Trip Diary - Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th

Here's the thing about leaving Hawaii.

All the departing flights start departing at something like 9:00 PM.  This actually makes sense when you realize that they're flying you to the West Coast-ish over night.  So, we took off from the Maui airport at 10:30 PM, and with the time change, landed at about 7:00 AM in Phoenix.

I'm lying.  I think it was 7:00.  I was out of my mind and had no idea what time it was.  But, boy, did being back at Sky Harbor remind me how much Sky Harbor sucks.

The point is, we checked out of our hotel at 10:00 AM and had half-a-day to kill in Maui before being on an aeroplane over the sea.

Since we'd survived the winding, one-lane road of Jamie's Island Adventure earlier in the week, suddenly the oft-whispered "Road to Hana" didn't seem like such a big deal as that road has two whole lanes in many parts.  Plus, Jamie wanted to go chasing waterfalls.*

So, Jamie took the wheel and we were off to Hana.

People just sort of stop and park and take photos.  Doesn't really matter if it makes sense or if its safe.  Here's us doing same.

Jamie wonders where our common sense went in the face of all this majestic jungleness

The roads are windy and curvy, and it's hard to explain because I wasn't going to take any pictures while Jamie drove as they'd all just look like masses of green with some sky popping up once in a while, but it's a big ol' Jurassic Park-type area full of bamboo, all sorts of plant life, gigantic trees and a million ways to kill you.

Over the years I'd sort of noticed this micro-trend of people dying while hiking around in Hawaii, such as the guy started the COPS television show.  Now that I've been to Hawaii, yeah, this place has sheer, sudden surprise drop-offs and slots of slippery edges.  That anyone survived here before gravel is a @#$%ing miracle.

Trip Diary - Friday, May 8th

Friday we seemed to have finally adjusted to the time difference.  Great, since we leave on Saturday.  We ate breakfast, then sort of hung out in the room for a bit and relaxed before heading off to a beach just north of the hotel.  It's a public beach called "Black Rock", which is odd as the rock is reddish and sand is white-ish, so who knows, I guess?

The waves pounded harder here than anywhere else we'd yet gotten in, and we both got slammed a bit against the bottom right after we stepped in.  Near the outcrop of rock where there's coral, there wasn't as much in the way of tough surf, so it was nice snorkeling, and we saw a good variety of fish, if not as densely packed as Thursday morning.

But, yeah, those waves.  I think I may have kind of busted my ankle.  We'll see how it is in the morning.  Nothing too serious, but not going to be much fun walking through airports and whatnot.

In the evening we went back to Lahaina for some souvenir hunting and to get some Hawaiian shaved ice.

She's pretty pleased.

Vacation Wonder Post Day 9 (we should already be home, but whatever)

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.