Maui 2016.

I am back from my amazing vacation on the beautiful Hawai'ian island of Maui! Although I am so happy to be back, I am a little sad that it's over. I was so fun to have my family and friends with me...and I'm always a little sad when the time comes to say goodbye. I suck at goodbyes. That one quote by Winnie the Pooh always makes it so bittersweet. "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

Well, I am so happy that I am a journal keeper and so I will write excerpts from my daily journal of the things that we did on Maui on a day-by-day timeline. I will try my best to limit the pictures...but oh my, I will try! :)

*Day 1: September 17*

I left my sister's house at 7:15am to head to airport and my sister and I decided to switch seats so that she could have some alone time to just relax since she had a very busy week. My sister and her family and I were heading to Maui from Oahu...everyone else was coming from the mainland. Our flight was a whooping 43 minutes and I sat with my brother-in-law and my DollGirl and KaiBoy.

I was pretty proud of myself for not packing along of things since I knew that I was basically going ot live in my swimwear and coverup and I just brought neutral colored casual/sun dresses.

My sister's family luggage was a bit more than mine! But that's okay because she likes to come WELL prepared! :)

For the majority of our week stay we stayed in the beautiful condos of 'Aina Nalu in Lahaina. It was directly across the street from the Seventh-day Adventist Church there, so that was a nice surprise! :)

"Wow! Talk about windy! I decided to wear a dress and it was super windy! The sucky part is that the wind was not even cold! It as super hot! So it's hot and super muggy" Since it's hurricane season it has been crazy weather...even here in Maui! The water is super brown and the waves are wow messy! But the place that we are staying at is so beautiful! I love this condo and that we are staying here! I wish so bad that I could have a place like this, even if it were just one room [the condo had two rooms]."

And yes, as soon as we settled we walked to this a yummy cafe called The Cool Cat and ate dinner and then yes, we decided to take a night swim in the salt water eternity pool to wait for the rest of our group to come. :)

*Day 2: September 18*

In the morning we ended up going to the continental breakfast where this lady also was telling us about different tours and activities that we could do on the island. She ended up having a raffle drawing for some awesome prizes. Since we had rented out two rooms, we were able to get to raffle tickets in the "bucket" and guess whose TWO raffle tickets won?! Yep! We did! So for one of the prizes we decided to get a a free pass to the Maui Ocean Center. After breakfast, we swam again in the pool, had lunch and the little kiddos took their nap and as soon as they woke up we all made our way to the Maui Ocean Center!

KaiBoy's fascination with the fish and the aquarium as a whole warmed my heart! He was so interested in everything I loved watching him as he took in all the beautiful life of the ocean! His reaction to everything was everything my inner child was feeling! :)

The beautiful hono was sooo amazing to see! I see sea turtles a lot when I am swimming in the ocean...and I am always blown away with how beautiful and graceful they are!

  "I really liked the aquarium and i think that I would go there again. I did read that itwas the in the top 25 best aquariums in the US. I am glad that I had the opportunity to go. I believe tomorrow we are going zip limming!! But today was awesome!"

*Day 3: September 19*

I shared rooms with DollGirl and I felt bad for leaving her before she woke up. That little girl is a hurricane sleeper! My goodness, but she also loves to cuddle when she sleeps...and I felt bad for leaving her. But we left the condos at 6:30 to head to the north shore to go ZIP LINING! I have always wanted to go zip lining and I was so happy that we had the chance to go!

   

 

Our guides said that we would reach 50 mph! It was AMAZING! :) I am so glad that I didn't have any fear of heights though because we did a lot of climb up tall trees, scary movable ladders and bridges! But I would SO do it again! I loved it and I had so much fun!

My sister and her brother-in-law ended up not going and so we met them at this really yummy restaurant called Da Kitchen and they had amazing food!

