Day 7: Maui Ocean Center, Paia (reprise)

It's so hard to say goodbye to beach and sunshine of Maui but this was the last day of our trip. I got up early to swim in the ocean one more time. I could count the number of times I swam in the ocean after I've grown up in one hand! I've almost forgotten that experience. At first, I was scared away by the powerful waves near the shore but I realized I just needed to swim a bit further out from the shore. I still needed to "fight" a bit against the power of water current but that's the fun of swimming in the ocean. I wish my kids would be able to enjoy that soon. Well, they had their fun in the swimming pool again. Then it's time to pack and check out of the beautiful Fairmont Kea Lani.
For lunch, we went to the familiar Safeway in Kihei. We bought bread and sushi and drove down the nearby road to the beach. Having lunch in the car while enjoying the view of Kihei beach was a popular activity. A few cars were already there when we arrived and more came after us!
The final must-see for us was the aquarium. People who didn't snorkel or scuba dive, like us, could still enjoy the large variety of marine life found in Hawaii at the Maui Ocean Center. We had a great time watching the smaller ones that live in the coral to the big ones like this:

It featured a transparent tunnel that we watched sharks and stingrays swimming around and above us.
The original dinner plan was the famous Japanese restaurant Sansei in Kihei but we saw a big crowd outside at 4:30pm. The restaurant won't even open for another half hour! It's not worthwhile to risk missing the flight for this so we went to another restaurant we really wanted to try, Flatbread, in Paia (my 5th time there,) known for its organic pizza ingredients. And it turned out to be a great choice, not just for the tasty pizza.

Here was the story: my son absolutely didn't like pizza. We usually order garlic bread for him when we have pizza. Flatbread didn't make garlic bread but the waiter offered us bread stick, which is basically a plain pizza without tomato sauce. It tasted good and my son liked it. The best part? It's free!
And the orders arrived quickly so we had plenty of time making it to the airport. And the plane was there ready to fly us back home. However, the flight was still sitting there when the departure time had passed! We were told there was a problem related to navigation. The airline found a solution 45 minutes later and it took another 30 min to implement (reloading the navigation database. Maybe they should use a faster flash drive next time) We arrived in SF at 6am. The end.

Day 6: Bike down Haleakala, Mama's Fish House

You might think a self-proclaimed "true" cyclist, who likes to brag about climbs like that ones I mentioned earlier in Day 3, would find the popular tourist activity of biking down Haleakala unattractive. Well, it certainly isn't challenging and doesn't require much biking skills but it still sounds fun to me (and to the couple who did the challenging bike tour with me on Day 3 as well) I decided to do it and this day started early, I mean, really early, at 2:30am! I was picked up at the hotel by Cruiser Phil's van to its HQ in Kahului. Then their bus drove the group up to the visitor center near the summit of Haleakala. The driver who also served as tour guide told us quite a few Maui and Haleakala related stories from Hawaiian mythology to entertain us during the long drive. I got a bit more sleep on the way though. It was 5:20am when we arrived. The goal? To watch the sunrise! (Yup, the same sunrise we decided not to take the wife and kids to see. I wore my bike jersey, a long-sleeve tee, a short-sleeve tee, a windbreaker and finally the jacket provided by the tour operator to stay warm. It's actually around 15 degrees Celsius. Not that cold but I just want to be on the safe side. The tour has provided wind pants and another jacket that I didn't use) Is it worthwhile to get up so early? I'll let you judge:

Because of regulation, the bike ride couldn't start at the summit. The bus driver drove us back down to 6300 ft. After some instructions from the ride leader, the ride finally began at 7:30am. We were all given a single speed bike with drum brakes.

The folks from Cruiser Phil's didn't even bother to adjust seat height because we were not expected to pedal for any significant distance. Well, that was applicable to every riders on the tour except me! The bike given to me was probably the worst bike I've ever rented. Maybe it had some bad bearings or brake rub, it just couldn't go fast, even though I pedal it as fast as I could to catch up to speed with the group, while no one else had to pedal, confirmed by the guy behind me, who rode the last one in the line of bikes. I had to heightened the seat by almost 3 inches or my knee would have hurt for pedaling hard with improper seat height. The average speed was ~20 mph, which was actually not that bad considered that the group doesn't solely consist of hardcore bikers. (For comparison, I estimated the speed would have been between 25-30 mph if I use that Titanium road bike from Day 3. BTW, the tour I joined was the type that has "no passing (the bikes in front of you)" rule, which did not worsen my ride with that poor bike anyway. I saw another tour company providing Trek mountain bike with disc brakes to their customers. I gotta find out what company does that if I were to do it next time. Oh yeah, it must not enforce "no passing" too)

The ride finished sooner that we thought. By 9:30am, we were driven to Paia (my 3rd time there) for breakfast. The driver recommended Moana, which was pricey but the food was good. I had a Mahi Mahi egg benedict.

