Stuck in Maui - maybe not as fun as you might think!

Whew – what a weekend!

My friend, Mel, and I went to Maui for a whirlwind of girlfriend fun in the sun! We left Friday afternoon and arrived on Maui in the evening. We used the GPS (we named her Ginger) to help us find a place to eat. She took us about 30 minutes away to a place that we couldn’t find – so we ended up eating at Gumps – I’m not complaining! I love their shrimp!

Saturday morning we laid on the beach until my freckled skin needed shade and we decided to drive to Hana. What an amazing drive – it’s interesting how most of the vegetation in Hawaii is not native and yet it all grows so well. We met some fun people and had a great time driving the road – I had a great time riding – I’m not sure Mel had as much fun as I had – it was pretty white knuckled driving.

We decided not to drive the whole road because it was getting dark and the driving was pretty scary – so we turned around and headed back to Kihei. We got dinner at a great restaurant (the one that Ginger couldn’t seem to find) and headed to bed.

Since we were leaving on Sunday – we went to the beach in the morning and then spent most of the shopping at the outdoor market and bumming around Lehaina. We decided to head to the airport a bit early and catch some dinner – this is where the fun starts. We came to an abrupt halt at a long line of cars on the highway that led to the airport. Wegot on the phone and started calling around to friends in AK to see if they could find a phone number we could call to find out what was up and if we should turn around. We did find out what was up (after several failed attempts to contact the police because everyone else on the road was also trying to call) that there was a brush fire and the road was closed. This was the only road out of Lahaina – and the only way to get to the airport.

This was a problem.

So – we decided to wait it out for a while – three hours to be exact. After about an hour we decided it would be a good idea to contact the car rental place and the airlines. They were both aware of the problem and asked us to call back when it got closer to our flight if we were still stuck. We saw the most amazing sunset while we waited, and then it got dark. By then everyone had turned off their cars, and without the headlights darkness overtook us pretty fast. Talk about eerie.

Once we had rebooked our flights and let the rental car know that we were going to need the car an extra day, we headed back to Lehaina. Passing about three miles of cars in darkness was pretty weird too. Our next job was to get a room – I used Ginger again and started calling hotels – booked – booked – booked! I finally found one, and we got one of the last three rooms in the hotel! Phew. Thankfully they were not taking advantage of those of us who were stuck and we got a great room with an incredible ocean view. It was 10:00 by the time we got all checked in so we weren’t able to take advantage of the view that night – but in the morning it was breathtaking.

As soon as we awoke Monday morning – I called work and explained what was going on – I’m sure you can imagine the laughter over being “stuck in Hawaii”…not as fun as it sounds! Then I called the front desk and we found out the road was open – YAY! It had opened at 6:00 that morning so I’m glad we didn’t try to wait it out. We spent the morning hanging out on the lanai – it was raining so we saw the most intense rainbow I’d ever seen. Then off to the airport – we had to go through Seattle which was a bit annoying since we’d had tickets direct to Anchorage…but whatever – more miles.

It could have been worse – getting stuck in Hawaii is probably the best place to be stuck. Beats Ketchikan or something! J Even with all of that annoyance, it was a great trip and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Of course I forgot my camera – I still can’t believe it. It’s embarrassing…but we did get one of those throw away cameras so as soon as I can put up photos I will.

When I finally made it into work this morning there was a fire extinguisher on my desk…and a photo of a fire on my desktop. Brother...people love me! J What an adventure!