maui vacation - day 2

DAY 2: Tuesday, April 26

It was great not having to get up and go anywhere right away; I was so glad we had rescheduled the snorkel trip! Jeff woke up early because his clock is always set and he was still set to Utah time. I had no problem sleeping! I woke up around 7:00 and wanted to call home right away. I got to talk to Ruby and hear her sweet voice. She asked when we were coming home. My mom said she would make her a calendar so they could count down the days. I knew it was going to be a long week for both of them.

At some point, when I was looking in my suitcase, I realized that my running shoes weren’t there. I packed my new (purchased in January) Pumas in the top of my suitcase and they were not there. I thought maybe Ruby had taken them out and I didn’t realize it. Or I packed them but took them out to put something else in and forgot to put them back. But I was very sure that I had packed them at one point. My mom said she hadn’t seen my shoes around the house, so it looks like my shoes were stolen.

We walked down to the beach and around the resort to check things out, then headed out to grab some groceries and find breakfast. We hit up Times Market for soda, snacks, and breakfast food to keep in the room. We neglected to pack any sunscreen, so we had to buy a bottle of that, too. (I knew things were more expensive in Hawaii but I’ll admit I was a little shocked at how high the prices were!) After that, we ended up at Whaler’s Village, a cute outdoor shopping mall, where most of the stores were still closed and there weren’t any good options for breakfast. We passed by McDonald’s and headed back to the resort where we had seen some people eating earlier. The Honolua Store is right next to the Ritz; it’s a cute little convenience store / souvenir shop / coffee shop / café. We ordered breakfast and ate on the porch.

We got back to the room and decided it was time to hit the pool. I didn’t realize how much I would love hanging out by the pool! We got in the pool, swam around a bit, then hopped in the hot tub to soak for a while, and then laid on the lounge chairs. It was heavenly – lying under the palm trees, feeling the warm sun beat down on me, with the ocean breeze blowing softly. That was complete relaxation and I loved every second of it.

That afternoon we drove down to check out Lahaina, a cute little town right on the edge of the water, with fun restaurants and cute shops. I needed to buy some more running shoes, since they were required footwear for the next morning’s zip-line adventure tour. Before we hit Front Street, we stopped at the Foot Locker. Nothing good there. Lucky for me there was another shoe store just a couple shops down. They had a cute pair of grey Tevas with green stitching, but didn’t have them in my size! I settled for the same shoe with purple stitching.

We parked a couple blocks from Front Street and started our search for lunch. Hard Rock Café? No, thank you. Some little bistro-looking place? I’ll pass. Bubba Gump’s? Sounds good! It wasn’t one of our planned meal destinations but the shrimp lived up to the hype and made our tummies happy. We got to sit at a table right next to the railing, where the waves crashed up against the wall by our feet. The view was amazing.

We walked up and down Lahaina’s main street, stopping in a couple stores to buy postcards, and taking pictures. When my feet couldn’t walk any longer in my uncomfortable flip-flops, we went back to the car. On our way out of the parking lot, we asked the attendant to tell us how to pronounce Lahaina. I was pretty sure that it was pronounced “La-hi-nuh,” but Jeff kept pronouncing it “La-hayena,” which confused me, because I didn’t know what he was talking about, or it made me think I was saying it wrong. So Jeff asked her, “What town is this?” and she said, “Lahaina” (pronouncing it “La-hi-nuh”) and looked at us like we were crazy. So there you go and now we know! After that we drove by a Radio Shack and went in to grab an auxiliary power cord so that we could hook my iPhone & the iPod to the car stereo! Hooray for being able to listen to good music in the car!


We decided to drive down to Wailea. Wailea is where a couple resorts are located that we had considered at staying at, so we wanted to check it out to see if we were missing anything. It’s on the more south-west side of the island, but doesn’t take too long to drive there. We found the Grand Wailea and the Four Seasons, then found a parking lot with public beach access and went for a walk. The small piece of beach shared by the resorts was small, but pretty. We walked south along the boardwalk, taking in the gorgeous views.

We made it back to our room to have a little rest and change before it was time to go to Roy’s for our dinner reservation. Roy’s is a short drive down the highway, in a small strip mall, with a fabulous view of McDonald’s. The location is not impressive, but the interior was, and the food was delightful. We enjoyed their special tasting menu, which included a succulent appetizer, delicious braised short-ribs, macadamia-crusted mahi-mahi, and hot chocolate soufflés with ice cream for dessert. I ate way too much and loved every bite!