Monday, June 9, found me on a Hawaiian jet for Kahului, Maui with my boss. A later flight, less crowds at the airport, everything went uneventfully. Pick up our equipment and jam it all into a Chevy Impala, which much smaller than the land boat you used to think of, still has a pretty big trunk. Drive out to Lahaina is also uneventful. Weather is postcard blue skies. I end up dozing having the luxury of being a passenger. We’re installing system at new Genki Sushi in Lahaina, in new mall accross the street from the cannery mall. The install goes pretty smoothly, although no benefit of air conditioning this time around makes for sweltering hot house.
Break for late lunch, boss asks what I feel like eating. I don’t really know what’s around, he mentions Mexican. Mexican is good, we end up at Maui Tacos, which is debatably “Mexican”. I wonder if this is the original Maui Tacos, seeing that we are in Maui. Anyway, on a side board I notice they have tacos el pastor so decide to try theirs. I get two as a combo plate. Ends up being a pretty decent pile of food. Flavor is decent, perhaps not as flavorful as might want, but its not bad. The pork is little cubes nicely browned, not drowning in oil or shredded like kalua. The beans and rice are unspectacular and I don’t eat all of it. I don’t touch the greasy looking chips, they look as greasy as the ones I’ve had at the oahu location. The condiment bar is a nice feature of Maui Tacos, soda refills are free. The counter service guy was pretty pleasant and efficient. So as long as you’re going for So-cal Mex, this was a decent value, I’d give it right in the middle of 2.5 smiling monkeys, with no bulging forehead veins on the angerometer.
Return to work and we keep at it fairly late. We want to finish as much as we can and make use of what light we can as all the construction crew has left and the generator is being shut off. Kinda funky to hear the steam train go by out behind the store. We finish as the sun starts to dip low. We call it a day and head to Pioneer Inn. Pioneer Inn is our usual place of stay if we find ourselves needing to overnight in Lahaina, they’re one of our clients. It is rustic, by design of the whole historic whaling village thing of the town. Does have in room bathroom, cable TV, window unit A/C that takes forever to cool the room down to something resembling comfortable. No mini-fridge does make snacks, liquid refreshment, and doggie bag meals difficult. Boss leaves to park the car, parking is provided off site. I run downstairs to catch the sunset, more postcard moments. Once I figure out how, I’ll try and get the pics off my cellphone. Yes, I’ve had this phone for over two years and never got around to figuring out the USB connection to PC.
Boss get’s back and I hit the shower. Thankfully the shower here works fine, unlike the last adventure with hotel shower at the Hilo Hawaiian. Late lunch, I’m not super hungry yet, but we decide to head out to find something to eat before it gets too late. We stroll down Front Street to see if anything catches our eyes, or stomach. We pass by BJs Chicago Pizzaria accross the street which peaks my interest. We continue down the walk, with only a fish place illicting further mild interest from me. I’m pretty tired so don’t want to really explore much, so pizza it is! We double back and cross the street. BJs is upstairs, which does make for good people watching of Front Street. Must be a madhouse on Halloween.
It’s pretty busy, the hostess takes our name down and tells us it’ll be about a twenty minute wait. We decide to just wait and I browse the menu. Twenty minutes later, they have seats for us. Not a normal low table, but bar type single row. It’s fine with us, allows for better sightseeing. Softdrinks ordered and promptly served. We order a medium pizza with meatball and sweet onions and I get a dinner salad. After a bit of a wait, salad arrives, a fairly large serving of iceberg and romaine lettuce sprinkled with carrot shavings, crutons, and a cocktail tomato. No, no germy tomatos seeing how there’s a current tomato scare going on. Ingredient freshness is fine. Comes with a roll that looks like it’s made in house. I sample some of it before it accidently takes a tumble off my plate. Curses, it was pretty good. I wasn’t planing on eating much of it anyway after spying the pizzas arriving at other tables.
The wait was occupied by one man band on guitar doing a reasonable job with the usual bar/lounge covers. The wonders of technology and foot pedals. I’d prefer it to be less loud, but it doesn’t feel out of place here. Sure doesn’t feel “Hawaiian”, but it goes with the resort locale. I’ll still refuse to get a “Hawaiian” pizza.
Pizza arrives, diameter wise it doesn’t look gargantuan. It’s Chicago deep dish style though. Server plates your first piece for you, revealing a thick crust topped with generous layer of cheese, your toppings, and chunks of tomato. The crust is wonderfully buttery and is nicely crisp on the outside, bready inside. The chunks of canned tomato add a nice zest to the pizza. As predicted, I can’t finish all of my half of the pizza. I get it boxed, but with the lack of a fridge, I foresee it not being consumed. A shame, but I don’t relish incubating unfriendly germs in my gut.
Even though this was going on company expense, I’d have to say the price was in line given the location, and the food and service was good. 3 happy monkeys, no BFVs.
Return to Pioneer Inn, collapse on bed, and soon pass out. Damn, I should have shuttered the top window. I found myself waking up throughout the night to the street lights shinning in through the window. It never gets through to my brain to get up and actually close it though until morning, where its too late. Wake up, head to site, and finish up what we can. I’m heading out on the noon flight out of Kaanapali. Boss drives me the 15 minutes to the tiny airport. Kinda nice walking right up to checkin, walk through door to waiting area, when plane arrives, wait in line with about a dozen people, board the Dash-8, and hum along the runway and fly off back to Honolulu. Get a better view of the islands too, saw the ship on shipwreck beach on Lanai.
Oh, and actually I didn’t really encounter any Maui Das Y moments.
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