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March 11
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Maui: March 11

I knew that my big 39.99th birthday was near when the expiration date on the milk carton was dated March 16th!

After packing late last night, Theresa and I had to get up at 4:15 in the morning. Rondo looked at us funny and wondered why we got up so early. He did not mind, though, as he get fed early. However, Sunkiss was a different story. She just stayed in bed while I had cereal for breakfast and made coffee for Theresa.

We left the house even before the sun came up. Rondo had a sad farewell with Theresa.

We got to the airport at about 6am. We had time to see an interesting display of some old school children's lunch boxes. Here was one made in 1960: the lunch box was 39.99 years old just like me. :-)

We then fly with the American Trans Airline of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays. It was an uneventful flight. They took good care of us, though. We had drinks, nuts, hot breakfast, sherbet, hot face-towel, and a mint!

We arrived at Maui after 4.5 hours flight time. We picked up our Chrysler Sebring Convertible. It only has 2000 miles on it!

We then drove to our hotel. According to my previous information, it should have taken only 1 hour. It felt like two hours. Theresa and I thought that we were never going to get there. The good and bad thing about our ride was that we both got a little sunburn. It was especially bad for Theresa since she has been taking some antibiotics for the tooth canal that she had recently, which made exposure to sun to cause sunburn more easily.

We finally got to our hotel Ritz Carlton at Kapalua, Maui ( http://www.ritzcarlton.com/html_corp/home/index.asp )

Here was a bottle of 30-SPF sun block that we bought at Hoopla store.

To be frank, the hotel was very nice (an 8 on a scale of 10), but it was not opulent. I guess I just have to go to Bellagio in Las Vegas within the next year.

We checked in to our room 2071, which has a minor view of the ocean, but a nice view of the 3rd hole of the Bay course at Kapalua.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Banyan. It was great to sit right by the window and have a great view.

I had a lava flow, and Theresa has mai-tai, which consisted of light rum, dark rum, orange Curacao, pineapple juice, orange passion juice, orgeat, and sweet and sour.

I had a pesto chicken sandwich with fresh fruit salad served in a half coconut shell, and Theresa had a Mahi Mahi wrap. We enjoyed both of our dishes.

The weather was gorgeous. It was sunny, warm, and breezy. Hawaii is truly a tropical paradise.

After lunch we walked down to the beach to explore a little bit. We vowed to return soon.

We then took a 2-mile walk around the resort, visiting the tennis court, fitness center, and the edge of one of the golf courses--I even picked up two golf balls that were hit out of bound. I was fully prepared to lose lots of golf balls on this trip--so it was quite ironic that I gained two balls today. However, I'm sure that I'll lose them all back to the golf god on Wednesday :-)

I surprised Theresa with a tropical flower arrangement.

While Theresa watched an old and sad movie "Fried Green Tomatoes," I read most of the brochures and made a good and relaxing plan for the rest of the week. At least right now that despite the drive to Hana and the bicycle ride down Haleakala after the sunrise have been touted as two of the highlights of Maui, I just don't want to drive so many hours on my vacation. I drive way too many hours during commute between work and home.

Fortunately, there are a lot of other things to do, especially good snorkeling spots.

What's a trip to Hawaii without having some chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts?!

For dinner we ended up at the Lobby Bar. We enjoyed a coconut prawn appetizer (pupu in Hawaiian) and sushi (Unagi, Tuna, California Roll). Theresa then enjoyed an orange crème brulee, and I had a really different but tasty Napoleon. 

It was great to enjoy a nice evening under the torch light of tiki torches with Theresa. I just love gas tiki torches.

and our adventure has just began...