Right now I’m in the midst of my first Maui vacation with my family. We flew in this last Thursday and made our way to a condo in Kihei where we are to spend nine nights (four down, five to go).
The ocean is across the street from our condo; the restaurants and shops just a few minutes down the road; and the shore has walking paths that my dad and I have explored, alternating between North and South for our morning five-mile walks.
We are trying for a low-key family vacation: a feat for my family as we are irrefutably a group that likes to do things. With my dad coming off weeks of training, my brother recovering from a cold, and my mom healing from her hip replacement we are trying a slower pace. That means not packing our days with excursions, letting us pursue individual pastimes, and making plans day by day.
It has been peaceful. I’ve kept my morning routine, walked with my dad, spent time on the beach and shopped with my mom (we got fancy pedicures too), tried awesome restaurants, and made a dent in my reading list. We watched the documentary King of Kong the other night (my brother’s pick and a good one) and Lilo & Stitch last night (my pick, we’re in Hawai’i after all).
(Side Note: I’ve also learned that the rest of the world misspells Hawai’i in which seems blatant cultural erasure. Here, Hawai’i is more often spelled correctly with the diacritical mark.)
With my family adjusting to the four hour time difference, this is the only instance I’ve seen all four of us with the same bedtime of 8pm and all risen before 6 the next morning. This morning that meant my dad pointing out the Southern Cross constellation still visible before the sun was up.
My parents have already made a plan to come back for longer next year.
One of my favorite parts about my vacation in Hawai’i so far is all the rainbows.
Hawai’i is the Rainbow State and rainbows are depicted everywhere – most notably on every license plate. The University of Hawai’i team is the Rainbow Warriors – when we turned on some local volleyball to watch the men had a rainbow printed on their jersey and I thought it was a display of Pride.
I know these aren’t meant to be the gay rainbows. I know some people get prickly that the queer community is stealing something as universal as rainbows for our own meaning. Oh well. To me, rainbows will always mean Pride and Hawai’i is bursting with it.
I’ll share more, I’m sure, as we move to the tail end of our week in Maui. But for today, I’m going to go for a walk along the shore. And then we are going to go see the turtles.
With Love,
Natalie