We were so excited about parasailing we couldn't get checked out of the condo fast enough! Our packing the night before meant that getting out the door was mostly just a matter of carrying the bags to the car. We dropped off our pool key and it was Aloha Kihei Akahi! We crossed to the west side of the Maui where our parasailing trip was scheduled and got there almost 30 minutes early. We used the extra time to walk along the beach to a nearby Starbucks and get our dose of caffeine for the day. Then it was time!
We took a small motor boat from the beach to the awaiting speedboat. There were 8 of us total: Elly and I, a pair of college-age boys (who were flying) and their parents (who weren't flying), and another couple. The transition boat couldn't hold more than 6, so it had to take two trips. Once we were all loaded up on the speedboat we were given an orientation (I'm noticing that an adventurous vacation has almost as many orientations as first semester in college) and then we were ready to fly! Elly and I were the last of the three groups that flew that day, which was awesome. We got to speed around in the boat and watch the other people parasail. I found out today that I love boats. Speed boats, at least. I love zipping around the ocean, leaving long foamy trails, wind whipping through my hair. It's such a great feeling.
Finally it was our turn to fly! Elly and I were strapped into harnesses that were basically strappy chairs and then those harnesses were locked side-by-side underneath the parachute. They had us sit on the back of the boat gripping the straps of our harnesses. Then the boat gunned it, and as they went faster and faster the wind took our chute; they let out the line and we lurched into the air. The boat sped along, slowly letting out the cord connecting our chute like we were a kite. We quickly reached the peak of our flight (1200 feet) and then the boat turned lazy-ish laps in the water, giving us a 12 minute flight to enjoy the sky. It was so peaceful up there! All you could hear was the far off purr of the boat, the breeze, and the occasional flutter of our parachute. The ocean had an amazing shattered-glass texture below us. I snapped some pictures of Elly and I, and lots of pictures of the islands around us, but none of the pictures did it justice. I didn't even bother to post any of the island pictures; they just look like pictures of islands. But from up there! Everything looks different from high up, almost magical. Ah well. There is one picture of our legs dangling 1200 feet above the wake of the boat that I'm really happy with.
Our ride came to an end and they slowly pulled us back in. While we were still a few hundred feet out they slowed way down and let us gracefully glide down to touch the ocean. Then they gunned the boat, keeping it so that just our feet were skimming the water as they continued to reel us in. It was absolutely awesome. Before you go up they ask how badly you want to get wet; I opted for just our feet because I took our camera up with us. The parents of the two younger guys insisted that the captain give them a full dunking, and dunk them he did! He let them drop until they were about chest deep, then he dragged them around for awhile. When they finally reeled them all the way in they were sputtering, and complaining about water up their noses, but clearly quite happy with the experience. Apparently things like parasailing are still "awesome" and "cool."
We left parasailing quite hungry, plus we needed to get our parking validated, so we ate at the nearby Maui Fish and Pasta. Elly got a blackened fish fettucini and I got a blackened fish greek salad. Both were very good. Our server was very attentive and nice, but was pushing us to come back for dinner way too hard. (She definitely seemed like a walking commercial. -E) I guess she must be under a lot of pressure to drum up repeat customers? The area around Whaler's Village (the shopping center where our morning was taking place) has a lot of hotels, so I guess the majority of their customers come from there. Still, every time she stopped by our table she was really pushy about coming back in later, to the detriment of our current meal. She stopped by to ask for our drink orders, then before we could respond she went on a big tirade about all the cocktails and appetizers that would be available during happy hour (two hours away) and then ran off again without even waiting for us to tell her what we wanted! After we put in our lunch orders she told us all about the dinner entrees that would be on special later in the week. So weird. But! We didn't let the weird management of the restaurant ruin what was otherwise a very enjoyable lunch. I got the maui onion soup with my salad and it was beyond compare the best onion soup I've ever had. I doubt I will ever be able to enjoy onion soup again, it was seriously that delicious. I'm drooling now as I blog and I am so far from hungry (we just got back from a large dinner).
After lunch we went to go buy a second suitcase. Our second suitcase at home is falling apart literally, and we intend to fill a suitcase with pineapples to take home with us to Colorado. We Googled a luggage store and the closest was adjacent to Lahaina Banyan Court Park which turned out to be really cool. Once we'd purchased a suitcase and wrangled it into the car we bought a shave ice from Local Boys and walked through the park. Local Boys is the best shave ice we've had in Hawaii. They serve it with a scoop of ice cream underneath and then top it with a cream sauce that is really good. I got coconut ice cream underneath a kiwi passion fruit shave ice. It was really really good. The banyan park was really cool. The park is built under and around the largest banyan tree in Hawaii. This single tree covers ⅔rds of an acre! Seeing this tree it became clear that the branch tentacles become other trunks. Other than the main central trunk the tree had probably a dozen other sub-trunks growing out of its branches. It really was quite amazing to see.
After finishing our shave ice we drove to the Fairmont Kea Lani and checked in. The resort here is really quite awesome. It doesn't have quite the same equally-spaced-trees-in-a-line kind of fakey vibe the other Fairmont had. It has well tended gardens, to be sure, but the whole situation here is much more organic. Walking from the front of the building through the lobby is breathtaking. Everything is really open and big and beautiful and opulent. At the check in they gave us a traditional Hawaiian greeting complete with leis. Elly got a fresh-flowers lei and they gave me a kukui nut lei. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed at first, so when it came time to unload the car we felt weird and vulnerable about letting someone take our bags. Then we felt like total yokels taking our own bags through the lobby. At first we weren't quite ready for resort life! As we walked through the grounds, though, it started really sinking in that this is a place to go to be pampered to the max! There are three large, main swimming pools (open 24 hours!) including an adults-only pool if you just want to bob around and relax. Everywhere you look are servers and sun chairs and couches. There are even complimentary sunscreen dispensers near every pool. One of the pools even has a full-service bar you can swim right up to to order! And quite a bit of it is complimentary. There is a shuttle that can take you to anywhere local you want to go, bikes, boats, and the like that you can borrow, fitness classes and cultural activities, all included somewhere in the price of your room. So if we're going to do this right we have to do things like call up people to take our bags to the car. That room didn't come cheap, after all. Growing up blue-collar middle-class, this is all very new and strange to me, but I think I like it. At least as a rare treat, I think I might hate it if I had this kind of luxury all the time. Well... maybe not.
We had dinner at Kō, one of the three restaurants on the resort. We started with a spicy tuna poke which was really good. I got a martini that was gin, blueberry, sage, and honey. It was interesting and really delicious; I think tomorrow I'll have several more! For dinner I got the special, a fish dish I don't remember the details of. It had fish, and mashed potatoes, and left me kind of blissed out. Elly had the wok-seared opah with black bean sauce, and was very happy with it. She let me have a taste and it was so good it felt like my brain melted. For dessert we split two desserts between us: baked chocolate custard with strawberry gelato and a pineapple cake that brought a tear to Elly's eye. It sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. We were extremely happy with our food. Our server was also really good. She was nice and attentive, and really friendly. She was very conversational, and put us both quite at ease.
Tomorrow we're going to have to focus on taking full advantage of our opulent luxury. I think we're going to do all right though: we're starting things off with a couples' spa treatment.
Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5943810330150437441
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