Maui

Last day of working in Hawaii! I worked a half day starting at 3 am and we all got ready to depart Oahu. As we packed, we got to see some of the fun purchases from this past week, including this Musubi toy that Baro was eyeing. Baro is definitely a part of Team Musubi:



As we drove to the airport, we realized we had been to the airport several times with the various pickups and day trip to Big Island. But alas, today will be my last time to Honolulu airport on this trip. However, I hope it’s not my last ever!

At the airport, we grabbed some Starbucks and our flight to Maui was a little over 30 minutes in the air. Baro did great on the plane, but I don’t think he’s used to flying economy and with the greater team which he tries to shepherd…



Once we landed in Maui, we divided into two rental cars. I was able to get a Mercedes GLC 300 and after some luggage maneuvering in the tight trunk, we were off to the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas. Thank goodness for the experienced Mercedes owners as they figured out the loading of suitcases and taught me the buttons very quickly.

The drive took about 50 minutes and was beautiful. I didn’t get to enjoy it because my eyes were on the curvy road, but grateful that I’m traveling with eager photographers who are diligent about sharing!









We met the other half of the team at the hotel which is absolutely lovely and our villa rooms are very spacious. Here are some pics….





After settling in, we divided between dinner takeout pickup and light grocery shopping for the next few days. Light was the intent, but we had fun running around the grocery store, picking up wine, soda, snacks, and water - all the basic essentials. We also managed to stop into an ABC store (our team’s happy place after the Ala Moana mall) which has fun touristy items. Leave it to us to take shopping very seriously and make an adventure out of it. But before we did, we took sunroof selfies, because, why not?





When we returned to the room with our respective missions complete for groceries and dinner, the sun was setting. I’m pretty speechless on how to describe the view, so I won’t even try…







The local takeout was a yummy dinner of katsu, pork chops, beef, macaroni salad, loco moco which is a local dish. We washed it down with the double bottle of Veuve champagne. If musubi is our official team snack, Veuve is definitely our official champagne! Thank goodness we snagged the only bottle left at Safeway. Our dinner below….



Before we knew it and before 8 pm, the sky was beautifully dark. It was almost as if it was dark sky compliant which requires very little light pollution. The only other experience of such pure darkness I can remember is in the Grand Canyon. Here’s the moon over the ocean…



Although we had grand suggestions of some night swimming, after a busy transfer day from Honolulu to Maui, we went to bed early as we have an early wake up call tomorrow. But in looking at the pure night sky, I can only feel grateful for this experience and memories with Team Musubi…