Saturday, November 14, 2009

Hello, Maui!





Wow, it is absolutely incredible how DIFFERENT Lanai and Maui are. On Lanai there are no fast food restaurants, no traffic lights, no towering hotels, not many tourists and not much noise. It's very rustic and very woodsy: the are more pine trees than palm trees. Maui on the other hand is a much more intense Hawaiian experience. Nothing here is understated. It's incredibly beautiful, don't get me wrong, it's just beautiful in a more in-your-face sort of way. And it's a lot more gentrified. As soon as you land on the dock, you see a Baskin-Robbins, a Subway and a Burger King . However, to be fair, I have to acknowledge that they are the prettiest versions of each establishment I have ever seen! The zoning laws are clearly very strict here, because each edifice is roughly the same low height, with the same blue and white moldings and the same mostly-glass exterior.

There are lot of hotels in the downtown area by the dock, but we are actually staying somewhat off the beaten path in Wailea, about a 40 minute drive away. Wailea has a handful of hotels, and I get the impression this is not where the majority of visitors stay at in Maui. But really I'm noly basing that on the surpised reaction from the rental car lady who asked us where we were staying.

One of the plusses I could see right off the bat of staying a little out of the way is that we got to see more of the island en route to our hotel. As a bonus, we scored a Ford Mustang for the car rental on this part of the trip, so the drive was even more enjoyable.

We got to the Marriott at Wailea Beach at around 1:30pm and after checking in and devouring some lunch, we plopped ourselves down at the infinity pool. Check out some of the views from our part of the hotel. I say "our part of the hotel" because the resort is ginornmous-- I don't think we've seen half of it yet.

P.S. How 'bout my husband's picture-taking skills, eh?? Pretty impressive!

1 comment:

  1. Mitch;

    Nice images! - Are you auditioning for still motion shooting from under a chair hmmmmmm seems I've seen that technique before.

    Keep posting the pics and how about some with you and Chrys in them - we need physical proof you guys are really there.

    Dad

    ReplyDelete