I went to the store on Friday to pick up some milk
and when I read the sell by date, September 2, it hit me that we are really
getting close to the end of our trip. When that milk goes bad we will
be back in Boston, catching up with friends and family, the part I’m looking
forward to, and at the same time looking for work while watching the Red
Sox fall out of playoff contention, the part I am dreading. Assuming
major league baseball can avoid a strike, my fall is looking at some tough
odds that include finding a new and interesting job in a down economy that
will pay the bills and be fulfilling and exciting following four months on
Maui and an overrated and tired bullpen trying to hold a lead and get the
Sox a wild card. Both long shots so hopefully it will be windy and
warm on the Cape this fall.
Monday after our usual yoga, kiting and windsurfing routine we got an invite from Craig and his wife Kim for dinner at their place in Haiku. We’ve been on the island four months now and we were discussing how we are finally making some friends and getting connected on Maui when we realized that all our invites are from people we pay in one way or another. Craig has not only instructed us in windsurfing and kiting but also most of our guests as well as several others we’ve referred to him. The boys from Neil Pryde Maui have come up to sail with us but of course we’ve dropped thousands there between us and our friends and we’ve had other invites for bike rides, hikes and dinners but mostly from the long list of people we’ve paid for one thing or another while on this adventure. Sinicism aside, we have made some great friends here and Craig is among them so it was great to get the invite for what was a superb BBQ dinner up at their pad. We spent the evening chowing down beef ribs and swapping stories mostly of Craig and Kim’s adventures since they picked up seven years ago and moved to Maui. We even got the full scoop on how the bought their pad in a foreclosure auction in complete shambles and then rebuilt every inch by hand learning as they went. I’m always curious to learn how different people have figured out how to make it work on an island where there is little industry other than tourism but Craig and Kim seem to have it nailed.
As part of the twelve step re-entry program that Eric and I are going through to prepare for our return to reality we each had encounters with the work world this week. Eric’s program includes putting together a “learn to kitesurf” video with Craig that will be shown at a new shop in town, Hawaiian Ocean Sports, to perspective kiters. The shop is owned by Air Rush, a kite manufacturer that is based on Maui, so if the video goes well don’t be surprised to see Eric with some new Air Rush kites on the Cape this fall. Actually Eric has spent endless hours including some late nights putting this together and hopes to be able to sell it at other kite surfing shops here and back home so keep a look out for any videos by THO Productions (you’ll have to ask Eric about the name). My work week included two mornings at the exclusive end of Stable Road working with a family, a very wealthy family, that has hired Craig out for two months to teach them windsurfing. They have blocked his time every day starting in mid July and into September so he is there waiting any time they feel like sailing. As they have two young kids learning, Craig often has a second person with him to help play lifeguard and make sure the heiresses do not drift out to sea and on Tuesday he needed some help so I got on the payroll from 9:00 to 1:00. Just before 1:00 we learned that they decided to go shopping that day instead but the good news is I got paid to sit in a lawn chair getting sun and staring at the blue ocean for four hours which helped me prepare for the realities of work in a slow economy. On Saturday morning I returned to help out again and this time actually had to do some teaching. The two daughters decided not to sail but the mom and her friend came down and Craig worked with the mother on water-starts while I worked with her friend who is a beginner. Turns out the mom is heiress to the Guinness (yup the beer) fortune and wife to several other fortunes putting her in the top twenty richest families in the world. I got to work with her childhood friend, a 37 year old divorced French million-heiress who was wearing a European style bikini and who had…well let’s just say she was quite buoyant on the water and without a life vest. She spoke little English but was very enthusiastic to learn how to windsurf and spent a few non-stop hours on the water going back and forth. So I spent my morning sailing behind her out and back and bellowing instructions that I’m certain she didn’t understand and basically just making sure she didn’t drift to sea and occasionally playing caddy dragging her rig back upwind. After that grueling session I do believe I am ready to take on the rat race once again.
In addition to our practice at the work world we also did one more dry run of the process of leaving the island of Maui. This time it was a quick forty five minute ferry ride to Lanai which, as you will recall, is the island just off the coast of West Maui and most famous for hosting the wedding of Bill and Melinda Gates. It is a small island with three resort hotels, two stunning golf courses, about thirty miles of paved road and not much else. This is clearly the place to go when you really want to do nothing but be pampered while you do it. We were there to visit Eric’s Aunt, Uncle and cousin who were vacationing at the Manele Bay Resort, rated the number one resort in all of Hawaii. This place did not disappoint with immaculate landscape and above and beyond service and our energy was sucked from our bodies as soon as we were welcomed there. We did manage a group hike with Uncle Jon, Aunt Judy and Cousin Ruth which brought us up to a point with stunning views of Maui and Molikai and Eric and I did bring our bikes over and got a morning ride on Friday in the nastiest hills we’ve done to date. Other than that though our two days there mostly included lounging around the pool and the continued tradition of excessive, albeit delectable, dining whenever we visit with any family. Thanks Jon, Judy and Ruth for your generosity and for a great couple of days – nice to get a little vacation away from all the pressures of our lives on Maui.
