they take their security very seriously. Unlike other places on this trip, the TSA had us remove our shoes, take the laptop out of the bag, remove our belts and empty all our pockets before giving every passenger a millimetre wave full-body scan, followed by a pat down and frisk. All of that still only took ten minutes, so we went and sat in the gate for an hour. The flight left on time at 9:45 AM and we were on the bus in Maui at 10:30AM. En route, we flew over the island of Molokai, a former leper colony.

Our luggage went ahead to the hotel while we drove around the island from Kahalui Airport to Lahaina (a former whaling town) for lunch (at Bubba Gump’s, on the water across from the island of Lanai of which 1/3 was recently purchased by Larry Elison of Oracle) and a couple of hours of shopping for kitsch or jewellery. Finally we were taken to the resort end of town where all the big hotels are located around a golf course and some pricey condominiums.

Maui has 170,000 inhabitants and is currently surrounded by mating Humpback Whales. We saw two breach in the distance while driving to Lahaina but missed out on photos. The hotel is right on the water, so hopefully we’ll get another chance.