Where they went

By Diane Daniel, Globe Staff, 01/06/02

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Chris Haynes wanted his mother's 50th birthday gift to be "spectacular and special. She raised me, she put me through college, she was always there for me." He offered to take her anywhere and she chose Scandinavia.

"We'd pretty much booked it, and then the war broke out," says Haynes, who lives in Boston's South End, while his mother, Sharon Pray, lives in Yarmouth, Maine. She decided to stay in the States, and eventually they settled on Hawaii. With the help of his travel agent, Haynes found roundtrip air fare for $451 each on American Airlines. Using frequent-flier miles, he upgraded to first class.

Haynes says he feared Hawaii would be "honeymoon hell. But Maui was not like that at all." That's not to say honeymoons weren't a theme of their November trip. In fact, Haynes, 30, and the youthful Pray made such a striking couple that many people assumed they were one. After constantly explaining they were mother and son, Haynes finally said, "You know what, let's just work it," and they enjoyed the proffered freebies.

For accommodations, "I did a lot of planning and I looked for packages," he says. Using the Internet, Haynes found a discount deal at the Ritz Carlton-Kapalua, on the northwest end of the island. The first five days of their trip were spent at Four Seasons Resort Maui in Wailea, in south central Maui.

His mother, president of a management company, "had never done anything like this. She's not self-indulgent. We wanted to splurge and experience it." Though she and Haynes, who does publicity for restaurants and retail stores, "were both burnt out," planning a vacation based on relaxation was a challenge because Pray is "go, go go."

Though they spent time relaxing poolside, especially enjoying the "tranquil quiet" of Four Seasons, they also went, went, went. Their favorite activities from the Wailea resort were snorkeling ("the Four Seasons beach has the best snorkeling on the island"), going on a guided outrigger tour, exploring lava fields, and taking the famed road to Hana, which includes stops at a rain forest, waterfalls, and a black sand beach. And what did they do all this exploring in? A fire-engine red Mustang convertible, of course.

At the Ritz Carlton, they went to the famed Old Lahaina Luau ("cheesy, cheesy, but lovely"), and took a helicopter ride ("do the 30-minute version, not the hourlong - they get hot and shake and go up and down").

There was even a touristy highlight of the trip: parasailing, a surprise birthday gift from mother to son. "I wish I could freeze frame it. It was so exciting, and we were laughing and laughing," he says.

Haynes says his hope for the trip was "a special memory that would last forever. We got that, and then some."