It has taken me awhile to post about the secret vacation my husband took me on for my birthday / our wedding anniversary / just because we needed to get away. I think it was because I was in denial about having to be home and not in our beautiful paradise. Maui. I had never been to Hawaii and never really had any desire to go...that has all changed as I now browse the nursing job listings in Hawaii weekly for my husband. Posting about it means it is over. Back to our real world.
David, my husband, planned the whole thing. I didn't know where we were going until I sat down at our departure gate and the flight attendant said over the loud speaker, "Everyone at gate C7 for Maui...blah, blah, blah..." I didn't hear the rest over my shrills of excitement.
We drank way too many Mai Thais. I got very badly burnt the first day laying out in the sun; David on the last few days. We laid on the beach at night and watched the stars. We talked. We kissed a lot more than we do at home. We had full length conversations without being interrupted by little ones. I can't describe it without grinning from ear to ear. It was lovely...no...beautiful....no...perfect...yes, a perfect vacation for the two of us.
Of all the pictures I took, one experience I never captured through a lens. We rented some snorkel gear and headed up the west side of the island where we heard many people spot turtles in the water. After swimming around in one bay for almost an hour, I signaled David I was going to head in. We had swam really close to the rocks and I was started to get tired and didn't want to find myself in between a rock and a hard place - literally. David took a head dunk to clear his masks and grabbed my arm so tight, looked up with gigantic eyes and 'snorkel talked' - "tooootttllle." Right below us was the most amazing turtle boasting a 3-4 foot wide shell on his back. All of a sudden (must have been turtle lunch time), a handful of turtles were swimming around the rocks; bobbing heads in and out of the water. We swam with turtles. We swam with turtles. We swam with turtles- I can't say it enough to really believe it. It was dream-like; face-to-face; fin to hand; shell to belly. Everyone should swim with turtles.
We flew back to Seattle very, very quiet. I could have stayed on Maui forever.
No judgment. We live in Seattle. We are as pale as paper, we know.
A palm tree trimming service was working on the trees at the residence behind the beach we were bumming at. I asked them for a few of the fallen coconuts and they were happy to give them to me. Mmmm..coconut water...
Drink after drink. No more Mai Thais for me for awhile, but plenty of room for pina coladas.
Since I had all the time in the world, what a great time to play with long exposure. These were taken our first night as we laid on the beach star gazing.
We stayed at a great location and was able to BBQ next to the salt water pool in the evening with hotel neighbors. We find neighbors wherever we go.
Snorkel, snorkel and snorkel some more. Both David and I have a fear of the ocean, but loved this most of all. When you can see everything around you, it eases any fears.
Yes we saw dolphins. When we saw them off our snorkeling boat, I started to cry. Really cry. I don't know what came over me. Seeing them was the best medicine for sea sickness. Don't need to blog about that. Just enjoy the dolphin photo. Notice the cute baby dolphin in the middle. The size of a football.
Rainbow after rainbow. My daughters would have loved it.
This was a tree - yes ONE tree in the town's park. How amazing.
We just couldn't make any sunrise to Mt. Haleakala, but enjoyed the sunset very much. Ummm....10,000 feet- don't wear shorts. It was sooooooo cold and windy. But beautiful- worth the drive.
We saw Mt. Rainier and started to cry. Not happy tears. Home again. 'Cloudly with a chance of rain tonight' said the flight attendant. We know. We know. Don't rub it in.
Aloha.
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