Happy Birthday Camille!!!

October 21st was Camille's 17th birthday (my where does the time go?). So I thought it would be fun to check out this shopping area we had seen over in Wailea, just past Kihei. Now, for those of you who don't know Maui all that well, Wailea is like the Scottsdale area of Phoenix. It is where the snobs are apparently. This shopping center was all high end stores like Tiffany's and Versace. A t-shirt was around $100! So we weren't too excited about it. But we did find this store that Camille just loved. It was called The Enchantress Boutique. Camille really liked these masks.

You look mah-valous dahling!

Then we took her over to Lahaina for dinner to the Hard Rock Cafe!

The Long Over-due Update!

OK, OK - I know this is long over-due. So here it is, a new update with lots of pics. I didn't want to update before I was able to have something good to tell you about. I was in "da puka". (that's "the hole" in Hawaiian). And this (pic below) is the hole I was in:

and this would be the view of the back yard thru my bedroom window:

But we're in a much better place now. We all feel totally at home and comfortable here. From the pics you'll see why. It's way better. This is a picture of the front of the house. It has a wrap-around porch that's very spacious on the front:

This koi pond is in the back of the house:

This pic shows the enclosed lanai:

This is on the front side of the house on the more spacious deck. The gleaming grill is Scott's birthday present!

Another pic of the front of the house:

The back deck:

Vegetation in the backyard:

This picture is taken from our front deck. The ocean down there is where Kihei is. We can also see the other side of the island where Kahului is. On a clear day we have a beautiful view of the Iao Valley and mountains. And then Haleakela is behind us.

OH HAPPY DAY!!

Our furniture finally arrived!! YAHOOO!! It actually arrived on Friday. We got the call around 2:30 pm. But they closed at 4 pm. And of course they aren't open on the weekend. That would only make sense. That would help things happen too quickly! So we had to wait until Monday. We almost weren't able to get it then because Scott was going to have a staff meeting right in the middle of the day causing timing problems with getting a truck and unloading at the location where our pods were and the time they close. It was a mess. Luckily his staff had mercy and let him postpone the meeting. Thank goodness, I was ready to scream if we couldn't work it out. But we did and our stuff is here and it's a happy day. We still need a sofa so we're scouring craigslist for just the right one.

Free spirit.

Just a funny little thing that happened at the beach the first Sunday we were here. We thought it would be nice to sit on the beach and watch the waves on a Sunday afternoon. So we're sitting there, I'm reading my book and people watching. I noticed this old lady, maybe in her 70's or 80's. She had been swimming in the ocean, then came up to do some Tai Chi (I guess that's what it was). I watched her a little thinking to myself, "I hope I stay active at that age". I glance down to read again and Scott says, "she just took off her swimsuit!" She had wrapped her towel around her and taken off her suit, then went and rinsed it out in the water (I'm not sure what good that did.). Then, she proceeded to get dressed right there on the beach. First were the panties, at first she was 'somewhat' discreet, using the towel still as a cover. But when it came to putting the bra on . . . off came the towel and hello! Yup, right on the beach. She's a free spirit.

Sandblasted!

So I decided that today I would start working on my tan that every resident of Maui should inherently have. And since Scott was at work and Camille was at camp with the YM/YW, I thought, "why not, I've nothing better to do!". So I packed up my beach chair, beach towel, donned my swimsuit for the first time since arriving, grabbed my book and sunscreen spray and headed out.

Now today has been a bit breezy, but I could tell that the sun was out at the beach, and that would help me not get hot and sticky. Well, it was downright blustery at the beach. Not cold by any means. It was a perfect tempurature (sorry to make you jealous, Jill!). It was just blasted windy!! I stayed for a little while. I waded in the water a little bit, read maybe a page from the book, sat and people watched for a few minutes, watched a marajuana exchange, laid on my towel to start that tan, then turned my chair to face the sun to get the front side. . . I doubt I was there more than half an hour. Oh well, there's always another day.

Oh yeah, our stuff arrived today!!! YIPPEEEE!!!! Too bad we still don't have any sofa to speak of. But I do have a bed in there. I can't wait. TTFN!

Our new home!

Like our new place? There's enough room for everyone! (tee-hee)

The Road to Hana

A veiw from the road. The ocean is very blue out here.

This is a lava tube! It was pretty cool to walk through.

This beach was amazing, it was all black lava rocks. This was an amazing place, but the drive to get there was long and windy (long i). I wish it was closer, I'd come here alot if it was.

This picture is taken at the same place. So is the lava tube.

Same cool beach, these rocks were out in the water a bit. As you can see, these kids were jumping off these rocks.

This leaf was gargantuan, that means really big. It was about the length of my leg. The picture doesn't do much justice.

One of the many waterfalls on the road to Hana.