Maui lovin’ – had me a blast

Micah and I just spent two wonderful sun-filled days on Maui!  My first time to an outer-island.  I love Maui!

The island is more low key than Oahu.  And we finally got some sun…major sun.  And the flight from Honolulu to Kahului is 30 minutes.  Super quick flight. 

We picked up our rental car – it was supposed to be a compact car – but they were out of them…and instead, we were given a Ford Mustang Convertible.  Woo hoo!  We were ready for our island experience.

Thursday:

• First, we headed to Haleakala National Park.  It’s basically a massive shield volcano that covers most of the island of Maui.  To get there, you drive up miles and miles of windy roads.  Seemed like we had driven for a long time, but had only made it about half way to the visitor center.  We still had a long ways to go – but I was starting to get dizzy and lightheaded due to the altitude change (about 8k feet at the visitor center).  We ended up only driving to a hiking trail – nowhere near the summit (which is 10k feet).  On our hike, it started to pour on us, so we cut it short.  On the way down, we saw some Nēnē (aka the Hawaiian Goose – the official state bird of Hawaii).

• Our hotel was in Kihei, so we drove there to check-in and headed straight for the beach.  We had our own private beach – literally.  There wasn’t a single person around – awesome.  We got some sun, surf, and then showered and headed to Lahaina (a very touristy area of Maui filled with shops, street vendors, and restaurants).    

Friday:

• Got up fairly early, and we went jogging along the beach.  Running isn’t so bad when you are barefoot and get to have your feet in the water.  :-)  We then decided to check out a different beach, Kamaole Beach Park (said to be one of the nicest beaches in Maui).  And it didn’t disappoint.  The sand was super soft and the water was clean.  But it definitely was not like our “private” beach experience the previous day – there were lots of people there. 
• On a whim, I treated Micah to a massage!  Only his second one ever.  We happened to find a great spa at the Kaanapali Beach Resort – and they had an available appointment for a couples massage!  It was great.  Micah said after, “I could definitely do that more often.”  :-)  Cute.
• After our relaxing massages, we decided to take the “scenic route” back to the airport.  Ha! To do that, you drive along miles and miles of a windy, one-lane, narrow road.  You had to go slow, and be on the lookout for other cars in case you needed to pull onto the “shoulder” (ha!) to let them through.  A little nerve-wracking, but an experience nonetheless.
• Due to a slow shuttle taking us back to the airport, and broken kiosks at the airport (i.e we could not self check-in), we BARELY made our flight back to Oahu. 

A very different experience than Oahu – and a great birthday. Thanks Micah!!!

Year In Review: Escape from Chi-town

Micah and I attended a wedding of one of his Hawaii friends, Ryan, who happens to live in Chicago (one of my favorite cities).  As amazing as Chicago is (and I am referring to the spring/summer time only, as I haven’t been during the bitter winter), the weather has quite a temper – and the O’Hare airport is at its mercy.  This year in review also happens to double as another edition of: Lisa and Micah’s Traveling Mishaps.

Chi-town wedding: July 31st – (supposed to have been Aug. 3rd, but ended up being Aug. 5th)

Here’s the gist: Delayed several hours just getting into Chicago and happened to land, right as the rehearsal dinner we were to attend was getting started.  But through some tricky maneuvering, we managed to make it to the rehearsal dinner in time.  The weather was sunny and beautiful and got to meet up with friends to check out Chinatown (ate dim sum), go to the beach (yes! they have miles of sandy beach) and then went to the wedding Friday night.  Hands down the fanciest wedding I’ve ever been too.  Very beautiful and really really fun.  Not to mention a fabulous wedding cake.  Ended that night with a memorable trip to Weinerschnitzel for some Chicago hotdogs.  Our friends left the next day, but Micah and I were staying one more time. We did some beach lounging, city touring and had our first Ethiopian meal – it was delish.  We had a great time and were ready to leave Chicago.

But…Chicago did not want us to leave.  We show up to the airport and find ourselves with an oversold flight and no seat for me. We volunteer to give up our seats (weird considering I never had one, but oh well) and in turn are guaranteed first class seats (woo hoo) on the flight to Seattle the next morning. Plus, hotel, meal vouchers and two ticket vouchers. Great deal right?  Given that our luggage was on its way to Seattle without us, Micah and I managed to have a great time lounging at the hotel and feeling quite proud of the awesome deal we just snagged. 

