Maui 2015

It’s official! The flipflop bubble light is plugged in—we must be going to Hawaii.

The Saturday before we left, H&G (along with Curious George, Rexi and Bullseye) had a sleep over, complete with movie night (Monsters Inc and Monsters University) and homemade pizza. My contribution was popcorn, with instructions from Gus to go lightly on the salt (!) so as not to burn his lips. For lunch the next day we all headed across the street to Moose Country. The meal was fine, but the best part was watching the kids have a blast playing video and pinball games without using any money to actually play the games. I wonder what they’d think if Grandpa actually sprung for a game or two?

Sunday E&Z&H&G treated us to a delicious bon voyage party. Our hostess Harper (complete with hostess stand) escorted us to the table and handed out menus. Her dapper, apron-clad server Gus took our order and brought our drinks (Eric’s home-brew double IPA with home-grown hops) and appetizers. Then we were served the piece de resistance: Momofuku’s ramen, which E&Z worked on for days. There was also dancing and singing and a fire in the fireplace. We are soooo blessed!

Our flight Monday was smooth (lots of rented movies does the trick!) and we landed in Maui 9:30 p.m. Hawaiian time. By the time we got our car, drove around the island to the condo, put up the kids’ art work, and unpacked, we fell into bed about midnight.

Today we got up at 5:00 a.m. feeling good and hungry. But nothing’s open until 7:00 so we read the paper, took morning pictures, and hugged our friends Irene and John as they were beginning their morning chores. When breakfast finally happened it was the Pioneer Inn’s mahi-mahi Eggs Benedict for me.

We had read about a Pacific Whale Foundation tour boat that had run aground just outside the harbor. So, since we were in town, we had to go take a look.

While stocking up on groceries, I got a call from my nephew Scott who is here with Chris and their neighbors (Nick and Janeice) to celebrate Chris’s 45^th birthday and Scott and Chris’s 18^th wedding anniversary. We arranged to meet for lunch at one of our favorites: Aloha Mixed Plate. Great fun and what a busy day 🙂 Just as we finished, the rain started up and by the time we got back to the condo it was an actual Minnesota-type rainstorm with high winds and large waves. Karen thought: perfect for a nap! And so, she did.

Sunset: 6:18.