Long Run, Laundry, and Large Waves

Four miles, two miles, eight miles, two miles… the last several mornings have run together in a river of sweat, sand, sidewalk and sun kissed vistas.  This long run went down the beach walk to the canoe park just past the Hyatt.  Beautiful views like this make it worthwhile to get this wet with sweat but then you realize you have to do it all over again to get home.  Still entirely worth it! 

All that sweat equals needing to do several loads of laundry on this trip.  Luckily there is a laundry room on site and it affords one of us the opportunity to nap while the other monitors the machines.  Last time I slept on laundry day, this time it was Greg’s turn.  So what do I do in between loads? Pick tropical flowers and arrange them in my hair and laugh when they don’t stay put.  Seems like a good way to pass the time to me.

Over the weekend we had some high surf that pretty much kept us out of the ocean but we made our way back in for some rough and churny snorkeling early in the morning the last couple of days. We opted to brave the waters in front of our condo this morning instead of walking to the beach park.  We made a relatively easy passage past the waves to the second reef and thought we didn’t have perfectly clear waters we saw many fish, corals and turtle who was enjoying a cleaning station.  (Many fish were eating some algae off his shell!)  Getting back to shore was more of a challenge as some larger sets of waves had started up, stirring up the water and sand so we couldn’t see what was in front of us.  Wanting to avoid running face first into coral formations, we swam as cautiously as we could but unfortunately the waves were pushing us in forcefully and I ended up head butting another snorkeler appeared out of nowhere.  Neither of us were hurt, just surprised and before we could mutter a beg-your-pardon or some such pleasantry, the undertow was dragging him in one direction and waves were pushing me ashore.  It was a rather jarring experience but no harm done. 

Trying to beat the heat!

The waves are still kicking up some nice spray over the sea wall this afternoon.  Temperatures are climbing also; a record was broken at the airport yesterday that stood from the 1960s when the temps rose to 94 degrees.  We do get a bit of a breeze here on the west coast but we’ve spent the last two days going from ocean, to pool, to shower several times a day.  I doubt that we’ll find relief from the high temps as we head home tomorrow but perhaps the lack of humidity will make it feel more tolerable.  Trying to find the silver lining in leaving paradise is always a challenge but it seems a bit less difficult this time.  Perhaps because coming to Maui this year felt like coming home again, strangely familiar for being such a different environment than our long time California home.  It seemed like a reassurance to me that Maui will be here and I will be back, no need to hold onto it kicking and screaming, like I felt inclined to do last year but rather I’ll just drift away gently tomorrow like the retreating tide and feel assured of the fact that I’ll find myself washing ashore here again someday relatively soon.