Saturday, November 11, 2006

2-fer today! ~ ~ Vacation Stories ~ ~

So thankfully, this is a very blurry picture. Pretend you "DON'T know what it is, and have NEVER seen one...yeah, right!

Whatever you do, don't encounter them ON VACATION!

11 days in Maui almost went in the dumper because of this...well...read on.

We'd been up since 4am and extremely tired as we checked into our condo at 4pm, via special lock-box key.

We've stayed at this condo the past 2 years, and have been completely satisfied. Ocean lanai, full efficiency, separate bedroom & bathroom. We went right to bed to take a nap after arriving. We awoke and began getting unpacked and getting the groceries put away, etc...and I always have to take the garbage can out from under the sink...I just hate it there. EW...EW...there's a bug. OK, I can hardly say it...A COCKROACH.

OK, I can handle ONE.

EW...EW...two, three....my my, he has lots of friends...EW...EW. That photo was one in the BATHTUB. (The next morning, they graced our feet on the carpet! Gives me shiver-bumps just rethinking it!)

DH starts opening drawers and cabinets, and they are EVERYWHERE. He starts throwing stuff into the dishwasher and arms himself with the RAID can as I stand on the sofa. Yeah, yeah, he is THE original domestic GOD and I'm a weenie, I admit it. We diddle and dink around trying to decide what to do, and at 7:45pm we call the Condo Office. The always-gruff, never pleasant lady says, "She's busy with a Marlin Tournament tomorrow and she'll deal with US Saturday (this was Thursday evening).

US? US? How about dealing with THE BUGS TOMORROW? She wouldn't give us a commitment for hotel reimbursement, wouldn't agree to switch our rooms...nadda.

Rooms on Maui can easily range $200+ for a one night stay. We toughed it out that night, but were wide awake at the smallest thing. My hair brushed DH and he jumped a mile...I drempt of roaches on the ceiling of the unit below us, etc.

First thing the next morning we were down at the coffee shop a block away while waiting for other places to open for the morning. We were EXTREMELY fortunate to spot a place right next door advertising for $45 cheaper per evening than we were paying...and had vacancy and would love to have us. The Hale Maui is not the Ritz, but it was cleaner than any place I've ever stayed, including any fancy Westin or better I've been in. It didn't have an ocean-front lanai, but if you sat sideways on this lanai, you could still stare at the ocean. Thankfully it is Mom & Pop run and I cried with joy at having this fall into our laps. We are two happy customers who will grace the Zimmerman's door again. Dumb luck.

I wrote the 1st place a stern note and turned in our keys to the substitute attendant that morning. I added in my note that, "I know you will do the right thing by returning our entire deposit." I never expected to see a dime of our $300. When we got home a few days ago, a letter was waiting with a full refund to our credit card.

We were moved in by 10am to the new place.

End of a beautiful day..finally!

This photo was taken from Honokowai Beach, just a few hundred yards from the condo. We spent a couple of afternoons under the trees enjoying the beautiful sand and warm water.

This is the famous Hana Highway. We couldn't get to the end because of road closure due to the recent earthquake. I did the drive in the rain...white knuckled it a bit, but there were few on the road so I could mostly have my own pace. It's our second journey to Hana, we'll get to those 7 Sacred Pools one of these days!

On one of our excursions, DH went to the sought after blow-hole. I stayed behind up on high ground, my tri-focals make rock climbing tenuous at best. I was perfectly content to view the scenery and do a little rock rearranging myself. This is the place where people stack rocks. It has no significance other than "just because", so that is OK by me!
Gosh! These were just about 24" from my grasp from the lanai. They weren't quite ready yet, this variety is the HUGE kind so they were only about 1/2 grown!

So I'm home, I missed my home. I missed my bed. I can't wait to go back next year, hahahaha.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

SueB is going to freek!!!! you know how she is about bugs/clean etc. Glad the rest of your trip was good.

Anonymous said...

Glad you're home safe and sound-thanks for making me laugh and for the fun comment on my blog. The place we stayed at in Hawaii only had those little tiny lizard looking things. The were not gross they just startled me....

Deb R said...

I have a photo of the Hana coast that must've been taken from almost exactly the same spot - gorgeous!

Glad your hotel situation worked out. (shudder)

Anonymous said...

Awesome that you got you money back! Nice post! Well Done! YEe haw! I like the socks... but I am NOT a croc Fan.

But I'm a mommy fan! KEEp up the posts ;-)

Anonymous said...

Eeeew. Who needs that! But the rest of the pictures kinda made up for the first one.

Miriam said...

looks like a perfect vacation - except for the bugs!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photos and I love your socks. Glad you resolved your accomodations challenge so well. When my Mom visited my brother on the Kona coast, years ago, she was horrified by the large, fuzzy spiders that wanted to sleep in her bed.

Anonymous said...

I don't do roaches. I was in first class on a cruiseline out of Indonesia once and tiny baby roaches were crawling up the wall like antlines. Those suckers just kept on coming. They were little and I couldn't help but imagine how they would be grown (maybe by the time we returned). I couldn't sleep all night. Yuck.