Maui Journal 2010

by Ron, Mary, Patti, Mike, and Owen

FEBRUARY 19  FRIDAY

Ron and Mary had a delayed flight from Spokane to Portland of one hour.  We changed planes and Southwest handled the delay well.  Arrived in Portland about 12:30.  A grumpy old man (actually, he was fairly young) pissy about losing his seat in the plane transfer.  He gave us a nice distraction.  He needs to chill, maybe go to Maui.

We had tons of time upon arrival so ate lunch at the Rose City restaurant in the Portland airport.  Expensive but nice.

Good shuttle to Clarion worth a 5$ tip.  OK room but nice pool for all the grandkids.  Scott visiting and stayed over so we got to see him.  Sent out for pizza.  Wow expensive but the kids liked it.  Grampy Hour Origami with a one dollar bill and kids got to keep dollar.  Ron read how to make a swan out of a dollar bill while he was on the plane.  Mike, Patti and Owen showed up for visit in our room with “the gang.”  Ron and I gave Patti her lava boots, and gave them their shirts:  No Smokies t-shirt for Mike; In Search of The Perfect Flip-Flops for Patti, and “Looking for The Perfect Wave” for Owen.

A few days later, while in Maui, we get a phone call from Matt telling us about those Origami dollars resurfacing.  Julie’s three were staying with Matt and Christy while Julie was visiting in California.  Matt had volunteered to take Cameron, Marlee, Tess and friend Kate to see “Lightning Thief.”  We all know how expensive it is to go the the “cinema.”  Anyhow, Matt says I’ll buy the tickets, drinks and popcorn and if you guys want to buy candy, you can use your own money.  No problem.  They all said they had money.  Kids throw Milk Duds, JuJuBees, Good and Plenty etc up on the counter.  Clerk tells them how much they owe and Marlee and Cameron pull out wrinkled origami swan dollars.  That’s it?  says Matt.  He had to dig deeper in his pocket.

FEBRUARY 20 SATURDAY

Early up to catch shuttle to PDX.  Mike got an extra search at the Airport because the volume of Owen’s meds became an issue.  Everything fine.  Got some chicken nuggets for Owen from Wendy’s as backup food.  He truly is an eating machine. Must have a racing metabolism.  Those were gone after ten minutes on the plane.

Don’t think we’ll ever travel again without thinking of Patti when we see the overhead storage bins.  Crowded flight and Patti got busy and felt compelled to rearrange every piece of overhead luggage!  Even people who didn’t want their luggage put away had to suffer her rage to redo every f-kn piece.  Mahalo Patti.

Owen was a great traveler on plane.  We purposely bought our tickets and figured out seating so that Owen would be behind one of us.  He was behind Grampy and did lots of kicking the seat with all his fidgeting.  Ron calls it the butt massage.  No one else volunteering for Grampy’s seat.  For God’s sake, show the kid a movie.

Mary and Patti had to have  the 10 dollar Greek salad.  Right, Mary, buy one for Patti too.  I was forced to eat two breakfast burritos…complimentary.

A book entitled Color Kittens vaulted to Grampy from Owen.  Not bad for the first two hours.  Just one item so far.  Incoming….

Second half of flight:  Back massage still going on.  1 buck per hour at most parlors.  Keep hearing “Sit down, Owen.”  When people look to see where the banging noise is coming from, I just look too.  Mike now in charge of Owen on the plane.

Seriously, he was a great plane traveler.

Amazing how nickel and dime Hawaiian Airlines has  become.  Someday maybe SWA will have to take that same route, but hope not.

Fun just knowing we had arrived.  Grabbed our rental,  A VW Routan, and headed to Costco for tons of food.  Looks like we are big meat eaters.  Geez.  We packed the food into the frig and freezer and suited up for the beach.  It is gorgeous here.  Whales always to be seen, though far out in the ocean, of course.  Warm ocean, warm enough that Mary doesn’t need to do her usual tiptoe in for a half hour.

I think we had chicken for dinner…grilled by Mike as he watched Patti and Mary playing tennis.

FEBRUARY 21  SUNDAY

Big beach day!  Not sure how to remember all the great meals, but I know Hula-penos and poppers enjoyed on several days.  Hot wings, too.

Dad has these things down to a delicious science.

FEBRUARY 22  MONDAY

Trip to Paia.  Patti has the GPS and is giving strong directions.  Mike driving.  Me navigating.  Owen doing what he does best, giving me a chair massage.  A nice walk about Paia:  sort of a Morro Bay/Carribean feeling.  Mike runs into a local and the guy seemed to have checked out mentally and never checked back in.  Had lunch at Paia Fish Market…yum…pricey but still yum.  Owen ate half my fries, some of my ono fish burger and then mowed through his fish linguini with Alfredo sauce.  How he ate so much is a wonder.  He face-painted himself and it was a situation where no one knew where to grab him.  Pretty messy.  As Mike pointed out, Owen needs to get in the water.  When we got  back to our condo, a guy finishing up his vacation gave Mike a half gallon of Rum.  OMIGAWD.  We are going to get hammered.  The drink of preference has become the MIKE-A-TAI.  When we got back from our trip, everyone but Ron off to Big Beach.  Ron off to the pool.  Tonight Ron plans on baking some wing pupus.  No dinner planned as yet.  Mike sporting a pink and white look with sunscreen “misses” notable.  Still seeing whales.  Lots of boats out watching them play.

