Maui Trip 2019

Jeff and I took a trip back to Maui for our 5 year wedding anniversary and did a much better job of eating all the things than we did the first time we went to Maui for our honeymoon.

Day 1

I was bound and determined to do this trip up big, so I went out all out and booked round trip 1st class which includes access to the Alaska lounge. This was our first experience with the lounge and I’m not sure how I feel about it. There was a really fancy coffee maker that Jeff liked (along with coffee syrups by a brand that is the same as my maiden name - totally texted my parents to see if they had a secret side business). There was also continental breakfast type fare along with a pancake machine (the pancakes were surprisingly decent). I think I expected a little more in regards to the food, but otherwise it was a nice place to relax pre-flight.

Once we boarded our plane, we received excellent service (which has generally been the case in our experiences with Alaska). The flight started out with Hawaiian mimosas followed up by a tasty menu of soup, salad, beef, potatoes, green beans, and Salt & Straw Pacific Crest Trail Mix ice cream. I was also excited that the movie players had The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part since I hadn’t yet seen it.

Upon arrival in Maui, we grabbed our bags, walked to the rental car center (easier than using the little tram that was small and looked hot), picked up the usual Kia Soul (it makes a nice rental car and it seems there’s always one in the Hertz Gold lot anywhere we go), and headed to a spot with several food trucks near Costco for second lunch.

 
 

Our target was Thai Mee Up, a truck we’d seen on Food Network. We found it easily and ordered pad see ew and fried pork ribs. There were plenty of tables in the shade and the wait wasn’t long (and we were entertained by all the random chickens walking around). The food came out piping hot and fresh. The noodles were delicious, but the star was the fried pork ribs. They were fried just right and quite flavorful.

Post second lunch, we headed south to Wailea to check into our resort. We arrived at Andaz right around check in time and were greeted warmly by the transportation and front desk attendants. Jeff and I received leis and a welcome beverage of lavender lemonade. I had to take an opportunity to get some photos of Limeys with the beverages and the view. We were quickly assigned a room in the Akau wing that we stayed in during our previous visit for our honeymoon. We unpacked and took some time to lounge around before heading out for a late dinner. On the way to the car, I saw a little lizard (one of many I’d see over the course of our stay).

We chose Star Noodle for dinner since it had a lot of positive reviews and the pictures on Yelp looked tasty. We arrived around 8pm and had a wait of around 45 minutes - surprising for a Tuesday night! We were seated at a giant communal table with other guests. We ordered Nuoc Cham wings, tempura shrimp, garlic noodles, and Lahaina fried soup.

The wings were quite tasty and I was definitely impressed with the size of the shrimp. They were huge! The garlic noodles were also good, but I liked the Lahaina fried soup the best. It was basically big chunks of chow funn with pork, bean sprouts, green onions, and sesame seeds - nothing soupy about it (which is 100% fine with me!). We left full and ready for a good night’s sleep.

Day 2

We woke early due to the time change and decided to start our day with a visit to a favorite from our previous trip - the breakfast buffet at Ka’ana Kitchen (a restaurant inside our resort). This place is the epitome of what Jeff and I wish for in a breakfast/brunch buffet: fresh juices, a hot bar with both traditional American breakfast items as well as local items, a giant fruit bar, and tons of baked goods. It’s a little pricey at $50/person, but given the location and the items offered it’s not too steep.

There were seriously so many choices to put on our plates. We particularly enjoyed the garlic noodles, guava french toast, malasadas, mochi waffles with lilikoi curd, and the fruit. I could only manage two plates while Jeff somehow consumed three. I definitely wished for a second (and maybe third or fourth) stomach so I could eat more here.

After stuffing ourselves to the gills at the buffet, we decided to take a walk around the resort and beach. We took pictures all over the property because it’s just so pretty and finished up with a walk on the beach where we got super sandy. We ended up by the adults only pool for a few hours to relax (aka digest our huge breakfast), soak up a bit of sun, and enjoy our surroundings.

We finally started to get hungry around 1pm, so we ventured out to find some baked goods to snack on. Our first stop was Hoi Hoi Bakery. This was a Yelp find that had an assortment of tasty looking baked goods. We weren’t sure what we’d find since it was afternoon, but the variety available was far from disappointing. We got mochi donut holes, guava rolls, and a banana cream croissant. Everything tasted great, but I was really impressed with the banana filling of the croissant. It tasted exactly how I wish all banana foods would taste - like an actual banana instead of the weird artificial flavor you sometimes encounter.