 

 

Check out all the different kind of "Loco Mocos" and since we all know that I love loco moco's I decided to try the Kanak Attack Combo Moco. I couldn't even finish 1/4 of it! It was so much! I ended up taking it home and was able to make 3 other meals of it! I shared it of course! But I think in the future, I will only like my regular loco moco! Too much food touching...:)

*Day 4: September 20*

Today we wanted to explore the beaches...so we drove around to a couple of beaches before we settled on one that didn't have [too much] brown water. 

It was actually a really nice beach and we were able to swim out and it had a fast drop, so we had to make sure the kids stayed away from the ocean's edge. I know that my DollGirl and KaiBoy are water babies and they will just run in before you can even blink and eye! But DollGirl was able to go out and snorkel with us for the first time! And I loved the fact that she loved it! It was a super beautiful day!

"I sure do love to snorkel! If you swam out past the dead coral closer to shore, there were amazingly, bright coral and just so many fish to see! After I snorkeled for a few hours, I decided to just go out and float. The water was cold when you first got in and then it warmed up fairly quick. I think I could take a nap out on the waves! I swear if I were a mermaid, i would have my best frieds be a shark and manta ray and a whale...and they would stand [swim]  guard and I would just got to a warm spot in the ocean where no one could find me and take a nap floating, or even just cloud watch or stargaze! That would be so awesome!"

*Day 5: September 21*

Today was another super early day where I had to leave my DollGirl before she woke up. We had to be at the boat harbor by 5:30 so that we can head out to the island crater of Molokini by 5:45am! Super early, but I also was super excited! We were suppose to go snorkeling for an hour at Molokini and then an hour at Turtle Town...but unfortunately the ocean was really restless and the waves were showing and it was not the smoothest out there...and so we weren't able to snorkel at Turtle Town...we stayed two hours at Molokini.

I am thinking my lucky stars that I do not  get motion sickness because the ride out there to the island was and extremely bumpy and the opposite of smooth!

This was the boat that we took out to the island crater and I had to admit that it was a scary boat, but I had faith in the driver! But it felt like it was going to tip over!

My poor brother-in-law took two Dramamine pills for his motion sickness and he still wasn't feeling well!

But I had to admit that the sunrise was pretty spectacular over the water! I hope that I never have to live far away from the ocean!

After about an hour we finally get to the island crate. As you can kind of see, the water is already really choppy and messy!

And at first a lot of people took a chance and went out. I loved it! I absolutely love being out in the water! The choppiness of the water didn't phase me at all and I was swimming all over the place. I was with my BroIL for a the fist 30 minutes before he couldn't take it any longer and had to go back on the boat where I joined him for about 5 minutes to make sure that he was going to be okay. Then I went back out in the water. For awhile the underwater life was view-able and there were so many fish that would swim all around you and I saw a lot of eels and just a lot of gorgeous fish and coral! Then it was harder to see so far down and so my friend and I were just playing around in the water and just just swimming with the fish that were swimming around us. My friend and I were the last ones to leave the water and when we got back on the boat, I realized that most everyone was feeling motion sick! I really did feel bad for everyone...but I have to admit that the guides should have brought us in a long time ago since the water was really bad. I'm not the strongest swimmer and I have 100% respect for the ocean, but I did not feel like I was in any danger at all...but when I looked back out over the water, I was surprised with how bad the waves where!

But the water was an amazing color of blue and I think that it would be amazing to a mermaid to be able to live out on the water!

*Day 6: September 22*

"Today was a lazy sort of day. We had Breakfast at this really yummy place on the pier called Koa's. The view was amazing and I have to say that I am going to miss eating at Ocean front dining areas!

After that some of us went to the Lavender Farms and I have to say that this was one of my favorite things that we did while on Maui! I think that it was because we could still smell the ocean air and I was surrounded by a lot of beautiful flowers!

And the view...oh wow! The view was just so amazing...I was telling my BroIL that it was times like this were I didn't even know if I wanted to take pictures of the view since pictures don't do it justice! You would have to go there in person to see how amazing the beautiful, breath-taking view. It was amazing.

