Maui

Didn't turn out quite exactly as we had planned, but it wasn't a total wasted trip.

We took the shortest plane ride I have ever been on (20 minutes!) and landed on time in Maui.  We got our luggage (we had to check it because it was just over size...luckily, for inter-island travel, it's only $10) and got on the Avis shuttle to go get our car.

We walked through the doors, handed them all our paperwork and she started in on the whole 'do you want to update your car to a jeep' thing, and as we were deciding, Ben pulls out our debit card to pay for it.  Now, Ben and I don't have a credit card (which we are now trying to solve), so when we do things like rent a car, we make sure that the company in question accepts a debit card, even if it means they have to put a hold on some money.  On Oahu, for military, the car companies will pass doing this, and take down the name of your commanding officer and a way to contact them in case you can't end up paying or damage the car...I think what a commanding officer will do to you is worse than what the car company can do (yikes!). 

So the woman takes our card and says, "OK, we're going to put a $400 hold on your card." Um...at that point, that's all the money we have in our account as we haven't gotten paid yet.  But Ben and I agree-after all, all we plan on doing is going to our hotel and resting-and we have money in another account if we decide to go to a light dinner.  So no problem.  Ben goes back to filling out the paperwork when we hear the dreaded, "Uh oh."

"Do we not have enough?" Ben asks, confused, as we checked our account that morning and we're pretty sure we had the money.

"That's not it." says the woman, handing back the card. "You don't have any credit.  We can't rent a car to you."

Um...what?  We agreed to the $400 hold, we have the money in there, and they still run a credit check??  What the heck?  Why does their website say that we can use our debit card, when obviously, we can't? So Ben, being that it's Veteran's Day and he's a Veteran, and because, why not, asks about the whole giving her his commander's name, to which she looks blankly at him and says, "No."  So, pretty angry at this point, we decide that maybe another car company will want to deal with us-maybe Alamo or National, who have worked out well with us before (we got one of those airfare/hotel/car rental deals online, and they gave us Avis...which we will not deal with in the future).

But as we started calling around, we discovered something strange...no car rental places have any cars left (except for Mustang convertibles for $150 a day).  We called every single one, including ones that weren't advertised.  Finally, after about an hour of that, frustrated and hot, we got in line to take a shuttle to our hotel, which took over an hour as it kept stopping other places.  We arrived at our hotel (which was nice, by the way, so that was a perk-also a three minute walk from the beach) and found out that we were in the last building in this huge complex (we were in building T if that says anything), and there is no elevator and we're on the third floor.  Now, I know, that's not a huge deal...except that the heel on my right foot was beginning to hurt.  I had gotten new shoes two weeks before, and apparently, they hadn't been completely broken in. Well, fine, no problem.

Or so I thought.  I brought flip-flops with me, of course, but the thing is...I hate them.  I've never been able to get used to wearing the things-at least for very long.  They're fine if you're at a park or beach or quick run to the store, but for longer than an hour, I can't seem to do it.  So I ignored the sandals and we walked three blocks to a Mexican place and then back to the room.  During this time, I think a rather nasty blister formed on my heel, but I ignored it-I was busy looking at everything to worry about it.  Back in the room, Ben pulled the Internet and started going down the list of places that rent cars-he called them all, but not one had a car available.  So we decided to take the bus.

The next morning we took the bus to Lahaina, an old whaling town.  The bus dropped us off at a transfer site, where we waited for 40 minutes for the next bus, and then continued on our way.  By this time, my blister had popped, so walking wasn't so much fun.   Lahaina is pretty cool, right on the water, and the main street has all these old buildings and a huge Banyan Tree Park.  We didn't do any shopping, as everything you can find there you can find down at Waikiki or at the Swapmeet, but just walking around was fun.  And for the first time, we had the shaved ice (we had some at Ala Moana once, but it was nothing compared to this!).  Can I just say, I think I'm willing to stand in the 20-30 minute line in Haleawa up on North Shore just to get this kind of shaved ice.  It was fabulous!  So good, actually, that when we hit that transfer station on the way back to the hotel, we found another shaved ice place and had another one-this time with ice cream in the bottom (the girl behind the counter suggested it...surprisingly good!).

Back at the hotel, Ben and I went down to the pool for about an hour, then came back to the room and ordered dinner in and went to bed early, as the next morning we had to be up at 6:30 to catch a tour bus for the Road to Hana.

Here's a quick tip if you ever come to Maui and go on the Road to Hana and you have a tendency to get motion/car sick-pack Dramamead (sp? you know, the motion sickness pill), or anything that helps you overcome that sickness.  Sit by a window.  Stop frequently...otherwise, you will have a miserable time!  I have never been on a road with more twists and turns.  I did well for the first part, but by the first stopping point, I had to ask the driver for some ginger root to help (he can't carry the drugs because of lawsuits, but the ginger helped a little).  For parts of it, I had to close my eyes and focus on breathing.

Still, the tour was cool.  The bus was small-there were only 8 of us-and they provided breakfast and lunch.  The driver was born and raised in Maui, and entertaining.  The whole tour took most of the day, because we drove all the way around Haleakala (which rental cars are forbidden to do, but we still saw them out there-bad drivers!).  For once, I was glad we didn't have a car, because I don't know if I could have handled Ben driving this road (sorry, Ben, but it was a crazy road!).  There are a lot of one-way bridges, tight turns that require you honking your horn to warn other drivers, crazy local drivers and apparently, trees fall across the road a lot.  But the views are awesome, the black sand beach was pretty (I do wish we had a longer time there, but on a tour, you only have what they give you), and the back-side of Haleakala, where the drivers can't go, is crazy steep and rough roads.

After the tour, Ben treated me to a nice dinner at a place called Cafe O'Lei in Kihei, a few blocks from our hotel (by this time, I was out of my shoes and into the stupid flip-flops, as the back of my foot is a bloody, icky mess).  The food was excellent, I would recommend it to anyone, but make reservations.  The next morning we woke late, called a taxi and headed home.  So it wasn't a dream vacation, we didn't get to see what we really wanted to see, but it wasn't a total loss.  Maybe someday we'll go back with some friends or family and actually get that rental car...

Or maybe we'll skip Hawaii and just go to Europe.