Goodbye, Hawai’i

At the beginning of this sporadic accounting of our Hawaiian vacation last fall, I mused on 100 Days of Hawai’i, and I threatened to go all “grandpa” on y’all. As this parade of entries has wound down, I think the ol’ grandpa genes kicked in more. Therefore I’ll keep this short, sweet, and hopefully mildly entertaining.

After the visit with my cousin our first full day on Maui, we loitered for three days as described recently. Two serendipitous events occurred to ensure an encore visit with my cousin and her husband. First, I left my camera and that package of very expensive Kona coffee in their car after our first visit. And second, I realized there was no way we wanted to get to the Kahului airport by 7 a.m. if that meant a one-hour drive and dropping a rental car. It would have seriously impacted the lazy vibe we were working on! I rebooked the flight for the next day, booked a hotel near the airport, and told my cousin so we could meet again for another visit since they lived near the hotel and the airport. This gave us a day to leave the Kapalua condo leisurely, stop at various viewpoints on the southern coast, and spend a lot of time at the Maui Aquarium.

Our last good view of the coast (from land anyway): the Papawai Scenic Lookout. The western end of Maui is on the left, a tiny dab of land in the center is Molokini, and at the right edge is Kaho’olawe. September 2024.

Even in the populated middle of Maui where things are fairly dry (see above), the mountains showed how they catch the clouds and their rain.

Looking west at dusk from Kahului. The Dunes at Maui Lani golf course in the foreground. The mountains are the reason one drives around the coast to Lahaina and Kapalua. September 2024.

Except for a few photos I couldn’t resist posting while on the vacation, I opened this lengthy travelogue with aerial shots of Oahu and Hawai’i. It seems only fitting we say goodbye to Maui and the Hawaiian Islands the same way.

Our plane skirted the northern coast of Maui, then banked to the east and the mainland. My last view of Maui and the Hawaiian Islands. September 2024.

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