Lounging & Luau

      We lathered on the sunscreen and spent a good chunk of the afternoon down at the pool. I listened to some tunes and did some puzzles but every 10 minutes or so I needed to take a dip to cool off. We went over to the beach briefly so that I could say that I swam in the ocean here. Beth just soaked up the sun (no water activity for her) and visited a bit with other people at the poolside.
      Then we got cleaned up and drove down to Lahaina to take in a traditional Luau which we had booked when we first planned our trip. It was a very impressive evening. We were greeted with leis and drinks and chatted with our server named Ridge who was local to the area. The buffet was really good with lots of selection for even this picky eater. We were at a table with a young couple from Utah (she was an obstetric nurse and 5 months pregnant) and a family of 5 from San Francisco. The dad was originally from Long Island so was a hockey fan and seemed to sincerely wish the Leafs well this season.
      After the meal they put on a phenomenal show, portraying much of the history of Hawaii using  live music, singers and many dancers. Lots of colourful costume changes, traditional songs, excellent sound and musicianship - it was quite the high quality production from beginning to end (these things are a bit pricey but it really was worth every penny - American penny obviously, as such a coin no longer exists in Canada).

A Sweet Day

      Laid low yesterday (Friday) morning as well, getting away by 11:15 to visit the Kahului area. It's in the middle of the northern part of the island, where we flew into, and is a bit bigger town with all the amenities (including Costco and Walmart, not that we went there). Outside of town is the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum, and we had free admission because we bought a little "passport to the past" when we visited the Baldwin home earlier this week. It had lots of interesting information and exhibits (did you know that part of the harvesting process actually involves burning the plant?). Alexander & Baldwin were sons of missionaries who went into business together , in the 1830's, to harvest sugar cane, which became a very big operation with immigration to provide workers and later unionization unrest. I was again glad to have read James Michener's book as he captured some of that history well. It was also interesting to speak briefly with the lady who was the ticket taker as she grew up with (Japanese) parents and grandparents working the fields. She explained how her husband was of Norwegian descent as his grandmother (Japanese) fell in love with one of the European overseers on the planation. This kind of thing happened throughout Hawaii and has resulted in a very ethnically diverse population. The last plantation was closed in 2016. Its not cost effective to produce it here anymore, as it has to be shipped to mainland to be refined, then shipped back here again.
      Then we headed into Kahului and got lunch at iHop (Beth had a coupon, however it was only good for after 4:00, but she was hungry so we went in anyway). Afterwards we walked around the little strip mall, and even though we were very full, we found the local Krispy Kreme. I find it funny that Beth has such a craving for these sugary delights whenever we are in the US (and it was especially appropriate after visiting a 'sugar' museum of course). BTW, I don't mind the donuts too much myself.
      Next we drove over to the Maui Tropical Plantation where we took a 45 minute guided tour around the farm. We learned lots of interesting facts about the various fruit & nut plants and trees, like bananas, papaya, pineapple, that are grown on Maui. Our excellent guide even demonstrated how to open a coconut. We were surprised to learn how long it takes for many of the species to begin producing fruit and that 150 people per year are killed by having coconuts fall on their heads (a fact I later checked online and found out is way overinflated). Afterwards we browsed around their large gift shop and Beth got a couple pieces of jewellery.
      Then we headed back home for a quick break and for Beth to put on long pants before driving back down to Lahaina (about 10 minutes away) to meet the artist Robert Lyn Nelson at the gallery we  had visited earlier. We got to chat with him for a few minutes and he seemed pretty down to earth, but definitely a driven individual - he has produced about 10,000 paintings! He showed us some recent works on his phone and had brought a large canvas along with a Beatles tribute painting called 'Come Together' that he had just completed that day (the one I've included here is 'Magical Mystery Tour' - also at the gallery). Before heading back to the condo we stopped in at one of the tourist gift shops (ABC store) and picked up a few souvenirs.
       I waited until this morning (Saturday) to write and have been sitting on the balcony while working on this journal entry. Right now it is just after 11:00 and with us facing the west side of the the sun is just now coming around to our side of the building. But the view, again, is phenomenal and there have been literally dozens of whales visible, including many that are breaching out of the water and, one of them pretty close to shore.

