Our last day was a weird one. Our flight wasn’t until later in the evening so we had the whole day to do stuff but had to check out of our room at 11am. Gerry and I went for one last walk on the beach before we packed up our bags and checked out. Good bye orange sand…
One last look at our view from the balcony (good bye whales) …
Packed all our bags in the car and we were off. First order of business was a little walk through Lahaina’s Front Street to pick up some presents and kill some time. It reminded me a lot of Victoria’s Government Street. Tourist trap shop after tourist trap shop selling cheap trinkets and ugly T-shirts and discount Macadamia nuts which we bought a box of to give to our staff back at Tattoo Zoo.
Nothing says “Mommy and Daddy went to Hawaii and didn’t think about you at all while we were away” like a tin of nuts. *laugh*
While in Lahaina we walked by a Crocs store. If you’re a frequent reader of my blog you know how much I despise Crocs but Denise wanted to pop in and look at them while I tried my best to keep them out of the store …
I failed as soon as these cute flats caught my eye. OMG! So cute!!
Lucky for me they didn’t have my size … so I didn’t purchase any crocs but I came dangerously close. DANGEROUSLY close!! Well done Crocs. Well done …
Next stop? My Dad really wanted to go to the Hiliimaila General Store for lunch.
… not much for vegans on the menu but Gerry and I had a roasted vegetable sandwich and french fries. I give it a “meh” out of 10.
Next on the list was a trip to Paia to hit up Mana Foods for some airplane grub. On the drive to Paia my parents GPS (who’s nickname is Missy because of her fancy British accent) had us take a crazy back-roads route. As we were driving through sugarcane fields on dirt roads I could hear the theme song for Deliverance – but before we knew it we were at the end of a dirt road staring at the most incredible ocean scene yet!
The waves were HUGE! You can’t really tell how intense the ocean was because there’s no little person out there to give you perspective but the waves were high, crashing around and kind of scary.
We stood and watched them for a long time … it was glorious!
Got to Paia and bought some plane provisions. Thanks Mana. You rock! And then hit up Flatbread Company one last time for our farewell Hawaii dinner.
I’m going to miss that pizza. I think it’s the BEST pizza I’ve ever had. No lie! Drove to the airport. Got on our 9pm flight and said GOOD BYE to Maui!
The flight home was … um … horrific. It started out ok but I had 2 kids sitting behind me and kicking my seat for the first 2 hours. I asked the parents (very politely) to make sure the kicking stopped but to no avail. As it rounded midnight (and I NEEDED to sleep) I eventually had to complain to the flight attendant and have her admonish the parents for their unruly children.
Look. I know it’s hard to travel with kids. I totally get it … but feeding them chocolate bars and giving them coke on an overnight flight is bordering on child-abuse and is KEEPING ME FROM SLEEPING!
I think I got maybe an hours sleep. And not real sleep. More like 10 minute intervals of snoozing and then I’d be woken up by kicking or being punched in the back or by having someone grab my hair. *sigh*
We arrived in Vancouver at 5:30am and I was beyond exhausted. We said happy but weary good-byes to The Rents and drove (for an hour) to Gerry’s parents to pick up the dog. Luckily for Gerry (and for me) he had managed to sleep on the plane so he did all the driving.
Happy to have Fergus back in my lap where he belongs …
We drove another hour to the ferry terminal to grab the 9am ferry home. WHY we did this I’ll never understand. Why didn’t we just have a nap at Gerry’s parents? Or spend the night? I have NEVER been so exhausted in my life. It was like I had narcolepsy. I couldn’t stay awake no matter how hard I tried. It was intense.
Got home and crashed hard for a few hours. Woke up confused and with a terrible travel hang-over. Gerry reminded me that we needed to go to the grocery store to buy some dinner (why hadn’t I thought of that before we left)… and I tried so hard to get dressed and go with him to the store but I ended up sobbing in his arms in the hallway. I was SO exhausted I could barely stand up and was dangerously close to vomiting. Not pretty.
Lovely husband that he is … he went to the store alone and I sobbed into my pillow for 10 minutes and fell asleep again. I WILL NEVER do a crazy overnight flight like that again or at the very least I will go somewhere and sleep a little before I make the arduous trip home to the island.
Gosh. Just thinking about that long night/day/night makes me feel sick … thank goodness I’m home, the dog is in my lap and all is well. 🙂
Thanks for the fun Maui!
I get super sick when I havn’t slept either. &^*# kids on the plane! Grr! The only thing worse is a sick older lady next to you that keeps sneezing and coughing, Now that is the worst! But even if its all calm and quiet I cannot sleep on an airplane. Im just to uncomfortable.
XOXO
aww sarah!
I know how HORRIBLE it is to take a long flight and not be home. It adds so much to get to and on that ferry. I try to fly out of Victoria whenever possible but sometimes it’s just way too much money.
Glad you made it home though. Are you recovered yet?
Kids & Travel
Sorry to hear about your horrific travel experience. I have also had a situation involving children. What would you have done in this situation?
I used to travel for work. A lot. Too much, actually. I was flying 3-5 days/week, 3 weeks/month, and I did this for 5 years.
Because I traveled so often I got very good at it, especially booking plane reservations. I almost always ended up with an isle seat toward the front of the plane.
So, one day I’m in my isle seat getting ready for the plane to depart on a coast to coast flight. The plane is completely full, everyone is seated and the flight attendant’s are just about to close the doors…..
At the last second a mother with 2 young children comes running aboard. All eyes are on her to take her seat so we can go. But she doesn’t take a seat. Instead she calls the flight attendant and whispers something in her ear.
The plane is packed, dead silent, and the attendant looks right at me!
All eyes are on me while the attendant calmly asks if I’d be willing to give my front of the plane isle seat for a back of the plane middle row seat so this mother can sit with her children.
I wanted to say no. I wanted to say how bad life sucked at that moment. I wanted to say go ask someone else. But all that came out was sure, no problem.
I then enjoyed my 5 hour flight from California to Florida in a middle seat between two large people in the very last row of seats by the restroom.
How would you have handled this situation?
I would have put in my earbuds and pretended to be asleep. 🙂
The first time I did a crazy overnight flight like that, I lost a cd booklet with 25 of my favourites in it. The last time time I did that, during the cab ride home the driver crashed and I got whiplash.
Never. Again.
Awww, Gerry is such a sweetie!