Maui Wowi - Part II

Following our lunch at the pool, we headed to Makena to catch a catamaran for a whale watching cruise!

Our hotel from the catamaran.

Right away, we spotted a whale . . . diving!

From there, the action was all around us!

They put a microphone into the water so we could hear the whales talking to each other. You have to listen really hard . . . the kids were having way too much fun with this aspect of the cruise.

Don shot this great video of the mama & baby whale swimming. If you look real close, you can also spot a dolphin swimming with them. Our guide said it was pretty common for dolphins to help baby whales learn how to swim. Maybe that's what we were witnessing. The sounds you hear in this video are mostly kids trying to replicate the sounds the whales were making.

I've circled the dolphin fin below, in case you couldn't find it.

Mama & Baby Humpback Whales Swimming

And then, about an hour into our cruise, the action stopped. We could see the whales breaching in the distance and lots of spouting, but no action by our boat. We couldn't complain. We had seen A LOT. Just no breaches.

We had a dinner reservation at Lahaina Grill that night. The drive was beautiful.

We got to Lahaina a little early and decided to have a drink at the Lahaina Fish Company before heading to dinner.

The view from their deck.

We walked to Lahaina Grill and had a terrific dinner.

Returning to our hotel that night.

Monday morning, we took our usual walk along the coast.

This is the restaurant at The Grand Wailea, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We've eaten here in the past and enjoyed the food and ambiance, but didn't make it there this trip. Gotta save some fun stuff for the next time! (Oh, and the restaurant, humuhumunukunukuapua'a is named for the state fish of Hawaii.)

I didn't take this photo, but here's a photo of a humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We have seen these guys swimming while snorkeling on previous trips. And, yes, even at Molokini!

Now, back to our walk . . .

We didn't have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, so Don decided we'd take a drive . . . to Hana.

Tourmaui.com has this to say about the Road to Hana:

"Those who are unfamiliar with the Hana Highway aka the “Road to Hana” will look at their map and say, “Oh, it’s only 52 miles. We can make it to Hana in about an hour.” Well, not unless you’re flying… literally. Aptly dubbed “The Divorce Highway,” the Road to Hana has an exhausting, and many times harrowing, 617 hairpin curves and 59 unforgiving one-lane bridges, not to mention an incredible number of blind spots along the way. And, since the speed limit is 25 mph or less the entire way, that puts the drive time, (with few to no stops), averaging about 2.5 hours — and that’s without encountering any traffic or other diversions.

Oh, and there are more obstacles to making it there “on time,” like being mesmerized by all of the incredibly beautiful waterfalls, local handmade jewelry, fragrant flowers and leis, fresh pineapple, banana bread and a host of other Hawaiian culinary delights to be discovered at the roadside stands."

Just a sampling of the flora at Halfway to Hana.

Entering Hana

We had a scrumptious lunch here before reversing the drive and heading back to Wailea.

Hana Bay Beach

We stopped along the way (when we could find a reasonable pull off) so we could get videos of some of the waterfalls.

If you've never been to Hana, you have no idea what you've missed. It's not for the weak of heart!

Here is a very short clip of one section of our drive.

Lots of one car bridges and hazards ALL along the way.

Sunrise early on Tuesday.

This was the action off of our lanai, later that morning.

Looks like that whale was following the boat.

Looks like it was gaining on the boat.

It got even closer!

Next time we saw it, it breached after it had passed the boat.

Another breaching whale from our lanai.

After watching the action from our lanai, we headed out for a walk along the coastline.

We saw a sea turtle swimming just off shore.

Another sea turtle coming up for a breath.

A gathering of house finches.

Some of the beautiful flowers on our hotel property. (And a rooster!)

Fairmont Kea Lani

That night, we had dinner at Tommy Bahamas -

Everything was delicious! From the mojito and bread before dinner, to the coconut shrimp, my steak salad and Don's macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. If that wasn't enough, we also enjoyed their pina colada cake. Need I say more?

We woke up Wednesday morning to high surf, big winds and heavy rain showers. We had a horseback riding trip scheduled for today, but cancelled it a couple of days ago because we knew this was coming. Turns out, that was a very good call!

We hadn't seen this side of Maui before, but it too was beautiful.

We took the shoreline walk in between squalls and managed o stay dry.

Thursday morning, March 9th, we headed to Kapalua (by way of Lahaina) to play the Plantation Course. It was another beautiful day and the drive was spectacular. Hard to believe it was such a beautiful day after yesterday!

A cruise ship docked in Lahaina

The Plantation Course at Kapalua

After golf, we had a dinner reservation in Kapalua at Merriman's.

Great view and even better mai tai's!

Sunset on our way back to the hotel.

Friday morning, we played our final round of golf on Maui. We'd never played this private course before, but our Golf Pro at Shooting Star was able to make arrangements to get us on the course.

Their Clubhouse.

We finally saw the official state bird of Hawaii at King Kamehameha, the Nene. These are considered to be the world's rarest goose and they are endangered.

Check out the waterfall at the Clubhouse.

The cart path takes you behind the waterfall at the end of your round. Pretty cool!

Our final night on the island, we had dinner at Hotel Wailea. Great views, not so great food.

No complaints about the mai tai, though!

Beautiful spot for a terrific sunset.

Our final coastal walk.

As we headed to the airport for our flight out, we stopped to fill up the car and this guy was hanging out at the gas station.

We arrived at the airport around 3:15, in plenty of time to make our 5:25 flight. We checked our luggage and asked about the status of our flight. On time. No problem. Have a good flight.

We headed up the escalator and before we even reached our departure gate, the announcement came over the intercom system. Delta Flight 726 to Atlanta was delayed indefinitely. Apparently, there was an accident on the road from Lahaina and the crew couldn't get to the airport. They had no idea how long the delay would be, so we'd better stick around the airport. We were scheduled to depart upon their arrival. We turned around and found a restaurant for dinner and decided to have one more tropical drink before leaving the beautiful island of Maui. (In hindsight, we should have had several.)

You guessed it. I had a mai tai!

Two hours later (and only 1 drink each) we headed to the gate and were told the crew was still en route. It's a 30 minute drive from Lahaina, with traffic. We waited and waited and waited some more. No more information was made available for another 3 hours. Don went on the Delta App to try to book a flight to Norfolk out of Atlanta because it was obvious we were going to miss yet another connection. The App indicated all flights from Atlanta to Norfolk were completely booked. No availability. And trips up to the gate agents were fruitless. The line was log and the agents were moving in slow motion. Seems no one could book anything. Nothing was working. We continued to wait. Eventually the crew arrived and we boarded tour flight at midnight. Once we were in the air, Don talked to a flight attendant about our trouble with the Delta App. She was very sympathetic and tried to help by contacting her ground staff for assistance; but even she didn't get a return message. When we landed in Atlanta, we headed to the Delta Sky Club and were able to book a flight to Norfolk. In just over 5 hours. We waited some more. We have never been so happy to get back to Norfolk as we were that evening.

Travel just isn't what it used to be. Those of you who travel know exactly what I'm talking about. The days of on-time flights and helpful attendants are a thing of the past. True, our experience with Delta was miserable, but even Delta couldn't diminish the incredibly amazing 9 days we had just spent on the beautiful island of Maui.

Ya'll take good care and have a wonderful Easter!