For many years we’ve posted the girls’ artwork and other things on a column between the kitchen and family room. Since we no longer have a steady stream of artwork to post, Jan decides that it’s time to put the art away and repaint the column. The photo memorializes the state Liya’s side of the column is in before everything comes down.
Before repainting the column, Jan transcribes the height markings we made for the girls as they were growing up. As the oldest, Anya was the tallest girl for years, but when adjusted for age, it’s clear that Liya was always consistently a little taller than Anya.
Liya’s comment on the family chat: “Haha suckers I’m the tallest”
Bree needs to bring in snacks for her advisory group tomorrow, and decides to spend the evening baking strawberry cupcakes. The frosting recipe requires her to whip butter, which she does with the hand mixer. Little flecks of butter going flying around, adding to the festivity.
The last Winterim. The girls’ K-8 school has a long-standing tradition called Winterim in which the entire school participates in winter sports on the six Fridays between the Christmas break and the mid-winter break. We used to bundle Anya and Liya off on the bus to learn skiing at Crystal Mountain, and then in later years Angela would drive all three girls to Crystal herself. Angela and the other parents that drove down would spend the day skiing together. Jan would occasionally join as well.
After 14 years of Winterim (last year was skipped), today is the final day. Bree and her group have fun skiing the medium-size jumps in the terrain park. Angela and Jan spend the day with a number of other school parents. (From left: Susan, Jarvis, Angela, Jan, Floyd, and Tsering) Jan’s day is marred by a fall that causes a muscle tear; he has to stop after lunch. Still, it’s a beautiful sunny day, and we’re sad to see the end of it.
Mid-winter break on Maui, Day One. Jan and Bree get up early for a morning flight to Maui. (Angela will come later in the day after work. Anya and Liya are busy at school, so won’t be joining us on this trip.) According to our journal, this is our 13th trip to Hawaii, and our first trip back to Maui since 2009 when Bree was two years old.
This trip might be remembered in part as “the one where Jan hobbled around with a cane.” His left calf is still very tight and sore from the ski injury last week, so he takes one of our hiking poles as a cane. He hobbles through the airport, and hobbles down the airplane aisle to his seat.
The flight is fine but unremarkable, as is the airport, rental car, and drive to Wailea. We’re trying a rental apartment at Wailea Beach Villas (unit 507) because it’s on the beach, has ample room, and is just across the street from the shops.
Bree no longer has a swimsuit that fits her, so the first order of business is heading to the shops and hunting for a swimsuit. She’s too big for the girls’ suits, and too small for the women’s, but she eventually finds something that works.
Jan proposes heading to the Island Gourmet supermarket to pick up food for breakfast, but turns right when he should have turned left. Jan and Bree find themselves walking around the outside of the market across a landscaped lawn under palm trees. Bree proposes, “Um, why don’t we go back the other way?” but Jan is not to be deterred. “This way is more fun”, he says, pushing through a break in a hedge and walking across some volcanic rocks to reach the far side of the supermarket parking lot.
The two have dinner in a generic resort restaurant in the Marriott, which isn’t particularly interesting but has a view towards the ocean and the setting sun. It’s also nice to eat outside a restaurant where we don’t need to be bundled up against the cold.
(After Angela leaves for her flight, our catsitter Jessica stops by the house to feed the cats. She discovers water dripping from the ceiling of the kitchen onto the wood floor. She eventually traces the leak to a fixture in the upstairs girls’ bathroom. Over the course of the week we’re away, she and our general contractor friend Dennis end up battling this leak.)
Jan picks Angela up on her late (and slightly delayed) flight. Bree has crashed by the time we’re back.
Maui, Day 2. We mostly hang around the pool or read books in the rental apartment. It’s wonderful to be outside in shorts and a t-shirt. (Seattle has a cold spell at the moment.)
Bree shops for dresses with Angela, and also picks out her first new pair of earrings since getting her ears pierced: small plumeria blossoms. We meet up for lunch at the Pint and Cork, then putter around for the rest of the afternoon. Dinner is out on the patio at the Tommy Bahama restaurant.
Maui, Day 3. Another day at the beach and pool. We drive into Kihei for Hawaiian lunch at South Shore Grindz. The fried saimin is tasty, as is the mochiko chicken and katsu chicken, although those portions are huge.
Angela intimates that a surprise guest will be joining us on Friday. From her description, it’s clearly Anya or Liya – most likely Anya because it’d be a very long trip from the East Coast for Liya. Angela’s usually not able to keep secrets for very long, and has only mentioned the visit because Jan will need to change his return flight to spend an extra evening in Hawaii with the mysterious visitor.
Bree goes for a long afternoon walk on her own along the beachside path, and Jan and Angela do the same the other direction. They make it as far as the new Andaz hotel, which sits on the site of the former Stouffer Renaissance hotel where they stayed on their first trip to Hawaii 25 years ago. On the walk back, they watch an egret walking awkwardly along the top of a hedge as it hunts anoles (small gecko-like critters).
We drive back into Kihei for dinner. On the drive, Jan is considering whether we all might go for a short hike this weekend. Angela asks, “With Anya?” So the cat’s out of the bag: it’s Anya who will be joining us on Friday. Bree is amazed that her mother can’t keep a secret for very long.
The Indian food for dinner at Kamana is fine, especially the garlic naan. Afterwards we shop at the supermarket next door for more breakfast things.
Maui, Day 4: A great day. Jan’s injured leg is slowly getting more flexible, so we decide to try a short hike near the top of the Haleakala volcano. The lush, green slopes of the lower mountain are gorgeous. We stop along the way at a market to pick up food for a picnic lunch.