FEBRUARY 23  TUESDAY

What did we do this day?  Had to be beach, for sure, with some snorkeling.  Found a little taqueria with advertised “Taco Tuesdays.”  Some live singing and outside, though it was just a concrete walkway/area.  Still good tacos.

FEBRUARY 24  WEDNESDAY

Patti and Mary escaped the condo. Found a Goodwill type place called Savers.  Big score for Patti.  Medium score for Mary.  Ron and Mike with Owen at condo and pool.  When the Saver shoppers returned, Mike and Ron off to Sports Page to watch Olympic hockey.  Patti, Mary, and Owen to Kamaole II at about 5:00 for great swimming and whale watching.  Great to have the little showers at the beach for the clean-ups before returning to condo.

FEBRUARY 25  THURSDAY

Got in some good swimming at Kamaole II.  We finally wore Owen out.  As Patti says, “On the fifth day, the boy slept.”  Played tennis for a couple of hours.  Trouble is, Owen slept for a few hours.  So Patti and I took him for a half mile walk to Kamaole Plaza to buy a Hawaiian Ice Cream cone after dinner.   It was 9:30 when we go back and I think Owen probably would have been fine staying up for a few hours but none of us were in to that.  He did go to bed like a trooper.  What a great hiker he is!

FEBRUARY 26  FRIDAY

Today we all met up at Keawakapu Beach right past/at Wailea.  Very calm.  No shorebreak waves.  Patti and Owen walked there, maybe a mile or two walk.  Mike followed with the car and beach toys.  Ron and I walked there also.  Did some snorkeling and swimming.  Very fun and then back for quick showers, jump in pool and off to Jawz for tacos.  Not as great as the taqueria we went to on Tuesday night.  Grabbed some groceries.  Watched some Olympics, curling.  Ron and Mike are trying to figure it all out and were rooting for the Canadian women who ended up losing to the Swedes.

Quote of the day:  “Don’t make the muddah mad.” -  Overheard as we were walking past a bus stop.  Can’t stop saying it.

Mike and Ron off the Sports Page to see the second half of the hockey game.  Patti, Mary and Owen hanging out in condo.  Pulled pork sandwich makings in the oven.  MMMMM…..

FEBRUARY 27  SATURDAY  AKA TSUNAMI SATURDAY

OK. This day I will never forget.  Early morning wake up call from Marty telling us to turn on the news.  That was at 6:00 a.m.  Siren at 6:30 a.m.  There had been an 8.8 earthquake in Chile and tsunami alerts were in force.  As I write this on Sunday with Maui having “dodged a bullet” as the news stations say, I am amazed at how calm and collected I am.  Patti remained skeptical and calm throughout (she said that’s not always a great way to be); I decided to play tennis with her until 10:00, an hour before the tsunami was expected, at which time I had designated as my worry hour.  Meanwhile, we filled all empty water bottles with fresh water, joking about drinking the beer, all the beer, so we would have lots more bottles of water.  We put running shoes on the second floor.  Filled the bathtub with water in case sewers went out.  We are just on the edge of the evacuation zone but we are high up in the complex, maybe the equivalent of a six story hotel.  Nonetheless, it was nerve-wracking.  Kehei Road which runs along the beach was patrolled by officers letting early morning walkers know they were to move to higher ground.  Good coverage by the news personnel on keeping us all aware.

This guy was actually really “matter of fact” in a comforting way.

FEBRUARY 28  SUNDAY AKA STORMY SUNDAY

Very windy.  Patti and I walked the two miles to the Kihei Caffe for cinnamon rolls “with legs.”  Brought them back to the condo.  Good thing they were packed in plastic bag and safely tucked into Patti’s bag as we walked through our first tropical rain shower.  Last day of the Winter Olympics and I stayed at the condo with Owen while Mike, Patti, and Ron went the the nearby Sports Page to watch the heartbreaker USA v Canada hockey final game.  A fun crowd except for one jerk that rubbed Mike the wrong way with his “How’s the silver medal taste now?”  Patti and Mary off to the Wailea shops to take a picture of Honolulu Coffee place so we could hold up the Evans Brothers bag in front as Randy Evans, our neighbor, used to work there.  We were on the search that day for a Nemo for Owen but to get into the Pineapple Patch, a toy store in the resort, we would have had to leave our car for valet parking.  Nemo had disappeared after a good swimming day at the Keawakapu beach.  We thought Nemo was lost forever at that time (floating out to sea) but then, while Patti was rinsing off at the beach shower and was walking up the steps to the car, she wondered what was in her butt — NEMO!  Seems she had stuck it in her bikini bottom for safekeeping while she and Owen were swimming.  Nemo was lost, found, and lost again so we’ll all keep our eyes open for Nemo.

