Monday February 6th 2017- Rainy Day

Monday February 6th 2017- Rainy Day

Ohaygozaimasu (Good morning in Japanese)  Whats that you say? Ready Dorafutsakka sensude wanai basukettoboru senshu. Okay I said draft football players not basketball players.  Who am I talking to?  Well I"m talking to Ted..... Hey I am an owner don't ya know.

This is my morning.

Not bad now but wait until later.  It has been raining off and on during breakfast.  Simple breakfast.  Now lets say "Let Go My Eggo".

Okay I also had yogurt.  After doing our chores around the condo we went to the Farmers Market.

We parked across the street in a small park.  Our first stop we picked up several apple bananas, a small half quart of pineapple and one big papaya.  Next we got some lettuce and so on down the line.  Lots of tasting along the way.  Clela did some looking in the other shops from modern art to hippie ware.  We walk across the street to the park.  There are a couple trees I like to photograph.

I like the exposed roots.  After sitting in the park and enjoying the quaky people we went back to our condo.  Here is what we brought at the market.

If you ask me why we went to the market it would be the cream cheese.  If you ever have a Chance to come here you must order Lilikoi Passion Fruit Cream Cheese!!  I don't know where the time goes but it is lunch time.

 The hamburger from last night and potato, macaroni salad.  After lunch we listen to our Detective story with the Minnesota Detective Lucas Davenport.  I think if an author has the right reader to read the story becomes real and exciting.
We went down to the ocean to look for whales.  The wind was blowing so hard near the small pool it is hard to walk.  There is a swirling effect to the wind here.  The wind speed made it hard to walk.  When you get down near the ocean the wind lets up.  We are talking about fifty yards.  We sat down to watch for whales. We saw very little and it started to rain, ya in five minutes.  Okay back to the condo.  The rain keeps coming down.  Clela took her book out to the Lanai to read.  I worked real hard for all of you the see my eyes in a photo.

Now that is perfect.  There I do have eyes.  Great pic right.  Maybe I had a little to much to drink.  Hey come on here I'm all dressed up with my best Hawaiian jewelry.
Clela decided we should finish our card game.  Remember I'm behind by 10 points.  We are playing Up the River and Down the River.  We play this all the time with the grand kids.  We are now finishing the game by going Up the River.

The game is on and I'm winning everything.  Oh Clela is making a furious move, she is gaining more and more.  I'm hanging on by my finger nails, and then while breathing hard, sweat poring down my face it's over.  I can now breath.  113 Gene 106 Clela.  Wow that was a match.

We are getting wind and flood weather advisory. I is raining like crazy.
Can you believe it's time to eat, good transition.  Well I'm doing the cooking, don't laugh I made the ravioli and Clela made the salad.  That looks like something you would order at a fine restaurant, like maybe Chef Ramsay just made it for us.  Well what can I say.  I'm really that good.  Sayonara, that's goodbye in Japanese.
See you later, perhaps tomorrow.  

Sunday February 5th - Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday

Buongiorno (Good Morning) all you Italian Packer Fans.  Today we should have been in the Super Bowl.  All we needed was some D backs.  Well here is what I woke up to.

We have a little VOG today.  

This morning was a Jimmy Dean breakfast time.  Okay Clela made her own,

I think Jimmy should be worried.  

We wanted to make phone calls today so we spent a lot of time on the Lanai.  In between calls we both whale watch.  What a show, I was going crazy.  It was double breach day, from one side of our view to the other.

I finally said said let's go down, find a place to set and watch.  You guested it every little action.  Everyone who walking said did you see all those breaches this morning?  We sat there about an hour when we ran into that couple from Cedarburg and we gave them several places to eat.  As we were walking back Clela said lets go next door to see how much erosion took place since last year.  Boy were we surprised. Here are some pictures.

