Email ElizabethBack from Maui and Aloha Time
At least I was wise enough to schedule my in-person appearances a day after my return from Maui Aloha time, because no sane person should stare at me at this point except for my husband. My hair is a wild mess, and my face looks like a pillow was glued to it. It is really difficult coming back to Sacramento after a long trip to the islands in the first place because you’re not only coming off Aloha time, like some long drug-induced trip, but the time change is enough to knock one off her feet.
I’d sort of like to say excuse me while I go back to bed, but being a Sacramento real estate agent means I must go to work. I have listings to sell, offers to negotiate, clients to update and new listing appointments to establish. Just thinking about all of that stuff is beginning to energize my brain. I’m excited to be back to work.
You know how I can make that transition from Aloha to Hello Real Estate? Because I have another vacation on the horizon for this winter. I will work like a dog for the next 5 months so I can take time off over the holidays. This winter I will stay at a few of the smaller Hawaiian islands, Molokai on my way home and Lanai on my way out. In between the two will be a couple of weeks at a small island in the country of Vanuatu.
So when people in the know ask how I can be in the real estate business going on 40 years and remain such a happy go-lucky individual, especially after putting up with the frustrations, challenges and let’s call them fabulous opportunities for growth to learn how to calm down the occasional group of screeching monkeys, it’s because of goal setting. Without goal setting, I’d be drifting aimlessly in an un-personed lifeboat like that guy in the Life of Pi, hoping for trade winds to blow my craft toward land.
And that’s just not me.
Photo: Barbara Dow at the Grand Wailea in Maui, by Elizabeth Weintraub
Aloha Maui and Mahalo for My Summer Vacation
I know lots of successful people who never get away for a vacation, much less get to spend 10 days in the middle of the summer on Maui, and I am so incredibly grateful for the support of my team who allows this kind of escape. Sometimes luck is on your side. I can’t tell you anything of importance that happened, either. Because nothing happened. Except for the important part, the part where my friend and team member Barbara Dow and I have learned how to master the art of doing nothing. Aloha. It’s not easy.
You may scoff, but doing nothing is difficult. You might say give me a Budweiser and beach chair, and I’m good, but dollars to doughnuts after a few days of that and most people would go stark raving mad. It takes absolute concentration. Do you take off your sandals to run barefoot through burning sand or do you wear them part way and then leave them on the beach to be swept into the surf? How far out into the ocean is it safe to swim before a shark might eat you? Should you have lunch served on the lawn or on a restaurant terrace? These are the kinds of decisions we had to face every single day.
Fortunately, we are Sacramento real estate agents who make dozens of tough decisions all the time. We constantly guide our clients to make the correct decisions for themselves.
I feel like we are a solar battery that needs to get recharged every six months, no matter what. We will come home feeling completely rested and ready to face all of the exciting challenges that will surely face us over the next 6 months.
We might even sneak in one more stroll in the surf before our driver arrives to whisk us away to the airport. We have husbands and houses and pets and friends and careers waiting for us at home. But we’ll always have memories to treasure of 10 wonderful days perfecting the art of doing nothing in Maui. Aloha Maui.
No Shortage of Restaurants at Wailea Resorts
A nice benefit to vacationing in Wailea is the large number of restaurants at one’s disposal located within walking distance (or stumbling, depending on your beverage selections, I suspect). In fact, if you’re running late because of your horribly hectic schedule, shuffling nail appointments or massages around beach lounging time, there is a hotel shuttle service that provides free transportation at The Fairmont Kea Lani.
Between 5 hotels, each with 2 to 3 restaurants, there are also a number of other eateries ready to serve the ubiquitous $31 to $50 entrees that are conveniently located in the complex known as The Shops at Wailea. I am guessing there are about 25 restaurants near our hotel, and with only 10 nights in Maui, my only regret is we can’t dine at each.
Having so many dining options at our disposal also carries a sort of inherent responsibility to get cleaned up and put on decent attire, suitable for going out. Maybe wash your hair. At least when we dine at home, we can sit at the table in our muddy t-shirts with disheveled hair and nobody makes us wash our hands.
To an awful dinner last night I had to send back at the Marriott Mala, I wore a black shirt with white lettering I had found at Nordstrom that stirred up the crowd. When I wear that shirt, strangers approach out of the blue and ask what it means. Now that I think about it, it’s men who ask for an explanation. Which is probably why they sell the shirt to women. It says: Eat your lettuce and be sad. The sales clerk at Nordstrom thought it was a little bit mean but not mean enough not to be funny, and I agree.
I guess tonight we will enjoy our last meal at Humuhumu at the Grand Wailea, which is where Oprah Winfrey threw a birthday celebration gala. They word on the island is she spent $27 million on that event. Just a bit of trivia to make you feel better about yourself.
