Goat Fish, Headbands & Queen

Yesterday was Leave Maui Day but not until eleven p.m. so I had the whole day to think about making my flight and whether I packed everything. On the day you leave a vacation, you wake up partly gone. It's a strange day.

I leave clothes and shoes and toiletries on Maui at Lynn's house so after sorting out what needed to bring home, and throwing my sheets in the laundry, I jumped in the car and went up to Kapalua Bay for a snorkel. I have good parking Karma, wherever I go, which means I get spots close to where I'm going and that morning was no different. Sure, I listened to three songs on the radio before someone left their spot, but that's how I roll.

I set up my towel and chair in the glorious sunshine and went straight in the water. This time of year, it's coolish at 80 degrees but once in, the temperature feels perfect! The water was calm in the bay and I headed out on the left side watching the schools of goat fish lazing happily in their groupings, drifting with the swell of the ocean, all going in to shore three inches, all going out from shore three inches.


I saw an enormous Parrot Fish, the bright blue and pink coloring and a strong beak-like mouth to chomp on coral. It must've been 15 pounds at least! At the mouth of the bay, way far out from shore, it was choppy and I started feeling motion sick riding up and down on the surface, so I headed in and laid in the sun for 20 minutes.
After buying 2 salads to go at the Honolua General Store in Kapalua I returned to Lynn's house to have lunch with Lynn on the deck and watch whales.

Having not strolled Lahaina's Front Street for a year, Lynn suggested we head downtown and walk the three blocks of famous old buildings that now house T-shirt shops and skin care salons of all things. Lahaina was really windy and my hair was driving me crazy so I bought a hippy headband to keep everything from blowing into my lipgloss. The wonderful thing about being older is that you don't care what you look like most of the time. Not really.

We drove to the other side (the airport side of Maui) at 6 with very little traffic, grabbed a taco at this little hole in the wall we always go to and I had Lynn drop me off at the newly renovated and extremely confusing airport. I'd hoped to sleep on the plane but eventually gave up trying and watched Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie about Queen that was really good. I had no idea that Freddy Mercury was really named Farouk and had such an overbite. The actor who played him was amazing.
I arrived first in Portland, changed planes, then Seattle, and by the time I got home I was ready for bed, happy to be home from my visit with Lynn but still, missing Maui, as I always do. A little less every time I go back since I moved from Maui 25 years ago.

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Dragon's Teeth, Humpbacks & Cockatoos

No morning showers here!
Solar panels on the Maui house need a few hours to warm up the water so the first few hours of my days on Maui are spent drinking coffee in PJ's, writing and whale watching.

Every morning, humpback whales jump off shore in exactly the same spot between two palm trees in my field of vision. Not sure why but I can look to the right down the coast and see nothing, yet almost every twenty minutes there's big breaches out of the water between those trees.

For my last full day on Maui, I have to say I did one final read through of the screenplay I wrote about a caterer renting a perfect house in the snow for her parents at Christmas only to find the house occupied by an architectural team hoping to work quietly and avoid Christmas. It's not a book yet but if Hallmark picks it up, you can bet it will be by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.

Once that file was sent I went off snorkeling to watch the little fishies at Kapalua Bay. These days, that is a wonderful place to snorkel with the clarity and a nice little reef on the left that's easy to get to. I followed a sea turtle for a bit and got out of the water feeling satisfied.

Back at the house, we gardened for a few hours, working on the snow peas, the tomatoes, the weeds. Things grow well in this climate and gardening is a full-time job.

Plumeria tree in Winter

The plumeria trees are just starting to grow buds again that will turn into lush green leaves and fragrant flowers. The avocado tree has buds that will turn into baseball-sized avocados in a few months too. I'm here for snow peas and tomatoes. It started to rain, the trade winds blowing the weather in from the north so we decided to a make chicken noodle soup and put on sweatshirts.

Dragon's Teeth

The rain stopped and the wee doggy needed his last walk of the day so I took him up north to the Ritz Hotel where the Hawaiian burial ground is protected land near the golf course. We strolled around to what is now referred to as Dragon's Teeth then home for soup.
Because of the rain, I got a lovely sunset shot just as the big ball of warmth disappeared behind Lanai!

