Aloha!

Hawaii,,, here we are! Finally. Up at 6 am on Monday morning to catch our flight from SLC to Denver, and from there to Kahului on Mauai (Hawaii) in about 8 hours. Fortunately, all was on time, all smooth, got our luggage and a decent rental car, a bit smaller than our SUV, a Hyunday Elanthra, which is just fine considering gas prices here ($ 3,50 Gallon). Above a picture of our flight over the Rockies and from Kahului Airport.


Well, first impressions (pics above taken at the airport),,, landscape-wise a mixture of Florida, California (Hwy. 1) and Crete (Greece). Palms and bougainvilla, parakeets and (surprise!) free-ranging chickens (first animals we saw at the airport rental car parking lot was a hen with five hatchlings). We landed about 20 min. earlier as scheduled, but it took quite a bit of time to claim our luggage. Had to take a shuttle to Alamo and got a choice of equally looking Hyundai Elanthras. Checked out a couple and took the least-scratched car with the lowest mileage (2,000). The drive to Lahaina, though slow-going, took us only about 40 minutes, sun slowly going down, a huge cruise-ship laying at anchor on the ocean.

Arrived to our hotel, the Plantation Inn in Lahaina (pics below) before dark, checked in, and, the hotel out (o.k., though not spectacular considering rates), unpacked and walked out again to the local Kohola Brewing Company. We were sort of the only ones on the dark streets (besides bikes without lights), it seems like everybody else is driving. And, everybody else goes to (overprized?) restaurants instead of brewpubs where no food is served. Checked out the local Food Market on the way back,,, well, not too much local produce besides pineapples, papayas, expensive coffee and wine, therefore, we skipped a real dinner. Proably will go on a fruit diet on Hawaii considering prices.

Well,,, Hawaii on first view: a rucked, wrinkled rolling landscape in green and brown shades, with palms and live oaks (?), beaches and beautiful ocean views. Also, it seems very touristic on first view, lots of elderly (loaded?) people around. And, it's warm, pleasantly warm, about 80 deg. F. in the evening.