You can't walk on the side walk anymore.  By next year there wont be any side walk.  This is sad.  Who said there is no global warming.  As I was looking at the erosion the wind was so strong I had to hold on to my hat, so strong it knocked me around.  I said Clela  take a video of me and how it was blowing me around.  I showed her how to take the video and she did.  Okay the video was one second long and the other was three seconds long we both had a good laugh.  

We came back to our condo and eat lunch.

We had a ham and pepper jack cheese sandwich, Maui chips, an apple banana, an oatmeal raisin cookie and milk.  It was game time and that was our day.  Ciao (good by) to all those Italian people who were rooting for Atlanta.

Saturday February 4 2017- A Relaxing Day

 A Relaxing Day
Hey Dudes and Dudest good morning.  This is our day.

What a beautiful day.  Probably the last one in several days.  That's okay because it is warm.  Here is our morning debate.  Take a look at our breakfast and tell me which one is the best.

Clela's breakfast

My breakfast.  I'm sure you'll pick mine.  I mean, come on, mine wins because I also have the Milwaukee Journal and she has The Maui News.  Please register to vote, you must show proper ID when you vote.  Just kidding. We did get up early but didn't do much.  We did go down to whale watch.  No pictures to show, but today was teaching babies.  We saw tail slapping, both together.  We saw double breaching, mother and baby and pectoral slapping.  My new binoculars got us in real close.  This went on until noon.

After eating the rest of the quiche and listing to our story we went down to the pool to play Up the River and Down the River.  We started playing until the cards blew off the table.  Time to move.

We found a place the was almost in side and out of the wind.  At the half time here is the score.

Okay, so I am behind but I'm getting closer.
We came back to our condo grabbed car keys and went out to get a pizza.

Okay not all the table are round.  Okay pizza this time.

Great tasting but we have had better here.
Hey, that is our day.  Hope to see you tomorrow.

Friday February 3rd - Lunch at the Beach

Lunch at the Beach
This is what our day looks like this morning,

I have a cup of coffee, and read the Milwaukee Journal.  A good day! We have large waves breaking and the surfers and long boarders are taken advantage.  We spent some time down by the ocean in the morning.  We then packed our lunch and left for cemetery beach, you remember the beach with the cemetery next door.  Seem like we take half the things in the condo with us.

At the Beach

Upon arriving at the beach we setup our area. 

Now don't make fun of our chairs.  Don't you like the poke a dots?  Hey remember $7.00 each and they are new.  Stop laughing.  We setting in to people watch.

It's time for lunch.  We have Crackers, Ham and cheese.  We also have a banana and a large cookie.  That's okay right?  No bread, that's good.  

I must admit I took a lot of video today and I'm having technical problems.  Anyway we had a nice walk on the beach.  Clela goes into sea glass mode.  We found none.  This beach was our best spot in the past.

After spending several hours at the beach we headed back to our condo.  Did you ever try to clean sand off your feet and beach shoes?  It is like glue.  So we went down to the small pool because they have a area to wash your feet.  Okay since we are here lets go for a swim.  

Most of the time we swim here because of depth is not deep and most of all to watch kids. 

After our swim and after supper, quiche, we headed down to the ocean to watch the sunset.  

Saw this sail boat and thought it was cool.  This boat kept heading toward the sunset arriving just a little before.  Clela was very excited because she saw a full whale breach just off shore.  The whale was so close you could see it's under belly markings.  First time in a long time she saw a breach so close to shore.  You ask, Gene did you see the whale and I say ah what whale.  Hey I did see the splash and because it was so close you could hear it.  It made a noise like you would when hitting the floor and knocking the wind out of you, really. Or if you were tackled by Lincoln (the Hammer) Stultz.

Just before sunset there was a father and his two sons, the father with a fishing net and each boy carrying a fish, (had a great video).  The father and sons walking along the sea wall and telling his sons to watch the breaking waves.  When he saw fish in those waves he quickly got down to the sand and took one last look before hurling his net into the ocean in a beautiful motion.  His waited net settles down into the waves.Then he walks out into the ocean to retrieve his net.  No fish this time.