A Long and Winding Road

     We took a break and had a slower start this morning. I made us some egg mcmuffins (for those who know my lack of cooking skills this was a nice gesture on my part). We're really loving our condo - maybe I've said it already but the view is so amazing and we continue to see lots of whale activity out in the water off the reef. Today as we looked out while eating breakfast there were even some kayakers and paddleboarders heading out towards the whales. It was kind of cloudy this morning but later on we decided to explore the area north of us, so Beth packed us some sandwiches and we headed out.
     We drove along the ocean, north of Kahana.  Our first stop was Honolua Beach and was about 20 minutes up the road. It was a smaller beach in a bay and wasn't too busy, but it did have a life guard -not that we needed one:). There were 4 people surfing, and it was interesting to observe how they waited for waves and their techniques for riding them out. There were also whales spouting, flippering and breaching out in the water beyond them. We just stood there and watched their amazing behaviour for quite a while.

      Then we headed out on our adventure along a long and winding road. It was a well-paved 2-lane road with a few one-lane bridges but it had many sharp curves and the landscape was just outstanding. To our left was always the beautiful blue ocean and to the right were combinations of black lava rock, trees, red dirt hills, and long grass that came right up to the edge of the road (Beth could have reached out and grabbed some). There were regular places to pull off and take in the scenery, which we did, but our main destination was the Makalele blowhole. We parked in an area that we thought had a path to the blowhole but it turned out to be a bit before it. It was a 4 minute hike to a cliff overlooking the water but there was also a steeper path heading north so I checked it out while Beth waited. I ended up looking over a pretty isolated cove and almost walked right into 2 doves sitting on the edge of the rock (who didn't seem to want to fly away from me).

      We got back in the car and ate our lunch, then drove a bit further and came across the parking lot for the actual blowhole but kept going because Beth wanted to check out the Ohai Trail that she had read about and was a few miles (and many curves) further on. We decided to give this 2 km loop a try and it was a great choice (but a fair bit of work, with lots of inclines, and pretty hot - we both ended up with sunburnt faces as well). There was a wide variety of flora and terrain, along with some muddy areas from the recent rain. At about the halfway point we were rewarded with some whales not too far off shore who were breaching (where they leap out of the water and splash back down). We were also reminded about how thankful we are for Beth's surgery last year which ended up improving her breathing because she doesn't think she could have done the trail before that.
      Next we drove back south and stopped at the blowhole, and it was pretty spectacular. It's a bit of a hotspot for tourists though so was pretty busy. There are signs warning to not get too close as there have been some deaths there in recent years. A lady behind us took a tumble and had a lot of pain in her foot so nurse Beth was quick to help and I, along with another fellow, gave her our shoulders to assist her back to her car.
      From there we drove back to the condo and when we got back Beth made a delicious chicken fajita supper (while I took a shower and then watched the third period of another Leafs' loss). Around 7 o'clock we took a little walk in the dark to the south of our place to where there is a small plaza with a general store and McDonalds. We got some ice cream and as we sat there eating were struck by how odd it was to hear Hawaiian music at a McD's.

