January is a great time to escape from the Salt Lake Valley. The air quality is often bad and the temps are frigid. So on Tuesday, January 11 we flew, compliments of Southwest Airlines, to Oakland, California. Got a hotel and lined up for the 7:45 a.m. departure on Alaska Airlines direct to Kahului, Maui, Hawaii. I had a paid ticket, but Drew was on space-available. Wednesday morning it didn’t look good for him. I boarded the plane with a plan B in place in case he didn’t get a seat. (Plan B was for him to fly to Los Angeles and try from there. I said I would come back to the airport and get him later that night, after I had checked out the beach.) At the last minute, he strutted onto the plane and took an aisle seat right behind me. Lucky dog.
It was raining when we arrived, but oh so warm and lush.
At the rental car agency, we opted to upgrade to a Dodge Charger. That turned out to be a mistake because it is very hard to see out the windows of the gas guzzler. Go America! We were too cheap to spring the extra $140 for a convertible.
We had read about how expensive everything was on Maui, so we did like everyone else that had been on our flight, we went shopping at Costco. After loading up on precooked sausages and hummus, we headed to the town of Kihei and found our way to the Grand Champions studio condominium we found through HomeAway.com. The place wasn't fancy, but it had a mini fridge and mini kitchen and fit the value bill precisely.
The owner was really nice to do business with and had included a set of beach chairs, beach towels, coolers, and boogie boards for our entertainment. The best part of the condo was that the lanai opened towards the outside of the development on a thick forest greenbelt so we couldn’t see any buildings or other units.
Grand Champions is located next to a golf course and tennis center, about two blocks off the beach, which worked out fine for us. Drew napped while I looked around the rest of the complex.
Later we walked to the beach for a sunset stroll.
And found a restaurant where we had pizza and two beers for $48. Welcome to Maui.
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