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 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.