Mallory, Ian and I met up for our flight at 10 am and headed to the airport. One of our friends, Lindsay, was nice enough to drop us off. We proceeded through security and made a pit stop in B gates for some snacks since we had some extra time. I got a donut from Voodoo Donuts.
After that we made our way back to the train to get to C gates where we joined up with Tutu. I ended up doing a little bit of work in the airport and on the plane ride, which was about 2.5 hours from Denver to Oakland.
Once we landed in Oakland, the 4 of us got some lunch before the 4-hour flight to Maui. I tried a Bahn Mí for the first time, and it was pretty good—for a $20 sandwich. The layover wasn’t long, and we boarded our next flight. I was lucky enough to not have anyone in a middle seat for both legs of the trip. I did some more work, watched some shows, and before long we landed at OGG.
We had received the news on the flight to Maui that the girl we were visiting, Jade, had broken up with her boyfriend, Jason, who was supposed to spend the vacation with us as well. She had dropped him off at the airport earlier in the day, and he flew back home to Denver. She came to pick us up, along with her sister, Lynzee, and our other friend Jordan.
We tried to be careful around the "break up" subject; she didn’t really want to talk about it.
After we were all loaded in the van, we went to Costco to get groceries for the next 9 days. Thankfully I had a membership. After Costco, we went to Target to grab a few more snacks and things people had forgotten to pack.
I had forgotten toothpaste, but didn’t realize until the next day. It was getting late at that point, and I was jet lagged and overwhelmed with everything. I was ready to call it a night. We made one more stop at Jollibee, and then made the drive up the mountain to Jade's home. Jade lives in Makawao, a small town on a winding road about a half hour from the airport. The roads in Maui are not the smoothest, so there was a lot of dodging potholes on the drive.
We made it to the house in one piece and met Jades parents, Aunty Letti (Filipina) and Uncle Raymond. We got a short house tour and then we all decided to call it a night. I was up in the “green room”, or a little cottage a short distance from the house, with 4 other people.