Our next stop was Home Maid Bakery. This was another Yelp find that piqued our interest due to the pictures of mochi donuts. The selection here seemed to be dwindling since it was afternoon, but we were able to acquire some sweet potato mochi donuts and a cherry crumble. The donuts had a great taste, but they had an unexpected dense texture. Would I eat them again? Yes, absolutely. The cherry crumble was good, but nothing to write home about.

Our third stop on the mid day snack tour was Tasaka Guri Guri Shop. I found this on Instagram and decided it was a must do because the guri guri (think sherbet) looked so delicious. We walked in and got a scoop of each flavor, strawberry and pineapple. The strawberry tasted artificial and almost like bubblegum to me, which was disappointing. The pineapple, however, was on point and we both enjoyed it.

We headed back to the hotel for a bit to rest and digest before heading out one more time for dinner at Da Kitchen which came as a recommendation from one of my Limemates, TT. The restaurant is in a little mall area and there were a lot of people waiting outside for a table when we pulled up which we always consider a good sign. We put our name on the list and ended up waiting about 30 minutes before we were seated. This gave us time to do a deep dive on the menu to figure out what to order. We went with shrimp shumai, fried spam musubi, kalbi fried noodles (this one was a special), and the Polynesian Paralysis loco moco.

 
 

Our eyes had clearly gotten the best of our stomachs since the dishes came out and they were HUGE. The appetizers (shumai and musubi) were tasty, but the main event was definitely the noodles and the loco moco. The noodles tasted like they had been grilled which was a new to us taste, but they were so delicious. Jeff thinks any noodle even remotely similar will forever be ruined for him because they won’t compare to these. The loco moco’s pork, gravy, and eggs were such a terrific combination that I couldn’t stop eating it. It’s not often that we over order to the point that we only get halfway through each entree, but we definitely took a big container of each back to the hotel with us (and we somehow cleaned it off before bedtime).

Day 3

We were up early (a common occurrence on this trip) and headed out to visit a number of eateries. While we were waiting for our car, I heard one of the parking attendants talking about the installation directly across from the main entrance of the hotel. He had another group of guests guessing the identity of the person and gave the hint that the person had recently been in a popular movie. It hit me that it was Maui and his hook (a movie that I was late to watch - only seeing it on our previous trip to Austin on the plane).

 
 

We hopped in the car and headed to Makawao to T Komoda Store & Bakery. We had been here on our previous trip, but didn’t come early enough to get everything we wanted to try. This time we arrived around 8am and they had a full assortment of baked goods available. We got the popular donuts on a stick, a guava filled malasada, and a custard filled long john. My personal favorite was the donuts on a stick which were every bit as tasty as I remember them from last time. Jeff was really into the guava filled malasada. I think this will always be a stop on our list when we visit Maui.

Our next planned stop was Ka Haku’s Smoke Shack located on Hana Highway near mile post 10. According to Yelp, they serve up some really good looking grilled meats, veggies, and bananas on a neat piece of bamboo. We have never driven the road to Hana (mostly due to my car anxiety), but I was excited to see what it was all about. Jeff managed the winding road and we finally arrived to what we expected - an outdoor grilling kitchen type space. We arrived about 9:10am (both their FB page and Yelp show they’re open 9am - 2pm) and there wasn’t a single person in sight. Talk about disappointing - especially after the drive. We quickly decided on a back up plan and started the drive back towards Kahului. On the way, we stopped at Ho’okipa Lookout. Maui is just such a pretty place. Geeze.

 
 

After catching the view, we moved on to lunch at Tin Roof. We walked in and were a bit surprised that the interior was fairly small and offered only standing counter space to eat. We ordered the mochiko chicken bowl and garlic noodles which were both very reasonably priced ($8 and $7). The food came out quickly and was clearly fresh and hot. The chicken had just the right amount of crunch and paired nicely with the rice and aioli. The noodles were tasty, but were more of a broth based flavor than the sweeter teriyaki flavor we tend to enjoy. We were also quite impressed with the length of the line to order as we left. After eating the food, it’s not surprising that locals and visitors would be willing to wait in line here.