Here is my lil KaiBoy just running on the open fields and it warmed my heart seeing him so happy. :)

*Day 7: September 23*

Today we went beach hopping again and we were even able to see some penguins! :)

It was a very bittersweet day because we knew that it was our last day all together since everyone but my sister and her family and I were still going to stay one more day. So today we just enjoyed each other's company and tried not to be sad. It's always sad knowing that in less than 24 hours we were going to have to say goodbye. Goodbye's suck. :(

*Day 7: September 24*

By 9:00am more than half our group had left for the airport. It was really sad watching DollGirl and KaiBoy say and hug everyone bye. DollGirl especially was sad and her Grandma. (My sister's mother-in-law) It was fun and full of memory making and I am going to miss them. Before lunch time my sister's family and I had already checked out of our rooms and were making our way to Kehei to our condos that we rented there. While we were there we found a playground for DollGril and KaiBoy to play at while we killed some time before check-in.

It was hot, but my niece and nephew really liked it. :) And it got them in a better mood after saying goodbye to family and friends. It's always so hard being away from friends and family...but the good thing is that Hawai'i is our home also and we also made family and friends here too. :)

I just had to add that this is one of the best climbing trees! :)

*Day 8: September 25*

We woke up early and at at this real nice cafe down the road for breakfast before my BroIL had to go and do some work. I took my DollGirl too the pool and we stayed there for no less than 2 1/2 hours! It was a lot of fun and swimming can always help with any kind of sadness. When we got back to the condo, we ate a fast lunch and both her and I laid down for a nap. My sister was able to organize and pack everything. Then as soon as my BroIL was finished with his work...we went to the car rental area to drop off the SUV we were renting and jumped on a plane and now I am home writing this. :)

One things I did not add everyday because I knew that it would be a lot of repeating myself but I was in the water everyday. I swam in the saltwater pool everyday and we went to the beach nearly everyday. It was amazing. And I loved it. :)

I came home to find several of my monthly subscription boxes had come as well as several postcards. I will be posting subscription unboxings and postcard reveals through out this week only because right now, I just want to jump in the shower and then go to sleep. Time to hustle for that money again so that I can go on more adventures!

All things matter.

This morning as I was getting out of my car, a tiny baby Gold-Dust Day Gecko feel onto my car chair while I was trying to get all the bags that I brought to school out. I couldn't figure out where it fell from and I felt so bad, because it looked like it was in a bad place...but I couldn't leave it in my car because I knew that it was going to get really hot fast, since it's been hot lately, and I couldn't leave it on top of my car coz I didn't want a bird to come by and eat it! So picked it up, and it didn't struggle at all and let me pick it up. I really want one of these beautiful geckos as a pet! They are so beautiful, but I couldn't bare to put suck a beautiful creature in captive when it can be free and so I decided to bring it into my classroom and put it in a safe place where it can recuperate with no outside factors giving it trouble.

I decided to place it on one of my coral pieces that grace my classroom window sill. I figured the sun will give it it's energy back, but it wasn't directly in the sun that it would bake. Also, the little keiki couldn't get to it, and it was in a safe place.

As I was talking to a parents, I saw that it had perked up a lot and was running up my class window!

I hope that this little one grows to be big and that it is okay! My niece came into my classroom as it scrambled up my window and out to where ever it wants to go.

I don't know what happened to this little guy, but I was happy to see that it had a chance in the big scary world! All things matter...including this little gecko!

When I got home I gasped in surprise when I saw this beautiful postcard waiting for me in my mailbox!

This beautiful postcard with fun stamps came to me all the way from France from a young lady who is so sweet! Her message to me was so thoughtful and lovely! I like nice people and I'm so glad that she took the time to find such a perfect postcard just for me! I love this addition to my postcard collection, that's for sure!

Beach Day on Love Day.

