We awoke to our last day in Maui. We were sad to be leaving because we had been having so much fun, especially at the Wailea Beach Marriott hotel. Its location is unbeatable and the boys just loved the amenities. The boys and I met my wife for breakfast between her meetings. She was still working and would have to work the following day after landing from our red-eye. It had unfortunately been a less than relaxing trip for her but she made the best of things.

Climbing Rocks and Pool Time

After breakfast, I took the boys down to the rocks in front of the hotel and we climbed down to look at the tide pools. We found hundreds of black crabs scurrying around on the rocks. They were really hard to see because the rocks were also black. We also caught sight of a sea turtle or two just offshore.

Once they got their fill of the rocks we headed to the pool as it was just about to open. The boys spent a couple hours getting their last few rides down the water slides and playing foosball and ping pong with any kids they could convince to play with them. It was very relaxing and somewhat sad to know we only had a couple hours left.

As it approached the noon checkout time we headed back to the room as my wife was finishing up her workday. We had packed much of our stuff the previous night so we didn’t have a lot let to deal with. The boogie boards and much of what we had bought at the Salvation Army store would need to stay behind, which is probably how it ended up in the Salvation Army store in the first place. It was still cheaper than renting it!

With the car packed we were ready to check out. We verified the breakfast was removed from our bill like the manager had promised and then we were off for some lunch. We ended up getting Round Table Pizza which the family had grown quite fond of. I was a veteran of it from my work trips to California and was happy they enjoyed it as well. Tomatico fell in love with the turkey ranch sandwich and he still talks about it.

After filling up at lunch, the boys wanted one last ice cream so we returned to the gelato place with the fresh waffle cones from the previous day. My wife wanted one last shave ice so we also made a separate stop for her since it was on our way to the airport.

Back to the Airport

Since we had needed to exchange our rental car on our second day due to the bad smell, the rental company, National, had noted on our invoice that we could return the car empty. I actually came pretty close to doing just that. The car said there was only about 10 miles of range left by the time we arrived and at $4+ per gallon that saved us a tangible amount of money. We had no issues with the empty tank and they didn’t attempt to charge us for it. Within 5 minutes the car was unloaded and we were checked out and on our way to the terminal. I was quite impressed with the whole rental and how they handled the issue we had.

We took the trolly back to the departure area and put our bags through an agricultural check which is required when going to the mainland. We each had our box of pineapples from the tour. We were looking forward to sharing them with family back home. They were packaged and marked in a way so there were no issues bringing them back.

The scan took only a few seconds and we were on our way to checking our bags. I had used the United app to check us in the day before. Since I had paid with my United credit card both our checked bags were free. There was no real line and it took less than 5 minutes before we were off to the security line. With our TSA/PreCheck we were quickly through security and into the terminal.

The boys shopped for key chains for their backpacks to remember the trip by as we made our way to the terminal. We had about an hour to wait and our plane arrived on time. About 15 minutes before boarding, the gate agent asked if anyone had any disinfecting wipes. Apparently, the incoming flight “had hit some turbulence”. That wasn’t the most welcome news. I just hoped they were able to clean things up and that the seats in question weren’t ours!

Flying Home

Boarding began on time and we made our way back to our seats. We had selected two rows of “twin” seats near the back of the plane. After we had gotten settled in a couple claimed to have the same seats we were in. I looked at our tickets and realized I had sat in the wrong row, but the couple was happy to switch with us with the flight attendant’s permission. I don’t often mess that up but I definitely dropped the ball on that. Luckily Tomatico and my wife were in one of the two correct rows.

The flight was scheduled to be an 8-hour flight from Maui to Chicago. I was looking forward to the longer flight hoping I’d have more time to get a little sleep. I had to work the next day!

The flight was smooth and about 2 hours into the flight we saw the most amazing sunset. Pictures just didn’t do it justice… and we tried taking a LOT of pictures in hopes one would capture its brilliance.

I slept restlessly for a couple hours and the rest of the family did the same before we landed in Chicago around 5:15 am local time. We had enough time between flights to grab a quick breakfast before catching the final leg home from Chicago to Boston. We landed just after 9:00 am and quickly gathered our luggage. It came out quickly because it was marked with priority tags due to my wife’s status with United. We then headed out of the terminal to grab a Lyft home.

My wife and the boys fell fast asleep on the way home. It was good to finally be home, even though we had to jump right back into work that day. I’m not sure I did much other than catch up on my email, but I did the best I could.

Our Hawaiian adventure was complete. It had gone a little slow in the beginning but went by super quickly at the end. My wife had had to work way too much though it was still better than not going on vacation. The backdrop was much nicer than normal when on vacation!