Our first dessert stop was Hau Lani Cafe. We had seen this on Yelp and were planning to order the passion fruit soft serve taiyaki, but were informed it was no longer on the menu. We ended up ordering a toast box (they called it something else, but I don’t remember the name - maybe sweet bomb?) and a thai tea boba. The thai tea boba came out first and unfortunately did not taste right - it bordered on tasting like Tums antacids, so we were unable to finish it. The toast box, on the other hand, was delicious. The toast was just the right amount of crispy while also soft (and also layered with butter). It paired well with the whip cream, chocolate, and fruit toppings.

Our second dessert stop was Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice - another Yelp find. We always order POG flavor shave ice, so that’s of course what we got here. We did try something a bit different by adding the Maui-made Roselani’s Premium Gourmet vanilla ice cream (they scooped it into the bottom and layered the shave ice on top). The bowl was a great size for two people to share and the flavors were so good. I love that they make their own syrups from juices or purees - we could tell they weren’t just any old syrup from the restaurant supply store. The ice cream at the bottom really set this apart from other shave ice we’ve had in the past. It went so well with the texture of the ice and the POG flavor. It was so tasty we’d eat it again (in fact, you’ll see it again later in this post).

We were now quite full and headed back to Andaz to relax. On the way back, we saw a brush fire had broken out just off Maui Veteran’s Highway near the Maui Humane Society. When we drove past, there was tons of smoke and we saw two helicopters assisting with putting it out. We arrived back at the hotel, sunscreened up, and headed out for beverages and reading by the pool. Our relaxing outdoor afternoon was cut short when the smoke from the fire (that had grown tremendously) made its way south and ash started falling. We headed back inside where I took the yellow tinged picture later in the afternoon (it really creeped me out). We later found out the fire had spread so much that Maui Veteran’s Highway and Kuihelani Highway had been closed in addition to evacuations for all the fur babies and staff at Maui Humane Society, north Kihei and Maalaea. Due to the layout of roads on Maui, this essentially meant people were stuck (but safe - I’m not aware of any deaths or damage to homes).

We chose a restaurant near Andaz for dinner since traveling out of the area was not an option. Monkeypod Kitchen was really close and we were even able to use the hotel’s black car service since it was in Wailea. When we arrived, a note on the door indicated they were short staffed and thanked us for our patience. We were seated on time for our 8:15 reservation and our server was with us within a few minutes. We ordered a mai tai (they’re apparently known for this), a fresh POG juice, poke tacos, corn chowder, wings, Hamakua Wild Mushroom & Truffle Oil pizza, and a slice of banana pie. The mai tai arrived first and was as delicious as everyone we talked to had claimed - the honey-lilikoi foam on top really set it apart for us. The food came out much faster than expected for a restaurant not operating at peak. I’d never had poke tacos so the texture and temperature differences here were interesting, but not unwelcome. The corn chowder was pretty good (but we were still thinking about the corn pizza we had earlier in the week at home from Spark Pizza). The wings and pizza had a good flavor, but my obvious favorite was the banana pie. It was creamy and had a lovely banana flavor. We felt like we ordered a lot here and everything was good, but it’s probably not a place we’d go back. With dinner complete, we called the hotel’s black car to come pick us up and had some nice conversation with the driver who could not believe how busy an evening he was having.

 
 

Day 4

We slept in a bit on our actual anniversary, but still were up early enough to round up a few baked goods from our list for breakfast (perhaps I should call it a bakery tour of Kihei?). Our first stop was Cinnamon Roll Place. It’s a tiny little shop in Kihei - I’m not sure how they have room to whip up the tasty looking cinnamon rolls! I like the way they serve them - all the rolls are plain and are served straight out of a big pan and you get to choose your toppings as they put them into a box. Jeff got raisins while I got cream cheese icing (served to go in a separate container). These things were huge. We cleaned off Jeff’s for breakfast while I ate mine later in the afternoon (which proved to be a mistake since I filled up quickly at dinner). I thought these giant rolls were great while Jeff thought they were too dense (he likes his own better - typical Judgy Jeff).

Our second baked goods stop was Maui Bread Company for some POG bread. Jeff came across pictures of it on Yelp and knowing how much we love POG juice, this was a must try. The shop was not too big, but had tons of yummy looking baked goods. We controlled ourselves since there were still more items on our list to pick up and only bought the POG bread. When we got it back to the hotel and sliced into it, it was bright pink just like POG juice. The flavor was pretty spot on and it was very moist. We’d go back for more.

