Cashing in on Maui

Does anyone remember what happened to us last year when we went to Maui? Long story short.. Air Canada and Hawaiian Airlines stranded us in Las Vegas and we missed out on two days of our vacation. Hawaiian Airlines gave every passenger a $500 USD travel voucher that had to be used before December 1, 2026, so we figured we had better find a way to use it. Karen did a lot of research and we came up with a plan to fly from Detroit to Maui by way of Seattle. Our travel vouchers covered a good portion of the flights. Nana, Darlene, Karen and I are making this return trip to Maui.

I bet you are asking yourself, if Hawaiian Airlines gave us each $500, what did Air Canada give us? Initially they gave us nothing, even after a couple of requests for compensation and reimbursement of expenses. We ended up filing a small claims court case against them, and just before we left on this vacation, Air Canada and we came to a settlement agreement.

Darlene came over to our house so that she, Nana and myself could go together to Karen’s house. We got the car packed up and were on our way just after 10:30am. When we got there, we had a really nice visit with Karen’s brother Paul and Kai. Paul made the trip down from Ottawa to stay with Kai while we are away. We got Karen’s things in the car, and by 11:30am we were off to Detroit.

Our first stop was the Columbia Sportswear Company Employee Store in London to check out their sales. A few of us managed to get a couple of things. We were hungry, so we stopped for lunch at The Knotty Pine Restaurant. Who remembers The Knotty Pine in Cambridge? This place was nothing like it, but it was still good. By the time we left, it was close to 3:00pm.

We wanted to cross into Detroit using the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. The bridge connects Windsor and Detroit and only opened this year. If you are ever making the crossing yourself, it is worth taking just for the view.

Between the traffic and the construction, we did not get to the Holiday Inn Detroit Metro Airport (room 1 – $179.00 USD which includes eight days of parking, room 2 – $98.95 USD) until after 5:00pm.  Before supper, we thought we should do a little bit of shopping since we were in the United States. So it was off to JCPenney, Macy’s and Kohl’s to check out the back to school sales.

By now it was way past our normal supper time, so we went to The Olive Garden, where we enjoyed the famous Soup, Salad and Breadsticks. After supper we made one final stop at Meijer, where we picked up some food to have for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I dropped everyone off at the hotel and drove over to Airlines Parking. This is where the car is staying while we are gone. They even provided a ride back to the hotel. By now it was almost 11:00pm, and it was time for bed. We are off to Maui tomorrow, fingers crossed.