We’ve got one more week here and rather than focus on any more goals or trying to see any more sights we haven’t seen we will mostly spend the week doing our usual routine getting in as much kiting and windsurfing as we can. In the midst of all that we will also spend the week dealing with the operational side of heading home which is to ship our bikes, boards, sails, kites, computer, camera, clothes and anything else we have in our pile of stuff. Of course before we ship the computer we will publish one more issue of the J.E.W. from Maui 2002 and try to recap this adventure something that will be tough to do with just words and photos. See you all soon!
Feedback from last week:
Dan, Boston, MA (Jon’s older brother)
“Jono, not to sound like Rusty, but it's time for you to come home and have a brew. Guys like you do not use the words "epic", "spectacular" and "enjoy" so freely”
Rusty, Miami, Florida
“Sorry that I have not been responding to your weenie vacation adventures but I have had an epiphany. It was partly inspired by you and weenie-boy. I am going to start Miami's first overnight summer camp for inner-city kids. I am sure by now that you heard about our wonderful vacation. We had a great time. As much as I hate to admit this but I am
proud of you two and envious at the same time. To be able to take time out of your highly pressured life's and do what makes you happy is admirable.
I was sitting on the back porch of our cabin in the Smokey Mountains watching the sun set over the mountains. My kids asked me how to work the cable tv in the cabin. For the first time in their lives, I told them to go outside and play. I caught a fish with my son, watched the sunset with my wife and went trekking through the woods with my daughter
looking for a wild turkey. I spent a week with friends and family. That week in the Smokey Mountains took me back to one of the happiest times of my life. Summer Camp.
I sure you two can understand because you guys met at summer camp. Anyway, I got to thinking - I want to start a summer camp for the kids in Miami. I love what I do for a living now. I am a criminal defense investigator for the public defender's office. I love
my job because I play an important role on a defense team. More importantly I am able to help people. I never measured my success on how many people I helped get out of
jail. I measure my success on once a person is out of jail, what can I do to help them stay out. Unfortunately there is not much I can do. I believe the great things I do in my work is helping someone get housing, restore their right to vote or get them counseling. None of things are in my job description. Little things like that make a bigger difference (sometimes) to our client than getting them out of jail. I guess the point I am trying to make is that by opening up a summer camp maybe I can stop a lot of these people from ever going to jail. So that's what I am going to do.” - Rusty, this is a fantastic idea – I wish you the best success.
Monday after our usual yoga, kiting and windsurfing routine we got an invite from Craig and his wife Kim for dinner at their place in Haiku. We’ve been on the island four months now and we were discussing how we are finally making some friends and getting connected on Maui when we realized that all our invites are from people we pay in one way or another. Craig has not only instructed us in windsurfing and kiting but also most of our guests as well as several others we’ve referred to him. The boys from Neil Pryde Maui have come up to sail with us but of course we’ve dropped thousands there between us and our friends and we’ve had other invites for bike rides, hikes and dinners but mostly from the long list of people we’ve paid for one thing or another while on this adventure. Sinicism aside, we have made some great friends here and Craig is among them so it was great to get the invite for what was a superb BBQ dinner up at their pad. We spent the evening chowing down beef ribs and swapping stories mostly of Craig and Kim’s adventures since they picked up seven years ago and moved to Maui. We even got the full scoop on how the bought their pad in a foreclosure auction in complete shambles and then rebuilt every inch by hand learning as they went. I’m always curious to learn how different people have figured out how to make it work on an island where there is little industry other than tourism but Craig and Kim seem to have it nailed.
As part of the twelve step re-entry program that Eric and I are going through to prepare for our return to reality we each had encounters with the work world this week. Eric’s program includes putting together a “learn to kitesurf” video with Craig that will be shown at a new shop in town, Hawaiian Ocean Sports, to perspective kiters. The shop is owned by Air Rush, a kite manufacturer that is based on Maui, so if the video goes well don’t be surprised to see Eric with some new Air Rush kites on the Cape this fall. Actually Eric has spent endless hours including some late nights putting this together and hopes to be able to sell it at other kite surfing shops here and back home so keep a look out for any videos by THO Productions (you’ll have to ask Eric about the name). My work week included two mornings at the exclusive end of Stable Road working with a family, a very wealthy family, that has hired Craig out for two months to teach them windsurfing. They have blocked his time every day starting in mid July and into September so he is there waiting any time they feel like sailing. As they have two young kids learning, Craig often has a second person with him to help play lifeguard and make sure the heiresses do not drift out to sea and on Tuesday he needed some help so I got on the payroll from 9:00 to 1:00. Just before 1:00 we learned that they decided to go shopping that day instead but the good news is I got paid to sit in a lawn chair getting sun and staring at the blue ocean for four hours which helped me prepare for the realities of work in a slow economy. On Saturday morning I returned to help out again and this time actually had to do some teaching. The two daughters decided not to sail but the mom and her friend came down and Craig worked with the mother on water-starts while I worked with her friend who is a beginner. Turns out the mom is heiress to the Guinness (yup the beer) fortune and wife to several other fortunes putting her in the top twenty richest families in the world. I got to work with her childhood friend, a 37 year old divorced French million-heiress who was wearing a European style bikini and who had…well let’s just say she was quite buoyant on the water and without a life vest. She spoke little English but was very enthusiastic to learn how to windsurf and spent a few non-stop hours on the water going back and forth. So I spent my morning sailing behind her out and back and bellowing instructions that I’m certain she didn’t understand and basically just making sure she didn’t drift to sea and occasionally playing caddy dragging her rig back upwind. After that grueling session I do believe I am ready to take on the rat race once again.
