Hello from Kihei, Hawaii
Wednesday afternoon – May 12, 2021 (First post of this travelogue)
Well, Pat and I are on another adventure. We are in Hawaii for a trip that Pat earned. Actually she earned two trips to Hawaii, but the 2020 trip was cancelled and combined with the 2021 trip. We came early and are staying in an AirBnB located here: Google Map
{google_map}20.7270274,-156.4493806{/google_map}
We will be here for 4 days and then move to the Grand Wailea Resort for 8 days.
This area is a bit familiar to us. In 2003 we spent a week in a condo with daughter Lisa and her family. The condo we stayed in is located about 2 miles north of where we are staying now: Google map. The condo appears to be the same layout, but probably updated a bit (info here).
{google_map}20.747699,-156.4576374{/google_map}
Our flight here was a mixed bag. We left the house at 6:30 to catch an 11:45 flight. While it took us three hours to get to the concourse and have a good sit down breakfast, we still had plenty of time. Yeah right. Hawaii has a very strict COVID policy. You need to have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of departure and fill out an extensive on-line questionnaire. Once the questionnaire is filled out they issue you a QR code. At the airport United had a special area where you could be pre-screened. They recorded your QR code and negative test results document. Once that is done, they issue you a wrist band so that you do not have to be screened upon arrival in Hawaii. My paperwork went just fine. However, they could not see Pat’s health history record on line, in spite of the fact that she was issued a QR code. Fortunately one of the United folks helped us (real thrash).. We got on the plane just a bit before they closed the door.
The flight itself (direct to Maui) was not bad at all. We had upgraded our seats and had the equivalent of business class seating. We had tried to get the same seating returning to Denver, but it did not appear to be available. I used the plane’s wifi and was able to book the same seats for the return flight.
We left Evergreen in a snow storm and arrived in Hawaii to absolutely beautiful weather. We have been sitting on the porch soaking in the light breeze and wonderful temperatures as well as the beautiful scenery.
In the next couple of posts, I will recall a bit about our 2003 trip and tell you why we will have to change the header photo (spoiler alert, we sold the bus).
That is all for this post. More to come.