Aloha

Our flight to paradise was long and uneventful. Although splurging for 1st class would definitely be worth it – our plane had the full recline seats in 1st class – we have been very fortunate. We were sitting in the middle section with 4 seats across. I was next to a mom and her 6-7 year old daughter. As soon as we got to cruising altitude they moved and we had the whole row to ourselves!

We landed in Maui shortly before sunset. It was cloudy so we weren’t expecting much. As we drove around the island to our condo, much to our surprise, the sunset was spectacular. It started out with the edge of Lan’ai looking like it was on fire. As it set the clouds went from pink to purple to orange. It seemed to last forever. We could only take mental photos since there was no place to pull out for a real one.

Our condo is further up the beach from black rock and Kaanapali. It’s an older building, built in the 70’s. The inside has recently been remodeled and is perfect for Jon and I. But it’s greatest appeal and the reason we chose it, it’s 50 feet from the ocean. The crashing waves are so loud we almost can’t hear each other talk. We are on the 1st floor. Last night we walked out our sliding glass door, with glasses of wine in hand, to watch the stars and the moon while we toasted the start of our vacation.

Since we are still on Minnesota time we were up early, very early! Our condo is about 10 minutes away from The Gazebo. A restaurant with a view that has excellent breakfast and long lines if you don’t get there before they open. We got there right when they opened which wasn’t quite soon enough so we had to wait. It was worth the wait. We had the sampler pancakes – mac nut, pineapple and banana with coconut syrup and fried rice with bacon, sausage and ham. Jon declared it the best fried rice ever and the best breakfast view ever. I might agree… although the breakfast view we had in Lucerne was also pretty spectacular.

The weather today is psychotic! One minutes it’s raining, the next the sun is out. This has been going on all day. Well it’s only 1:30 and since we’ve been up since 4am it feels like all day. After shopping for some food to have at the condo, we are relaxing on the lanai, tucked under the roof so we won’t get wet when it decides to pour. Yet we are shorts scanning the horizon for whales. Not a bad way to spend the day!

Same spot 10 minutes later, turned just about 90 degrees.