The sun is now setting on a beautiful day.

See ya tomorrow.

Wednesday February 1st -Shopping

Good morning you all

Our first look of the day was very promising.  There is nothing like starting the day with our special Maui coffee and sitting on the lanai.  Okay that is not her picking her nose and she is not giving me the finger.

Here we are our selfie of the day.

Don't we look happy.  Someday I'll let you see my eyes.
C.J. Deli
We always stop at C.J. Deli for breakfast.  If you want a great way to start your stay on Maui I would suggest C.J.s.

I always order Macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup. Clela ordered fried rice scrambled eggs.

To each his own, my looks better right.  Clela made two meals out of it.
Shopping
Today was our shopping day, you know getting the nessary things to make our stay.  In layman's terms that means going to the grocery store.  Clela always shops with a list and then there is me.  I'm the one that looks for good cookies and maybe a premix drink, you know just add ice.  I'm not the person who can make a special drink, that requires talent and I have none.  Brad and Wes are good at that.
When we shop we are looking for something that requires little cooking time.

We shop at Safeway in Lahaina. The isles are narrow and it takes you for ever to check out. However, we have a Safeway card.
Upon arriving at our condo we have bell hops bring up our groceries. Almost noon and a quick sandwich and listen to our story.  Minnesota detective written by Sanford. He is one of our favorite authors.
Beach Time
After taken a rest, we're old don't ya know. We were off to the beach to see some whales.  I check to see if we had any beach and there was none.  The honeymooners all come down to have there picture taken by this rustic wall.

We were watching whales breach and this guy is excited (come on keep it clean) he was jumping up and down with whale sighting.  He started talking to us and he asked us where we were from.  We said Milwaukee (we always say that).  He said what street.  I said 49th and Oklahoma. I thought I can play this game.  We asked him where he was form and he said Cedarburg and we said we are really from Sussex.  The guy could talk your head off, from the Badgers to the Packers.  Standing in one spot for either of use is hard so we said see ya later we want to go for a swim.  Clela thought the hot tub would be a good place to go and that lasted 5 minutes.
So ends our day with supper.

 We had a salad with chicken strips and a good glass of Maui splash wine.
That is our day see ya tomorrow.

Traveling

January 30-31

On the 30th we went from Milwaukee to Minnesota and then on to L.A.  Maybe it is the excitement of the trip but I never sleep well.  My problem is I'm always thinking the alarm set of 2:45 will not go off.  I wake up every half hour and turn on my phone to make sure it's is on.  Finally I got up at 2:30 I couldn't sleep any more. You know we also have  a triple threat to worry about.  We had the weather, the Trump demonstrations in L.A. and last Delta computers went down.

The weather  

You know when you have been waiting the whole year for this trip you start looking at the weather 15 days out.  I knew we were about to get 2 inches of snow Monday night. We had a lull in the storm so I went outside and cleared the side walk.  The next morning worrying about the snow I went out only to find out it was still snowing and we got more than 2" inches.  So you all know me I made an area for the van to park so we wouldn't have to trudge through the snow.  Looking at the driveway my next worry was that the driver from Go Rite wouldn't be able to get in. He did and we were on our way only to find out we had two other stops to make.  Now I know it is a shared ride but we never had to share, five years now and in a snow storm. We went into Waukesha off of G. Yes heading went to go east.  Oh did I say and driving slow! This old lady and husband who later said she all ways traveled in a wheel chair were now walking out to the van and down a driveway that was so slippery that the van could not go up after two attempts. Next we drove into Brookfield/Waukesha and drove almost to Capital Drive to pickup the next guy.  As we were leaving we could not drive up the incline to leave.  We backed out the way we came in.  Yes not a very good planed circle.  Okay we are now on our way heading east yea! We hit the freeway that was good traveling and he took off like grease lighten for the airport.  We were picked up at 4:00 and now it was about 5:30.  We made it to our gate with about a half hour before boarding.  This is not the way I travel, just ask Sam.  Once in Orlando I had us down stairs before the TSA was there.  Oh we stayed in the airport Hyatt in a conference room, but that's another story.  Read travel problems from this web site.