Our third and final breakfast stop of the day was Home Maid Cafe for malasadas and french toast. I believe this was another Yelp find from Jeff. We walked in to what appeared to be a small-ish family owned eatery that was fairly full on a Friday at 8am. We ordered the malasadas and french toast then took a seat to wait. Food delivery was slow, but everything was tasty when it arrived. The french toast was basic and as expected, but the malasadas were a star. They were fried just right and tasted great. Another strange happening here was a run in with a rooster. We found there are random chickens just hanging out all over Maui, but we encountered this rooster who tried to strut around and bordered on trying to run us off. Maybe he was guarding the malasadas. Who knows.

After our morning outing to acquire food and coming back to the hotel to eat it on the lanai, we sunscreened up to head out to the pool for more relaxation and reading. We usually remove rings to avoid losing them in the pool - in “celebration” of our anniversary Jeff accidentally dropped his ring on the tile floor where it broke in half. That’s good luck, right? We had a good laugh (though I also kind of wanted to cry) and went on our way. After a bit of reading, a pool attendant came around with a first - a giant Yeti cooler of full of mochi ice cream and handed one out to each guest. Surprise snacks are awesome!

When we finally got hungry again, we hit up Piko Cafe for lunch. We ordered a peanut butter banana chocolate shake, garlic noodles with teriyaki chicken, and furikake fries. The shake had a nice balance of all the flavors in my opinion, but Jeff thought it had too much peanut butter (a common battle on taste between us). The noodles could not have been more perfectly paired with the chicken. I was tempted to order a second helping. The fries were also quite tasty and I especially enjoyed the aioli.

For dessert we headed to Lappert’s at the Wailea shopping center near our hotel. I got the same thing I did last time - Kona coffee (except this time in a fresh waffle cone instead of a bowl). Jeff ordered lilikoi sorbet in a waffle bowl. Mine was as tasty as I remember it being, but Jeff’s was super fruity (in a good way!). I think Lappert’s is probably another place we’ll hit up every time we’re in Maui because there’s always room for ice cream.

Post dessert we headed back to the hotel to continue our Stanger Things season 3 binge before dinner. Here’s a pretty Jeff took from our room - I love how the light plays behind the clouds.

 
 

For our anniversary dinner, we headed back to Ka’ana Kitchen at our hotel with the intent of ordering the tasting menu. We learned that they usually ask guests to reserve tasting menu spots in advance, but luckily they had one more seating available. We were seated at a table in the kitchen (which is open to the restaurant) with a great view of all the chefs. The tasting menu was 10 different dishes including dessert and was generally a ton of food. Our server as well as some of the chefs served various dishes and described them to us along with plenty of small talk. Overall, the food was delicious and we felt the aloha.

 

Ka’ana Kitchen

Beverages: old fashioned and POG juice

 

Dish 1: Watermelon Salad

Dish 2: Kona Kampachi Crudo

Dish 3: Ahi Tataki

Dish 4: Berkshire Pork Belly Bao

Dish 5: Hush Puppies

Dish 6: Grilled Octopus

Dish 7: Fried Chicken

Dish 8: Scallop Risotto

Dish 9: Wagyu Striploin

 

Dessert: Calamansi Lime Tart, Coconut Sundae, and Chocolate Mousse

 

As I mentioned before, I made the mistake of eating a cinnamon roll around 4pm and it made me fill up too quickly at dinner. We practically ran back to the room to lay around, digest, and deal with the incoming food coma.

Day 5

We took our sweet time waking up and getting a move on. Our first activity of the day was a visit to Maui Swap Meet. This was a neat place we visited on our previous Hawaii trip and I wanted to check it out again. The market is located at Maui Community College and had plenty of covered/shaded parking when we arrived. The entrance fee is 50 cents per person, payable to one of the very friendly ladies at the entrance booths. There are all kinds of vendors here. We saw people selling Maui souvenirs, hand crafted items like jewelry and clothing, farmers market items like veggies, and food stands (one of which was literally a guy with a truck bed full of coconuts that he hacked open and stuck a straw in). We enjoyed looking around, but didn’t stay too long because the sun was in full force and I didn’t want to turn into a lobster.

