Moving to Paradise: April 2011

Jonny and I journeyed over to the other side one day and we had a great discovery:) We stopped at Whole Foods- which JUST opened here last year (Maui is a little behind the times). Jonny enjoyed perusing the gourmet food and beautifully prepared health food. We got some nom noms and drove along the coast to find a beach to eat at.

The beach we ended up at turned out to be a very popular surfing beach. It was fun to watch the locals tear it up. There's not much surfing on West side so it was great to see the local culture.

As promised, more friends came to visit! It's always nice when others come visit us, because we experience more of the touristy things with them, since we don't have the time or energy to it do on our own when we have time off.

This past week, my girlfriend from high school, Paige Aaron (previously Jennings) and her new hubby Jeremy (as of January :) stayed with us for a week. Paige and I were on dance team together and hung out in the same clique through high school. Amazingly we've stayed in touch through college. Cute aneqdote: when my dad would come to film my dance team performances, he would get Paige and I confused out on the football field thinking Paige was me. He filmed her for almost half of a routine until he realized that he was not actually filming his daughter, it was that other tall blonde on the team! That footage was really quite funny to watch as the camera man freaks out realizing he was filming the wrong girl! On Jon's and my last hoorah in Cali before we left for Maui, we partied in Disneyland and then attended Paige and Jeremy's wedding in LA.

So here is a photo journey of my past week. Of course Jon is not in many photos because he had to work :(

Wine tasting

Climbing trees

Lavender

Wedding crashers

Spirituality

Nude beaches

New love

Baby cartwheels

Coral

Bubbles

Crabs

Cliff jumping

Happiness

Big waves at Big Beach, Makena

Surrounded by a school of fishies!

And yes, they did stay at our place. And yes, we only have one big room studio-apartment style. And yes, it got cozy.

And yes, we got a long just fine :)

It was tricky with our biological clocks set 3 hours apart. We went to bed later, and they woke up earlier. Which, they had the harder part dealing with us up late. We had to get up early anyways for work, so that didn't bother us. I just felt bad that Jon and I go to bed a lot later than them. They headed to South Maui and got a condo in Kihei for 2 days and explored the road to Hana for a day as well. For those who have never been to Maui, Hana is the gem of Maui. Oprah even has a condo there! haha...But the only way to get there is a very windy, one lane, dangerous road. The issue: Jon and I get very car sick :( Eventually we will make it over there, take turns driving and stopping every 2 miles. But that's okay, there's something to see every 2 miles :D

Jon put in his two weeks at Plantation House. He's been unhappy there. He made fairly good money there, but he really did not like working. The management and schedule he had there didn't mesh well with him. And at Pineapple Grill he is starting to be a server for breakfast, so that now adds 4 hours to his shifts. That gives him more time off to spend with meeeeee :)

::Happy dance::

I'm teaching Zumba twice a week now. At Valley Isle Fitness on Tuesday and Thursdays at 6pm. I've subbed a few classes in other time slots as well. One class I substituted for another instructor was at Sports Club Kahana with a gorgeous view. I love teaching in a Group X Room with the view of the palm trees and neighboring Islands. A Zumba party will be taking place at Sports Club Kahana free for everyone who comes! I'll be doing a few songs. A front desk employee at Valley Isle Fitness told me they've been told that the members like my class the most. Whoopie!

Picture Tidbits:

Bofu Toads. Poisonous if you lick.
Do Not Lick

... what?

Ya... those are ants. Hurray Maui!

The beach is sad from pollution

Picture taken to pay homage to the incident of a beach bird stealing a pretzel OUT OF MY HAND 3 weeks ago

Charolette's Web
Almost walked into it multiple times....

Those are baby cockroaches. Gives me chills.
They are bundled in the locker next to mine, underground my restaurant. Blah

Hawaiian Sea Salt from neighboring island Moloka'i. Pink from the red dirt :)

Sign sold at Ulupalakua Ranch Store

Maui No Ka Oi

On the verge of family coming into town, I decided to spruce up the blank walls a bit. But our motto here in Maui is to live cheap. Par example: We need a bed, yes, but who needs a box mattress, or even a bed frame?? That's all for looks and it's what, at least $1,000 more than just the essential mattress. Plus Maui doesn't have all the cheapo decoration retailers like IKEA, Target, Michaels, Joann's, or other crafty DIY stores, and they don't ship to Maui either. Just Walmart, Kmart, and where I usually go: Ross. So some projects I dug myself into was creating some artwork for the wall above our bed, and for one of our huge blank walls.

We had these huge styrofoam blocks chillin' around the place, bought as an attempt to insulate and sound proof the door between my aunt and uncle's house and our apartment, to no avail, so I thought I'd use it to make some canvas artwork.

Styrofaom board

PLUS+

A shower curtain

PLUS+

Needles

EQUALS= Artwork!!

Before

After

And remember from the last post, the cool hand made board we got at a craft fair?

