Grandmothers

I spent a good part of Saturday learning about bathroom fans and pot lights for the renovation. I spent another part vacuuming up the dust and dirt from the renovation. Small price to pay as Mike, who has done the LIONS share of the work, has completely gutted the area. Tub, toilet and sink are gone - "out of our lives".

 



Sunday afternoon I stole away to help my "Dear Old Step Mom" with a project. She was doing a fund raiser and I thought it would be fun. She is part of a group called "Grandmothers to Grandmothers" and they are going to join a bike run from Campbell River to Victoria to raise money for this cause. So in preparation for this event they did a fund raiser called "So You Think You Can't Knit". For a donation you could learn to knit. They had picked a few easy patterns and sent out an invitation for people to come and learn. This turned out to be such fun.

Gathering at the Sybil Andrews Cottage

This lady was told she was unteachable hmmm

Look at her go

Living Behind the Plastic Curtain

The day went fast. The plastic wall went up and the dry wall came down. I am amazed at how fast this all happened. So now the trick is to contain as much of the dust behind the plastic, by keeping the bedroom doors shut and slipping in and out of the hallway as little as possible.

Middle of the night is interesting - we leave our slippers in the "dust zone" behind the curtain and make our way to the plastic and leave our slippers while we go to the kitchen for water or the bathroom. Guess I should not complain - when we did the kitchen reno I had to go outside in my fuzzy purple housecoat to get to the bathroom with the shower.

 

Ripping and Tearing

Back to work and back to our routine. Unpacking, laundry blah, blah, blah - fun things too. I got to talk to friends and family - do papers with my Grandson and give him the treat from our trip - the proverbial T-Shirt. And now Mike is getting on with "THE RENO". Some how I am not so enthused about this one. We have done the bedrooms/sewing room that come off our main hallway and the thought of traipsing through plastic walls to get to the small bathroom really does not do it for me. When we did the kitchen, I dealt with it but this.........I guess once we get it all organised it will be fine.

Finally all the "stuff" is out of the cabinets in the bathroom - I really through out a lot of junk on my side - his - well I was told "do NOT through anything of mine out"? Okay then.

 Beginning - He is oh so happy now.

I just love it - every time we take a piece off we uncover a peek at the past. The hallway must have been wallpapered in black and white toile at one time.

AND look what treasure is under the carpet - lino tiles - old school.

LAST DAY IN HAWAII

Last day - tons to do before we vacate our humble home away from home. But first I had to have my one last walk for coffee and back along the beach. The only day that we had with no cloud cover over Haleakala Crater. Never got up to see the sun rise but here is the next best thing.

Must be MY day because even Molokini crater seemed closer than ever. Maybe we should be staying.

And then what joy of joys - I spied a humpback whale - several I assume. They were far out but I managed to capture these with my little camera.

As fast as we could we packed, ate, cleaned up and were on our way - we decided on a drive up toward Lahaina. We went up into the hills - what a view from there and what homes - huge homes, with views to die for. Back to reality - the airport and home.

Getting the Last Sun

Our last full day in Maui - our vacation is rapidly coming to a close. We lay by the pool for most of the morning. I finished my book and swam. It seems odd that we are going to get on a plane tomorrow and leave the heat, sun and tropical sounds and smells and be into the rain and damp once again - modern miracles. The pool in our complex is a quiet place - great for napping and reading. There is never more than about 6 people there enjoying the sun.
We shopped for our last few trinkets - trinkets???? - Mike bought a mask to hang in his shop - but this is large AGAIN. Will be interesting seeing him getting it home. For two people who said they were not doing this - we bought enough.

I am going to miss Maui. It is really a wonderful place just enough hustle and bustle to keep you going but not enough to wear you out; lots of wonderful places to see that don't cost a lot - oh there are those places too - your choice. Would I go back YES!! Will I go back - probably not - we have too many places to see yet.





We ended our day with our last visit to the beach.

As the sun set I had to have one last walk along South Kihei. Oh actually I went to buy 1 more bottle of wine - who am I kidding.

A Whale of a Day

February 18th is designated as World Whale Day in Maui with a parade and festival hosted by the Pacific Whale Foundation.

