Enjoy the Simple Things on Maui

As I've said before, living in Maui is like groundhog day everyday. The weather is almost always beautiful, the seasons never change to mark a certain month just by looking around, and everyone gets stuck in a routine, as most do on the mainland. Although we do have 2 seasons. Whale season, and not whale season. The only way I know what month it is, is either- are there whales playing in ocean nearby, and how busy is it in the restaurant. IF it's busy, it still means it could be summer, winter, Spring break time, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years. Or is it slower than usual... it could be the period between summer and thanksgiving, early December, between winter end to spring break, or after spring break before summer.So in the end... What day is it?

Now I am constantly doing something. My days off are filled with writing essays and studying for my online schooling towards getting my Bachelor's, or I am working, modeling, teaching Zumba, or trying to have some quality dinner time with my husband once a week (maybe twice). I feel like we've forgotten how lucky we are to live where we do and aren't taking full advantage of enjoying it's beauty and spontaneously exploring whenever we can! So we've made more of an effort to enjoy this island's beauty and lifestyle in the simple ways.

So one night we took our dinner and TV routine down to a semi secluded beach

We ate our chilled pasta salad and drank wine

The ocean and island beauty is way more entertaining than a television

Trying to do cartwheels

Key word TRYING

We hung out all night drinking wine and talking about life, philosophy, and God.
With many shooting stars to accompany our full moon view of the ocean

We love to hike the Kapalua Walking Trail up to the "duck pond"

Wild non-GMO, non-perticides, organic guavas grow all over the place up there

So we go guava picking and eat some for snacks along the hike

We visit our friend Fred who is a stray that people leave water bottles and cat food for others to help feed him when needed

Sometimes we'll bring some wine and a book to read as we munch on guavas

And make guava jelly afterwards. YUM

It makes for a great snack for the next few weeks!

Kapu= Respect. Tourists think its spiritual to stack stones, when its almost offensive to the locals who see it as people messing with the ancient Hawaiian land as those stones were never stacked before. Locals may stack stones to find their way back on a trail but out in the middle of no where, don't stack stones.

Then we go exploring up North of West Maui. We see the tourist spots that conceirge or guidebooks advertise, and we walk the other direction and find little gems like this

We always find something cool/interesting/weird on our adventures. There were dead red crab all over the place in this little hidden cove, their skeletons left and a hole in the back of their shell where the birds pecked out their insides from. Kinda sad :(

Jon up top there

And from his view, I'm that tiny red dot haha

Behind the advertised Nakalele Blowhole (with 20+ people surrounding it),
 we found this little blow hole, all to ourselves

Jon getting blow away!! hahah

The Nakalele Lighthouse, maybe 40 feet high. There's no way to get up except by doing a pull up all the way to getting your knee on the first step. Did I mention the wind was like 30mph. Of course it's no big deal for Jon

So I faced my small fear of heights (thanks mom, I got that from you). Jon pushed me up to the first step because obviously I can't do a pull up all the way, or even halfway. With sweaty palms and only rusty steps to hold onto and  no safeguard around me, I just couldn't make it to the tippy top. Oh the wind, it could have taken me right off that lighthouse too haha!

More pasta salad on the beach

And the simple joy of playing games on an empty beach at night

The simple joy of riding in the truck bed through the winding secluded roads with beautiful ocean and moutain views surrounding us

And the simple joy of a free sunset

Maui No Ka Oi

Independence Day- Maui Style

Another real late post, a tehehe. Fourth of July celebrations on Maui on my side of the island concentrate around Front Street of Lahaina. All the store front restauants and shops pitch in for a fireworks show to put on for the families and people of Lahaina. The Street is packed, Mamas and aunties stake out their spot along front street so they have the best view of the fireworks. They set them off over the ocean, which makes it fun to see the reflection on the water during the show. Parking is a nightmare. After finally finding a spot, Toni and I walked down to meet our friends and right when we got there, the fireworks show started. We had our beverages and cameras ready and enjoyed the show together. Nothing much happens on Maui so when a mediocre fireworks show is put on over the ocean, its a big deal for the locals to have something to partake in :) 

We played some games on the beach and headed down to the main part of front street. Through connections we found ourselves on the backside of the major retail store Hurley, whose break room in a lawn in front of the ocean. After eating and chatting more we went down to the bar Longhi's where everyone in Lahaina would eventually end up. The most popular reggae local band called Sounds of Addiction was playing with a DJ spinning some top 40 in between sets. Any holiday on Maui gives the locals an excuse to go out and party all night.

Riding in truck beds in our main form of transportation

All of Lahaina was there

Later Jon and I put on our own Independence Day celebration since he had to work on the actual fourth of July

So we had a BBQ at our place

Played Catch phrase

Our poolside BBQ at night. So pretty

Jon going for a dip

More truck bed transportation

My best friend Toni

Getting the fishing gear

Jon and Toni strolling along

The nice thing about Maui is you can fish anywhere, just set up your fishhing poles, a few bells and have a beer while you wait

Using the resort's left out chair to recline and cruise on the beach

A rather large sand crab

Jon running away

From his midnight ocean wrestling match with my BFF Toni... she won

I imagine Ola screaming "LETS GET THIS STARTED!!!" hahah

Fireworks on the beach

But the cops did kick us out of there after too many noise complaints...

Holidays continue to be different and a new experience for me on the island of unchanging seasons. One thing I will always know though, wine will be involved :) If our month in Italy taught me anything, it's that wine makes everything better. 

Maui No Ka Oi