 
 

Jeff’s pre-travel food research produced a food truck we wanted to try called Maui Fresh Streatery which specializes in ‘ono’ food. We tracked it down at the War Memorial Gym and Complex for lunch part 1. They keep the menu simple (which I expect at a food truck - do a few things really well instead of trying to do too many things) with 6 options on this particular day - poke bowl, sauteed mahi mahi with lemon caper cream sauce, kamikaze fries, da kanaka bowl, Kauai style UFO bites, and a keiki quesadilla. We ordered Da Kanaka bowl - kalua pork and salmon poke over roasted Molokai sweet potato. Jeff ate the salmon since I’m not a fan in general, but holy cow the pork and sweet potatoes were amazing. We were super happy to have found the truck to try it.

Second lunch came from Sam Sato’s - we ended up getting take out since the line for a table was long and we’re impatient. We ordered dry mein, soup, mac salad, and beef skewers which came out pretty quickly. It was not easy to avoid diving into the food on the way back to the hotel, but we made it (with several jealous looks from the parking attendants). The noodles were slightly different than all the other noodles we’d had so far on the trip since they included char siu pork. They were cooked nicely and the addition of the pork paired really well. The portion was also huge. I don’t do cold noodles, but Jeff said the mac salad was as expected. The beef skewers were also good, but not as good as the noodles.

We took a detour on the way back from Sam Sato’s to pick up dessert from Maui Nata. It’s a little food trailer specializing in a Portugese custard tart called Pastel de Nata (and it shares a parking lot with a car rental business - I found this quite random). There wasn’t a ton of room in the parking lot, so I ended up staying in the car in case I needed to move it (which I did) while Jeff got the baked goods. Jeff came back to the car with 3 piping hot little chocolate pastries (everything else was sold out at the moment - he had really wanted the lilikoi flavor). In fact, they were still pretty hot when we got back to the hotel and ate them after the rest of second lunch. I can’t even describe how delicious these were. The pastry crust was so flaky and buttery and it went perfectly with the custard which had just the right amount of chocolate. To be honest, I’ve been thinking about these a lot since we returned from our trip - they were that good.

 
 

Post lunch, I gave into the food coma and passed out instead of heading to the pool. This was probably a good thing since it kept me from snacking before our second tasting menu of the trip (aka repeating my mistake from the evening before). This evening’s tasting menu was Maui Chef’s Table. It’s located next to the Mill House on Maui Tropical Plantation. This tasting menu is different because it’s meant to be an interactive experience - guests are encouraged to come up to the huge counter at the front of the kitchen where the chefs prepare the food to ask questions, take pictures, observe, whatever. Seating is communal and Jeff and I sat with two other couples (who both turned out to be from New York City) who were equally as excited about the experience as we were.

The meal began with a welcome from the wine expert, who kind of served as the MC. Post welcome, we were the first table to make our way up to the counter to check out the cooking/plating action. We were greeted by incredibly friendly chefs who were happy to answer questions and take pictures along with us.

Once all plates for a course were ready, the servers and a chef would serve one table at a time. The chef would give us a description of the dish and any backstory behind it. We’d enjoy the dish, the servers would pick up our plates, and we’d head back up to the counter to see what the chefs had in store for the next dish. Rinse and repeat.

Dish 1: mango, evoo, meyer lemon, royal osetra caviar

Dish 2: country style pork pate, black garlic, toast point, smoked potatoes

Dish 3: kohlrabi, beets, sweet onion, romanesco, basil grissini

Dish 4: okinawan sweet potato cappelletti, garlic chive, lacinto kale, trout roe

Bread: Local wild sourdough with honey butter

Dish 5: kanpachi, eggplant, scarlet runner bean, calamansi, watermelon radish

Dish 6: strip loin, carrot puree, farm chard, cherry tomato, carrot chicharron

Dessert: mixed berry cremeux, rhubarb compote, strawberry ice cream

Post dinner, we wandered around the plantation a bit. It was beautiful at night, so I bet it’s even better during the day - I guess we’ll have to find out next time we visit Maui. I would dare to say this was our most memorable experience from this trip. It was so nice to sit with others and enjoy the experience, not to mention enjoy the work of the chefs who are clearly passionate about their work and about local food in Maui (where else can you go that the chef will tell you the particular cow they’re serving was raised near Oprah’s Maui home?). This will go on my list of must do food in Maui for future trips for sure!