The trailhead parking lot sits at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, so while it’s warm and humid at the beach, it’s nice and cool (but not cold) at the top. We set out on the Keonehe’ehe’e (Shifting Sands) Trail, and there are nice views of the red sandhills and cinder cones that make up the top of Haleakala. Jan doesn’t want to overdo it, so we only hike for half an hour before we stop at an overlook that has rocks big enough for us to sit on while we eat lunch.
On the walk back, we stop for a bit to listen to a park ranger talk for a bit. A tour guide points out small silversword plants that have been planted by volunteers, presumably to restore what was destroyed by tourists. As we start the long drive back down the mountain switchbacks, Angela and Bree spot a tall silversword that’s made its once-in-a-lifetime bloom and left behind a talk silvery stalk. We stop at the Kalahaku Overlook which promises more silverswords, but there’s not much to see. The view is great, though.
Angela drives on the way back down. Bree notices that we’re driving above the clouds, and it’s fun we finally drive down into clouds and the cooler, lusher landscape. We stop at the small Maui Tea Farm to buy some tea, then continue all the way down to the town of Kahului to the Barnes and Noble bookstore. Bree is excited to buy the final six volumes of the My Hero Academia manga series.
Back in Wailea, we rest up and then have a nice dinner at Ruth’s Chris across the way.
Maui, Day 5. We’ve signed up for a morning snuba trip, so we have to get up before sunrise and drive up to Ma’alaea Harbor. We board the Aqua Adventures boat, and listen to the usual safety spiel and corny jokes. On the boat ride out to Molokini Crater, a snuba instructor gives an orientation briefing. Bree’s done snuba – an activity halfway between snorkeling and scuba diving – once before, but it’s been a while.
The snuba dive is fine. Since Bree’s last trip, she’s begun wearing glasses, and without them the abundant fish just appear as blobs of color. Jan spots a long yellow-spotted brown moray eel slinking from crevice to crevice as it hunts. The highlight of the stop at Molokini is actually above water: a mother whale and her young calf swim past not too far off. A boat staffer guesses the calf’s age at 3-4 weeks, and it looks to be about the size of a small car. About every 30 seconds the calf leaps out of the water and splashes back down. It does this over and over. The huge mother swims quietly alongside her playful child.
The boat travels to a reef called Coral Gardens that’s just off the Maui shore. Jan and Angela opt to do another snuba dive, and get to see 6 or 7 large sea turtles. Some of them are just hanging out on the sandy ocean bottom.
We’re all tired by the time we get back to shore and back to the apartment. In the evening, Bree has dinner on her own while Jan and Angela head out for a great date night dinner at Lineage.
Maui, Day 6. Bree starts out the day on pins and needles as she waits for the high schools she’s applied to to post their acceptance decisions. She’s already been accepted at one of her two top choices, but is anxious to hear back from the other. She needn’t have worried; the second school also accepts her. She’s happy. In short order, her anxiety about getting into those schools is replaced by anxiety about which one to pick.
Jan and Angela go for a late-morning hike on the coastal Hoapili Trail at the southern end of Maui. As they head south, the road gets increasingly narrower and bumpier, finally coming to an end at a stony beachside parking lot. The trail goes for miles but they just hike a few miles of it, first crossing lava fields and passing through forest, then coming back along the rocky shore. There’s one spot that has dozens and dozens of small yellow butterflies, and another a nice spot with a small rock arch over the water.
In the late afternoon, Angela goes to pick up Anya from the Kahului Airport. By skipping one class on Friday and one on Monday, she’s been able to carve out a long enough weekend to make the trip worthwhile. She still has lots of classwork to do, but at least she’ll be able to do it with nice scenery.
We have dinner at an Italian restaurant called Matteo’s. Bree’s delighted at the prospect of good pasta, and the meal is indeed delicious. Anya’s tired from the travel, so Angela takes her back early. Bree and Jan make the pleasant short walk back to the condo past manicured golf courses and landscaped palm trees.
Maui, Day 7. Jan and Angela spend the morning at the beach while Anya does homework by the pool. Bree, for her part, is happy enough to read in the apartment.
We make a short drive in the evening for dinner at Gannon’s, which is fine if unremarkable. Before sitting down to dinner, Anya has to make a short phone call to Taiwan as part of her Taiwanese language class.
Maui, Day 8. Jan will be staying with Anya for another day, but Angela and Bree have to go back today. Angela heads to the beach for our tradition: a morning swim in the ocean and pool before flying home, and Jan joins her.
We have lunch in Kihei at the Guadalajara Taco truck, which is tasty, then drop Angela and Bree off at the airport.
In the evening, Jan and Anya have dinner at Ka’ana at the new Andaz Maui hotel. The farm-to-table dishes are really good. Anya especially enjoys a Wagyu beef appetizer and a mushroom risotto.
Maui, Day 9. In the early morning, Jan makes a short drive up the coast to the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Reserve. The inland portion has paths around a series of man-made ponds that aren’t much to look at, although there are plenty of birds. Jan’s favorites are the small, cute round Sanderlings, and the elegant but slightly ridiculous Hawaiian Stilts. Each stands resolutely on one leg. When Jan walks by, the Stilts hop up and down on one leg to turn and keep him in view.
Back at the apartment, Jan and Anya walk down to the beach for a final swim in the ocean, followed by a final swim in the quiet adult pool. Seattle is in the middle of a week of heavy rain, so Jan makes the most of the morning sun.
Anya has a morning remote class for school, so she takes care of that, then the two head to Kahului. There’s enough time for more tacos at Tight Tacos. (Anya is always up for more tacos.) Then they head to the airport and their flights to Seattle and the Bay Area.