Happy Valentine's Day all! I hope that all of you are enjoying your day of love and friendship! Remember, though, everyday should be a day that you show those you love that...you love them! But hey, its fun to know that there is a day set aside to celebrate love, right?! So enjoy it all!

Today, I woke up super early...like 5:30AM kind of early...why?! I don't even have to go to work...well, maybe that's because it's the time that I usually get up to go to work (well, at 5:45AM, I do...oh well)...so because I didn't have to go to work, I lounged up in my loft for 30 minutes before coming down and making my life productive! You wanna see what I made for myself...to tell myself that, "I LOVE YOU, SELF?!"



Oh okay, I know that it' doesn't look that appetizing...but it was...! My very own Blueberry Cobbler...oh goodness, it was definitely so ono! I actually made two that size since it did call for a bigger batch...but I only had my tiny toaster oven to do any baking with so I split the recipe in half and back it in two separate bread pans, and hey, now two for me. Don't worry, I shared! But I got the recipe here: Click for yumminess! And it was really so yummy!

Right after I took my yumminess out of the toaster oven, I set it on my counter to cool down...but oh my, it smelled so heavenly! And since it was super early I decided that I would go and do something that I love to do...go to the beach. It was super early so I knew that I would miss the holiday crowd...and then I remembered that they are doing this new pilot study here in Lanikai where this whole weekend starting yesterday until Monday, no one can park here in Lanikai (unless it is in your own driveway)...so that was going to make the crowds even less. So I got ready to go to the beach and off I went!

 

I love where I live. I love that there is all nature all over the place. I need to one day take a picture of the rain river that runs right by my house when it rains...and just outside my place there is a lot of trees and it's so peaceful and I love it!



(Sorry, it's a blurry picture!) As I left the house, I saw that it was a beautiful day already and so I wanted to take a longer walk and decided to walk to the beach access that was further from my house. I love Laniaki...it's such a nice neighborhood...and every single person that I passed by smiled and said "Good Morning"...such nice people that are here...and I am so lucky and blessed that I live here.

 

So, this is the beach access that is a little ways from my house...like three beach access down from where I live and it is far enough from the entrance of Lanikai that there wouldn't be that much people.



I just LOVE the sand of Lanikai...it is sooo soft and so fine! Hey, can you see my slippa tan line?! *laughs* I think that it's a permanent tan now. *laughs*

Look at that...! The first glimpse of my beautiful Lanikai beach...and it's SO perfect. Blue skies...blue waters...and white, powdery fine sand...and check this out...



No people! But the occasional dog walker or beach stroller...but at least for now...at 7:30 in the morning the beach is all mine! I love it!



It's hard living in Hawai'i. The cost of living is ridiculous and sometimes I wonder what the hell am I doing?! But then I just come the beach...walking distance away...in a beautiful neighborhood, with beautiful people...and then I know why I do it. To some people, it might not be worth it...working three jobs, living alone, away from family...but to me, it is worth it. I don't know for how long I will be able to call Hawai'i my home, but for now...and hopefully for a long time yet, this is my home.

 

Oh yeah, check out the "third moke" that someone created in the sand!



Cute little, bugger, ya?!

Well, I actually stayed at the beach for a few hours. I was wearing my swim suit, and I had brought a book...so I was good to go!

I did take dips in the water...it was more on the cooler side, but it felt so good on my skin. I love how I am weightless in the water...and I love just kicking my feet up to the surface to just float and float and float...just looking up at the sky...and if you listen real carefully you can hear things in the water. I remember when I first experienced that it scared the shit out of me...but now, it's more of a comfort thing...it's like ticking and sound...you gotta just come here to experience it. The water is so clear you can see straight down...sometimes scares me because I'm not a fan of swimming on top of coral...but it's so beautiful to see as well.

 

And after that initial dip in the water, I came out, spread my towel out and just laid down and read my book. I am currently reading, This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti as a recommendation from my friend, Jade. It's a captivating book, that's for sure! I would get lost in it and then get jolted out of it by a dog running by and wanting to be friends. Then I would talk to the owner of the dog for awhile and then they would continue down the beach while I stayed on my towel to get lost once again in my book.

