Confessions

The rooster snore, we ignore. 

The birds do call, asleep we fall.

The dogs did yap, still we nap.

When we were finally roused this morning, it was thanks to a barnyard cacophony in the neighborhood.  A layer of clouds were hiding the sun, thus we were a bit slow to wake this morning.  Plus we may have been a little tired from rocking out last night.  “What?” you ask.  You thought we were having a quiet night in after our vegetarian supper.  Well, it just so happens that we found out about an open mic night about a mile away at RB Black Angus bar and we went to check it out at 10pm.  Things didn’t really get moving until 10:30 but the local musicians sang a mix of covers and originals and it was fun to see what Maui’s young talent had to offer.  Apparently they could read on Greg’s face that he was itching to play and invited him up for a song.  With a loaner guitar in hand, Greg rocked out to Plush.  The crowd and the musicians were pleasantly surprised eliciting responses like, “F@$%ing Yah, brah!” and “Who IS that?”  “Heard his name Greg.”  The house band encouraged Greg to play a few more and after he played some Tom Petty and Bob Marley, an audience member asked, “You got any originals?” The house band secure in Greg’s skills as a performer, walked off to drink with their friends, “You got this, brah!” the guitarist called.  I am well aware that Greg is a talented musician, but it is always fun to travel someplace new and see an unsuspecting audience respond to him for the first time.  He rocked!  As he was finishing up a few more covers, our Canadian neighbors from the condo walked in.  They too were impressed and though they planned to leave early in the morning to drive to Hana they stayed for several songs and to visit with Greg when he passed the mic over to other performers and the house band returned to the stage.  As the bassist kept wandering back to the bar, Greg asked if he could play bass for a bit.  The bass players seemed happy to drink and visit and was pleased to have Greg strum along and sing back ups for a few other local artists.  Greg met a new friend playing Sympathy for the Devil.  A young woman completely nailed an India Irie song.  It was a great night for music, so I confess it was a slower start to the day.

None-the-less, we did squeeze in a run down lower H. and found the footpath that leads to the boardwalk.  The walking path is just about a mile from our place and the boardwalk stretches about 4 miles along the beach in front of the major resorts all the way to the Hyatt. Some day, I hope to run the whole stretch but today we just walked about a half mile of it and turned around and ran home.  Our jog was breezy but the ocean looked okay, so we decided to snorkel again.  Once in the water we realized it was a bit rough due to the wind.  We gave it a whirl anyway, swimming out past the waves but visibility was poor with sand churning up from the bottom.  Clown fish wobbled wildly around their anenome homes and unicorn fish and triggerfish darted past in the cloudy water.  Knowing poor visibility and rough surf are not the safest for snorkeling, we headed back to shore.  We spent a few minutes warming up in the sun by the pool, then headed inside to rinse off.

Breakfast consisted of those farm fresh eggs we bought yesterday, sunny side up.  Fresh Maui multigrain bread, toasted and spread with cultured butter and local honey.  The ocean remained choppy but the sun did finally come out, we amused ourselves with walking along the beach and spotting starfish tumbling toward us in the surf.  After a mid morning nap on the couch then a little sea turtle viewing from the sea wall, 3-4  of them were feeding on the rocks, we were in need of some liquid refreshment.  We tried our first POG today.  For those unfamiliar with this term, POG stands for passion fruit orange and guava juices.  If you’ve ever flown Hawaiian on an island hopper, you’ve probably tried it. Another visit to the sea wall to watch the turtles, Greg heard other guests spotted up to 8 different individuals at one time.  We had a light lunch of some pineapple salsa, guacamole and corn chips.  We were saving room for tonight’s dinner at Sansei, perhaps Maui’s best-known sushi restaurant.  The line for the early seating was already 20 people deep at 5pm and the doors don’t open until 5:30 and that’s not counting folks with reservations.  While the sauces at dinner were very tasty and rich (ginger lime chili butter and cilantro pesto topped of the shrimp cakes served with crisp noodles), we missed our old favorites from home, where the quality fish and classic dishes don’t need fancy sauces to stand out.  I confess the first pang of homesickness we’ve felt was for our favorite sushi stop in Upland, it is only week one and we miss you, Kishi!  Back at the condo we participated in the nightly conch blowing tradition to send the sun below the skyline, the sunsets are phenomenal here on the west side.