The parade was a typical parade but we got more of a kick watching the ID-10-Ts that tried to get down Walaka Street onto S. Kihei after the road was blocked prior to the parade. The arguing that ensued was priceless. One fellow was a minister who was on his way to perform a wedding. Others were just plain obnoxious. OH PLEEAASE - don't they read the paper and signage that had been up for days saying the road would be blocked to traffic from 8:30 until 10:30



Participants in the World Whale Day parade.

The parade opener - some of the the youth groups.

These guys blew conch shells and shouted words of welcomed in Hawaiian.

The singer was doing Rap and the float said Kai Lenny Two Time Sup World Champion

.

These kids were just plain CUTE.

This lovely lady is leading a troup of kids of all ages that are trying to "Hoopnatyze Maui" - apparently it is HUGE here. In front of the kids stage at the festival grounds was a contest to see who could go through a bunch of exercises while hooping and do it the longest. It was quite a work out.

Now this is the ULTIMATE FIELD TRIP this Jazz Band is from Chestermere School in Alberta. I found in the school newsletter -

"Chestermere High School

Chestermere High School' Jazz Band will be saying Aloha, Feb. 17, 2012, as they depart for Hawaii! Under the direction of Lael Johnson, the CHS Jazz Band will perform at the Maui Whale Days Celebration, in addtion to performing at a number of school concerts."

Mermaids do exist?

Maui Shrine Club - haven't seen this in a long time. I am sure that every Shriner must have a car. They have too much fun.

 

 Samoan Chief “FiaFia” who performs at the  Polynesian Village Lu'au

Off to the pool we went - it was starting to get hot. It was so lovely and quiet around the pool - only one other couple. I read and slept until lunch then we decided to head down to the festival, shopping and home - it was HOT.

Can you tell he has had enough?

The end to the day!!!!!!!!

To Tour or Not To Tour?

You can tell when the sun is starting to rise the birds go crazy with chatter and songs. I started the morning walk earlier than usual and included a couple of side trips with my coffee in hand. I entered Kamala Park. 

Mosaic on building in Kalamka Park

There is a great play area for kids and a - what is this???? hockey? NO WAY - oh okay it is an Inline Hockey Arena.  


 

 I continued along the sea wall walk on Kalama Beach Park. I watched the paddle boarders in the surf as the sun was coming up - then headed down LLili Road. There are a few small vacation rentals there and a couple of very nice houses.

  

LLili Road connects back to S. Kihei so I headed home to a very nice breakfast and plans for the day to go to Hali’imaile to tour a working pineapple plantation - Maui Pineapple Tour.  Okay I forgot the directions on how to get there so when we stopped for ice at Foodland I asked about a Plantation Tour and the lady said to go to Waikapu. Off we went. On arrival we realised this was not exactly what we had in mind - the sign said Maui Tropical Plantation Tour. They were very nice and gave us instructions go toward Hali’imaile to the Hali’imaile General Store. The General Store is actually a restaurant - the clerk inside was very helpful - he said that the tour bus came and picked up people for the tours as booked. He let me call them on his cell but I was put on hold. Mike and I decided to fore go the tour and check out Hali’imaile and Makawo - a historical town in the heart of "upcountry" - home to the Paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy.  On we went through the rolling hills, we finally hit the Haleakala Highway. We headed for Kahului but instead of taking the normal turn toward Kihei we decided to go through Kahului. Kahului (means "the winning") is a large industrial area - the main harbour, shopping, university, several colleges, the airport. This road took us over to Wailuku. Wailuku is a small town - the Maui County government centre. There are a lot of buildings that look like they must have historic status.

Instead of turning to go back to Kihei we decided to head to Lahaine to walk through the old town - what does Mike call it - Lufinasa, Lufistainia? The beaches along the highway are practically deserted.It is so nice to walk along them and see no one.

After our walk along the beach we headed up to Lahaina.

The old part of Lahaina - along the ocean is absolutely perfect - just the way I would imagine a Historic town in Hawaii.  Quaint old buildings have been inhabited by art galleries, restaurants, and shops.  

We could not resist eating a snack at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co.  That nice BIG drink was expensive but we were given the glasses as souvenirs - new ones and boxed to travel.

We wondered around until we could not stand the heat any longer. Now here is a sight you don't see very often - Mike sitting doing NOTHING. Well he was not really doing nothing - the whole time he sat there he was talking about when he gets home and planning the ripping and tearing in the hallway and bathroom.