So – we’ve been home for a week and I still have to write about our last day on Maui.
THURSDAY, MARCH 27
We had been told about a couple of stores in Paia that might have milo wood items for sale. By now we had figured out that most stores didn’t open until 10 a.m. so we figured we might do some geocaching on our way. The first cache was a fairly easy find but not big enough to leave our trackable in.
We drove to Paia by way of Makawao (the cowboy town). It was a beautiful morning and the scenery was breathtaking. We saw a few old churches, but this I think this one was the most beautiful.
We reached Paia about 9:15, still too early to shop so we drove along the Hana Highway to Ho’okipa Beach viewpoint where we were rewarded with the sight of surfers and a few turtles (too far away to photograph – hmmm maybe I need a better camera?). Apparently, you can sometimes see turtles on the sandy beach in the evening at this beach. Something to keep in mind for the next trip!
After soaking up the sun at the viewpoint, we went back to Paia – and found that one of the stores we wanted to visit (and that had quite a few small wood decorations) was not going to open until 1 that afternoon as it was undergoing repairs. We found the other store, but not any items that caught our eye (or that we could afford).
Heading back to the condo, we found one more geocache that the trackable would fit in (and got my first mosquito bite of the trip). We had to wait out another car that was parked right by the geocache and we were both parked in a no parking zone.
The rest of the afternoon was spent packing, repacking, checking the weight of the suitcases with the electronic scale in the condo office and leaving our perishable items with the attendant at the clubhouse – the food bank/kitchen picks up the food that is left (even opened containers) and makes use of everything. I think this is a great idea – we often have stuff left over when we are on vacation and we can’t bring it home with us.
I was playing on the computer, waiting for the time to leave when something new on geocaching.com caught my eye. A cache had just been hidden about 5 minutes up the road and hadn’t been found yet – something we could look for on the way to the airport. We were the first ones to find it!
Returning the rental car was simple, then we caught the shuttle for the airport. When we got there, Air Canada had not opened the check in lines yet and even though we were 3 hours early for the flight, the line up was long. Finally got to the bag drop (where we found that our bag had gained 4 lbs between the condo office and the airport – luckily 0.5 lb under the weight limit still) and then off to find the departure area. By this time, we had only 1.5 hours left to wait *s* There wasn’t much to see at the airport and we were glad to hear our flight called.
Remind me NOT to book an overnight flight whenever possible. The idea that you can sleep on the plane is ridiculous – on this flight we had a child who enjoyed playing with the call button, all flight long! Once in Vancouver, customs was accomplished easily and we headed through the miles of corridors heading for the domestic terminal and a Timmy’s coffee *g* Our flight to Victoria was less than half full and we were greeted by rain when we landed. After searching for our car (we had noted where it was parked but then immediately forgot during the vacation), we opted for the Brentwood Bay ferry to cut a little driving time off.
We enjoyed our vacation in the sun and we will definitely return to Maui in the future.
