I have passed the halfway point in this vacation, so I figured now might be time to take stock in the things I’ve learned so far about Maui (and give advice to anyone who might be reading this in preparation for your own trip!). Continue reading “Reflections”
No Plans, No Agenda
This blog post is going to be very short, because we didn’t do much at all yesterday. Continue reading “No Plans, No Agenda”
Call Me Ishmael
It is whale-watching season here in Maui: the humpbacks all swim to warmer waters to mate and give birth in January and February, and that makes for some prime opportunities to see these giant sea mammals in action. Continue reading “Call Me Ishmael”
The Search for Snorkeling
I have this thing for turtles. It goes back to an incident that happened several years ago, when I encountered a turtle while snorkeling on Oahu’s North Shore with my mom. It took me by surprise (they’re huge!), and I freaked out a little in the water. When I had a chance to catch my breath, the turtle had taken off. Continue reading “The Search for Snorkeling”
Haleakala
We awoke early in the morning, partly because we still hadn’t gotten over our jetlag, but also because we were supposed to pick up my mother from the airport. She lives on Oahu, so it was relatively easy for her to get on a plane and visit us for a few days. Continue reading “Haleakala”
Fruit Frenzy
Not much to report for yesterday. I had one goal for the day: to find fresh, tropical fruit to eat. I thought it was a travesty that we had been in Maui for three days and still had not eaten any tropical fruit! I mean, I’d been craving papayas a full week before leaving home. Continue reading “Fruit Frenzy”
Maui Wowee
When Ray and I rented our car, the woman behind the counter asked us where we were staying. I told her we had a vacation rental.
“And what town is it in?”
I looked down at my iPhone for the address. Makawao. I swallowed, knowing I would almost certainly butcher the pronoun citation. Since W usually sounds like V in Hawaiian, I gave it my best shot. “Ma-KA-va-oh?” Continue reading “Maui Wowee”
A long time coming
I have been ready to go on vacation. December is always a busy month for singers, but this year was even more busy because 1) I had rehearsals and performances from Thanksgiving through to several days after Epiphany, and 2) I had to write 5 grant applications before leaving! Continue reading “A long time coming”
Ohana (Family)
For as long as I can remember, I have looked forward to visits to Hawaii.
When I was little, my mother and I would get on a plane to Honolulu almost every summer for family reunions. She and her four sisters grew up in Hawaii, and my grandfather still lived there, so we always had a place to stay. Sometimes all my aunts and cousins would show up at once, but most of the time, each family unit would have overlapping vacations so that there wasn’t too much chaos at my grandfather’s house.
Even then, I remember the sleeping arrangements becoming more and more creative, what with three generations sleeping under one roof: there were two guest bedrooms, a basement apartment (which always smelled like mildew), the living room, a two guest rooms down the road at the Friends Meeting House (available at reasonable rates for our family, as we were Friends), and a tent in the backyard. I remember my cousins (all boys) vying for tent privileges; sleeping outdoors in the middle of Hawaii is not a bad way to spend your vacation, let me tell you!
My grandfather (we all called him “Gung-Gung”) had an amazing garden, resplendent with as many fruit trees as he could get away with on the property. A plentiful harvest of bananas, starfruit, guavas, mangos, and even breadfruit graced the table every morning. He also had macadamia trees, the nuts of which he would harvest, peel, and roast all year long. Our Christmas packages always included a jar of his very own macadamia nuts.
The best part about vacationing in Hawaii with our family is that we knew all the local hangouts. We would forgo the tourist-laden beaches of Waikiki and instead hop in the truck to Ala Moana. If we wanted to snorkel, we’d go to Hanauma Bay (this was before it was well-known; I thought it was our own little secret).
Invariably, we would all take a day trip to go to the North Shore. We would always stop at Matsumoto’s for a shave ice on our way to the Haleiwa house. Gung-Gung had built this one-bedroom house all by himself, and from time to time he rented it out. At the time that he had purchased the land, everything around it had been owned by C&H, and I remember driving through a forest of sugarcane to get to a house on stilts proudly standing in the middle of a rectangular area of cleared land.
Gung-Gung was fearless. I remember one time we were driving down the highway, and he spotted some ripe coconuts on a palm tree near the road. He directed my uncle to pull over, and my cousins and I watched in disbelief as he shimmied up the tree to retrieve the coconuts. His legs were cut from the rough bark, but he had the biggest smile on his face as he held up his trophies.
Now Gung-Gung is gone; he passed away in 2003 from Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother had moved to Honolulu a few years earlier to help take care of him, and now she is the new resident local family member. She lives in the Haleiwa house that Gung-Gung built, and she always encourages us to come visit as much as possible!
