Travelling With Crusty: 1st day in Maui

Keep in mind that we booked this condo in January and have been building it up in our minds for a year.....but both John and I are disappointed. The condo is relatively nice, but we thought it had full air-conditioning, and it doesn't (which granted, is probably our fault for not reading more carefully), it only has a tiny air-conditioner in the master bedroom, and it leaks like crazy. We ran out of hot water during our showers this morning which is not the end of the world, but an adjustment. There is a really nice tv in the living room, but no DVD player as advertised, which sucks because that's what we planned on doing in the evenings when it is dark. And there is a really nice private patio, but the ad was a little deceiving, in that we thought the pool was just "steps away" from our patio, when really it's around the corner and across the parking lot, and behind the main building. Also the boys' room, isn't really a room, there's just a space with two single beds and a divider, which is kind of weird. I mean it's still really nice, but for what we are paying and in Wailea we expected more. Maybe that's our problem, our expectations were just too high. Oh and we also thought there there was a fitness centre on-site and it turns out that there isn't. Plus this unit is for sale, and the realtor called and wants to do showings. Um.....excuse me I am on vacation, I don't want strangers coming in to check out my holiday mess!

Anyways, little rant aside, I am really glad we are here and the place is nice, and I am not meaning to sound ungrateful, it's just not exactly what we expected.

We started our day out with brunch at Stella Blues. It's right in Kihei and we loved it last year. It has good food, and it's quite casual which suits us just fine. Lots of hippie and old rock n'roll memorabilia, especially Grateful Dead stuff. I had delicious buttermilk pancakes, Jack had chocolate chip pancakes (which he didn't like as much as last year, I think his tastes are changing) and Nick, Matt & John all had bacon and eggs. They have the best little homefried potatoes!! I always steal a couple from John. Stella Blues did not disappoint.

After breakfast, John and Matt went golfing. Nick, Jack and I chilled in the condo for awhile and then hit the shops at Wailea. With Nick's luggage being lost he wanted to pick up some cheap flip-flops and maybe some board shorts, and Jack was also hoping to get some flip-flops. And I just can't say no to shopping! It's a really nice open mall, so we enjoyed the weather while we shopped. The boys both found some cool flip-flops at Quiksilver, which were under $20, so we left happy. Jack met up with one of his buddies, who is also here in Maui, so we left him behind and headed back to the condo.

Nick was a little bit tired, so he stayed in to sleep and I went to Safeway to stock up. It is so nice to have a Safeway close by. It's about 10 minutes away. It's relatively nice, but seemed to be out of a lot of things today. I could only find one box of KD (Jack's favorite) and they only had crunchy peanut butter. I guess lots of people had the same idea as me. The fruit was awesome though. I bought some strawberries, blueberries, and grapes, and they were so fresh and tasty. I haven't seen the boys eat so much fruit!

Once I got all the groceries put away, it was time to pick up Jack, and John and Matt. We were all pretty hot, so we headed over to the pool.

It's really nice, with a hot tub, and this beautiful garden right behind it. The boys swam, and John hot-tubbed, while I took pictures. John's back is still bothering him so he's trying to take good care of it by hot-tubbing and not golfing everyday. So this was perfect for him.

Isn't John cute?!?!

After the pool, we went out to another of the boys' favorite restaurants: Peggy Sue's. It's an old 50's diner that serves burgers, hotdogs, sandwiches and milkshakes. John and I both think it's just okay, but the boys absolutely love it.