Begin Lisa and Micah’s Traveling Mishaps:  We wake up the next morning and it’s storming…not just a little rain, but full on thunder, lightening, the works.  Great.  To sum up the next two days: not one, but two cancelled flights b/c of mechanical problems.  Weather delays all the flights so bad, that we wait in the customer service line for 4 straight hours and stuck at the airport for 16 hours.  Have to stay another night in Chicago – in a hotel (that United paid for) but was a $50 cab ride away – in the same clothes we’ve been in for two days.  We wake up to a message saying our flight home is cancelled and barely make it on a different flight home.  Fortunately, the airline attendant took pity on us and fed us numerous drinks the entire plane ride home.  I’ve never worn the exact same clothes for three straight days – it was a new and interesting experience. 

Grade: Prior to being stuck at the airport: ‘A’…which quickly turns into a ‘D’ once we were stuck.  Not an ‘F’ since we did come out of the whole shebang with two ticket travel vouchers.

Lisa and Micah’s Traveling Mishaps – Lost on the Eastside?

I thought I’d start blogging about the unfortunate, but oh so common traveling misadventures that Micah and I cannot seem to avoid.  Here I go:

Before I begin, I have to state that Micah and I live in Bellevue/Issaquah – so we are eastsiders by definition…which sort of makes this adventure even more pathetic. 

Setup:
1. My car needed new brakes, so I take it to a place in Issaquah.  (Tangent: not only did I need new brakes, but new rotors, oil change, some fuel cleaning something or other, and my tires rotated.  All of this totaled just under $700-yay!)
2. We drop my car off in the morning and take an Issaquah bus into work – a bus we are not familiar with, but we can figure out the bus system right?
3. We are on our way home, it’s rainy, so we decide to be smart and get off at the closest bus stop to the car place.

Begin misadventure here:
1. We didn’t realize that the bus doesn’t have another stop in Issaquah.  Next stop for us is Snoqualmie. Great. Not far if you have your own car, but quite far if you are completely reliant on public transportation.
2. We decide to get off at some random stop and cross the street to wait for a bus to pick us up – but going back to Issaquah.
3. I call Metro and a very helpful lady proceeds to tell me that there is no bus that picks up at the stop where we are during the evening. Yay.
4. She tells us where to walk to get to the nearest bus stop where we can catch something going back to Issaquah. Only problem – we walk at least a half mile (uphill and in work shoes) before she realizes she has us going in the wrong direction.
5. We quickly grab some dinner (Georgio’s Subs – blah!) and eat and walk in the right direction.
(Important things to note: it’s getting dark and there are slugs all over the ground – yuck!)
(Another important thing to note: You might ask “Why don’t you call a cab?” Well, we thought of it, but we figured it was just a little bit longer so we decided to just keep trucking along.)
6. We are walking for a long time – and it’s getting super dark now, and at times, there’s no sidewalk – just the bike lane. But we eventually manage to find the bus stop we are looking for.
7. Here’s where Metro lady comes back into the picture.  She told us the bus would pick us up at 7:51pm.  True, but going the wrong way!
8. So we catch the bus going the wrong way so we at least would be in the city (North Bend) and can catch a cab from there. We concede defeat right?
9. Ha! We ride into North Bend, and call for a cab.  Nope, no cabs on the eastside.  Sorry – it’s too far out there for anyone to come pick us up.
9. We are left to wait an hour for the next bus (which happens to be the last bus of the night – so there’s no second chances here).
10. yay, we finally catch the bus home -which takes an hour, but at least we are back in Issaquah – at the precise location we SHOULD have originally gotten off at.  Just a short walk to pick up my car.

Ending:
Pretty much the only smart thing we did the entire night was call the repair place before they closed and paid for my repairs over the phone.  They hid my keys, so we at least could get my car back.

Damage:
In total, it was a 4 hour detour, miles of walking in uncomfortable shoes, and a lousy dinner. Not to mention the $700 spent on my car. But it did give me this story.