Practicing The Future

After spending a full NINE days on vacation (what?!), its hard to imagine 

Dan and I were still up for a few more days in Hawaii. 

Not a bad place to sit in the adirondack chairs (Hawaiian version) and read!

I think part of the excitement was that we could stay -- partly thanks to Covid and online work,
and obviously a lot in part to the success of Dan's business.
Also thanks to Marty and Lizzie living nearby (also able to work/school online)
and being willing to stay with Nick and put off getting to their own home. 

Nick is too old for a babysitter, but too young to be left alone.
Teenagers are NOT cool with just anyone staying over.
Best chance of success is a sibling and his very awesome wife.

5:00 pm lighting of the tikis and blowing the conch shell.

Friday night while getting ready for dinner, we both said we wished we could stay.

(I think we'd both been secretly thinking through about how we could make it happen.)

I had a lot of work to do for my class and Dan had meetings all day on Tuesday.

What if we just worked in the day in our hotel? It would sort of be like when we're empty-nesters.

For several years Dan has said when the kids are gone we're going to live in Hawaii 

for a month -- January or February -- to take a break from the snow. 

We wouldn't sit around for a month, but would do our work from a different location.

View from my outdoor workstation (I got the comfy lounger!)

And that's what we practiced doing. We exercised in the morning:

Tuesday: walked together to Makena.

Wednesday: I swam--a mile again!-- in the pool and Dan did weights at the gym.

Thursday: Beach path walk and kayak.

Watching from our deck four men trim palm trees.

We worked all day with interspersed news report briefs on the snowstorms everywhere else

and in the evening went to dinner and watched shows or movies.

Funny fact: With Marty and Chris, I worried if I went away, they wouldn't go to school,

would get behind in their classes, then not be willing to put in the effort to get caught up. 

I envisioned their whole futures derailed because I left them unsupervised for a week.

With Nick, I texted home three times, "If there's too much snow, don't risk going to school!"

"The school says its not cancelling the day, but said use your judgment if you feel safe driving or not!"

"Best to stay home!"

Tuesday: biked on the cruisers to Paia Fishmarket in Kihei and ate in the park. 

Caught up on the last two episodes of This is Us.

Surfers at sunset in Kihei

Wednesday: Couple's Massage before lunch. Work.

Dinner at the Longhi's in the mall. Watched a boring, yet sweet, but mostly boring, movie, Paper...something.

Thursday: Kayak and sat in the middle of the ocean. Waiting for whales.

We saw a blow from a distance--about two resort distances away--and started paddling

hoping we could get an up close look.

Suddenly we hear a whoosh to our left and just behind. Just 50 feet away a huge

whale back was floating on the surface. Then a second whale equally large surfaced! 

We were torn between getting closer and not wanting to have it hit our kayak!

Dan tried using the snorkel mask to see if he could see it underwater. We were both way too nervous for  him to jump overboard, so he peered over the side. Of course the kayak tilted, I screamed, then swore, 

and thankfully we were able to right ourselves quickly. 

We had rain, progressively getting harder each day we stayed. The mornings were clear, but the ocean more choppy. By noon, gray clouds covered the ocean, rain stopped and started, 

and the sunset was hidden in evenings.

Didn't mind though since we could still be outside, protected on our deck, 

and we'd had plenty of sun and heat the week prior!

Thursday before we left, we had a late lunch at Tommy Bahamas and did a little shopping.

A few t-shirts and flip-flops for Dan and for me,

 found a ring in Tiffany's perfect to wear when we go on vacation.

As tempting as it was to keep staying, we like Nick. 

But I wonder how we're going to decide to come home in a few years?!