Maui's South Shore

      We woke up fairly early in the morning today and headed out around 9:00 to a breakfast buffet in Wailea that was recommended to us by Josh and Jess (it was the restaurant at the resort they had stayed at in 2017). On our drive down we stopped at the side of the road to grab a picture of a humpback whale's flukes (tail) that it kept up in the air for quite a while and wasn't too far off shore. It took about an hour to get to Ka'Ana Kitchen, but it was a great meal with a terrific view. Afterwards we walked down to the beach (Beach #1) before hopping back in the car to head even further south. We were kind of looking for somewhere that we might find sea turtles but I think we were misinformed about seeing them down there. We travelled until the road got pretty narrow (especially with the number of parked cars along the side of the road) and got out to have a look around. We followed a walkway to a beach area near Makena (called Secret Cove) which was pretty small, but beautiful, and with much of the black lava rock exposed (Beach #2).
      We didn't stay very long and went back north a few miles to Makena State Park where we took a walk along Big Beach. We got our feet wet with the waves coming in but almost lost our sandals and Beth's hat when we were sitting down and a larger wave washed up (Beach #3). After that we continued our drive back north, staying along the busy, touristy shore for most of the time. We filled up the gas tank along the way, which was pretty expensive, but that makes sense as it needs to be shipped across the ocean. When driving there always seems to be mountains and water in view, which makes for beautiful scenery. On the sides of the mountains you can see gulleys where obviously the lava flowed down many centuries ago. We noted  some wind turbines on one of the mountains and we also saw a sugar cane field beside the road.
      We decided to visit the Maui Ocean Center and were quite impressed with the presentations we took in. First was a 3D 360 degree short film (which debuted just last week) featuring amazing closeup shots of humpback whales - it really seemed like you could reach out and touch the face of one of the whales. Then we headed over for a talk about sea turtles. They had 4 young (2 years old - they were about 1.5 feet long but grow to be 4 feet long) turtles in a large tank which they eventually release back into the ocean. The naturalist gave great information and fed the turtles pieces of broccoli(!). Finally we headed over to an indoor aquarium display which contains 750,000 gallons of water. We timed it just right to see a diver go into the water with the fish, rays, and sharks. She was equipped with a microphone so that she could interact with us and even answer questions. There was a very good emphasis on conservation and preserving our oceans.
      By the time we got back to the condo we were pretty tired so we rested briefly and had something to eat. Then we decided that it was time to explore around the condo complex a little bit. We checked out the pool here and then walked down some stairs just at the north end of the property to a small beach there (Beach #4). Then we took a little walk around the neighbourhood but there isn't a lot right nearby, except some sketchy looking Chinese restaurant. We did go up one street, a cul-de-sac actually, and saw a coconut that had fallen out of a tree. We had to take a picture of that because Lindsay had sent us a video the day before asking us all sorts of questions about Hawaii, including 'did you see a coconut?'.

A Rainy Day in Maui...

      is better than a snowy day in Ontario, or probably about any day anywhere. I got a pretty good sleep last night and Beth's was more broken, but we got up early and enjoyed some hot chocolate and leftover snacks which we had brought on the flight. We also woke up to rain and even some thunder. One correction from yesterday's post - apparently we are only 5 hours behind Kitchener time, not 7 as I had thought.
     We got oriented to the condo site (that basically means we were shown where the laundry facilities are) and then headed down to Lahaina, about 15 minutes south of us, to get some groceries at Safeway. Also had to buy a phone/ipad charger as I had left ours at home (fortunately had a portable power pack so could keep our stuff charged up short term).
      Then we headed to downtown historic Lahaina (once the capital of Hawaii, during the reigns of some of the kings). First we visited the Baldwin Home Museum which has been restored to reflect the 1839 home of the Rev. Dr. Dwight & Charlotte Baldwin and family who were one of the first missionary couples to come to Hawaii. We were impressed with the positive explanations which highlighted the missionaries contributions to healthcare, education and even political progress. The home and artifacts made some of what I read in James Michener's Hawaii historical novel come alive for me.
     We sat on the porch for a bit after our tour as the rain continued to come down pretty heavily, but we ventured out again walking down the main street and stopped in at one of the art galleries along the way. I was especially struck with the paintings of Robert Lyn Nelson as they had a display with some of his work visualizing Beatles songs. In talking with the owner of the gallery we found out that he lives in Maui and his painting for 'Blackbird' is owned by Paul McCartney. However, there were even more of his paintings in another room and we also learned that he was the innovator of the style where life above and below the waterline is portrayed. His work is beautiful and colourful - we often find going into these galleries to be quite therapeutic (especially on a dreary day like today). There was a notice that Robert Lyn Nelson will be at the gallery this Friday evening and I wanna go.
      Further on we visited the Wo Hing Museum which highlights the contributions of the Chinese people who came to Hawaii mostly in the last half of the 19th century to escape the unrest and violence in their homeland and to work on sugar cane plantations. Notably Sun Yat-sen (the founding father of the Republic of China), who I remember learning about in high school, spent many years in Maui before leading the Chinese Revolution in 1911. We also watched very old film footage of life in Hawaii from 1898 which was shot by Thomas Edison.
      Then we headed back to the parking lot in the rain and got stuck because there were piles of cars using this lot to pick up their children from the school across the street (just like at home!). When we got back to the condo Beth made a delicious spaghetti (early) supper and watched some of the Toronto Maple Leafs game. Beth said that the pineapple we had picked up tasted amazing. We saw some whales off in the distance several times, not real clearly but they were definitely there as we could see when they spouted and surfaced. The rain also stopped in time for us to enjoy an amazing sunset. I spent some time on the balcony watching and kept taking photos as the sky changed every 5 minutes. It truly was an art show like nothing we've ever seen before and it lasted for a full half hour! (I think if you click on the photos included here you will see larger versions)

