We got to do a little beaching.And here's my impression of Maui beaches: loud thugs bragging, angry drivers honking, tourists getting burnt and trying, for some reason, to look like they're not having fun. But also, nice waves and nice toasty UV rays doing their job.
There is a whole foods on Maui.Living on Kauai, I spend a lot of my transplant small-talk time keening with people over retail that exists elsewhere and not here. Most frequently mentioned: Target, Ross and Trader Joe's. A close runner up? Whole Foods.
Well, I went to the beloved Whole Foods on Maui. I warned Rosie that she was going to have to be so patient because this shopping trip was going to take FOREVER.
And it did. I savored every second of it. I walked up and down every aisle, looked at every thing on the shelves, admired the bulk bins and the saintly edenic cosmetics and the gourmet prepared food (take something fancy. Stuff it with something else fancy. Voila.)
I found about 6 things I wanted to lug home with me (for one, sunscreen decorated with cute Eric Carle drawings and with big reassuring letters: "Contains No Bad Stuff." don't panic.) And spent $100. Hah! reminded me of the Simpson's clip when they go shopping at "Wellness Foods" and spend $9000 on a week's worth of food, which all shrivels on the counter because it's organic and lacks preservatives. hehe.
But look at this glistening olive bar... The olive-eating lifestyle this suggests!
Mildred mixing sea salt with the family's legacy Alae clay to make the amazing, delicious, mind-altering red salt. We relish it and hoard it.
Rosie LOVED her cousins.
And they were very patient with her little-kid bossiness, allowing themselves to be pushed and pulled and shushed.
Great art with grandma.
We took lots of walks on the home road-- Rosie found a little broken egg. Also a family of ducks living in an irrigation ditch, a goat, horses, and a fallen chicken nest.
Why dress down when you can dress up?
Immersing themselves in the holy waters of Iao stream...
And here Lukey has just lost his slipper, forever. No amount of dredging, digging, sifting, poking, sloshing, or squishing showed up any sign of the thing.
Cousin love.
It's all about food. Food=love.
This is the moment when Rosie found out that she couldn't keep her cousins with her forever. She was heartbroken and wailed all the way to the airport.
Which, I think, is a sign of a good family reunion! Or, of seriously crashed out blood sugar. Either way, it was a fantastic trip.
(And yes, this is the 2nd half of the trip. The photos from the first half are on Matt's computer, which means I will never see them again, and none of that stuff actually happened.)
