Buenas Noches! As you can see, my spanish is coming along. Thanks to a friend, I am using the Pimsleur method on my ipod. It's pretty intensive and I love doing it. Every night, I slip in the earbuds and lay down on the bed and say "perdon senor, habla usted castellano? Yes, I am speaking virtually with a very handsome-sounding latino. Okay, there's an english guy and a woman there too, but hey, all in the name of learning!
Things are going pretty well here in Kihei, the weather is the same every day, sunny and calm in the morning and the winds kick up in the afternoon, (thank god). So swimming, surfing and body boarding are best done in the early hours. Which is what we normally do. Get out of bed, put on swimsuits and walk down to our local beach (Charley Young). When we're feeling adventurous, we hop in our very-Maui mini van (beat up, transmission about to fall out, moldings falling off, etc) and find a new beach. Today, that's what Alex said to us, "Daddy go to nude beach" We're like "What???", "Nude beach, nude beach". We're assuming she means "new beach". Today we hit Polo beach, frequented by locals and very few tourists with some awesome waves coming in. We brought our body boards with us and I put Taylor in front and I laid behind her and caught some pretty big ones in. The whole way she shouted, WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!! It was pretty funny, and in some of them, I can't believe she wasn't scared. They were a good 4 feet!.
Yes, we're totally turning into locals. Yesterday we hit the local park with the kids which borders on a skate park. there was some sort of competition being held with some pretty good skaters. We all watched for a while, listening to some amazing music. In Safeway today, the cashier assumed I lived here. When we first got here, we were asked, "Where are you from?", now people ask where we live. Awesome. The brown skin and bleached out hair help I guess. Not too much else is new. Neil has been playing the guitar and even got out to the driving range. I did my yoga at the beach and will do it likely 2X a week. Signing up for a surf lesson this week, although many have told me that you don't really need them. I do love body boarding and catching some big waves, it'll be interesting to see what it's like standing up on them! I'm sure a bunch of reef cuts and some sore abs later, I'll be just fine.
So thus ends, or begins, another week of our mini-retirement. Please keep emailing, sending notes and postcards, etc - they're really appreciated. The only thing we miss on this trip is our friends and family (and our cat).
Things are going pretty well here in Kihei, the weather is the same every day, sunny and calm in the morning and the winds kick up in the afternoon, (thank god). So swimming, surfing and body boarding are best done in the early hours. Which is what we normally do. Get out of bed, put on swimsuits and walk down to our local beach (Charley Young). When we're feeling adventurous, we hop in our very-Maui mini van (beat up, transmission about to fall out, moldings falling off, etc) and find a new beach. Today, that's what Alex said to us, "Daddy go to nude beach" We're like "What???", "Nude beach, nude beach". We're assuming she means "new beach". Today we hit Polo beach, frequented by locals and very few tourists with some awesome waves coming in. We brought our body boards with us and I put Taylor in front and I laid behind her and caught some pretty big ones in. The whole way she shouted, WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!! It was pretty funny, and in some of them, I can't believe she wasn't scared. They were a good 4 feet!.
Yes, we're totally turning into locals. Yesterday we hit the local park with the kids which borders on a skate park. there was some sort of competition being held with some pretty good skaters. We all watched for a while, listening to some amazing music. In Safeway today, the cashier assumed I lived here. When we first got here, we were asked, "Where are you from?", now people ask where we live. Awesome. The brown skin and bleached out hair help I guess. Not too much else is new. Neil has been playing the guitar and even got out to the driving range. I did my yoga at the beach and will do it likely 2X a week. Signing up for a surf lesson this week, although many have told me that you don't really need them. I do love body boarding and catching some big waves, it'll be interesting to see what it's like standing up on them! I'm sure a bunch of reef cuts and some sore abs later, I'll be just fine.
So thus ends, or begins, another week of our mini-retirement. Please keep emailing, sending notes and postcards, etc - they're really appreciated. The only thing we miss on this trip is our friends and family (and our cat).