Big Adventure on a Little Island

      Well, we're on what we'd consider a 'trip to remember' and I've found that they best way to do that is to keep a regular journal, so here goes. (BTW, what follows is probably of most interest to me and my family so if it gets too boring or detailed feel free to skip stuff or just go do something more useful with your life;))
       We were up at 3:00 am on Monday morning to head to Toronto airport and the roads were not great, with lots of snow covering them, so I had to drive a bit more slowly (could still get up to 100 kph or more though). Dropped Beth off at the terminal with a couple of bags and then went searching for the parking we had prebooked. Ended up at the wrong one (Value Park Garage) then found the right one (Value Park Lot) and then stood around looking for how in the heck I was going to get back to the airport as there were absolutely no signs for clues. Then this monorail like train goes by almost directly above me and I realize there's a shuttle station a short walk away.
       The airport was crazy busy (it was now 5:45 and our plane was boarding at 6:05, leaving at 6:40) and when we got to the line to go through security an attendant whisked us away and sent us through the Nexus area so we missed the first crowd. However, the lineup for US Customs was also long but a group of us got split off from there so were able to do that (a bit) more quickly. BUT, when we got to the gate area the overhead announcer was yelling (well, it seemed like yelling and she kept repeating it) that passengers from our flight to Denver should be embarked on the plane and the gate was going to be closing. So I started running (yes, running) to the gate with Beth following along as fast as she could. We made it in time (and short of breath) and when we got to our seats noticed that there were still a lot of them that were empty. In the end they seemed to wait for more passengers and also needed to deice the plane, and with the assorted waiting around we didn't leave until almost 8:30, close to 2 hours from the scheduled takeoff!
        What was most concerning about the late takeoff was that we had a connecting flight in Denver that only had an hour between our scheduled landing and the next takeoff. But there were others on our plane who had even tighter connections so we tried not to worry about it too much. In the end we got there in time (the pilot made up a lot of time in the air) but it was a long very quick walk between gates (Beth let me rush ahead again figuring I wouldn't leave without her). I even had a few minutes to go grab a bottle of water.
        I know that people like to complain about inconveniences when flying but I'm not really trying to do that here. It 's just the way it happened. We don't get in planes often and are still in awe of the miracle of flight. We gawk out the window in wonder, especially this time as we crossed over the Rocky Mountains (which seemed to go on for a long time). Some people were asking me last week if I was getting excited about our trip and I didn't know how to answer - I think I was just feeling busy or hadn't been thinking about it very much (although I had read 2 historical books about Hawaii). But as we got on the gangway for our flight to Kahuliu I found myself getting a bit choked up as the reality set in (I'm an Enneagram 4 so for those in the know that's understandable).

The flight across the Pacific Ocean is quite long and we tried to sleep a little bit, and Beth brought along good, little meals & snacks. It was cool flying over San Francisco and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from the air. I watched a couple of shows on the back of seat screen (Jim Gaffigan's "Noble Ape" is awesome) and did some puzzles. Beth actually started reading a book!
      When we landed the temperature was 80 degrees and we were thrilled that our luggage had made it with us. We had to stand and wait for a shuttle to the car rental place for quite a while but the sun felt good and, after standing and waiting for quite a while at the car rental place, we ended up with a VW Jetta (which is what we drive at home). We grabbed a quick bite at a Wendy's
close by and then headed to the other side of the island, arriving at our condo about 6:00 local time (with the 7 hour time difference our bodies were thinking it was 1:00 in the morning!).
       Our condo is great! Modern, fresh, with a touch of Hawaiian decor and lots of room for us. Great balcony to sit and appreciate the beauty of our oceanfront view. You can hear the sound of the waves rolling in even with the liana (balcony) door closed. But, we were exhausted and really just needed to go to bed. By the time I fell asleep (8:00) I realized that we had been up for exactly 24 hours!)