Kris, a neighbor and friend stopped by for soup for her sick husband and I ran to the store for a bottle of wine in her car that blocked the driveway. We each had a glass with our soup and Navajo fry bread and Kris went home two hours later, proclaiming her hubby was probably asleep by now.
Lynn popped in the movie Grand Budapest Hotel and that quirky story was the ending to another perfect day on Maui!

Trail Near the Burial Ground

As I type this, the woman next door is driving off to go ride her horse. Her cockatoo is calling after her, "Bye" in her exact voice. This lasts a full minute. That bird hates to be left alone.
I called over there, "Hello!" The big white bird stopped and mimicked my voice.
Now we're trading "Hellooooo's" across the lawn!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Chocolate, Rejection & Mai Tais

Day 2 on Maui involved chocolate cake for breakfast!

Lynn practically forced me to have some by putting cream cheese icing on top so once I had my first cuppa Kona coffee, I knew I had to have a big slice of that cake calling me from the fridge.

I worked most of the day on a screenplay, taking breaks to walk in Lynn's garden where she was pulling weeds and harvesting oranges and snow peas. Things grow really easily here. No babying and tending and coddling plants--they just shoot up!

I drove Lynn to work at Kaanapali Beach Hotel where she's a cocktail waitress at the Tiki Bar and then took the doggy for a walk along the beach and boardwalk. It's law that every 200 ft or so, there has to be beach access for the public so there are these little parking spots at the major hotels for beach goers. I parked at the Hyatt, walked through and had a nice time with my buddy on a leash.

Thing was, once I took that 'lil stinker off the leash, JoJo would not let me within 20 feet of him. When it came time to take him for a sunset walk at 6:30, I couldn't get him in the car or close enough to leash him. He's a skittish rescue boy who lived on the streets of Hilo so his nature is understandable but I had plans to take him for drinks at the Tiki Bar to see his mom last night and he just wouldn't follow me to the car. Rejected by a fifteen pound dog who is mostly ears!



At the Tiki Bar, I had a Mai Tai and talked to the gentleman at the next table who'd brought his elderly mom and dad on the trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. The islands are full of people who never in their wildest dreams thought they would be able to afford such a trip but find it affordable in the winter if you do a package. Just when I'm crabbing about the island being too busy and crowded, I meet someone who is just so dang grateful to be here.

As I type this the doves are enjoying the morning sun on the rooftops across the street, chattering away, a lonely dog is moaning down the street, Molokai in the distance is now bathed in the morning sun and topped with a pink puffy cloud and I'm going to get another piece of chocolate cake.
Aloha Everyone!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

DAILY BLOGGING from MAUI!

Aloha~

I'm headed to Maui on Tuesday evening and plan to write my daily escapades on the blog starting Wednesday!
I do this every year, but this year things will be slightly different. I will also do daily Vlogs, video blogs, to show you where I am, what I'm doing, and how lovely Maui is.

If you're interested in tuning in, make sure you follow this blog (Click FOLLOW on the sidebar) and make sure you are a Beach Club member on Facebook over here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/188081488503196/




This is a group of people interested in my books and me as an author. I'm always looking to add more people to the Kim Hornsby Beach Club. Even people who have just met me. It's a big beach where everyone looks fantastic in their bathing suit!

I'll show you some locations on Maui where The Dream Jumper's Promise (my optioned for film book series!) takes place. And take you with me on a ferry to Lanai, the pineapple island to cruise around with my friend Bill. Then I'm off to sign books at Maui's Barnes & Noble!

It's Humpback Whale season so I just might have some whale footage too.

I hope you'll join me on Maui!





KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon #1 Bestselling novelist who lives in the Seattle area and writes books about women in dire circumstances rescuing themselves. She tweets her dreams most mornings on Twitter under the hashtag #StrangeDreams
www.twitter.com/kimhornsby

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Kim's Website https://kimhornsby.godaddysites.com

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