ON THE ROAD: Maui.

WELCOME TO MAUI!

This wasn’t my first trip to Maui.  I’ve been here three times over the years: a three-day trip from Honolulu with my sister acting as tour guide, a weeklong stay in a beautiful spacious condo with friend Allan, and a stop on a Hawaiian circle cruise  from San Diego a few years ago.  I’d seen most of it so I wasn’t interested in many excursions, and thought I’d just get off and walk around.

First off, though,  after my coffee, Craig and I decided to do a walk around the promenade deck.  The skies were cloudy at first, but then we spied a rainbow, a good omen.

We walked for an hour from 8-9, then went to trivia in the coffee bar in the main atrium from 9-9:30.  Since it is a vacation, I imagine most people were sleeping in, like the other members of our party  – there were only a few other people playing.  Craig and I played as a team, and even though we thought it was very difficult, we won! We only had a score of 14/20 but  other people did much worse  -humbling.  Everyone got a prize “because there are no losers on NCL,” then we  climbed the stairs  up to the Aloha Café for breakfast.  As we were eating, my sister popped in with her bag to take things to Ed, who was still resting.  The café  closes at 10:30 so we had time to eat and decide on our plans for the day.

We decided that the two ladies would go into town and the two gentlemen should explore the ship, so we were off a few hours later.

For some reason, I thought I was in Lahaina, but I wasn’t. I remember taking a tender on the last cruise..hmmm..where WERE we?  According to the daily newsletter we were in Kahului. When we left the ship, I saw the map..we walked to the main road, where we saw a large street and a Whole Foods store!  Looks like we were going to the mall..at least we’d get some local color..we lucked out because there was a local crafts market there, and I scored some nice local hand made products for gifts.

We four had a nice dinner in a New York-themed restaurant with cabaret music and  saw the main show.  We also began our tradition of hanging out at the piano bar on the second floor of the atrium, near the bar.  The piano player was excellent and there were some dancers on the tiny dance floor that were an entertainment as well.  It appeared that about sixteen people from China were all sailing together and they had ALL been to ballroom dancing school!  They were all very practiced and very dramatic – we loved them!

The next day Craig and I continued with our morning routine: a walk around the deck, trivia, which Craig won (he missed one less than I did) , then  breakfast at a different venue, and this time we got off to explore more of the shoreline.

We had dinner at one of the free-to-us suiteholders fancy restaurants that were part of the deal: Jefferson’s Bistro, which had typical French dishes.  The setting was lovely and service was fine.  I had escargots and sole, which was light, and we shared an apple tart for dessert.  We stuck with light sparkling wine for our meal.  Beatrice and Ed had a romantic meal on their own while we made ourselves scarce

We all  saw “Light, Action, Camera,” the main show, which was excellent -music and dance in the movies, appealing to the older demographic on the ship, though Craig enjoyed it as well.  We finished off the evening watching the dancers and listening to the music at the piano bar.

Can you tell we’re settling into a routine?

Tomorrow we spend two days on the Big Island and Craig and I visit Volcanos National Park!