MARCH 1    MONDAY AKA MANGO MONDAY

Mary and I went for a walk to the Kihei Cafe very windy but pleasant.  As we crossed the street Mary made a little tug on my sleeve.  Actually, it wasn’t a tug as she was trying to grab me as she crashed to the street!  It was a thud heard for miles.  Face first and a little on her side.  I helped her to her feet amazed that she was alive,  It appeared that she was trying to a breach like the whales.  I tried to lift her and carry her to the sidewalk but my strength has gone away.
So I dragged her like a sack and we fell in a heap on the sidewalk.  I was exhausted and many people came to commend me for my heroics!  But I digress…Mary was scraped up and bruised.  Thankfully she was OK.  A nice bruised on her hip where she fell on her chapstick.  An abrasion on her knee like a kid and of course she was very hopeful no one saw her belly flop.  As we continued on a Volunteer in the park yelled “is she Ok”  so much for not being seen.

Nice breakfast at the Kihei Cafe.  Totally funky but a favorite spot.  Just behind it we found a Koi  pond and that kept Owen real busy.  Then we found the Tiki Lounge..returned later that day and had great Pizza and Music by Luiz Kanaoa (of Gamboa) fun fun.  Sort of a tatooed guy like Marty’s friend Mikah.   We really love finding funky new spots.  between breakfast and the Tiki Lounge we went to farmer’s market and bought fruit and veggies.  Then off to places unknown.  I thought we were going to Kuhului and somehow we ended up in Lahaina.  Mike was driving and figured that plans had changed also.  We walked Lahaina like we did 5 years ago and like 5 years ago…nothing for Owen to do.  So we headed back and hit a lousy beach for Owen .  It was called Launiupoko Beach Park and was way too rocky and ouch on the feet.  Wild waves.  Back in car and another retreat to a favorite near the condo Kam II.    But the wind conditions were bad and all the wild waves wore Patti out.  Mary called for a pick up (Mike and Ron) and they spirited us off to the yummy pizza at Tiki Lounge.  Nice to be eating pizza and not sand.

MARCH 2  TUESDAY

No wind.  Hooray.  Off to our neighborhood beach, Kamaole III.  An easy walk but we usually take the car in order to have all the beach stuff available.  Good sunset night.  Launcher fun on the grass.  We had eaten Tuesday Tacos before we went down to watch the sunset.  Back to condo and a rousing game of Catch Phrase.  At 3:00 in the morning, not able to sleep because of knee and hip soreness, I started laughing thinking of Patti peeing her pants after she was trying to get me to guess Polish shoes; wrong Patti, not Polish shoes,  it’s “polish shoes.”  We were holding our sides!

DON’T FORGET TO WRITE ABOUT

Lanai launch – this is actually an activity that Owen invented to keep the four adults in shape.  The lanai is just off living room with wide open sliding doors which generally we leave open.  Owen AKA Sneaky Pete is very adept at casually strolling out there (we are actually on alert at this point as we are on the second floor) with a piece of food and walking up to the rail at which point he flings it over to land somewhere below.  Is he feeding the birds?  The lizards?  We aren’t really sure.  Because we know those little creatures don’t eat beach towels  Yep.  We grabbed the beach towel before he went over but it was a close call.  Lanai Launch workouts are perfect for improving one’s sprinting talents.

Farmer’s Market – we hit the market for apple bananas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, guacamole, sweet onions, etc.  Anything grown here on the island.

Kehei huevos rancheros – Patti’s favorite go to breakfast food, with chorizo of course.

Ron’s walk for Secret Beach – he headed to Wailea to find a secret beach, a passageway between two big buildings/homes/mansions.  He took the bus back just for fun.

Sunset and minty drinks – Mike made some mojitas and we went to Kamaole “grasslands,” a great place to watch the sunsets.  We took the toy that Uncle Ray-Ray had sent along and Owen loved it.  He would sit on MIke’s lap while I fired it off into the air and then he would retrieve it.  Got some great pictures of it all.  The running, the smiles, the sunset.

Catch phrase: cheaters and polish shoes.  Catch Phrase borrowed from Harmony and Marty – provided us with lots of fun.  Those boys are cheaters but when we caught them cheating, we would insist on starting the entire round over.

listening to the whales under water – Mike was on bogey board chatting with a guy who told him to go to Keawakapu in early evening and you can hear the whales singing if you go under.

Whale watching…