Day Off

It has been nice having Jeanie's mom here. I like feeling mothered/spoiled every now and then :) Yesterday, on our day off, she joined us in the morning to watch our surfing lesson, which we took from this guy we know from Paia. It was awesome learning how to surf--it's so much less complicated than I thought it would be. The hardest part was paddling out to the waves, which was by far the most exhausting thing I've done in the recent past. I need to build up my upper body endurance! As far as actually riding the waves, the mechanics are easy and the balance just takes lots of practice. We both almost stood up (by that I mean we stood shakily and promptly fell off), but it was fun just lying or kneeling on the board, too. I got the weirdest, most massive bruises on my knees (my left knee is literally entirely covered in red and purple), even though I didn't knock them around that much. I have been bruising SO easily recently! Apparently it has to do with my not having eaten green leafy vegetables for two months.... I'm now obsessed with salad.

After surfing, we drove partway to Hana and went on a couple tiny hikes, took a nap and went to the beach in Kihei to watch the sunset, ate at our favorite Kihei fish place (where I got a salad and grilled mahi-mahi instead of my usual deep fried fish and chips), and showed Joni the Grand Wailea. It was a very long day, but SO nice not to have any responsibilities.

Did I mention we had some more car problems? When I tried to leave work one night, the engine wouldn't start, so after traipsing around trying unseccessfully to find jumper cables at 11:30 p.m., I got a ride home from some coworkers. Jeanie went back in the morning with her mom, planning to call AAA (lucky for her she actually has AAA), and it started no problem. We think some of the cables on the battery just need to be tightened, so we're hoping we can get someone we know to take a look at it. It could definitely be worse! We would have to get a new car immediately if anything went seriously wrong, since the bus stops running way before we get off work and neither of us really wants to hitch-hike alone at night.

I've had a bit of a chance to explore Paia more. There are three beaches right next to each other--one is Paia Bay, where we usually go because it's so close, the one in the middle is this pretty little cove where all the nudies hang out, and the third is a really long beach called Baldwin that ends in another town (Sprecklesville--isn't that a dumb name?). There are paths that cut through tiny woods between all the beaches, and it's a really nice walk--beautiful and probably 3 or 4 miles round-trip. Even though there are lots of people around, I'm getting a nature fix.