My Trip to Maui

Betty and I flew to Maui today. There was a family seated in the row next to us, including the isle seat of our row. Betty sat next to the father. From the moment that he reached under her to get the seat belts, I could see she was tickled to be sitting next to him. He was pretty good looking and she was enjoying having some male companionship. She sure does miss having her husband around to give hugs to and to keep her warm at night. She was not shy about telling him that either. He was a good sport about it, especially after having some of what he and his sisters and their husbands were sharing, what they called "Fire Water". Betty's friend was there to greet us. She gave us both a lei to welcome us.

The air here is so fresh and clean. I love how all the buildings are not enclosed. Where there are walls, they are mostly glass. The weather is so ideal all year round that they can afford to let the easy breeze blow and the warm sun shine in. I have been leaving the windows to my room the way I found them, open. Our Hotel is right on the beach.

Our first night, we went to a popular place called Mama's Fish House with a married couple who are friends of Betty's. It is right on the beach, of course and they serve fish, gourmet Hawaiian style. They had a beautiful setting with glass windows looking out to the beach. Betty's friend asked me where I am from because she detected an accent. She described it as a click in my speech. I tried their alcohol free lime and peppermint cooler to drink and Ono fish, country style. For desert I had the black pearl. Mmm it was beautiful and delicious. There were two edible chocolate shell wafers that stood open to reveal this perfectly rounded mound of chocolate mousse covered with chocolate syrup.
I was anxious to get down to the beach and Betty asked me the night before not to come at the crack of dawn because she wanted to rest in the morning, so I went down and had some breakfast then went for a walk along the beach with all the other Seniors and hard-bodies. When I got back at 9am I found that Betty had been looking for me for an hour. She had even enlisted her neighbors to help her find me. He was to be married the same afternoon, but he was very kind to help Betty find me. Although, I was not lost, I was only on the beach. I think she has finally forgiven me because she only mentions it every 3 hours instead of every 1/2 hour. OK, yes I am exaggerating a tad.

We had breakfast and went to Kaiser so Betty could have a blood test done to have the results faxed to her Dr. in Sacramento. After that we went shopping for a bathing suit for Betty. She saw this bright pink, orange and yellow bikini that she had to try on. The woman has never owned a bikini before and she is always complaining of how she wants to loose her belly that she never used to have and here she is trying on a bikini. She cracks me up sometimes. I'm glad we were able to talk her into a one-piece.

We spent some time lying in the sun, then I got warm and decided to take a dip in the ocean. I was out there flirting with the waves, when along came three young men speaking German to each other. They had been snorkeling, but they took it off and they were swimming and playing around me. After a short while I looked back at the beach and saw that Betty was looking for me. I hated to go, but it was about time for us to get ready because we were planning to go to the Square Dance Class that night. I told her about the boys and she asked, "And they didn't follow you? Well, what's the matter with them?" I told her I must have ran too fast for them.

Once we were all ready to go Square Dancing, we found out that it had been canceled. We went out to dinner at a Canton restaurant for dinner. Betty had pot stickers for the first time.

Friday morning we went to take a look around Betty's daughter's favorite hotel, The Grand Wailea. It is a luxurious, ritzy place. We had the buffet there. I tried, for the first time a liche nut. They boil them and they become soft like a fruit. The hotel lobby was open to the fresh air. There were falls as you drive up to the entrance. There were tiled water ways weaving under the walking path to the various wings. Tropical flowers and plants were growing all around. There was a shallow pool with a mermaid sculpture and a couple of wood canoes in it. I also enjoyed the larger than life black bronze sculptures of plump nudes. Several walls were covered with giant painting and mosaics. Breathtaking.

From there, we made another visit to Kaiser for 3 hours, so Betty could have her favorite Doctor that she has a crush on, look at her foot. She thinks about him 24/7. She fantacizes that he might show up at her room while she is in her nightgown, even. She tells me that they have smacked lips before and she was hoping for the same again when she saw him, but he had to make an escape because he was so busy.

