Random notes from the trip.
- Don’t eat the duck and corn soufflé at Top of Waikiki restaurant. Just ask Jeff, aka the “Vomit Comet.”
- Waikiki reminded me of Singapore. The only difference between Waikiki/Honolulu and other big cities is that the people walking down the street are often carrying surfboards.
- Two words: Lava flows. That’s all I’m going to say.
- The pool at the Westin Maui is amazing. It was too windy to go to the beach some days (unless you want to feel sandblasted) but the pool was excellent so avoiding the beach wasn’t a big deal.
- The road to Hana was one of the best parts of Maui. A lot of people avoid it due to the windy, bumpy road along the coast but it had the best views of the island and some unique stops along the way.
- Someone raved about the black sand beaches of Maui, but it’s not really sand. More like black pebble beach.
- If you don’t like seafood (and I don’t like most of it) you’ll be surviving on burgers in Maui. Your choices are fresh fish (usually caught that day or the day before) and burgers. Or cheap Mexican (that was pretty excellent). A cheeseburger “island style” (with pineapple and teriyaki sauce) was one of the best things I ate.
- I didn’t know that Hawaiian shirts are called Aloha shirts in Hawaii. Our guide in the airport told us to look for the guy in the green aloha shirt, and I kept looking for a guy with the word “aloha” in big letters on his shirt.
- It is too freaking hot to run in Maui! I don’t know how the marathon runners did it. The 5K was more than enough for me.
- We didn’t get pictures of parasailing or snorkeling, but I would recommend both – especially the snorkeling. We saw a sea turtle in addition to hundreds of fish and interesting coral reefs. Beware of the blisters from the cheap rubber fins! Both feet were in pain afterwards.
- Hawaiians love spam! Burger Kings in Oahu have spam croissan’wiches.
