Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section part 3 COMPLETED - Page 19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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I'm glad you made some purchases in the shop. Kind of hard not to in a town like that. The banyan tree is a real treasure.
It would have been to leave without buying something, although I was acutely aware that we were only flying with carry-on luggage, so we couldn't buy that much. I think, if we do it again, I'd pay for a case to go to Maui, so I could buy what I wanted in Lahaina.
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That tree is huge! Sounds like a really good day at Lahaina.
It was such a lovely place and to be honest, that's my memory of Maui, not of the nightmare we had with the car rental earlier on in the day, which is probably why I didn't bother about following up for a discount.
Great shots of the surfer! I love those shops there. They were my favorite by far. I had forgotten about the Banyan tree until seeing your pictures of it. It was great memories to think back on, as we are currently in a blizzard with 10 inches of snow. Sunny, warn Hawaii sounds so much better!
Oh good grief! That's an insane amount of snow to me, as even a couple of inches here is a national crisis. Stay safe and try and stay warm!
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Sunday 10 November – part eight: a wonderful dinner to end a wonderful day!
By now, it was almost time for dinner, so we headed to Fleetwood’s on Front Street and upstairs to where the restaurant is. We didn’t know it, but there’s also a rooftop area and every night, they have a bagpiper there to pay tribute to Mick’s Scottish roots.
It took a few minutes for us to be seated, as we had a very fussy couple in front of us, who refused a couple of options as far as tables went, before the staff were finally able to seat them. Even though ours was one of the ones they rejected, I was perfectly happy with it.
We put our order in and had a wander. The drum kit was very neat and we were told that all artwork in here was from Mick’s personal collection. I liked the fact that he seemed to have so much involvement in this place, as all too often, celebrities put their names to something and that’s all it is, a name. Not here.
When we got back to our table, the bread was waiting for us.
Not long after that, the Caesar salad we had decided to share also came out and was very nice, although I have to confess it didn’t quite feel like a Caesar salad to me, as it didn’t have enough dressing for my tastes.
For entrée, I went off the menu with a special, so forgive me, but all I can tell you was that it was Mahi Mahi with lobster sauce. Whatever it was, I really could not fault it. This was a superb dish, with some beautiful flavours.
Mark surprised me by going for the North Beach Cioppini, which was made up a half lobster tail mussels, clams, shrimps, and today’s local fish, which I assume was the Mahi Mahi, as that’s what I got as the local catch, all in a spicy tomato sauce. He really enjoyed this, and full credit to him, managed to devour the whole lot without spilling any on himself, which was a difficult challenge. I tried a bit of it, and it was very good.
For dessert, I’d already asked to look at that menu while we were waiting to be seated, so I could decide what to do about appetiser. I saw one thing I loved the sound of straightaway – the slow roasted Maui pineapple, pineapple vanilla crisp, Amaretti cookies, and coconut gelato. I love pineapple, coconut, and Amaretti, so this was a no-brainer for me, and boy I loved every bite of it. It was just absolutely perfect.
Mark went for the five layer chocolate cake, with banana macadamia nut gelato. I tried a bite of it and it was very good. How he managed to polish it off after that entrée though, I will never know.
The whole thing came to $181, including tip for our wonderful server Jolene, who made sure that we were out on time to get back to the airport for our flight. All in all, it had been a wonderful meal and a great evening, and we both felt this was actually far superior to ‘Ama Ama, and bearing in mind it was a similar price, that’s high praise. If we ever come back to Maui and Lahaina, and I hope we do, Fleetwood’s will definitely get a return visit from us.
Fleetwood’s on Front Street
Appetiser 8 8
Entrée 9½ 10
Dessert 10 10
Service 9½ 10
Atmosphere 9½ 10
Value for money 9 9½
Average score:
We headed out of there, and back to the car.
When we got back to it, I suggested putting the top down, as it was still a hot night. It was really nice as we drove out of Lahaina to feel the wind around us, but the wind got stronger and stronger the further we went. Then we started to see rain on the windscreen, although for me, the real worry was the wind, as it was getting evil. Eventually Mark pulled over and put the top back up. This convertible was not as easy to operate as the one we have on O’ahu. It was a much more complicated process to put the roof back up, and even then, there was a problem, as the back windows didn’t go back up, so we drove along like that for a while, before Mark found another button that you had to press to get those up.
We made it back to Lahaina, and went to fill up with gas, only Mark managed to activate the alarm in the car, which drew some attention!
The woman at the cashier desk came out to fill it up for us, and it only took $10, but then again, we had only driven about 35 miles!
We headed back to Avis, picked up their shuttle bus to the airport, and cleared security quickly enough. Once inside, we headed to the gate to wait for our plane. Again, we noticed the difference between flights at weekends and during the week. When they asked for first class passengers or their platinum or gold passengers to come forward, absolutely no-one did. During the week, the lines for this were generally longer than the general boarding line.
We were the first ones in the general boarding, so we were quickly on board, and made ourselves comfortable. We watched everyone else board, fascinated by how many people did so with supplies of Krispy Kreme doughnuts – and we are not talking a couple here, we’re talking huge boxes. We have no idea what was going on. Maybe they’re not available back on O’ahu? The smell was quite something, and there were a lot of jokes about the fact that people would be heading off the plane with them…
I have to say it was a rough flight back, but given the wind we’d encountered driving over here, that didn’t surprise us at all. How on earth the pilot brought us into land, I do not know, as we could both see out of the window that the plane was moving from side to side in the wind. I’m not afraid of flying, but tonight I was quite relieved to be back on the ground.
We headed back to the car, and back to Aulani. By the time we got back, it was 10:30pm, and it had been a pretty long day, but we both agreed it had been worth it.
The weather today was wet at times, with some cloud and sun later on in the day, with temperatures in the mid 80s. The best thing today was Lahaina. The worst thing today was the issues we had with the rental car. Today we tried going to the summit of Haleakala national park And the result was we did get to see some amazing views in the end, but it was a drive fraught with stress, thanks to the rental car. The most magical moment today was looking at the view out to the ocean from the square in front of Market Street in Lahaina.
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What a fantastic dinner! I'm so glad you were able to get that reservation. It looked delicious. Sounded like a bumpy flight, yikes. Hope no donuts were injured.
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What a fantastic dinner! I'm so glad you were able to get that reservation. It looked delicious. Sounded like a bumpy flight, yikes. Hope no donuts were injured.
Hopefully not although sadly no-one asked us to check the condition of them....
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That's an insane amount of snow to me, as even a couple of inches here is a national crisis. Stay safe and try and stay warm!
Deb
Even though ours was one of the ones they rejected, I was perfectly happy with it. 
It was just absolutely perfect. 
During the week, the lines for this were generally longer than the general boarding line. 
The smell was quite something, and there were a lot of jokes about the fact that people would be heading off the plane with them… 
yours in particular! 
although sadly no-one asked us to check the condition of them.... 
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