The Summer of Maui

         Our Fourth of July began in Central Maui at the Maui Diagnostic Imaging for my scheduled MRI. AHHHH MRI?!!? No worries my loved ones, just an attempt to further understand why I have chronic headaches/migranes. Perhaps the 3 major car accidents did not help my already daily headache issue. But just like all medical tests run on me, I appear to be just fine and shouldn't be having any problems. LAME. So after my appointment, we went to Makena Beach, the treasured beach in South Maui.



A fire always comes with this holiday

         There's really only one major thing to do in Maui on the Fourth of July. Growing up in Sacramento, there were numerious venues that did a fireworks show for entertainment. Del Campo High School did fireworks usually, where my family went to most often, hanging at my aunt and uncle's house where we could see the show from and do our own playing with fire shenanigans afterwards. But other families had other traditions and venues that did a fireworks show.
       On West Maui, only in Lahaina along Front Street is where they set off a fireworks show. Only one place for families to bring their kids to to see the amazing show. People camped out and pick their spot hours before hand. Reminded me of Disneyland, people camping out to choose the best seat for the Light Parade or Fantasmic, (now for the World of Color in California Adventure as well). Parking was insane, so we chose to park a few miles away and walk.

People camped out for the show

 I had an itchin' for an awesome burger, so Cheeseburger's in Paradise is where I wanted to go. With that amount of people along front street, guess the wait time for dinner at a beach front scrumptious restuarant? ... THREE HOURS! No thanks... So we trekked back to the car and drove over to where I knew the wait would be ZERO hours with great food!...  Hula Grill :) We missed the fireworks. But.. honestly we're over fireworks. It's all the same, it's kinda boring.

          After dinner we headed down to the sapposed Fourth of July party spot along Baby Beach. We walked along the beach lit only with the moonlight. Very romantic and sweet. There were some partiers left, with a boombox and many boxes of Coors Light laying around, but the romantic moonlight made it pretty hard to see if we knew anyone there. So we just enjoyed our time together and chatted along the waterline.

         

      With our schedules for the most part set, we have more time off to spend with friends and eachother.



I went for a run for the first time since.... Highschool?
What better place to get into running again than in Hawaii along the beach boardwalk!
The weather is perfect with always a soft, or big, breeze to cool you off, and the motivation of God's beautiful creation all around you keeps your spirits up.

I think I can, I think I can

I finished around sunset and did some stretching and yoga along the grass behind the beach 

 Then leaned up against a Palm tree and read and rehydrated

      But tisk tisk on me for not reading the beach park sign stating: Gate closes at 7pm. The sunsets around 7:15-7:20. How am I expected (or anyone for that matter) to drive off BEFORE the sun sets? I think they should close at least after sunset! So my heart dropped into my stomach on my walk to my car seeing the gates locked up and my car still inside. I took action and used my girlish charm to get help and get the park enforcer back to unlock the gates. After all I live here, I need my car to get to work, it was dark, and I wasn't about to walk home, and the closest bus station was a few miles away. Thank you God for another funny circumstance but always getting me out of them :)

 We go on many walks. If we feel cooped up but don't feel like beach time, we go for a walk. Here's a funky leaf I found during a walk


We picked up a new hobby that we both SUCK at. We grabbed some tennis rackets at went for it. This tennis court is right under Jon's work: The Pineapple Grill, so we get a discount to use the courts. We just laughed and said "Oopse! Sorry!" a lot but all in good fun :)



Jon and I went out with a friend couple of mine to The Pineapple Grill for Wine Wednesday (50% off bottles of wine). We shared a few bottles and had a great time :) Sitting out on the Lanai (outside porch area) a tiny kitten ran up along the side and peered up at us. Jon and I LOVE cats and are interested in getting a kitten of our own here in Maui. So a little buzzed I stumbled along the windows of the restaurant looking under bushes for this kitten. Probably freaked out a few customers inside. Needless to say I couldn't find him. After saying goodbye to our friends we spot the kitty cat again! After an overall 6 sightings of this cat, we figured out there were two kittens. I almost got one by the foot but he was too quick! Chasing kittens around the Pineapple Grill property sobered us up and we gave up, that's what the above picture is from.





