Our last day in Maui starts with Marlene grabbing bagels for us that we eat on the balcony watching the view for the last time this trip. Then, much packing, where we realize another suitcase is needed. Luckily, we scoped one out the night before, and run out and snag it just before we check out.
We check out at 11AM and grab some gas for the car, stop at a brand spanking new Barnes & Noble in Lahaina and then over to Cannery Mall where Marlene picks up a piece of jewelry she had eyed a few days ago.
From there, we head over to the heliport to pick up a DVD we had ordered of our flight earlier in the week. Since we basically have about 5 hours to kill still, we head over to the aquarium, where we see much in oceanic creature beautifulness. It also puts an exclamation on the point of an interesting tidbit I learned about Marlene this week. She's a really really really big fan of sea turtles. As there were sea turtles at the aquarium, she's in sea turtle nirvana. The aquarium itself isn't big, but it passes about an hour for us. From there, we wander around the town where the aquarium is, and have lunch at Buzz's wharf, a local eatery that has some good food. In Ma'alena.
Luckily, since this is Hawaii, lunch takes a few hours, so that by the time we finish, and head to the car to reload the suitcases for the flight to Seattle, it's almost time.
To note here, for the week, we rented a red Chevy Cobalt from Avis for a good rate. If you rent a car in Hawaii, particularly Maui, I really really really recommend getting a small car. Small roads = better with small cars. You have the maneuverability you need and good gas mileage. Gas is very expensive on Maui, not that this is shocking. Gas ran us usually around 3.89 a gallon. With all the hundreds of miles we drove this trip, I only filled up the tiny 10 gallon tank twice, and one of those was only a half fill. Alot of dorks come to Maui and rent these bigger convertibles or SUVs then go nuts trying to fit them into the tiny sized Maui parking spots, or nuts trying to fit them on the tiny sized Maui roads (see Road to Hana). So the Cobalt worked great for us, plus it was able to play my cd loaded with mp3s and had an aux input so I was able to hook the PSP up to it and play tunes off of that. And yes, when I travel, I bring the correct cord, because, uh, it's my business to know to bring that cord. And I bring cd's so we have tunes to listen to since local music always consists of christian radio programming no matter what city in the US you are in. (The exception being NYC where god is afraid to hang out)
We headed to Kahului airport (airport code OGG - my new favorite aiport code) and dropped off the car. The airport is very small, so I was able to drop Marlene with the bags while I went over to drop the car off so we didn't have to schlep them around. An odd thing: Before we even checked in, our check in bags were scanned for agriculture, which we had none of. We checked in and then put our carry ons through an agriculture check too. Then got to the gate and hung out for about 45 minutes, where we watched most of the helicopter ride DVD we picked up earlier.
The flight was on Northwest, and for once, I was smart, I snagged us the super deluxe exit row seat, which turned out to be bulkheads with more leg room space that got everyone else on the plane jealous. Since I got that continental airlines elite status, I was able to get the seat for me for free and paid $35 for Marlene's pseudo upgrade. While some may think this is a rip off, we had more legroom than the folks in first class, plus, I got these airplane tix for basically frequent flyer miles, so the fee wasn't too much.
The plane was eh, Northwest was eh, but the seats were slamming. We left at 7:30 PM Maui time, layed over (staying on the plane) in Kona, Hawaii for about an hour and a half before taking off for Seattle.
On the five hour flight, I read (currently reading the book 9 Innings - The anatomy of a baseball game, by Daniel Okrent), slept for 2 hours (which was sweet because I usually don't sleep, but had the leg room this time, so I did) and watched the Bourne Ultimatum on my PSP. Marlene slept and read, but mostly slept.
We arrived on time on Seattle, but that's the next blog entry...
