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.

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Gold Toes, Typing and Turtles

Day 1 on Maui and it was a DOOZY!

Because I lived here for over a decade and stay with my GF, I do not do the luaus, the tours, the boat trips when I come to Maui, but instead do a lot of staring out at that gorgeous ocean. At whales!

From my deck desk, I watched a ton of humpback whale activity yesterday. Yes, it was distracting from the task at hand (requested revisions on a screenplay) but who can resist watching whales breaching on the ocean's surface? Not moi.

While the day was spent trying to imagine my latest screenplay changes and how they would affect the plot, character development etc, I took time to BE on Maui. I also watched the ring-tailed doves in the plumeria trees in front of the railing, I drank Kona coffee, I ate those rich Macadamia nuts, and I went for a pedicure. Yes, you heard me.
My friend Lynn was waiting for her pedicure appointment until I arrived, so off we went with the dog who sits quite nicely during a pedicure, I must say. I'm not sure why I chose gold for my toes but the Academy Awards are on my mind so maybe that was it.

After lunch of cheese, fruit, crackers, veggies and a naughty Diet Coke, on the lanai (deck), I wrote all afternoon. fixing, changing, thinking, substituting and made great headway. Then I walked down to the little beach near the house and had a dip in the ocean. Because of the rains, the shoreline water is a bit murky so I didn't take snorkeling equipment. Just swimming/floating around with a 15 minute lie in the sunshine on a towel break between swims. It was glorious. A sea turtle came up for a bit of air just ten feet away near a group of rocks. Kids were out on surfboards for the gentle break off the point seeing it was after school. That's Hawaii for you.







The wee doggy needed his sunset walk so off we went to Fleming Beach to watch Jo Jo sniff every square foot of the park which must have some great mongoose smells. I remembered the day a man exposed himself to me in the bushes at this park and my dog chased him off.

Back home, we set the table and Kris and Lucy came for chicken pasta salad which had been marinating in Italian dressing all day (Lynn is a GREAT cook and Italian!), chocolate cake from scratch and then we watched Crazy Rich Asians on her giant TV. Fun movie. I laughed out loud alot. We all agreed how colorful the visual was and how gorgeous the women were.

Today is cloudy but one never knows when a trade wind will come in to blow away the clouds and show that robin's egg blue sky.

It's a work day anyhow -- writing!
I love this place and it's wonderful smells, sounds and sights...


KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon Bestselling Author best known for The Dream Jumper Series, which is optioned for film, with over 400 reviews on Amazon at 4.5 stars.
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