He prescribed some support stockings for her swollen foot. I could tell it was helping within just an hour. After that we had to rush off to the other end of the island to meet up with her friends again to see a show called Ulalena. It is a production that has been playing for several years now. It tells a little bit of the history, mingled with ancient myth of the Islands of Hawaii. There was fantastic dancing, and costumes, and props. Shows like that always miss my dancing performance days. I wanted to be right up there with them.

After the show we went to dinner at a place called Cheeseburgers in Paradise. I had the guacamole hamburger. Betty had what they called the Black and Blue. It has blue cheese and bacon. She decided that it was the best hamburger that she has ever had. They were delicious.

Saturday I got up and went down to the beach again. I laid in the sun for a while, then swam in the waves. We had brunch at Denny's again. I think the highlight of my day was checking my email and finding an admiring email from my new friend in Utah.

That evening was to be what Betty understood to be a formal memorial for her husband, the reason she wanted to make the trip to be here at this time. It turned out to be an informal get-together with old friends of theirs. They made her husband's favorite dish and desert, lasagna and lemon meringue pie.

I got to meet Betty's friends whom I have heard so much about. I feel like I almost know Betty's husband after hearing so much about him from her and her friends. He seems like he was a pretty impressive man with many talents. He was able to make a living at Square Dance Calling. He also painted and had other hobbies. He waited on Betty hand and foot. He did everything for her, such that there are many things that she does not know how to do for herself, so that in many ways she is rendered helpless.

She is so thankful to me for all the help that I have given her. She could not have made the trip alone and she realizes that. Her and her daughter would like to hog tie me to keep me from moving to Utah, so I can stay and help Betty out. In fact, Betty even said, yesterday that she would marry me, but she admitted that it wouldn't work out because I don't like girls.

I took another opportunity to get down to the beach this morning. I walked down the beach to the magnificent resort that we had breakfast at on Friday. It only took 15 min to get there and I must say that the beach at our hotel is much, much better than theirs. When I got back to my spot on the beach, I spent 40 minutes floating in the waves. I was trying to kill three or four birds with one stone. I was getting exercise by keeping my legs up at the surface to get some sun, while having fun and impressing the guy swimming next to me.

Later, we went to Hilo Hattie's in La Haina because it was near where we would need to be for the Marriott Luau later in the evening. That place is the mega mart of Hawaiian souvenirs. I wanted to get some good Hawaiian music and I picked up this compilation CD of Reggae In Paradise of cheesy synthesizer music. I have heard some good music on the radio stations, but this isn't it.

The Marriot Luau Hotel is right off the beach. Their Hotel pool is more like a water park with slides and falls and mock ships and jungle foliage. We were seated at the Luau by this good-looking young man with a perfectly dark tan. When he lead us to the banquet room later, Betty said to me, referring to him, "To die for!!" with a big grin on her face. He heard her and turned around and blushed. "The color." she explained. I confessed to him that she wasn't just talking about the color.

They invited people from the audience to get up to learn a hula dance. I thought about going up, but I guess I was feeling bashful. There was another opportunity at the end, but we ran out of film just before the highlight of the show, the fire dancer, so I reasoned that I wouldn't be able to take a picture of it, even if I did. They took pictures of everyone before the show and decided to buy them because they turned out so nicely. We were the last customers and they gave us each a DVD of the show.

I wanted to have one last chance to catch some sun before I get back to Sacramento, otherwise no one will believe that I was here if I come back as pale as I left. I got up at 6am to get to the beach. At 6:30 there were already people on the beach walking. I was hoping for a spot of sun, but it had yet to touch the sand, so I took a walk. When I returned to the hotel, I could see a patch of sun on the grass. I pulled the lawn chair into it, but it didn't last long before a palm tree invaded it. I gave in and went up to my room to get ready to go to the airport.