Day 11 & 12: Hale

Day 11 and it’s
our final FULL day on Maui and we’re making it a beach day. It was a little
overcast today, so we didn’t rush getting to Po’olenalena; ended up not
arriving until around 10:15am. I finished another book today and started a new
one, unfortunately my Kindle died, so I didn’t get too far into the new book.
The waves were pretty mellow again so I had a good amount of water time. In the
early afternoon we saw a pod of spinner dolphins go by at a very leisurely pace.
Their name is a very accurate description; they were jumping and spinning in
the air nonstop. It was quite the show. 
AJ and I ended up staying at the beach until just after 5pm. We were
hoping to watch the sun set, but the clouds never gave way, so we decided to
head out and hit the hot tub at our condo instead.

After the hot tub we went to Maui Brewery Company to take
advantage of the POG beer they had left over from the festival. I got the POG
IPA, AJ wanted to get the POG Sour but unfortunately they were sold out so he
got Shave Wiesse instead, which had a little sour/tart bite to it. After some
beer we went to get dinner at Da Kitchen. Da Kitchen is known for their plate
lunches (which is traditionally served in a take-out container) and is a place
we always enjoy at least once per visit. After food we almost instantly fell
asleep.

When we woke up, it was bitter sweet, its Sunday, day 12, and our departure day. We were scheduled
to fly out at 11:30pm, and we were graciously given late checkout from our
condo at 8pm, so we had a full day to take advantage of. The waves on south
Maui were pretty big today, so we hit my favorite beach, Maluaka. There was a
group of people on their outrigger boat taking advantage/playing in the waves.
They were entertaining to watch and even tipped over once.

After the beach we headed to the pool for one last swim. We
stayed at the pool for a couple hours until it was time to get ready for Monkey
Pod. Back at the Condo we started doing some light packing and said good-bye to
Chad and Tina.

It’s been a tradition for AJ and I to have our last meal at
Monkey Pod. We made dinner reservations for 4:45pm so we were able to view
sunset from our table. Our last Monkey Pod meal consisted of a couple Mai Tai’s
and some pizza. After dinner and sunset we went back to our condo to finish
packing and relax until check out.

Once we checked out we returned our car rental, and headed for the jet. When it was close to boarding time they announced there was a delay, and every 15 minutes they kept announcing it was going to be another 15 minute delay. When all was said and done we ended up having about an hour delay. So we departed Maui around 12:40am (we had one final FULL day!) and the trade winds were in our favor, making the flight less than 5 hours.

We arrived back into Spokane around 9am Monday and were exhausted but already planning our return trip for next year!

Hale is Hawaiian for Home.