We did find solace with the wind and waves and ended up having one of the most epic sessions of windsurfing since our arrival. Eric had spent the last month sailing way up wind away from the crowds and rather than join him, Doug, Kris, Pat and I opted to make fun of him for sailing alone. Eric convinced me to sail up wind with him on Monday where I have to concede the waves were much cleaner and best of all not another sailor within a hundred yards. With the clean waves and extra sailing space we were getting huge air including the two biggest jumps of my life and fortunately Eric witnessed both although unfortunately did not have the camera with him so until I match the feat on camera you’ll have to take our word. I knew they were huge as I floated through the air and fell deep into the troughs between the sets of waves and Eric confirmed by sailing up, probably double taking to ensure it was in fact me, and then proclaiming, “UNBELIEVABLE!” Since Eric taught me to windsurf eight years ago, I think he was like a proud father watching my progress and has been telling everyone about the jumps so now I’m on the hook for a repeat performance. Our smiles were back in full bloom as we sailed into the evening although we paused for a moment to wave to the American Airlines 767 that flew overhead carrying Kris and Tara safely back to the mainland and then it was back to the waves for more.
Monday night we celebrated our windsurfing session having dinner with our neighbors, Trent and Mike from Dallas, who have been on Maui for nearly a year. Trent actually leaves this week for the mainland where he plans to ‘recharge the bank account’ and then return to Maui next year. It will be too bad to see Trent leave as he has provided non-stop laughs since we met him on day one of our trip. One of our biggest sources of laughter with Trent is the continual discussion of his favorite restaurant here on the island, “MacDarnell’s”, which is Texan for McDonalds. I’m not sure how many times he has visited the king of fast foods, but the number is high and he is a wealth of information on each and every golden arch on the island. He even had a discussion with the manager at the Kahului restaurant as to why they did not serve the famous orange drink that is a staple back on the mainland. It turns out that they opt to serve Hawaiian Punch at the restaurants on Hawaii instead of the orange drink which had Trent and his comrades puzzled but this has not deterred them from contributing a sizeable percentage to the billions served this year. One of his most discussed menu items at “MacDarnell’s” is ‘the clown cone’ which by this point had taken on mystical status with Eric and I despite not fully understanding what it was. And so after a healthy dinner of chicken, beans and eda-mame over at Trent and Mike’s we all headed down to Dairy Roa d for our first clown cone. Part of the full experience, as Trent pointed out, is wheeling into the parking lot with screeching tires, similar to the way the Dukes of Hazard might roll in to “The Boar’s Nest” on two wheels, so as to announce your presence with authority. Thus we walked in laughing to learn the clown cone is a 99 cent ice cream cone with a picture of Sir Ronald M. MacDarnell himself on the side and well worth the $1.03 with tax and the trip to town. Thanks Trent – we will certainly miss you around here.
Having missed out on the second kite lesson that Kris and Eric had last week I rescheduled with Craig and went back out for some more kiting on Wednesday and again on Friday. This time I made it out onto the water with a 4.4 square meter kite which didn’t seem that big until it filled with air and started to yank me through the water with incredible force. The kite is attached to 30 meter strings and a bar that you hold in your hands, or can be hooked to your harness, which controls the kite, increasing and decreasing its power by moving it through different windows in the wind. Many former windsurfers have switched to kiting with the reasoning that you can kite in less wind than it takes to windsurf and still get speed and huge air. With my windsurfing passion now at an all time high, Eric and I have been wondering with concern what we will do when we get back to Cape Cod and its not blowing 25-30 mph every day, the conditions we are spoiled with here on Maui. I think we have found the answer which will come in the form of a kite, probably 10 square meters in size or bigger, to carry us in the light winds back home while we wait for the bigger days to get out on our windsurfers. We are planning one more lesson and then have convinced Craig to come kite shopping with us to help sort through all the different styles and sizes and make sure we pick something up that suits our needs. Good news - its looks like we do have a new activity that will become part of our weekly shuffle.