A Year Like No Other

       As we were reflecting earlier in January, on the year 2018, Beth said something to the effect that it was probably the craziest year we'd ever had in our marriage. The more I thought about it, the more I had to agree with her. One thing that pushed it over the top for me was the realization that each of us (mom, dad, Beth and myself) had all spent time in the hospital during the past year, and that is unprecedented!
       However, the significant events and changes we've experienced lately really began in November of 2017 when our daughter Alison moved out to live in Barrie with her boyfriend Pete, who had just bought a house there. A month or so later our oldest son, David, who had been living in our basement apartment for the previous year and a half, got a new job with the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation and he and our granddaughter Lindsay moved to a small apartment around the corner as well. Then our youngest son Joel, who was still living at home, bought a house in town and moved out in April, making us true empty nesters. [Our second oldest, Josh, had moved out back in 2014]
       In early 2018 we were able to meet with some local surgeons who were interested in helping to remove the hematoma (collection of old blood - about the size of a fastball!) which had formed under Beth's right arm as a complication from her breast cancer mastectomy back in 2014. There had been some previous hesitation about performing this surgery as her skin in that area had been radiated twice and there were concerns about healing. However a new technique where healthy skin from the back can be transferred to the front has been quite successful and a local husband and wife surgical team (one general surgeon, one plastic surgeon) were willing to operate on Beth. So she had the surgery at the Cambridge Hospital in April and everything went very well, although it did require several days in the hospital. The main result of this surgery was a much greater range of motion for Beth in her right arm. One of the unexpected benefits was an improvement in Beth's ability to climb stairs or perform other strenuous activity without becoming short of breath. When we saw a CT scan cross-section of her lungs (see photo) from before the surgery, it was pretty apparent that this hematoma had been pressing on her lungs and was compromising her breathing.
      Beth did have one complication with her surgery where she got an infection of the transplanted skin, so she ended up back in the hospital in early May (Grand River this time) for a couple of days for an antibiotic treatment. However right at this time Mom started not feeling very well, and she also went to Grand River Hospital (by ambulance) and was admitted to ICU. Her heart was racing and her breathing was difficult but eventually we did feel that the likely cause was her taking a smaller dose of her steroid (prednisone) than she was supposed to be on. Once that was corrected she felt much better and has done quite well over the subsequent months.
    Of course in August Dad ended up in the hospital for 3 weeks before passing away on August 30th. I've written about that lots in earlier blog posts but I should say that we were pretty overwhelmed by the support of all of the people who came to the visitation or funeral for Dad. It was a difficult time for all of us but the funeral was a meaningful celebration of his life and a chance to connect with family and friends who we really wish we saw more.
     In the midst of all this we had some great things to celebrate as well. At the end of June Beth turned 60(!) and we wanted to make sure she was well celebrated, so there were several gatherings of various sizes to wish her happy birthday. In total I think I bought 5 cakes! My gift to her was the promise of a trip to Hawaii and as it turns out we're going to Maui next week!
     In early July Pete and Alison surprised us with the news that they were engaged and getting married  September 29th. David's proposal to Laurel, and subsequent plans for a wedding in early 2019 added to the fun and busyness. So the fall filled up with showers and related wedding activities. Oh, and Laurel moved into our basement apartment in August as she needed to vacate the place she was renting near Brantford. Pete and Ali's wedding was beautiful and was held at the church camp where they had first met, near Parry Sound. David and Laurel got married January 5th in Kitchener and had their reception just around the corner from us at the Victoria Park Pavillion. They were both lovely, joy-filled celebrations.
     In November I ended up being the last person to go into the hospital for the year. I posted updates of the process on Facebook but the bottom line is that I now know the steps involved in dealing with a larger kidney stone. I dealt with kidney stone pain for a week and then went to emergency because of a fever. Once I got on an antibiotic I felt much better and was pretty much pain free, but needed to go under anaesthetic twice - the first to have a uretheral stent put in which allowed urine to bypass the stone and the second to have the kidney stone blasted into little pieces. The stent was removed later (without anaesthetic - don't ask!). All in all I was thankful that everything went smoothly and that I could function fairly normally.
     So it's been a bit of a whirlwind 15 months or so but maybe that's to be expected sometimes when you have 4 children and want to support your parents as well. Our kids sometimes ask us when we plan to actually retire, as in slow down I guess, but we're thankful that we can be as active as we are. However we are looking forward to our upcoming holiday!