When I got married in Hawaii, the trip ended up being a three-generation affair once more. My cousin’s daughter (named Sam after Gung-Gung) was one of my flower girls, and her grandmother (my aunt, who she calls “Po-Po”) was also there. Everybody stayed in neighboring bungalows on the beach, and that large extended-family comfortableness that I recalled from my childhood was back, just as I wanted.
I think there is something very magical about Hawaii, especially where my family is concerned. I know my husband loves Hawaii (“Everything moves at my pace,” he says), so the only discussion we have about vacation spots is where in Hawaii we want to visit next. If/when we ever have any children, there is no question we will be making family trips out there regularly so my kids can be infused with that same magic.
This week’s Indie Ink Writing Challenge came from Tara, who gave me this prompt:
A three-generation family vacation.
I challenged xtinabosco, who will answer her prompt by the end of the week here.
Ulysses
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
— Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“You WHAT??!!!”
Ulysses paused mid-stride. That unholy screech sounded like it had been uttered by one of the Eumenides, but something about the tone told him it could only have come from Penelope. Without turning, he said, “I guess you found my note.”
“Yes, I found your note. More like suicide letter.”
Ulysses stayed where he was, facing the ocean and the setting sun. He had hoped to get to the docks before his wife had discovered him missing. Sailing away on a ship into the sunset seemed much more of a romantic exit than…well, this.
He heard her sandals clacking on the stone as she walked down steps of the house towards him with deliberation. “How did you expect me to react?”
“I didn’t really expect anything. I’m not meant for this place.” He kept his eyes fixed on the horizon, but he heard her come closer. He could smell her now, that familiar, cloying smell of garlic and basil and body odor. She must have been no more than three feet away from him when she finally stood still.
“So I read.” He heard a rustle of parchment behind him as she unraveled his poem. “‘How dull it is to pause, to make an end.’ Is that what you think of the life we’ve made here? You only just returned a few years ago!”
“Try seven years.”
“And now I’m an ‘aged wife?’ When not even a decade ago I was surrounded by men who wanted to marry me and take over the estate?”
Ulysses kept silent, looking steadily upon the dark waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The sun was beginning to set now, and its rays cast an orange glow on the waves.
She took a few defiant steps towards him. “Maybe I should have married one of those men.”
Ulysses let out a long-suffering sigh. “I don’t know, Penelope. Maybe you should have.”
Silence. Seconds ticked by. He knew she was crying. He imagined her there behind him, her tears flowing silently down her face and her hands balled up into fists at her sides. Her long gray hair had probably escaped their braids in her agitation. He fought the urge to turn to her, to comfort her.
Keeping his eyes on the horizon, he explained, “I can’t help the way I feel, Penny. There’s just so much yet to explore.”
“Then take me with you.” It was barely a whisper, uttered between sobs.
He swallowed and looked at his feet. “I can’t.”
How could he tell her? I want to get away from you just as much as I want to leave Ithaca. The mere thought of spending another night with you after having sampled the mystical charms of Circe and Calypso leaves me empty and unsatisfied. I need more, and you simply cannot give it to me. Every muscle strained to turn and spit those words out at her, this woman, who used her twenty-year chastity as a weapon of guilt to hurl at him whenever she could.
A bell rang out from down at the docks. High tide. It was time to go, and they both knew it. He adjusted the pack on his back.
“Don’t. Leave. Me.” The words came through gritted teeth, those old-woman teeth in that wrinkled mouth that he didn’t even want to kiss goodbye.
“I must.”
She threw something at him. It hit his shoulder and tumbled a ways in front of him. A coin. It glittered orange in the rays of the setting sun. He bent down to pick it up.
Imprinted in the metal was a picture of her. His wife. Penelope. Only it was what she looked like 27 years ago, when he had married her, before he had left the first time. Beautiful, with long, curly locks and a mysterious, alluring smile. She never smiles anymore, he thought. Maybe she’ll smile more when I’m not around.
He almost turned around, but stopped himself. It’s better this way. He pocketed the coin, and without any further goodbyes, continued down the road to the dock, to his ship, to freedom.
This week’s Indie Ink writing challenge came from Binaryfootprint, who writes:
Put yourself in Ulysses’ Sandals. Explain to your family why you are bored with life and have to go away on a journey and what you intend to do with your life away from them. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section4.rhtml
I have to admit, I was a little stumped on this one! My main sticking point is that I really have never had very much wanderlust at all, so it’s hard to relate to Ulysses on this level. So, with all due respect to Binaryfootprint, I used the prompt more as a jumping off point than actual instructions. I hope I didn’t disappoint.
My prompt went out to runaway sentence, who answered it with typical bad-assness here.