I added cool stuff from around Maui into a collage surrounding our new sign

Before

After

Jon found this funky looking branch while on a run.
Now it's art in our apartment

So Jon's family came for a visit this past week. It was right around Casey's (Jon's brother) and Bill's (Jon's papa) birthdays! What a wonderful birthday present, a Maui vacation! Of course Jon and I were busy a lot with work, but we had one or two days off to spend time with our visitors. Jon got a whole day off and hooked the guys up with a round of golf at The Plantation Course, the course one of his restaurants is on. GORGEOUS course, but extremely difficult. Most people say it's the hardest course they've ever played. Apperently, they'd hit the ball in one direction, see it land, go to find it, and it's gone. The slope or something causes many balls to get lost. Bill said he found just as many balls as he lost. Plus the course has many hills you have to walk up and down and is tiresome on the body. My uncle has like 3 or 4 sets of golf clubs so luckily Jon was able to borrow some clubs and Bill and Casey brought their clubs over with them. It was a fun day for the guys.

I took Tracy (my mother-in-law) out to Paia. Paia is a sweet little hippie-esque town on the way to Hana. There are many cute shops and a lot of yoga studios and yoga/hippie/bellydancing merchandise within the shops. We strolled and browsed. Got stuck with one yoga shop owner talking our ear off for like 30 minutes, probably just because we were willing to listen. "Don't stay on Maui too long, you'll loose yourself! I'm outta here!" mmmmk.. We got gelato and I bought a cute 100% hemp hat and Tracy bought some Sanuk sandles made out of recycled yoga mats for only $25! Usually Sanuk is like $40-$50! Actually my hat was only $25 too and I only found that style for around $45. We both got a great deal :) The whole reason I wanted to go to Paia was to check out this atheletic clothing store that opened this past year that I have followed on Facebook. But... they were closed. Apparently they are only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And the door said open by appointment only. WHATTT?? I've never seen a business run like that. Bummer...

We all met up for dinner at Leilani's on the Beach. Another T.S. Company run restaurant. Literally across the way from Hula Grill. Good conversations were had and the bill was 50% off because I'm a T.S. employee! Casey and I went to Hula Grill the first night he came in and helped me test all of our beers at Hula Grill. He loves beer, and seems to know all about it, so he was giving me a beer lesson :) Another night while Jon was working at The Pineapple Grill, Casey and I went to visit him with my friend Sarah and had dinner. MMMMM Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee :) :)

Jon got Friday night off so we all went to the Art Walk in Lahaina. All of the galleries open their doors, and provide FREE wine and some offer live music. We have our favorite artists that Jon and I made sure to show our visitors and we always enjoy perusing new artists. Some studios had their artist there creating new artwork for all to see. We then went to Cheeseburgers in Paradise for a late dinner. Good company and fun times with our waiter Gary. Interesting tidbit: Gary then came in the next day to Jon's restaurant on his way with his girlfriend to go snorkling!

Unfortunately Jonny works... ahem TOO MUCH, I seemed to spend more time with his family than him haha. On their second to last night, I hung out with Bill and Tracy at thier condo at my uncle's hotel: The Mauian. Which is gorgeous by the way. Anyone looking for a sweet quant place that's decorated beautifully, exudes a hawaiian relaxing atmosphere, and is ON the beach (unlike MANY Maui hotels, The Mauian is one of the few actually on the beach) then you'll love The Mauian. It encourages a real vacation from life with no T.V.'s or phones in the rooms, just the sound of the ocean and refreshing Maui wind. Anyways! We BBQ'd hotdogs and enjoyed some drinks and played Mexican Train (Tracy's favy fav game). But Saturday Jon was able to get work off last minute and my uncle Nane and Aunt Candy invited us all over for dinner. Dinner was delicious and I enjoyed the Riesling provided. I think I'm starting to like white wine! I've found a few I've enjoyed, which is a great sign :) Also very helpful for selling white wine at work!

Sadly our visitors left on Tuesday. It was nice seeing people we know so well. But, not to worry, we have visitors lined up every month to come visit! Not literally... but every month someone is scheduled to stop in for a week or so. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Heck, if my friends lived in Maui and I was still stuck in Sacramento, I'd definitely take advantage and crash on their couch for a week, I get it! Anyone living somewhere exotic, can I sleep on your ground for a week please :) (Not joking... Catiy I want to get over to New Zealand sometime!)

Some exciting news: that $4,500-something bill we were going to have to pay for my non-conclusive ER visit has been lowered! They send out different bills for all of the different tests so we still have not collected all of the seperate charges. But, we did get the bill for the Radiology (ultra-sound test) and the specific doctor's own bill for his work. The doctor's personal bill started at $1,214.51 for "Emergency Evaluation and Management," taking my pulse, and tax. This doctor didn't even administer any of the tests, all he did was tell me all the tests came back normal and took my pulse. $1200 for that?! So we wrote a letter per the request of the lady on the phone we talked to, and said due to our financial hardship we will not be able to pay this bill. Amazingly, they sent a reply back and said because of our financial situation, the doctor has agreed to "extend a cuourtesy adjustment" to our bill. Now it's only at $373! That was a huge adjustment, thank you God! We have yet to get the bills from the other tests and the actual Hospital bill where I was administered. More negociating to come!

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