The woman looked up and over at us at the sound of my voice, confirming my surmise, and a look of recognition spread across her face as she took in the visages of Deborah and me.
"Oh, my gosh...HI!" said Gina.
"Wow, you know everyone," said Gina's traveling companion.
"Oh, I know, honey, it's OK," Gina said, patting her companion on the shoulder before heading toward us.
Gina bantered with us a spell. She was also flying to Denver on the same flight as us, en route to Sacramento for the unfortunate funeral of the grandfather of her traveling companion, who turned out to be Gina's niece, who we'll call Samantha for lack of recall of her actual name and perhaps to anonymize the innocent.
It should be noted at this point that I almost never see people I know at the airport, despite Madison Wisconsin being a fairly small city, as city sizes go.
This episode punctuated the initial stages of the tropical adventure for which this travelogue is intended to document AND also set the general tone of laid back ease that I hoped to manifest for the entire week ahead. Prior to the random encounter with Gina our morning had proceeded as most mornings preambling air travel typically do. We woke up earlier than we normally would have on most weekdays (this being a Tuesday), abluted, dressed, and downed whatever sustenance we deemed necessary for burling through the cumbersome American air transportation system.
We were bound for Maui Hawaii, via Denver. Once through the anxiety stage of TSA Security - which was fairly minimal as state-sponsored anxieties go - and immersed in the relative safety of the airport concourse, we relaxed somewhat.
"Can we choose to live in the universe in which everything goes perfectly smoothly on this trip?" I asked Deborah. She nodded her acceptance of the proposal and, mentally, we set about structurally reorienting the Cosmos to our desires. We filled our water bottles and I procured a cup of coffee from the overpriced Ancora coffee shoppe in the airport concourse, slowly sipping it as we awaited our departure.
Both flights were on time and proceeded smoothly and without incident. So anxiety-free was I that I didn't even notice the first flight had landed until the plane's wheels touched down on the tarmac at Denver International. In fact, when it did, I thought initially it was just unexpected turbulence. But there you go!
We had about a two hour layover in Denver before boarding the flight to Kaluhui on Maui in Hawaii. En route from Concourse A (where we landed) to Concourse B (where our second flight would depart from), we passed a smoothie place that we had researched ahead of time and hoped to stumble upon without too much effort, per our earlier intentional prayer to the Cosmos. We procured a couple fruit smoothies and sipped the wholesomeness of them into our bodies at the departure gate.
I'm not gonna lie, the seven hour flight from Denver to Maui was a marathon of patience. I spent the time listening to audio books, reading an actual book, and formulating the initial paragraphs of this post. We were served a vegan meal on this flight, per our request during booking of the United Airlines flights. As modern society has not embraced the awesomeness of veganism yet, it was sparse and average quality fare (but I commend their effort). Anticipating this, however, we had packed some snacks and PB&J sammies in our carry on bags, the latter of which we consumed to supplement our nutritional needs.
The landing in Maui was smooth and upon exiting the plane, Deborah and I changed into climate-appropriate attire (shorts, tee shirts, and sandals) that we had also had the foresight to stash in our carry ons. We scored our suitcases from baggage claim and mosied over to the rental car station to get our transportation for the week, a Chevy something-or-other midsized sedan from Enterprise. On the way out of Kaluhui, we stopped at a Whole Foods grocery store and secured a stash of...well...whole foods. We would be staying in a bungalow at a resort in Lahaina Maui HI (the Royal Lahaina Resort and Bungalows, in fact) about 45 minutes drive from the airport, and said bungalow was (we were told) equipped with a full kitchenette. We planned to make some of our own meals during the vacation week, to ensure vegan fare and also cut costs on dining out (point of fact: bowl of assorted fruit at the resort restaurant = $16!!!). We got some stir fry and salad fixings, as well as some fruit, cereal, and snacks.
On the drive to Lahaina, I was surprised to see that one can see the neighboring islands of Lanai and Moloka'i from Maui. I did not realize they were so close or so visible. And perhaps they aren't that close...but they are mountainous and thus rise well above the horizon established by the curvature of the Earth, appearing - perhaps deceptively - to be nearby.
We found the resort on the west coast of Maui with minimal difficulty and checked in. Our bungalow was some distance from the main entrance to the resort. So we had to park the rental car in the guest parking lot near the entrance and then a bellhop drove us, our bags, and our groceries to our bungalow in a large golf cart. The bellhop pointed out some of the various resort amenities that typical resort guests care about, en route. As atypical guests, we made note of the ice machine and water dispenser, and paid less heed to the bars and live music options. Live music and bars are totally fine and sometimes even good and desirable, but they were not our priorities on this tropical vacation. Our priorities were primarily relaxation, sunshine, and more relaxation, punctuated by some good plant based eats from time to time, and of course HYDRATION. We also prioritized beach walks by the Pacific Ocean (a large body of water that is hard to miss no matter where you are in Hawaii). Beach walks would likely be my main source of exercise on this trip.
Once in our bungalow, we unpacked and put the groceries away. Deborah was pretty pooped from all the day's travel and relaxed on the bed. Marginally more motivated and energized, I set about making a small dinner of sauteed tofu and potatoes, which we ate before retiring for a deep and restful sleep. It was only about 9 pm Hawaii time when we got done with the meal. But that equates to 1 am and FAR PAST OUR BEDTIME in the time zone of Wisconsin, from whence we came.
That being said, I woke up at about 6 am Hawaii time (10 am Wisconsin time) the next morning, feeling very well rejuvenated and (hopefully) jet lag free. The adventures of our first FULL DAY in Hawaii will be recounted in tomorrow's installment of this travelogue.
Stay tuned!
