A Day For Lovers Followed by A Loooooong Day

---

I probably haven't mentioned it, but the weather so far has not been typical of Maui, even in February. A couple days were marred by passing showers and the temperatures were below normal. The average temperature here at this time is about 65 F at night and 76-80 F in the day. There has recently been a system that has kept rotating around the islands bringing exceptional rain. They even got snow last Sunday on Haleakala volcano down to 6,200 ft. above sea level, the lowest recorded elevation to receive snow on Maui. Thursday was the only really bad day so far. It rained a lot and there was some flash flooding going on. The temperature only got up to 65 F that day, Valentine's Day. We were going to drive to the Iao Valley on the other side of the island, but the rain was coming down and the traffic on the highway was backed up, so we turned around and went to the Lahaina Docks to pick out a whale watching boat. After that, we just went to one of our favorite restaurants again, Java Jazz, for lunch. Back at the resort, The Aston at Papakea on Kaanapali Beach, three of us had a nice nap, listening to the waves and rain.



We had reservations for dinner at the Plantation to celebrate Valentine's Day. Both couples are somewhat unique in this day and age, Dan & Marilyn will be married 45 years in April and Bob & Jan are married 41 years. Must be true love!



The next day, Friday, we flew to Kauai to do a helicopter tour of that island. It started out innocently enough with an easy 45 minute drive from Lahaina to Kahului where the airport is. That's when the fun started. About 5 minutes from the airport, Marilyn said; "I can't find my driver's license!" We continued into the airport parking lot while Marilyn rummaged through her purse. All of us took turns telling her that it had to be in there. Now I must tell you that to be sure about going through security, she brought her driver's license AND her passport. After extensive searching, she declared that it was definite that neither ID was there. Now the panic really set in. She told us to just go ahead and she would go back to the resort. I told her that if she had other ID, I thought they would let her go. She found her Medicare card, her Social Security card and last but not least, her Costco card with her picture on it. We then rushed to the terminal. It was a good thing we went to the airport early. We were all TSA Prechecked. Marilyn went first to the security person and started her plea with the three ID's. They took her to the other check point and started checking her ID's. She gave us the thumbs up that it was ok. They then escorted her to the screening machine and then started patting her down. Something went wrong at that point and they led her behind a privacy screen that Dan said had to be a cavity search. She was in there for a while, hmmm. Eventually they let her go and we proceeded to the gate to start our exciting day. Phew!



The flight to Kauai from Maui is only 45 minutes and it seemed we were descending for approach right after takeoff. We still had a couple hours before check in to Blue Hawaiian helicopters. BlueHawaiian

Since we had time, we hopped a cab and went for a nice lunch at JJ Broilers outside right on Kalakapai Beach, a beautiful bay with lots of surfers 10 minutes from Lihue airport. We cabbed it back to the heliport in time for check in and the safety orientation video. They had three tours going at 2:00 and they load the helicopters by distributing passengers by weight. That's when we found out that we were on separate helicopters. That made it a little less fun. Anyway, we both boarded our helicopters and departed for our tours. The weather on Kauai was WINDY with rain showers in the mountains and rainforest parts of the island. The tour was spectacular. The pilot of our helicopter did a great job, flying over Waimea Canyon and other canyons and mountains with numerous beautiful waterfalls, flying though spotty rain showers and getting real close to the clouds. We then flew over the mountains to the other side of the island. He flew us right into the valleys through the mist and clouds right up to the walls of the valleys where there were gorgeous waterfalls. At times his maneuvers were pretty scary. I could tell because Jan was squeezing the blood out of my hand. All in all it was an exceptional experience and worth the money. Jan and I got back before Marilyn and Dan and when they arrived, they told us they had a great ride too. One thing they saw which we missed was a circular rainbow by flying directly over it. Another thing they saw which we missed was the town of Wainiha, which received the most rain of all time in one day just last year and the flooding and mudslides wiped out the entire town. We were told that the rainy side of the island receives the most rain on our planet.



Our flight back to Maui wasn't until 8:30 so we took a cab back to Kalakapai Beach where we had some coffees and walked the beach. Our return flight was not non-stop. We had to stop in Honolulu and switch planes. Well, our flight was delayed out of Kauai by over 30 minutes waiting for the arrival of the plane from some other island. By the time we took off, it sure looked like we were not going to make the connection to Maui. We talked to our flight attendant and she said she would do what she could to help us make the connection. When we landed, they asked the other passengers to stay in their seats so we could get off to go for our next flight. And......the race was on. We ran from our gate to the departure gate only to find that the flight was already gone. But the Hawaiian Air personnel were right on the job and already booked us on the next flight to Maui which was scheduled for 10:00 PM and the last flight to Maui. We finally arrived at the Kahului airport at almost 11:00 PM and made the 45 minute drive to our resort. All in all, a 14 hour day. We were all exhausted.

---

Photos

Valentine Dinner
At The Plantation at Kapalua

Comments

[Dan Flsherty]

Air Time
Fun day . After initial I.D. scare by the Mrs . , got several laughs over her screwup . Chopper flight was tremendous over sweet little island !