Maui on my mind

(Rainbow off of the Kaanapali coastline on Maui - June 2006)

Some of my Hawaii history...

This trip will not be the first time I have been. Hawaii and I have had somewhat of a love affair since my teens. Just after my sophomore year in high school (summer of 1993), my dad sent me away on a trip for high school students in the area to study environmental science. The trip was put on by a teacher at Anderson High School, Jeff Schwarz, and involved getting course credit. We spent a total of eighteen days on three islands (Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii) hiking, swimming, snorkeling, studying, and seeing the sights. I learned a lot, got a rockin' tan, jumped off of waterfalls into natural pools of water, and hiked to see flowing lava and got close enough to poke a stick in part of it that was flowing. There was so much more to the trip. We only got to visit three islands that year because hurricane Iniki had blown through the fall before and ravaged the island of Kauai. To say the trip was life-changing is almost an understatement. I can pinpoint moments of that trip that made me into the woman I am today. I can see in my mind many of the first sights of that trip.

My dad and Rose travel to Maui (and other islands now and again) every year, sometimes twice, so I have visited with them on several occasions...December of my senior year in HS and got to take my friend Erin, a family trip with my brother Chris, family trip with the Tietz family, family trip with Chad, Chris and Kim (where my niece was conceived), and I'm sure once or twice that I'm forgetting to list here. I also visited Kauai with them on a family trip.

When I was a teacher (summer of 2003), I had the good fortune of getting to relive the environmental science trip again by being a teacher chaperone on the trip with Mr. Schwarz. This time I was an adult, I got to drive a van, and we visited four islands in 31 days. Again, this kind of trip is life-changing. Lots of hiking, lots of snorkeling, kayaking the ocean to see the Napili Coast on Kauai...and on and on. As an adult, I definitely appreciated what I was doing more than I did when I was fifteen.

Cut to today - Sometimes a family trip to Maui means seeing all the sights, especially if we are traveling with friends or family who have not seen the island. Sometimes we spend more time on the lawn chairs at the beach in the sun/shade. Regardless of what we do next week, I'm ready to return to the ocean breeze, the powerful sun rays, walking around in a bikini worrying about tan lines, and eating the uber-fresh Maui pineapple.