Tastes, Tales and Tours: Hawaii Day 4

Our interisland flight from Oahu to Maui went very smoothly and we arrived at about 11:30 in Kahului. We thought that would be perfect timing for picking up the rental car and then stopping for a bite to eat before heading over to the condo. Unfortunately, the experience at the Budget counter thwarted our plans, as it took nearly two hours to get picked up by the shuttle and make it through the ridiculously long line. I waited in the line while the husband watched our bags outside and took some pictures. I loved all the people throwing conniptions in line, like that was going to improve anything! By the time we headed out in our (identical to Oahu) Pontiac G6 Rental, we were pretty starving. I didn't take any pictures at Amigo's Mexican restaurant, but we highly recommend this place if you get to Maui at lunch time and need something tasty before heading out to your final lodging. It is on the main road (333 Dairy) that you have to take to get to any of the major hotel areas, so it is very convenient, and the food is fairly authentic and inexpensive (by Maui standards). About $30 for lunch, and that included a margarita for the husband. We drove on to Kihei to pick up the keys to the condo at Hale Pau Hana. Man, we love this place. I've been told I'm crazy for staying in Kihei all the time when there are fancier resort locations we could stay at, but I just LOVE Hale Pau Hana for it's convenience to Kamaole Beach. Kihei is a great little beach town, with great beaches on one side of the main road, and little strip malls on the other. It is still fairly centrally located on the island, so if we want to head over to Lahaina, up to Haleakala, or over to Central Maui, all are reachable pretty quickly. The last two Maui visits, we have stayed on 1st floor condos at Hale Pau Hana, and we love the convenience of walking out our condo back door straight onto the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the beach, calling his mom/my stepmom for Mother's Day, picking up some groceries, and heading to Cafe O'Lei for dinner, which was right across the street and relatively inexpensive for a nice dinner. The husband particularly enjoyed his blackend mahi mahi from here. I liked that the meals came with a very fresh salad, something we hadn't had since arriving on the island.

Picture courtesy of my bored husband in the Budget waiting area

We spent hours on these lawn chairs right outside our door. This is also where we made our Mother's Day calls. My mother-in-law said "Make those birds be quiet! I can't hear you!" when she was talking to the husband.

The HPH condos have pretty nice TVs and all rooms have internet access. We always bring our laptop to Hawaii so that we can get directions, phone numbers for reservations, etc. We usually aren't tempted to contact work, so it works for us to bring the laptop.