Travel to the cities

We got to our gate and they were already loading the plane.  So I got in line and told Clela to hurry and get in line.  She said Gene, Gene your not going to Atlanta are you.

Okay maybe I was  a little nervous After a gate change our flight was on time.  We had a small plane, seating two by two.  Great flight with no problems.

If you ever traveled to the Minnesota airport you had better have your running shoes on, not so good for Clela.  We ate breakfast at one of those places that didn't have waitress just an IPad.

Had some problems navigating but got my order with  a little help.  I"ll do better next time.  That system is coming to all airports.  Oh by the way I payed 18% to someone who brought my food out.  All right she did help me my order.

Now to our gate.  put your track shoes on baby because it was a long hall. Being here before we knew about the carts.  We got on and there was no way Clela could have walked it.

 Traveling to LAX

We always have a plan when traveling with seat 3 by 3 we always book seats A and C.  Most people don't like sitting in the middle. First of all to do this there is a charge to upgrade and then to have to set in the middle is a double whammy, thus we have nobody sitting in the middle.  Well it didn't work.  We had a young man who was a good traveler.  He worked in his computer most of the way.  Oh who got the middle you may ask me.  We have another system the is if it is a women Clela sits in the middle and if a man I do.  We had a pleasant flight to LAX.  Upon arriving we got an phone call that I thought was phishing call so I hung up.  We went down stairs to get our bags and found no bags!  We went to the service desk and they track our bags.  Our bags went on a early flight.  Wow a maybe I should have listen the the whole phone message.  We found our way to our bus and traveled to the Hyatt LAX.  This hotel was just remodeled.  We have been waiting for this change about a year because it wasn't a Hyatt.  Now being a Hyatt we arranged used points, so that's free baby.  Love free stuff.  Beautiful.

 I'd call it a modern retro.  The furniture in our room was new but retro in style.  After taking a rest we went down and had a lunch/supper in a bar. We went up stairs and basically went to bed.

January 31st Traveling to Maui

This was our big day, we are flying first class.  Can you believe it all those years flying coach with no room to move.  All those years of fighting the person in front of me because when they put their seat back to the point we couldn't reach our tray to eat.  All these years of no leg room.  Well no more. Okay just one leg flying going and one leg going home. The Hyatt van was on time. I though we would run into those Trump protesting.  No protesting and a another worry crossed off my worry list.
Boarding the plane

Every time we have boarded a plane we always turn to the right.  This time we went to the front of the plane to the third roll.  Holly Cow those seats were huge.
 The leg room was more than comfort plus.
After we took off they gave us Mai ties to get in a good Hawaiian mood.

 Next they served us breakfast. As the flight attendant was handing out the warm towels to wash our hands the same time an announcement was made that there was no food just snacks for the rest of the passengers, we had food. We had a choice of an omelet or oat meal.  We had the omelet.

All through the flight the flight attendance were on the run.  I sat back in my chair and said to Clela ahhh this is where I belong.
We arrived in Maui about 1:30, 5:30 your time.  A flight I will never forget.
Our condo
We picked up our car and our first stop was at the coffee outlet store for our brand of coffee that is grown just up the mountain side.

Our next stop we went to Goodwill for our beach chairs.  We found two new chairs for $14.00 dollars. You can't beat that.  We were suppose to get the door combo numbers upon arriving. No way, that fell through, however we knew where to go to get the numbers.  There office is right across the street.  Even tho we were getting into our condo around three we were tired.  I think part of the problem was we had to get up so early two days in a roll, 2:30 on Tuesday and 4:00 on Wednesday.
Well that's our first two days. I still liked the two days but we'll see next year.  See you later.