After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure!
Greetings from Hawaii, with love (in cherimoya form!)
There was mist falling when my sister, Sarah, greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei. Sarah is an anthropologist and filmmaker and through her film production business of Farthest North Films & Wisdom Keeper Media, she creates documentary films to capture indigenous knowledge and document the impacts of climate change. So she has been invited to learn and appropriately share cultural treasures and it definitely felt like a gift to be welcomed to Hawaii by her in this way!
I was greeted by my sister in Maui with a fresh young coconut and a lei!
We had a delicious lunch at the famous Paia Fish Market before doing a grocery store stock up. A quick trip to Baldwin Beach allowed me to ground in Maui by walking on a white sandy beach. I was with Sarah on Waikiki Beach the first time I experienced warm water as a 16 year old and my shock was so intense she has laughed at me about it ever since! This time I wasn’t startled by the warm water, but we still found ourselves giggling as she filmed me wading into the ocean.
The ohana where my sister lives is a nice size for two people with a great layout and nice proportions.
Sarah drove me through, Wailuku, the town she lives in, and pointed out various spots along the way. Then up the hill to her place. Sarah lives in an ohana, which we call an ADU back on the mainland. It has a living room and kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an attached garage. Dining happens outside on the generous covered porch. And the view of the ocean and mountains is incredible! I really like the layout and proportions of her house so I took a few measurements to better understand how it worked so well.
I helped Sarah harvest goodies from her garden. That backdrop. Wowzers!
On Thursday morning we headed to a Goddess Glow yoga class at Afterglow Yoga followed by spring rolls and peanut sauce leftover from last night’s dinner. That afternoon I went to the Maui Tropical Plantation to pick up produce and learn a bit of history.
A trip to Maui Tropical Plantation to pick up produce
Then I checked out the nearby town of Wailuku, highlights of which included poking into the various shops, a tug of war with an adorable Husky German Shepard puppy, and finding amusement in the signage. That evening Sarah hosted a few friends for dinner and we had a lot of fun making tacos. One of her friends made lovely tropical mocktails and another, who is a chef at a fancy restaurant nearby, brought lilikoi cream puffs! (I’m rather lilikoi obsessed, I must confess!)
So many delightful tropical flavors in the food and drink. A lilikoi and ume mocktail was a great accompaniment to a dinner with Sarah’s friends.
Friday morning dawned gray and since Sarah was working to a deadline I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to work on my taxes. I figure if I have to do them anyhow at least the epic view makes it better!
If I’ve got to do my taxes any which way at least the view is pretty epic!
We rewarded ourselves for a good day’s work by going to the Sasha Rose concert at the Temple of Peace. The eccentricity of the place - the tent with a tree growing through it, twinkle lights, chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, and a smattering of couches, statues, and other decorations - reminded me of my beloved Oregon Country Fair stages.
So much fabulous fresh fruit at the farmer’s market - like these strawberry guavas. Oh, and also, chickens everywhere!
Saturday morning Sarah took me to the farmer’s market where she introduced me to all the friends of hers we ran into. I was easily convinced to snag a variety of fruits: egg fruit, rambutan, bananas, strawberry guava. When someone confused me for a friend of his and then inquired about the arepa I was eating, we decided we should just be friends after all. When I met the person he had confused me for I was flattered and befriended her, too. A few minutes later, my new pals, Davin and Kat, declared they wanted to go scuba diving and the connection was made with Karim, another of my sister’s friends standing in the circle. Karim is a dive instructor who has taught all over southeast Asia. “Tomorrow?!” they asked and the next thing I knew I was braving up to try scuba diving for the first time!
Sarah took me on a hike to a Buddhist hermitage and we enjoyed a meditation in the little wooden monastery.
Saturday afternoon we headed out on a hike, my backpack full of treats from the market for a picnic. Sarah took us to a Buddhist hermitage hidden away in the hills. We were greeted by sweet pups, shortly followed by a friendly monk who swapped travel tales with us (I was so flattered when I told him I was just starting out on four months of international travel and he asked if that was through college!) We spent time meditating in the wonderful little wooden monastery up the hill. Since I have never quite gotten the hang of meditation, it was a delight to wake up from my afternoon nap to light streaming through the stained glass windows, the sounds of the jungle, and the scent of incense-infused wood. We hiked further up the hill to a viewpoint which someone had marked with a beautifully intact deer skull and a couple of crystals.
