I am home this evening after a disorienting travel day that included a redeye flight last night, leaving Maui at 9pm and landing in Dallas at 8am this morning. It’s part of the package, lovely vacations plus dealing with long, sleepless flights and airport madness. But it is worth it. To top off my week of travel writing, here’s my vacation gratitude list:
- It begins and ends with the very good (as in loving and loves each other + decent, growth-oriented human beings) family I have.
- The hikes — from the summit of Haleakala to the Nakalele Blowhole.
- The food — my mom’s one-eyed sailors and homemade creamy chicken enchiladas, the breakfasts out with thick-cut french toast or fried rice, the fancy dinner at Sarento’s on the beach where we all dressed up and my mom and I split a bottle of wine.
- The runs — though I’ve waxed poetic about running alongside the ocean already.
- The reading — from travel day one through today: three and a half physical books completed (All for the Game series and currently reading Longitude), two halves of audiobooks (finished North started Running with the Buffaloes), and completed two in-progress manuscripts (a non-fiction book that my boss is publishing this year and one queer YA fiction for someone in my writing critique group). And yes, some fanfiction too.
- Malcolm in the Middle — I somehow got my family to start watching this from the beginning and now I’m rewatching the whole thing straight through again for the third time. It’s a fantastic show (and streaming on Hulu).
- The sleep — eight hours or more it, nearly every night. Insane.
- The Mustang — driving a mustang convertible for the first time in my life. My brother and I did the bulk of the driving for the entire week, both of us eager to be behind the wheel.
- The writing — more planning than actual writing my new story, but plenty of planning and talking cross country and new characters out loud.
- Maui — I don’t know what to say but that it’s beautiful and warm and the sun is out and the thunder of the waves on the shore is one of the most relaxing sensations in the world.
I am very thankful to my family and my life circumstances that I could take this time and have an amazing week with the people I love in a place, as we returned to it for our second year and plan to continue visiting annually, that I can see becoming a kind of home.
With Love,
Natalie