Hawaii Diaries #14 - Maui Shave Ice and Big Island Time

We had a few hours to kill before our flight. We didn’t want to waste our final day in Maui so we decided to make some pit stops. First, after having a ton of shave ice on Kauai, we couldn’t leave without trying the best Maui Shave Ice.

Ululani’s Shave Ice had a location right near our place. It was right near a baker too which was convenient. We could pick up some pastries for our flight to the Big Island.

According to the internet, Ululani’s is the place to go for Maui Shave Ice. Having become a shave ice connoisseur/douche, I wanted to give it a go. I definitely had to see how it compared to the mostly excellent Kauai Shave Ice.

We got a large portion which comes in cute little cups that fit into the tables right outside the place. The syrups use fresh fruit and all that jazz as expected from a fine ice establishment.

The flavor was good and the ice had good texture. The one problem was that it was packed so tightly that the syrup didn’t penetrate very well. That left a few spots of flavorless ice not too deep into the bowl. However, they’re willing to give you another squirt if you ask. It says so on a sign there.

Overall, a solid shave ice although I think Waikomo on Kauai still remains my favorite.

After we finished that sugar bomb, we walked across the street to take a final look at the beach.

There was some sort of rowing club there and we sat down on a bench to enjoy the views.

My wife was putting on some lip balm when a dude approached us. He must have thought it was something else because he told us not to worry, he wasn’t a cop when my wife went to put it away. Weird but we didn’t think much of it.

He gave us a high five claiming he was playing some game to see who could get the most high fives. Seemed odd to us but whatever. It was daylight and it didn’t seem like he wanted to stab us. We talked a bit, about our honeymoon and such before he let it slip that if we wanted some weed, he was the guy for that.

Cool, man, cool. We said no thanks and he said he’d be over there, pointing to some cars if we changed our minds.

We’re not smokers but found it pretty funny. I guess this is the spot for that kind of stuff?

After a few minutes, we got up to leave and he approached us with a woman. She said she heard about our marriage and told us they were getting married too. How cool!

To celebrate, she wanted to give us some free edibles! What a great deal! We laughed, said no thanks, that we don’t partake and moved on much to the confusion of the guy who was with her.

I assume he thought my wife was smoking a joint when he approached us. Otherwise the whole thing was very confusing albeit somewhat humorous.

We still had plenty of time so we stopped by the humpback whale national sanctuary. It’s a tiny museum with a friendly staff and some exhibits about whales. It’s one of the spots where whales pass by during whale season but we were a bit too early for that.

Unfortunately, that was it for our Maui journey. We got back in the car and headed to the airport. We didn’t want to repeat the Kauai mistake of getting there too early so we got to the car rental return about an hour before our flight.

The nice thing about Hawaii airports is that they’re tiny and that security is really easy. The car rentals are right near the airports and shuttles run all the time. That meant we were probably checking our bags and in line ten minutes after dropping off our rental car.

TSA Pre-Check makes these airports a breeze and the lines were small. I think even an hour ahead of time was probably thirty minutes too early. Maui is a small airport and like the other Hawaii ones, it’s open air and lacking any real food options. Luckily, we grabbed some baked goods so we were good to go on that front.

The flight to the Big Island, Hawaii, was super short and the airport there is even smaller than the one on Maui. It’s rather cute with an open air tropical feel and looks like a collection of huts that’s quite different than any other airport I’ve ever seen.

We landed and deplaned right on the tarmac and walked into the huts and had our bags and rental car within minutes. It was already mid-day and we didn’t have plans so we decided to grab a late lunch before checking into our place at 4.

Foster’s Kitchen was our destination for lunch. It had a nice location right across from the ocean but the food was rather mediocre. My tacos were a far cry from some of the ones I had on Kauai or Maui and my wife’s short rib was rather bland. The presentation of the tacos wasn’t too pretty either.

We were staying in an Airbnb in Kailua-Kona.

The Big Island was the last stop on our honeymoon and the shortest one too. We only had today and a full day tomorrow. The day after was one of those terrible all day travel days back to NYC.

The lame part of the upcoming day of travel is that I was starting to feel a bit crappy. It seems like flying around makes you susceptible to colds and I was getting one! Drats!

We made a quick stop at Long’s to get some medicine and then headed home.

Since I was feeling crappy and because we had a busy volcano day tomorrow, we just hung out at home and enjoyed the balcony view.

I was glad to have brought my ear plugs because the place was right on the ocean. Those waves are certainly loud!

I was hoping a good nights sleep would have me feeling better because we had a two hour drive and lots of walking at Volcanoes National Park tomorrow. It was the reason we came here so I certainly didn’t want to miss it!