Photo: Elizabeth at Marriott in Maui by Barbara Dow
Road to Hana from Wailea
We thought we had the Road to Hana tour from our home base in Wailea all planned out. I set my alarm on the clock radio at The Fairmont Kea. I called for a wakeup call at 5:45, followed by a 2nd wakeup call 15 minutes later. All of this was in addition to relying on my internal clock to wake up by early enough, because the last thing we wanted to do was be late for our 6:45 meeting time scheduled by the Road to Hana tour people.
As luck would have it, we raced out of our top floor suite at 6:30 without any wakeup calls whatsoever, on top of which the alarm clock had malfunctioned. We made it halfway down the hall before Barbara figured out she had left her cellphone on the table. We dashed back to retrieve her cell and continued on our way halfway through the second wing before I realized I had forgotten the tickets for the tour. What a circus. See, there was a reason that we had given ourselves an extra 15 minutes of time to meet the deadline. That’s the kind of real estate agents we are — planners — always on time. Back to the room to retrieve the tickets.
By the time we got to the Terrace level and rounded the corner where we were to meet the van, we discovered all of the other passengers were already on board, and even with being 5 minute early, we were still late. Which is probably why we got the last back corner seats.
617 curves, and 56 single-lane bridges. What part of motion sickness did I not predict? Oy. I could be stoic or I could speak up after 30 minutes of discomfort, and speaking up seemed like the better choice. I asked our cheery tour bus driver from Shakopee who, even though he has lived in Hawaii for 26 years still retained his Minnesota accent (don’t dingle dangle, hey) for a plastic bag. He was so polite he asked me what size. Size? Seriously? He spotted the look of agony in my eyes and quickly ripped off a kitchen-size trash bag. Then, he also handed me a piece of ginger, coupled with a frozen can of pop to alternate holding against my neck, under my ears.
My real life saver, though, was the guy sitting next to Barbara, who hailed from Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Wal*Mart and Tyson Foods, the fame of which I only know because of my agent friend, James Dray at Wise Realty. The dude from Bentonville handed me 2 dramamine. Jennifer, from St. Louis, was also gracious enough to offer us second row seats, which were a tremendous help.
By the time we got to the burial place of Charles Lindbergh, whom they say was buried standing straight up so he can look out to sea, all was right with the world again. On the road to Hana, sometimes you’ve got to rely on the kindness of strangers.
The Road to Hana Beats Out Ziplining in Maui
No trip to Maui appears complete unless you take the Road to Hana tour, with its 617 hairpin curves and 56 one-way bridges, which is our destination this morning. We had originally considered a Ziplining experience but that required a lot more energy than we seem to possess. Once you slow down in Maui, you slow waaaayyy down, so slow you almost crash and split your head open in the process. It’s amazing the fast pace at which we operate day-to-day in the wonderful world of Sacramento real estate.
Ziplining held appeal because it’s an activity that so many vacationers seem to gravitate toward and it looks harmless. Although, I did consider the fact that I could very easily climb up to the top of the tree before I completely freaked out. I imagine the view from the trees as I stand on our wrap-around balcony and look out at the ocean. We are on the 7th floor, which is the top floor at The Fairmont Kea Lani. Could I let myself be fastened to a harness, hold on to a wire and zoom down toward the ground?
I don’t know if I could. I am uneasy in a chairlift at a ski area, and this activity is faster and higher. In fact, I was pretty much unable to ski down a hill, even a bunny hill. I stood there at the top with skis on my frozen feet, poles by my side, goggles strapped to my head, ready to go, and I could not move. That is a real problem if you want to learn how to ski. It was apparent to me that I did not want to ski.
After I had bought boots, gloves, ski pants, a ski jacket, a long scarf, wooly hat and for what? To learn that I did not want to ski. I also did not want to water ski. I tried it once from the lake, and when the boat took off, it pulled me forward, my skis flew off, banged up and bruised my legs, and that was the end of water-skiing.
The other problem with Ziplining is you have to wear closed-toe shoes, and I brought only sandals. On top of that, Ziplining is expensive, about $150 per person. Also, there is no way to get to the Ziplining place without renting a car or hiring a taxi, and if I climb to the top of the platform and decide I absolutely cannot go Ziplining, I still have to pay for the privilege.
Call me silly, but it just doesn’t sound like as good of an idea as it does to relax in cushy seats inside a tour van on the road to Hana and be fed breakfast and lunch. Plus, I’ll probably shoot a few excellent photos of waterfalls and Maui’s Upcountry. Hey, there is a winery tour included, too. It doesn’t get any more lazy than that. There will always be another time to explore Ziplining.
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