Hawaii, Part 1

The Higginbothams went to Hawaii?  That is so unlike them, you say.  It's true, but we have been wanting to go to Hawaii for years, and with our 10th anniversary coming up, and two relatively independent children, we decided this would be a great time to go.  It will make even more sense when I tell you that Cory got our flights and hotel for free, and our points covered most of the rental car as well.  Yes, he's been doing his research, and it paid off big this time.  This was all through credit cards, so don't think you have to spend a fortune to get to Hawaii, or at least that we did.  Now you understand how we could justify this vacation. 

We left our kids with Becca and Scot, and flew out early Wednesday morning, Feb. 29.  (This was payback for watching their kids when they were in Korea.  So I did my part to keep this vacation affordable.)  After a long day of travel, we arrived in Maui early afternoon.  We went to Costco for some discount tickets on local events, then we checked into our room at the Marriott.  

After a short rest, we walked along Wailea beach and explored the Marriott resort until 5:30.   We were ready for bed by 7:00 and watched Survivor in bed.  We were asleep soon after 8pm because of the time change.

Thursday was much more fun after 10 hours of blissful sleep in a very comfortable bed.  We walked around the resort and saw sunrise.  

Cory went for a run and I headed to the gym.  After showers we got ready and headed to the Maalaea Harbor Shops where we looked around and bought a couple souvenirs. 

We also got a fabulous pineapple, mango, guava smoothie for a mid-morning snack.  We took our smoothie to Kahekili Beach Park where we walked down to the beach.  We drank our smoothie and sat in the sand for a while.  

At 12:15 we left for lunch in Lahaina.  The Copy Cat Café is known for their burgers, voted Maui’s best burgers for the last seven years.  We weren’t about to miss out.  

 We ordered our first pina colada.  

Cory’s burger, the Duke, had bbq sauce, onion rings and bacon.  Mine, the Frisco, was on sourdough with jack cheese, lettuce, tomato and Thousand Island.  We got a basket of “Frings,” fries and onion rings, and our first official pina colada to drink.  We had a coupon for a free Ghirardelli brownie Sunday with our purchase.  Let’s just say we were stuffed!

We bought a couple more souvenirs at a nearby market and headed back to the hotel.  At 3:45 we headed over to the neighboring hotel, the Grand Wailea, for a luau.  We reserved our seats a 4:00 and walked around the hotel’s resort while we waited.  

At 5:15 we went back to the luau where there was an open bar.  We enjoyed more virgin pina coladas (Cory had 4!) and watched them dig the pig out of the ground.   

The dinner was a really nice buffet complete with pulled pork, teriyaki-marinated sirloin steak, herbed chicken, and fried mahi mahi with coconut lime sauce.  The luau was pretty cool, and we really enjoyed the fire dancing.  

 We walked back to the hotel at 8:15, and we were asleep around 9:00.