Maui Buns

I'm using a computer at 'Maui Buns' in Lahaina. We can rent computers by the minute in this Lahaina (Maui County, Hawaii) shop. My husband is using this computer for work which he can't do on his blackberry. He wanted to buy a netbook or notebook computer to check into his job during our vacation. However I encouraged him to limit himself to what he can do with his blackberry and a little 'Maui Buns' computer time. Otherwise, he's not really on vacation. Ironically during one of his blackberry conversations, a coworker asked him "What are you doing checking into work? Go to the beach. Do the Hula. You're on vacation!" LOL

However his blackberry work connection entertains him while I'm shopping for clothes at my favorite Maui shop "Serendipity", which features Indonesian, Polynesian and generally lacy dresses, tops and skirts. Luckily I hit a 'buy 3, get 1 free on sale items' promotion at one Lahaina Cannery Mall shop yesterday. I still want to visit their Kihei store, where they send all the garments which don't sell at sales. For those of you familiar with Nordstrom on the mainland, the Kihei Serendipity store is like the Nordstrom RACK. Also Kihei has the best beaches (and boogee board rental shops). So we plan to visit Kihei early next week.

So far, after arrival we checked into our hotel/condo and unpacked. However, we were VERY disappointed to say the least with our condo. The hotel is doing some renovation (NOISE AND DUST) on parts of the building (and rooms). We were told last February that the building's ocean side renovation would be finished. So we upgraded from mountain side (lower price) to an ocean side room, for essentially the same price, because the upgrade consumed the renovation discount. HOWEVER, when we entered our room, we realized the construction continued on the ocean side. The front desk told us that unforseen problems delayed the construction. So the disruption (noise and dust) would continue until February 2010, which meant during our entire stay. We also found a number of mechanical problems with our room. In short, this is one of the worst rooms we've had in this hotel during our 4-5 stays there.

They MIGHT be able to switch us to another room, but said that is unlikely because we booked 3 weeks. I think people who have longer stays (pay more total $$) should get the BEST rooms, not the worst rooms. However, even if something becomes available, the room would have to be spectacular to convince me to pack and move again (esp. after we stocked our room with groceries for breakfasts and lunches). However we would STILL hear the noise.

Even more disappointing was the revelation that we have NO swimming pool or hot tub at our hotel, because of renovation work. GRRRRRRRR!!! We used to enjoy swimming and hot tub after long hot mornings of tennis or walking/shopping in Lahaina. We will NOT return to this hotel, if/when we return to Maui in the future.

Despite my worsening gut symptoms during the plane ride and first day here, I enjoyed shopping, eating dinner out, walking on the beach and splashing in the warm ocean water and attempting to play tennis today. I have a bad bruise on the bottom of one of my toes, which made running after balls difficult. I bruise easily, but I don't know how I acquired an underside of toe bruise.

Tonight we'll dine in a great restaurant by our hotel and watch the sunset. We already talked to the chef (when we made reservations) about our food allergies. He was very grateful that we advised him with allergy alert cards before we made reservations, rather than just walking in and expecting the waiters, etc. to accomodate our allergies. I don't want to chance getting allergy contamination, which would cause me 3-14 days of gut pain depending on the allergy. I already went through 5 months of c-diff related gut pain before I came to Maui.

We also bought tickets for Ulelena, the musical about Maui's history. We've seen that musical 3-4 times before, but we LOVE the show and want to see it again. We need to make reservations for an early dinner (5pm) that night, because the show starts at 6:30pm. However, we're up early every day and go to bed early here. Maui time is 3 hours later than Seattle time. So we still naturally wake up on Seattle time. Also the room has really THIN curtains on the lanai. Other rooms (from our previous stays) had drapes which totally blocked the light. Not so, with this very disappointing room. SIGH

Tomorrow night we will eat out and do the Friday night gallery walk, when all the Lahaina galleries host their artists and offer wine and hors d'veures to visitors. Although I no longer paint, I still appreciate good art (esp. paintings). During the next 2 weeks we plan to go parasailing, swimming in Kihei, do a zipline, travel to 'upcountry' to visit hippy town Paia and eat lunch at 'Mama's Fish House' and a few other favorite activities which I've forgotten. Maybe my toe bruise will heal enought that I can play tennis again. If not, we still have plenty to do.

I may or may not post again, because my husband can do most of his 'work away from work' on his blackberry. However, I'll share more of my Maui vacation (and hopefully LESS of my gut problems) after I return on October 27-8. The plane arrives close to midnight. Then we usually spend most of the next day sleeping and unpacking. So I may not be online again until late that week.