The last day of vacation is the worst. But lucky for us, our Air Canada flight (insert number of Aeroplan miles) was not leaving until 11:20pm so we had the entire day. Something we have learned on previous trips to Maui, is to book the condo for your last day. This saves you from having to check out by 11:00am and then being stuck with your luggage until your plane leaves.
Dave and Cathy wanted to go back to Kapula Beach because the snorkelling was so good the last time we were there. We got to the beach around 9:30am and it was pretty empty but there were quite a few people snorkelling. As the morning progressed, the beach got busier and busier and the waves got rougher and rougher. Dave and Cathy saw lots of fishes including an octopus. How cool is that. We left just before lunch so that we could go back to the condo for some snacks.
For the afternoon, everyone did something different. Dave, Cathy and the boys went to Baby Beach so that everyone could get into the water. Karen, Deanna, Ross and Susie went for a sail on the Scotch Mist II. There were supposed to be three other people joining them but they never showed so they ended up having the entire 55 foot sailboat to themselves. I took all of our leftover food and dropped it off at Darren and Allison’s. It was nice to be able to visit with them even if it was brief. Soon it was time for me to leave so I said my goodbyes and promised that it will not be two years until I see them again. They live really close to Baby Beach so I went over to see if the gang was still there. I pulled into the parking lot and saw their Jeep so I grabbed my stuff and headed to the beach. It was so nice to have one final swim in the ocean.
We all met back at the condo and had a lovely BBQ chicken dinner. I will sure miss BBQing right next to the water and palm trees. After dinner, the kids had one final swim in the pool while the rest of us did some last minute packing and changed into our winter clothes. 8:00pm came too quickly and it was time to say goodbye to the Noelani and Unit 410.
I dropped Karen off at the Kahului Airport along with the luggage while I took the rental car back. I ran into Dave at Thrifty so we rode back together on the shuttle bus. When we got back, Karen informed me that both our bags were at 60lbs. I and suspected that my first bag was over 50lbs even though I had packed a second bag. Karen decided to take her things out of the second bag and pay the overage fee while I moved stuff from bag one to bag two. She said it was no use both of us paying the fee.
Once we finished moving stuff between bags, we got into line. Not sure why the people who checked in online had to get into a very long line while those who did not like Dave and Cathy got into a short line. When we finally got up to the ticketing agent it had been over an hour and a half. Karen went first and threw her bag on the scale and since it now weighed 66lbs, the agent said she would have to pay a $75USD fee. Fine. We think the agent was new because he had to keep asking his colleagues for help and by this point, it was getting close to the time that they would close the gate. So he waived the fee and Karen ran so that she would not miss the flight. I was up next. First bag 49lbs, good. Now for the second bag. Again he did not know what to do, so he waived my fee as well and I ran for security. Luckily there was a Trusted Traveller lane and I was able to breeze through. We got to the airport at 8:45pm and we got to the gate by 10:35pm. This was the worst experience we have ever had with Air Canada at the Kahului Airport.
Everyone was on this flight to Vancouver. It left late and this would come back to hurt some of us later. I was fortunate to have Liam next to me for this part of the trip. For him, it was like being in First Class. He was able to fully stretch out and sleep for the entire flight. After five and a half hours, we arrive do in Vancouver at 7:15am local time. Ross, Susie and Deanna had to move quickly since they had just over an hour before their flight to Toronto. The rest of us had two and a half hours.
The experience at the Vancouver Airport was awful. After deplaning, we stood in an extremely long line so that we could use a self serve kiosk to read your customs declaration that you filled in only to give you back a printed copy of it. We stood in another’s long line so that we could have a Candian Border agent review the printed customs declaration. Now we were getting worried for the others because these two lines were taking time that they did not have. We then walked and walked and walked to get to our gate C47. What we did not realize is that we had to go through security again. This was another long line. We ran into Deanna here and she said that she had missed her flight but it seems that Ross and Susie got on the flight. Karen and I used our NEXUS cards here to breeze through security.
We finally got to the gate at 8:45am and boarding was to begin at 9:05am so we quickly grabbed some breakfast. All of a sudden, we saw Ross and Susie. They told us that they all missed the original flight and were put on standby for another. Deanna was the only one that got on the second flight and they were bumped onto ours.
The flight to Toronto was quick at just over three and a half hours. Michael joined Karen and I on this final leg of the trip home. We landed at 5:23pm and were told that the current temperature was around 5°C. Brrrr. After everyone got their bags, we said goodbye to Dave, Cathy and the boys. They were headed to a hotel for the night. Ross and Susie grabbed a taxi back to their house. Ross came back to the airport to pick Karen and I. When we got back to Ross and Susie’s house, they invited us to stay for pizza which was great to have after an extremely long day of travel. We finally got back to Waterloo around 9:30pm and we were greeted with the most hugs and kisses Maui (the dog not the island) could give.
Another awesome trip to Maui.
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