January or Gennaio

What else happened in January...

A swell came in, providing lots of entertainment on our day off

So I packaged up my breakfast from Pineapple Grill and we sat and watched the waves
and surfers as I enjoyed my granola bowl (with locally grown fruits)

Watching the surfers and body boarders in Napili Bay

Awaiting the waves

My girlfriend got a puppy

Our cats got bigger

hahaha "Don't you dare take that photo..."

Jon bought an amazing amount of wine... in one shopping day

I went with a girlfriend to find seashells for her new jewelry line

Along our seashell search, the beach off the highway near Oluwalu proved to be overrun with sea urchins!

Sea urchins are extremely common. If you have ever been snorkeling or scuba diving, chances are you saw many of them. Under water they look like this:

 They are pretty cool looking under water. But those spines can be very sharp and puncture through even the thickest wet suits. Some species are also fairly poisonous. There is a lot of speculation whether these creatures are still poisonous after it is washed ashore, dried up and dead. So when we found many of them laying around we were afraid to touch. After poking around with a stick and a few accidental touches, we concluded this particular species was not poisonous when dead. They are too fragile to make jewelry out of but we collected a bunch anyways.

Dried up with spines attached

Most of them had a few splotches left of spines

When pulling them off, the spines are almost glass-like.
And these had a very interesting green striped design! 

Here are some of Simone Jeanette's designs from recycled and reused bullet castings, beads, sea glass, and Maui/Kauai seashells.

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/simonejeanette

A dance party went down on top of a hill. Meaning a GORGEOUS lookout. Unfortunately I got there late after Zumba so I didn't get to experience the view during the daytime, when you could really appreciate it :( 

Also in January, I began taking an Italian speaking course. Just I am taking the class, Jon is not one for classes and schooling ( in High School he was known as that one kid who sleeps through class), but he and I very much want to learn Italian for our upcoming European vacation later this year. We don't have concrete plans or dates for this vacation but we are throwing around ideas of a Mediterranean cruise or a form of back packing through primarily Italy and France. I'll keep you all posted when our plans are set in stone.

 So every Friday, Jonny and I drive to Wailuku (about an hour away) and for 2 hours I learn Italian, and Jon goes to 24 Hour Fitness and runs errands. Afterwards we go to lunch, sip on some wine, and I teach him everything I'd learned that day.

View while driving from Wailuku to Wailea for lunch

We grabbed lunch at Monkeypod. The executive chef of Hula Grill recently opened
 Monkeypod a year ago, and all Hula Grill employees get 50% off :D

Jon loving his Humbolt brewed beer while sportin' the shirt his bro got him from Hombolt

View from our table

Unfortunately the only notebook I have here in Maui is my French notebook.
 So my French "thank you very much" notebook holds all the notes to my Italian class

Jon and I have come to love privately owned little wine shops, sprinkled randomly through out the islands. We strolled through this 'Guava Gouda and Caviar' shop and tried the free cheese samples and looked through their wine collection

Another private shop called Chocolatier had not only gourmet chocolate goodies, but also they are one of the very few places on Maui that sell  hawaiian produced Tropical Dream's ice cream/gelato/sorbetto. The recently introduced Salted Carmel Swirl ice cream was ahhhhmazing! Shoots, it makes my mouth water :)

At Pineapple Grill, reteaching Jon today's lesson.

The class is only 6 weeks, meaning only 6 classes. It is a very basic conversational class. So far we have learned pronunciation and basic conversational skills. And so far we are loving it.

Maui No Ka Oi