Trip Diary, Thursday May 7

Thursday

I dunno.  This was what I woke up to Thursday.  Not bad.

I found out that a buddy of nigh 30 years is also on the island, but pretty far away.  (Some of you Austin people might know MichaelC)  I think we've agreed that we won't seek each other out, but if we run into each other - super!  Anyway, funny coinky-dink.

We got up, ate some breakfast and then went snorkeling off the back of the hotel.   This thing is in the elevator lobby.  It is my personal Groot.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a nice pic from the holidays of Jamie, my mom - The KareBear, and my sister-in-law AmyD - a newly minted mom as of a few weeks back.

Happy Mother's Day to you, Ma!  You're tops in my book.  No other Mom was so hellbent on making sure their kids saw seemingly every puppet show and museum in town as you.  And, hey, you sat patiently in the car while I roamed Austin Books way back when.  No one could ever doubt you were there to support us at our sporting attempts and to offer advice from the stands.  Let's just be glad you did not continue vocal queues when I went into drama in high school.

And now you're getting to help out with a whole new generation of troublesome Steans boys!

And to AmyD... I don't know what to tell you.  If he's one of us, he's going to take some prodding and coaching.  But, hey, welcome to motherhood!

Vacation Wonder Post Day 8

Trip Diary - Wednesday, May 6

Wednesday

Jamie lost her shades on Tuesday, so we bought a new pair.

"Don't post this," she said.  "Of course not, my dear," I responded.

We visited something called the Nakalele Blowhole.  No, really.  It's an incredible view on the northern side of Maui.  Basically, the tide is pretty intense on this side of Maui, and there's a spot down there where it comes shooting up in a jet.  They say as high as 70 feet, but I only saw maybe 40' spurts.  Still impressive.

Vacation Wonder Post Day 7

Watching the World Go By From Vacationland - things I've missed

I don't think I've taken this much time off from work... ever.  At least, not for "let's go have fun" reasons.

But skipping town for a while also means you might miss whatever is going on in town.  Or on TV or whatever.  The only TV I've watched in the past week was 40 terribly depressing minutes of something on TV about the Dust Bowl while Jamie was at dialysis.  Did you know the Dust Bowl was even more depressing than you thought?  Well, however bad you thought it was, multiply it by ten then double that.  So, fun programming about babies dying choking on dust.  VACATION.

Anyway, I'm desperately trying not to get spoiled as I have been unable to watch with The Flash or Mad Men.  Flash I could handle spoilers, but Mad Men...?  And it's not like folks don't put spoilers right in headlines and social media doesn't just feed up those headlines whether I asked for them or not.

I could go see this, or be there to watch "New Girl" at home, I guess

I should be home for the Mad Men finale, so hopefully no one will ruin it for me.

Seriously, I will stab you.

Trip Diary - Tuesday, May 5

This was a briefer day to report.  Jamie is on dialysis, which always wreaks havoc with our travel plans.  It was mid-day on Tuesday, so we planned for an early morning submarine ride.  Like you do.

The Atlantis IX is a good ship.

Vacation Wonder Post Day 6

Trip Diary - Sunday and Monday, May 3-4

So, Maui..?   That's different for us, right?

Between March 25th and April 28th, Jamie and I celebrated our 40th birthdays and our 15th wedding anniversary.  Hawaii has been something Jamie has wanted to do since we were two fresh-faced kids in college, and due to many, many factors, it's been something I've not been willing to do or not been able to do.

We set about planning this trip a long time ago, and it finally happened.  We're not exactly jet-setters, so getting to Hawaii was a bucket-list sort of thing for us.  With the convergence of birthdays and anniversaries, it seemed like a pretty darn good reason to go.  And, of course, Jamie's been healthy(ish) for a long time, so any jitters I might have had about this a while back are now long gone.

So, that's that story.

Sunday - Day 2

I kind of forgot to take pictures on Day 2 in Maui.  Mostly, we hung around the hotel, swam in the ocean and napped.

The only two pictures I took were of the residents of the hotel, a set of penguins and a koi.

I was still pretty punchy from the time change, and we got up around 6:15 for breakfast (it seems the tourists all get up early as everyone is decidedly not functioning on Hawaiian time.  Even the locals appear to mostly be on mainland time.)

After breakfast, we ran out and bought me a snorkeling mask (I have a loaner snorkel from PalMatt), some towels we'll no doubt leave here, and some other sundries.  Then we hit the water.

There are actually plenty of fish right off the hotel, even if the coral isn't super awesome.  But I had a great time going splishy-splashy.

Vacation Wonder Post Day 5