Hanging out with friends at Lulu's to support the Lahaina Canoe Club who put on a fashion show and sold swimsuits. 

Hanging at Baby Beach after Flotopia was broken up by the cops. A friend from work's birthday party included a few DJ's, a beach party, and a thousand floaties in the ocean. Cops came and cited people for opened liqour on the beach, so many people just stayed in the water and finished their drinks before coming on the beach. Ocean is public property and the cops couldn't enforce getting people out of the water. 

We discovered the store Farmer's Market in Honokowai. Not a special farmer's market on certian days, an actual store named Farmer's Market. I bought some AMAZING organic facial moisturiser with natural vitamins and herbs. I also got local Maui Guava Jelly, Maui grown Starfruit and Lilikoi, and Dry Sugar-free Mangos.

You can see why it's called starfruit, when cut they look like stars! It's similar to the texture of an apple

and very juicey. Lilikoi is the hawaiian word for Passion Fruit. Kind of tastes like a tart mango. REALLY good flavoring to add lilikoi juice to smoothies or jellies. Another Hawaiian fruit I have fallen in love with (aside from Pineapple) is Lychee ("lie-chee"). I'd never had a lychee before we moved to Maui. It's the texture of the inside of a grape but has a citrus-y flavor, I descibe it as Sprite in a fruit. I'll get a picture of it soon to show everyone back home. Yougurt Land or Island Fro-Yo is amazing here because of the different yummmmmy fruits available. More to come about that as well :)

An awesome lotion from Farmer's.

Booda Butter.

I plan on getting a can soon. Says it's good for everything under the sun, all natural oils and vitamins.

And it's got an awesome name

Some modeling gigs have come up during the summer. A lot this month. A contact from a previous event contacted me about needing models for a photo/video shoot with the Maui Baseball Team and Jose Conseco. Sounded pretty fun so I agreed, not really sure what I was getting into. The team and Jose Conseco was playing a game that evening so they were 4 hours later than when the models showed up. So we basically just did a bunch of shoots with the girls by the billards, which was our venue's backdrop. Once Jose and ONE baseball player showed up we took a few group shots and was told to just play pool and they'll shoot it. I got bored and left. Apparently us girls were sappose to be the Maui Baseball Team's cheerleaders. They want to make a reality web series of the new cheerleaders for the team, per the owner's request. I'm not sure what that all entails but I hear talk of pay for it all. Once I know more information I'll keep you all updated :)

          I went in for a model casting for the Annual Maui Bridal Expo. Everyone who came were accepted in the show. I'm really excited, it'll be so much fun to model wedding dresses! So many dresses I had tried on for my wedding I loved, it was really hard to choose my final dress. But once I did I knew it was perfect for me. Now I get the chance to wear more wedding dresses! YAY! I haven't gone in for a fitting yet so I don't know what kind of dress I'll be modeling, but I'm stoked.

I've done a few other model castings and I'll let you all know and post pictures when shows go through.

 My friend Kelly that I met through modeling invited Jon and I to hang at the beach with her and her fiance. Her fiance Chris had the hook up with the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel's beach attendant who runs the hotel's beach cabana's meant for the guests, and the Stand Up Paddle boards. We got to lounge on a nice cabana for a bit and then after much deliberation whether to go out or not due to the high winds, we took the SUP boards out. They went first, which was Kelly's first time and Chris's second. Then Jon and I went out. The wind had kicked up pretty intensely when we went out. We were sappose to go toward Black Rock, but the wind instantly took us the oppostie direction. I got the paddling down and was able to control the board pretty well at first.

Sorry for the silent microphone. The water had gotten on it and covered the mic while I was talking.
After this video was taken, I realised we were pretty far out. Out by the boats. Ooooopsies.

 Soon after this happened:

I fell victim to the wind and could not for the life of me paddle against the wind back to shore. That's what happens with a huge board and a tiny body on it with no muscles. Our hook up beach attendent (very annoyed) came out and had to paddle me back in. HAHAHAHA my bad...


Maui No Ka Oi