A deer skill and a couple of crystals were place at the viewpoint overlooking the ocean. Clearly we weren’t the first people to decide this was a really special spot!
On Sunday morning the drive required us to go through Lahaina and the devastation from this summer’s fires is still heartbreaking to witness. Many of Sarah’s friends were directly impacted by the Lahaina fire, so throughout the week I heard bits and pieces of their stories as they were open to sharing them. The horrific stories were often matched with stories of resilience and generosity, but it’s clear that healing will be ongoing. Keep sending love and support towards Lahaina, y’all!
We started out with a session at the pool, my very first scuba lesson and a refresher for Kat and Davin.
My first scuba session started with a lesson in a hotel pool. Kat and Davin met me there as Karim was gathering up the gear for us. I’d been nervous about scuba diving because my experiences with snorkeling involved swallowing copious amounts of ocean, but I was reminded that with scuba diving you just keep breathing. I could tell right away we were in good hands with our dive instructor, Karim. He talked things through, demonstrated, had us practice, and before long I had declared “this is awesome!”
Glad to get to explore this undersea wonderland with new friends!
So we decided to do an ocean session as well. A couple hours later we were 20 feet below the surface and marveling at the colorful fish, sea stars, eels, urchins, and coral. Turns out scuba diving is pretty meditative. The most incredible part was that the whales were singing! It was extraordinary! We were pretty blissed out afterwards and thoroughly enjoyed our poke bowls at a picnic table on the beach.
It feels so amazing to swim like a mermaid! What an incredible experience!
Davin and Kat were kind enough to give me a ride to a gathering my sister cohosted at her friend’s yurt in the jungle. This was the fourth time my sister had hosted an inner child party and I was delighted to join this one. We let our inner children out to play (with an emphasis on our 7 year old selves) and it was SUCH fun! There were silly conversations, pipe cleaner friendship bracelets, play dough, dress ups, raucous games of Twister and lava monster, bubbles, hand stands, kid-favorite foods, and chocolate cupcakes. Sunday was definitely on my Most Epic Days List and by the time the day was over I was totally tuckered out!
The generous covered porch makes for a pretty great nap spot…
Unfortunately, I woke up with a full-blown cold on Monday morning, so I mostly laid low the next couple of days. Got my taxes finalized, helped my sister get an oil change for her car, napped a lot. It felt really odd to be under the weather when the weather is so darn pleasant, but at least I didn’t have anywhere else to be! My nap spot was pretty dreamy, too! By Tuesday afternoon I was feeling better already so I enjoyed a visit to the Iao Valley with Sarah. A quick hike and a dip in the river was really refreshing.
A quick hike in the Iao Valley and a little dip in the river was very refreshing!
On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go out on a sailboat with some of Sarah’s friends. It was a glorious day and we saw humpbacks breaching and spouting! I didn’t even attempt to capture them jumping on camera since I wanted to just savor the experience of getting to watch them. It was a great crew of people (including harpist Georgie Buchanan who showed us how the wind plays accompaniment and taught us some sea shanties!) Everyone was friendly, fun, well-traveled, and excited to be out enjoying a beautiful day on the water, so the conversations were lively. Totally worth the (probably inevitable) sunburn!
So glad I took advantage of an opportunity to go out on a sailboat with some friends of Sarah’s. We saw humpbacks breaching and spouting!
Back at Sarah’s place last night we enjoyed a last tasty finish-everything-in-the-fridge meal on her porch then packed our stuff for Oahu. A friend of Sarah’s kindly agreed to get us to the airport this morning and I’ve been writing from Gate #1 as we wait for our flight. Sarah is the director of the film production for Spirit Fest in Honolulu this weekend and I’ll be volunteering. Really looking forward to being part of this event and back in Waikiki with my sister Sarah!
We ARE the porter services for Sarah’s film making equipment. Glad I get to play assistant grip for the weekend at Spirit Fest!