 

Do you like my DIY bookmark?! 'The sweetest moments in life are many times the simplest: a deep breath at a stoplight, a daydream during a favorite song, a gentle touch during a scary movie (btw, I do NOT watch scary movies! Nope! Nope! Nope!), a whisper under an apple tree, standing on the line where the ocean meets the earth, dancing with the wind." It's a good reminder sometimes to just stop and enjoy the simple moments. :)

I did bring my spray sunscreen/block that I would spray on when I felt like I was burning...and then when it got too hot, I would just put my book down and take a dip in the water...oh, how I love the healing waters of Hawai'i!



 As the day went by, the clouds started to come...and the beach became more brighter...and people started to arrive...but not too much that I felt like I had to leave right away. It was still a lazy kind of day. :)




Every time I would just laze around in the water, floating with my feet up, I would loved looking up at the clouds...they were SO beautiful...and there was so much!

 

So beautiful! I don't think that I can ever get tired of this view...If I had a choice, I would never leave. :)



Here are my beach essentials...my bathing suit cover up (top left of the picture, kind of hidden), my water bottle (the red "thing" peeking out from my bag), cut up apples for my snack (only Envy! You should try it, it's so ono!), my favorite sun glasses (from my best friend!!), my spray on sunscreen/block has to be spray on when I'm alone, since it's harder to reach my back...just spray it on!), my book, my hat (I adore my Mermaid hat! Amanda gave me that one!) and my towel...all in my beach bag!

There were several people who would call out "Hello Mermaid! Happy Valentine's Day!" That was really sweet of them! :)

When the beach was getting more crowded at around lunch time, I knew it was time to go. Plus, I try to avoid the beach at the peak of the afternoon since that is when the sun is at the top of the sky and it's the most hottest. I am NOT about skin cancer...and so I know when it's time to leave.

 

So, I just throw all my things in my bag, roll my towel up so that I can just shake it when there are no people around (I hate when people just shake their towel not carrying where the sand will fly too! So I try to be courteous about it when I shake my towel. I just wait until I am leaving the beach and on the way out of the beach access...that way no one gets hit with the sand), and make my way home.



The sand is so powder fine that it will just stick onto you! I forgot to bring my baby powder, which helps remove the sand...oh well, I'll just hose down when I get home.

 

It's a bit hotter now, the walk home...but it's still very beautiful in the day. I love how there are no cars blocking the bike lanes now that the pilot study is in progress. I wonder how long it will last though. I know that a lot of people are not happy about it; the fact that they can't park in Lanikai now. I overheard someone say that they parked their car, got a ticket and they just left their car there since they already got a ticket, they couldn't get another one...so sad. The reason why they are doing this is because on the weekends and the holidays, it would be jammed packed with cars, and there is only one way out or in...so it can take up to two or more hours just to get out of Lanikai...when in reality it takes less than five minutes. Residence of Lanikai have complained about it...and I totally understand...coz I've been in that traffic too, and it's not fun. Two hours just to go less than 2 miles is kind of ridiculous. And it's also a safety hazard when there is an emergency and the emergency vehicle can not get through and out in a timely manner. That's really sad. They do have a shuttle going from Kailua Beach Park going into Lanikai...and you can still walk or ride your bikes...but I do like how the roads are clean though.



Well, I made it home...and I feel so refreshed...and the days is only half way done! I can still get other stuff done! :) Or, I might just lay down on the roof and continue reading my book...away from people and out in the sun. :)



My beautiful plants on my porch! :)

I hope that everyone had a beautiful day...and I did end up reading on the roof for a few more hours...took a nap, now I am just finishing this post and about to get ready to go to my sister's house to watch her kids while she takes her hubby out for their Valentine's date! I love spending time with my niece and nephew...my DollGirl and my 'Lil Chunks!