Fear not J.E.W. readers, we did continue our yoga practice which included two marathon primary series sessions with Nadia. The primary series is a fixed set of poses that is normally completed in less than two hours but with Nadia’s bi-polar personality, where she flips back and forth from drill sergeant to flirt, she is prone to running way over the allotted time. She will often get side tracked keeping us in painful poses for several minutes bellowing commands out of one side of her mouth and chatting with one of her many friends out of the other causing these sessions to often go two and half hours or longer. After about ninety minutes Eric started losing his enthusiasm and was lying on his mat ignoring instructions when the drill sergeant in Nadia came out scolding him like a first grader who was not paying attention. We did our best to keep from laughing as we went on with the class and as always walked or limped out feeling great but completely drained of energy and absolutely starving. As mentioned previously, with Jacques Bistro next door to the studio, the longer the class goes, the bigger the torture from smelling burgers frying up on the grill. We caved again after class although this time Nadia joined us and we learned some interesting tidbits about her as she is quite a character. The most interesting note is that it turns out at age 33, she has a live in 23 year old musician boyfriend - you go girl. Anyway, it was quite amusing to see her out of her element where she seemed quite nervous but also very open in spilling her life story. She told us she has the reputation on the island of being a little crazy which had us all chuckling over lunch.
With all the guests here and activities surrounding their visits I had not been out on my bike in a couple weeks so good thing riding a bike is just like... We planned a morning ride on Friday and awoke at 6:30, suited up and headed out to find monsoon like conditions. Actually it was lightly drizzling and our motivation was low so we walked back inside, put the bikes away and poured a couple large boils of Cocoa Puffs and enjoyed a mellow morning instead. So we’re getting back into our routine a little slowly but we did sail every day, hit the yoga studio three times, continued our kiting which is a new twist and will surely get the bikes out this week. Actually we have a new set of guests arriving starting today with the arrival of Eric’s Dad, Alan, who will be staying with us for ten days. My parents arrive next week and we are planning some island hopping with them so more tales to follow but we will have to keep the partying to a minimum with the parental supervision in town.
Best comments from last week:
Jordan, Columbus, Ohio (Jon’s oldest brother)
“In reference to the comment from Nur that she will miss the J.E.W. Why not keep it going? All of us suckers who are reading it at work might appreciate reading about life after your return. You know-no job, no money, no apartment, no car...”
Rusty, Florida (welcome back)
“It has been a while but I am back. I have not been tuning in lately because...I have a life. Reading about you and weenie-boy going to bed at 7pm so you can get up and walk 20 miles for some reason lost my interest. Right when I was ready to cancel my subscription to the J.E.W., I get the latest issue. Like always you deliver. After reading the first few paragraphs it did not take me to long to realize that once again you have given me A+ material to work with. Dude what's with the goldfish and habitrails? All I am going to say is when I was a kid I had a habitrail and I kept gerbils in it. That's
all I am saying. Much to my surprise I saw you and weenie-boy in photos with women? Did you guys stumble across some lost tribe of women while you out for a walk? Look,
either way I can finally say I am proud of you punks. Is it possible that we can see some
more provocative photos? I could go on but I went to a wedding last nite and partied like the Kennedys and I am hung over. Partying is a form of going nuts that involves women,
music, alcohol (oh I forgot, you get high off of life) and other things I will plead the 5th on.”
We had to settle for the biggest we had on film, but here's a taste of "Air Jonny."
Jonny sailing into the lion's den.
A shot of Eric from our twilight sailing session last Tuesday.
A last minute entry. Eric sailing just before the JEW deadline closed for this weeks issue.
Trent and his world famous clown cone at “MacDarnell’s” where "smiles are free." We will miss you Trent.
Trent bids us fairwell from the water.
Mike (also from Texas and roommates with Trent) on the water.
Jon and I aren't at this stage yet, you can see from this picture that kiting is the wave of the future. All this can be done in 12 knots of wind. The Fall season at home is saved!
Gratuitous picture as requested by our readers.