Day 1 - Touchdown!

Good morning!  It’s 4:47 a.m. in Maui, and I’ve been up since 3:00 HST.  I’ve been struggling to get an internet connection so I’m trying to turn my Droid into a Wireless Hotspot.  I’m writing this entry in Microsoft Word, so if you’re seeing it on my blog, then I was successful.  So yesterday was a long day.  We were up for a full 24 hours plus, but the end result is we’re in Maui, and it’s beautiful!  Worth every minute of travel!  The trip itself was an event.  As most of you know, we decided to fly first class since it’s such a long flight (8 ½ hours from Dallas).  The flight from CMH to DFW was SO not first class.  It was a regional jet and we were squeezed in like sardines in a tin can, as they say.  But then for the flight from DFW to Maui we were in a Boeing 767 I think, and it was nice.  We walked on and it was like the angels were singing.  Very nice big seats with a freshly wrapped pillow and down comforter in each seat!  I must say it felt nice to be “that guy” for once, if you will.  You know, not the one wishing she was sitting in first class, but the one who WAS sitting in first class!  And all of the poor people in coach had to walk past our  seats with envy.  I must say I did feel bad for them.  The only reason we decided to fly first class was because we really wanted to go to Hawaii, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to sit 8 ½ hours in a typical airline seat.  With my Tbone issues it’s just too difficult.  So anyway, back to First Class!  When we were seated, before departure, the flight attendants (FA’s) walked around offering champagne or orange juice.  Poor Karen couldn’t have either, and neither could I.  But how nice, right!?!  Then after we departed and the plane leveled out, the fun began.  First, the FA’s came around with little fancy Schmancy warm wash clothes that she dispensed to each of with silver tongs so we could wash our hands.  Then they served us a little bowl of warm nuts with dried fruits.  Next they served a really nice salad with an orchid on the side of the plate.  The main course we chose was chicken encrusted in Macademia nuts, with potatoes, carrots, and sautéed spinach.  For dessert I had a hot fudge Sundae (no fresh baked cookies…I will be writing a letter!) and Karen had some fruit and cheese.

The alcohol was free (and flowing) for those who drank.  The seats are amazing for an airplane.  They’re not your lazy boy recliner, but they beat the HELL out of a regular airline seat.  They recline almost to a flat position, but not quite.  There were some preset positions you could use, but there were also manual settings that did everything from move you forward to backward, tilted you backwards or forwards, pushed your lower legs out or in, lowered or raised the footplate at the bottom of the seat, etc.  As I said, because of this we were able to sleep on the plane, which really helped.  We arrived in Maui and the airport is even beautiful!  The baggage claim area is open air, which was kind of surreal.  The only bad, dare I say devastating (tongue in cheek) thing that happened was I left my Tervis Tumbler in the airport, and I’m Tumblerless now…very sad.  We picked up our rental car, which turned out to be a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  We upgraded because of everything going on with the Tsunami and everything else, just in case we have to go four wheeling or something.  But there is very little evidence that they even had high water here.  We did see a couple of places with some standing water, but wouldn’t have even noticed if we weren’t looking for it. 

Our hotel is amazing!  We have an oceanfront room with a lanai that we can literally watch whales from! 


Last night the bellhop was pointing them out to us.  When the sun comes up this morning we’ll pull out the binoculars for a better look.  The staff here at the Sheraton has been really great so far.  It’s a huge resort (23 acres) so it’s easy to feel lost, especially when you’ve been awake for 22 hours.  Jeff, our bellhop from earlier, just showed up out of nowhere when we were wandering around the lobby at a loss for where to get something to eat, how to get there, etc.  He even showed up with water for us because he knew earlier we were looking for some bottled water.  They have golf carts (big ones) and so he just had us hop in and drove us down the road just a little bit (maybe a 2 minute ride) to a local shopping area called Whalers Village.  Do you remember Fantasy Island?  Karen compared Jeff to someone on Fantasy Island who would just show up with whatever you needed. 

  I did buy a new camera for the trip.  It’s a long story leading up to the purchase, but basically it’s a display model, and after I took about 3 pictures, it doesn’t work anymore.  Nice!  So there is a Costco on the island so we’re going to go there and pick up another one today. 

On the agenda today other than that is just to relax.  We’re going to hit the pool and the beach, for as long as we can, and then the pool and the beach and the pool and the beach.  Don’t worry; we’ll use plenty of sun block.  The UV index is 10 here today (extreme)!  Well, that’s it for now.  I just want to say we’re very grateful and blessed that we’re able to take such a nice vacation (probably the once in a lifetime trip for us).  And isn’t this world amazing that you can just hop on a plane or two and a day or so later be on an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean?  Mahalo (thanks) for checking out my blog.