In addition to our practice at the work world we also did one more dry run of the process of leaving the island of Maui. This time it was a quick forty five minute ferry ride to Lanai which, as you will recall, is the island just off the coast of West Maui and most famous for hosting the wedding of Bill and Melinda Gates. It is a small island with three resort hotels, two stunning golf courses, about thirty miles of paved road and not much else. This is clearly the place to go when you really want to do nothing but be pampered while you do it. We were there to visit Eric’s Aunt, Uncle and cousin who were vacationing at the Manele Bay Resort, rated the number one resort in all of Hawaii. This place did not disappoint with immaculate landscape and above and beyond service and our energy was sucked from our bodies as soon as we were welcomed there. We did manage a group hike with Uncle Jon, Aunt Judy and Cousin Ruth which brought us up to a point with stunning views of Maui and Molikai and Eric and I did bring our bikes over and got a morning ride on Friday in the nastiest hills we’ve done to date. Other than that though our two days there mostly included lounging around the pool and the continued tradition of excessive, albeit delectable, dining whenever we visit with any family. Thanks Jon, Judy and Ruth for your generosity and for a great couple of days – nice to get a little vacation away from all the pressures of our lives on Maui.
We’ve got one more week here and rather than focus on any more goals or trying to see any more sights we haven’t seen we will mostly spend the week doing our usual routine getting in as much kiting and windsurfing as we can. In the midst of all that we will also spend the week dealing with the operational side of heading home which is to ship our bikes, boards, sails, kites, computer, camera, clothes and anything else we have in our pile of stuff. Of course before we ship the computer we will publish one more issue of the J.E.W. from Maui 2002 and try to recap this adventure something that will be tough to do with just words and photos. See you all soon!
Feedback from last week:
Dan, Boston, MA (Jon’s older brother)
“Jono, not to sound like Rusty, but it's time for you to come home and have a brew. Guys like you do not use the words "epic", "spectacular" and "enjoy" so freely”
Rusty, Miami, Florida
“Sorry that I have not been responding to your weenie vacation adventures but I have had an epiphany. It was partly inspired by you and weenie-boy. I am going to start Miami's first overnight summer camp for inner-city kids. I am sure by now that you heard about our wonderful vacation. We had a great time. As much as I hate to admit this but I am
proud of you two and envious at the same time. To be able to take time out of your highly pressured life's and do what makes you happy is admirable.
I was sitting on the back porch of our cabin in the Smokey Mountains watching the sun set over the mountains. My kids asked me how to work the cable tv in the cabin. For the first time in their lives, I told them to go outside and play. I caught a fish with my son, watched the sunset with my wife and went trekking through the woods with my daughter
looking for a wild turkey. I spent a week with friends and family. That week in the Smokey Mountains took me back to one of the happiest times of my life. Summer Camp.
I sure you two can understand because you guys met at summer camp. Anyway, I got to thinking - I want to start a summer camp for the kids in Miami. I love what I do for a living now. I am a criminal defense investigator for the public defender's office. I love
my job because I play an important role on a defense team. More importantly I am able to help people. I never measured my success on how many people I helped get out of
jail. I measure my success on once a person is out of jail, what can I do to help them stay out. Unfortunately there is not much I can do. I believe the great things I do in my work is helping someone get housing, restore their right to vote or get them counseling. None of things are in my job description. Little things like that make a bigger difference (sometimes) to our client than getting them out of jail. I guess the point I am trying to make is that by opening up a summer camp maybe I can stop a lot of these people from ever going to jail. So that's what I am going to do.” - Rusty, this is a fantastic idea – I wish you the best success.
Our friends Craig and Kim hosting a fantastic rib dinner for us at their house in Haiku.
Jon and Eric practice yoga regularly to increase thier flexibility, strength and indurance.
Here we are with Nadia, our summer Yoga instructor.
Nadia warms up on "the rack" before class.
Judy and John plot a course on our hike on Lanai.
Eric and Ruth enjoy the view from the summit of our hike on Lanai.
Ruth and Jon on Lanai
Ruth enjoys a hike in the woods on Lanai.
Craig makes friends with a local kid while filming the kite video.