It's lunch time when I was driven back to Wailea and we had burgers and wings at Cheeseburger Islandstyle there:


There was no better activity to burn off those calories than more swimming fun at the pool in the afternoon. And we gained them back by visiting this nice restaurant, Mama's Fish House at Paia (my 4th time there) It was probably equally well known for its high-end seafood and its unrivaled view of the beach:

Day 3: Road biking at Kula, Lahaina

One of my top priorities at Maui was road biking. There were 2 famous bike routes: (1) up from the shore to the 10000 ft summit of Haleakala, (2) the road to Hana. I ended up biking a less traveled but still scenic and challenging (incl. a category 2 climb) route around Kula, guided by Maui Cyclery at Paia.



I booked the tour way before my trip and have been eagerly waiting for this day! I brought my own jersey, shorts, shoes and pedals while Maui Cyclery provided the most high-end bike I've ever ridden: a Titanium Litespeed with Ultegra gruppo! This was the first time I did a guided bike tour. Even though I lost some bragging rights because the route wasn't as famous, I was still glad that I joined the tour. The leader from the shop was a really good rider so I have never ridden harder than this in order to keep up. Bikers get better by riding with better ones. In addition, I just don't feel brave enough to ride on my own in unfamiliar territory. The whole tour minus the leader and the driver were just me and another couple on their honeymoon (which were nice folks BTW. Both were very fit.) The bikes were loaded to a truck which also serve as SAG (support and gear) at the shop and we were driven to our starting point, Kula Community Center. We actually drove by the town of Kula the previous day as it's on the way to Haleakala. However, instead of biking towards that, we rode down Kula Highway and then Kalama Park Rd towards the south side of Haleakala. It was very windy but we got an awesome view of the islands (Kahoolawe and Molokini) We took the same route back and the final few uphill miles required quite a bit of work. The rewards were pastries at the end point, Grandma's Maui coffee.
I rejoined the family back at the hotel around 1:30pm and started our trip to West Maui. The kids will probably remember Lahaina for the shave ice place.

Maybe the big banyan tree too:

I will remember Lahaina because of Betty's Beach Cafe. I love its signature dessert, which is a huge mud slide (mango ice cream with brownie) This restaurant is probably more well known for being able to watch luau (performed at the restaurant next to it) without paying the price of luau than its food though.

Day 1: Paia, Kihei, Wailea

Ever since we visited Oahu in 2002, Maui has been among the top of my list of place to visit next. Our first "taste" of Hawaii at Oahu was a great experience even though we found it a bit too commercial. I was looking forward to a trip to Maui for its natural beauty and it was finally materialized today. My first impression of Maui was not that great though: the wind was blowing really hard at the airport. And the lady at the Alamo's car rental counter was nothing close to being friendly. (She kept preaching us that if the agent (referring to herself) couldn't find our reservation using my last name, always provide the last name of the other person in the couple, as if this was a rule that we should have followed) After a long wait for Alamo's shuttle, we finally began our Maui journey around noon. First stop was the popular Paia fish market (we followed a Top Maui Restaurant guide that was thoroughly studied by my wife) Paia is a small old-style hip town, which I would visit 4 more times later on during this trip. I had a Obama burger (with Cajun style ono fish fillet and wasabi on top)

The dessert after lunch were shave ice (the lady was rather unfriendly as well) and gelato (from the Maui-only Ono Gelato company)
Next we stocked up some groceries from Kihei's Safeway supermarket. We shopped mainly for breakfast and snacks (Can't eat out all the time because cost of living is high in Maui) Then we checked into the luxurious Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea. A lot of reviews say this hotel looks old but that's why we could afford it. In fact, it was being renovated so it gave out a few discounts and freebies for the inconvenience.

After walking a bit of the trail connecting a few resorts along the Wailea area beaches, we headed back to Kihei for dinner at Cafe O'Lei, a restaurant known for good Hawaiian food without hefty price tags.