Mon 12/16: First Day on Maui

We both woke up around 6:45, which means we got good sleep.  I think I went to sleep around 10:45 last night?  I went into the living room and opened up the curtains and found out that we have a great view of the ocean and Ka'anapali Beach from our room!

We can even see Lanai in the distance.

Took lots of photos.  We were not expecting such a nice view.  When we arrived the night before, it was dark so we couldn’t see anything.

We got ourselves together and went downstairs to check out the resort.  We had been here once before in 2006 but didn’t really remember a lot.

We walked across the street to Java Jazz and had breakfast there.  The place was really eclectic and strange.

All kinds of strange decor.

There was a guy singing live music there, even at breakfast time.

The coffee bar area was full of people getting the java on.

I had 2 scrambled eggs with homestyle potatoes and bacon, and coffee.

I love Kona coffee!  It's never bitter.  

Todd had a bagel.  He’s not much for breakfast food.

Walked over from Java Jazz to the grocery store in the same plaza.  Bought some cereal, papayas, apples, bananas.

Walked back to the resort.  The weather was awesome.  We sat at the kitchen table and planned out our trip.  I looked on Yelp a lot for restaurant and tour reviews.  Decided to book Haleakala sunrise and bike downhill on Friday.  And decided on snorkel trip to Lanai.  I'm nervous about getting seasick, but I'll take Dramamine and hope for the best!  After we booked both tours, I felt better about the week being planned out.  And just FYI… the reason we were able to book tours so late (the week we’re there) is because the week before Christmas is one of the slowest weeks in Hawaii.  Everyone arrived to the islands the day we left, for Christmas and New Years!  We have gone to Hawaii many times the week before Christmas and have always been able to book our tours and excursions after our arrival.  For this trip, I did most of the tour booking.  Todd said in his journal that I was “a machine”, ha!  (I’m so proud, sniff.)

We decided to have lunch at Fish Market Maui.  It was only 0.4 miles from the resort, so we decided to walk.  It was very sunny and getting warm!  We got to the place and ordered at the counter.  I ordered the ahi burger while Todd ordered the grilled fish sandwich.  Someone the lady at the register got it wrong and had us both ordering the grilled fish sandwich.  We didn’t realize it until after we paid and looked at the receipt.  Todd went back inside to tell her.  Guess what she told Todd?  She said that he needed to listen better.  Not cool.  Obviously customer service was not the priority at this joint.

Both were decent but not great.  I wouldn’t go back again.  (Sometimes Yelpers are wrong, ha!)  On the walk back to the resort, we stopped by the gas station with the ABC Store and bought a big coke and an icee for me.  Cherry icee!  Walked back to the condo and Todd went to read on the balcony while I took a nap on the couch.

Then at 3:30 Todd came back in and we turned on Monday Night Football.  We hung out until around 5pm, when we drove to this industrial area in Lahaina and went to dinner at Star Noodle.  We got seated at the bar.  Zane the bartender in the background.

Now this place was delicious!  We shared the ahi avocado and the garlic noodles.

Garlic noodles were so good!  We both loved it.

We refrained from getting their malasadas for dessert.  We had to hurry and drove into Lahaina for our 6:30 movie "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" at the movie theater.

The movie was very good.  I had read the book last year, and the movie remained very faithful to the book.  The theater was quite small and old though.  After the movie we walked back to the car and drove down the street to find parking again so we could check out Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice.  Yelpers love this place so it was a must-eat.

We shared a large sour apple, pink lemonade, and Philippine lime one with Roselani’s haupia ice cream inside.  So good!

Then we drove back and got ready for tomorrow.