 
 

Day 6

On our last full day in Maui, we woke up and headed to Kihei Caffe for brunch. Jeff had found this in his pre-trip food research in addition to us seeing a line hanging way out the door as we rounded up our baked goods on day 4. This restaurant is interesting - you stand in line to get into the restaurant to order. Once inside the restaurant, it’s all just line - there is no indoor seating that we saw. There’s a very friendly man (who may be either the owner or manager) who will guide you through ordering. One thing to note - it’s cash only (which we were prepared for). You’ll then pick up any beverages you ordered at the drink counter before heading back outside to find a seat. This process took maybe 20 minutes when we visited - not bad for how long the line looked. We ordered iced coffee, POG juice, kalua pork moco loco, a side of pork fried rice, and mochi pancakes (this was a special - make sure you check them out hanging above the drink counter as you wait to order). Jeff and I differed on what we considered the best dish here. He thought the mochi pancakes were top dog since they had a wonderful texture and flavor and came with coconut syrup. I thought those were definitely good, but I preferred the savory pork over rice with gravy and egg. We both agree that you can’t go wrong eating here, though!

 
 

Once back at the hotel, we visited the artist in residence’s gallery since we’d walked past it everyday going to and from our room. The artist is Welzie and his style is colorful and just plain neat. We walked around admiring everything before settling on two prints - one for the house and one for my cube at work. I probably would have bought more if I had space to hang them up. Post viewing, we lathered up on sunscreen and had our last read/relax/swim by the pool.

For dinner, we visited Maui Sunday Market at the Kahului Shopping Center. They had quite a few food trucks/trailers to choose from. Jeff started off with an online find - Sumo Dogs. He ordered the Upcountry Guava Dog - a 1/4 lb beef hot dog on a Hawaiian sweet bun with garlic and mustard sauces in addition to the upcountry guava sauce. He was extremely pleased with the way everything went together.

Our next choice was Shorebreak Grindz for their well known garlic noodles with teriyaki chicken. As is probably evident by now, we had some form of garlic noodles every day of this trip. These were one of the better versions of it - especially when paired with the chicken. The garlicky flavor was just right and lacked the weird flavor that I just couldn’t place in other versions at other places. In fact, we liked them so much that we ended up getting a second helping.

Jeff surprised me with the next one - pork and peas along with banana lumpia from 3 Angel’s Farm. The pork and peas was different than anything I’d had, but definitely tasty. The banana lumpia was the real star, though. It was freshly fried and HOT. In fact, I had a terrible time waiting to eat it so I didn’t burn my tongue. As a person who loves most banana foods, this hit the spot.

Our final stop at the Sunday Market was Al’s BBQ Pit for ube butter mochi. Visually this stuff looked kind of like a sponge, so we weren’t sure what we were getting into here. Thankfully, it did not have the texture of a sponge when eaten. It was actually quite moist and chewy and generally tasty. I’d definitely get it again.

Jeff had a hankering for more shave ice after we left the Sunday market, so we hit up another Ululani’s on the way home. We got the same thing we had earlier in the trip - POG shave ice with vanilla ice cream. It was tasty, but I didn’t feel they did quite as well with distributing the syrup here as they did at the other location we visited. Either way, Ululani’s is another must go on Maui for us.

 
 

When we got back to the hotel, I decided I wanted to go for one last walk around the grounds since it was our last night on the island. We ended up down at the beach watching the waves come in as the sun set (and also got to see a bit of the entertainment from the on-site luau). Then it was time for my least favorite part of vacation - packing up to go home.

 
 
 

Day 7

We were up early to finish packing up and check out. I was standing in the main entrance area taking some final photos while Jeff was checking out and he took the second photo below that he has titled “Sad Sarah taking one last pic”.

We packed up the car and said goodbye to beautiful Andaz. We stopped at Home Maid Cafe again to get an obscene amount of malasadas (that only lasted the drive to the airport).

 
 

We returned the rental car, walked to the airport (again, this is a fun thing about Maui airport since it’s easier than the tram and helps you get some steps in before sitting on an airplane for hours!), picked up some goodies to take home to my Limemates, and boarded our Alaska flight back home. The flight was equally as nice as the one coming to Maui, with the exception that we messed up by not pre-ordering our meal. Instead of the beef that we wanted, we ended up with eggplant lasagna since that was the only thing available - it was decent. We landed at Seatac, got our bags, and headed straight for Taco Bell - because why not?

All in all, this was a fantastically relaxing trip. There is just something about Maui, being on island time, and perhaps Andaz specifically that is amazing for my well-being. I’m still sitting here daydreaming about how wonderful it was as I write this. I can’t wait to go back for our 10 year wedding anniversary in 2024. <3