Winding up Maui

Jumping slightly ahead - the first phot of the rainbow is actually from Friday night.

On Thursday we went to another beach in the Nepili area where we got to see a bunch of green turtles. They are protected by law so you cant get too close and they are apparently camera shy - so I did get some photos that I know are of them, but otherwise you cant see them.

Friday Tom and I drove around. He FINALLY got his Spam and eggs that he didnt get 5 years ago, so now he can shut up about it! Actually, the food was very good at that little cafe - and no, I had my fill of Spam growing up and didnt like it then...

So we ventured on to the I'o Valley and saw the I'o needle. Very very beautiful area. Drove around some city that starts with a W for awhile looking for the antique stores and thrift shops mentioned in my Maiu for dummy book - we saw 3 pawn shops and that was it. Stopped at the Maui Tropical Plantation and had some very delicious macadamia nut ice cream. And then back to the pool and beach for our last time...

Had to include that sign...read it if you can...talks about the missionaries that came to Hawaii to educate the 'poor heathens' (said with huge sarcasm) and yet soon, the literacy rate in HAwaa was higher than where they came from!

Saturday was leaving day, so we finished packing and cleaning up and paying the bill. My husband - who is so unlike his mom - wanted to get going. And when we did finally get going, traffic was bad - slow and backed up until we finally got off the two lane road onto the 4 lane!

But we made it in plenty of time...everyone boarded as the people were saying hurry up and find seats - we dont want to miss our take off slot! And then we sat....and sat some more....and sat more....finally the pilot told us that they were having trouble with the intercom system between cockpit and flight attendants and per FAA rules, they could not take off with this problem. So they started a movie for people to watch.

Finally he came on again and said the engineers have to replace the part - but they dont have the part - they are flying it in from Honolulu. He said that really wouldnt take long, but to be prepared, because the engineers are not 100% sure that would fix the problem.

I had to stand up becuase I get very claustrophobic when the person in front of me puts their seat back all the way, and of course that is what they did. So I was standing in the back, and let me tell you, the flight attendants on this airline are very unhappy people! Talk about lack of job satisfaction! Whew! And I thought we complained a lot at work!

Finally they decided they would let us off the plane if we chose and I chose. So I went out and bought another sandwich for later (they cant open the food refrigs. at this point, they said) and bought some ice cream for now. And they wouldnt let us back on the plane! Finally after waiting there for almost 20 - 30 minutes, they told us what the people on board already knew....that the intercom was fixed (and BTW, they apparently left SF with intercom problems but according the the flight attendants ever since they began out-sourcing their repairs, they do not do preventative maintence! Hoo boy, makes me want to fly the Happy Skies again!!!) but now so much time was spent they could not expect the flight crew to fly back to SF, it had to be done voluntarily. So the majority decided to stay in Maui overnight...and now they had to find replacements.

And those replacements had to volunteer too. They apparently text messaged the pilot on the incoming flight to tell the crew not to de-plane themselves before calling in...and they asked if any of the crew would voluntarily turn around and fly back to SF instead of staying overnight in Maui. Luckily, along with the 2 or 3 flight attendents from our flight, they were able to get enough volunteers from this other crew to make up a crew... otherwise we would have been in Hawaii until the middle of the week.

Meanwhile, out on the concourse we heard about another flight (a different airline) that was having troubles too. They were flying that plane load of people bound for Chicago to overnight in Kona, and then take off the next day - otherwise, if they tried to leave from Maui, there were no available seats until Tues or Wed!!!!!!!!!

So instead of landing at 8:08PM we landed at 12:10 AM. Got home about 2:30 AM....which actually worked out well for jet lag!!!!

And yes, it was good to be away, and I always love the beach and getting re-energized by the ocean - but no, I dont ever really want to go back to Maui. If I got a free trip and could go during whale season, well, I wouldnt turn that down....but so far, my vote remains with the beautiful garden island of Kaui!