Yes, it has been quite a while since my last posting. Neither of us can believe where the time has gone. It has been quite a ride, filled with both opportunities and blessings...the two of us so very grateful for the experience and adventure of spending time in Hawaii, aka paradise.
We visited Molokai this past January, the one island we had not spent any time. I took a week long watercolor workshop with an instructor-artist from California. Jim spent 4 days with the group and
flew back on his own mid week. I stayed on painting and touring the island with my painter friends flying back to Oahu at the end of the workshop. The 8-passenger prop plane was quite an experience. The young pilots on my flight did not look a day over 18 years old and they chatted back and forth with one another like they were on a date...lol, not! I kept hoping the young man pilot would at least look out the front windshield of the plane from time to time to humor me...yikes! Fortunately, all went well and we arrived safe and sound.
National Historical Park
Brendan and his friend, Sam, came for a short five day visit at the end of January, escaping the harsh weather of New Hampshire for some warm sunshine. They took in the beach, relaxed by the pool, dipped in the hot tub, though chasing the sun most days. We have had lots of rain and clouds this winter...still gotta love the warm temps on the island. A visit would not be complete without a trip to Buzz's Steakhouse on the windward side at Kailua beach. Brendan and Sam also enjoyed a Hawaiian luau to end their stay.
Jim and I finally enjoyed a luau last summer thanks to our friends Ray and Mary. They visited us for two weeks, at the end July into August. What a blast we had...I decided to fly back to Hawaii after being home for 6 weeks, mid summer to spend time with the two of them and I am so glad I did! They were great company...we had some laughs. Ray and Jim went to the VoTech together and Mary, Jim and I went to high school together. We had a nice visit with them and enjoyed taking them to our favorite spots around the island of Oahu, places we had not been in some time.
I have spent much time pursuing my passion... classes and painting workshops in both watercolor and oils and a weekly life draw class, which I love! Loving my yoga class and meditating, walking to the beach and time to myself... all the leisurely things a retiree has the privilege of enjoying...so blessed. We are both so grateful to have met and spent time with many wonderful people during our stay here.
We are still in touch with our elder friend, Kay. She is doing very well though she doesn't get out on her own much these days. Kay manages to get down to the pool at her condo to chat it up with her friends in the afternoon. She turns 85 end of April so we will take her out to dinner for her birthday before I leave.
Our other friend, Ingrid has welcomed us like family...we feel pretty special being included in all their holidays, birthdays and special occasions... a lovely family indeed. So happy to have met all of them. I always say, there are no coincidences in life. Hawaii, the land, the sea and the people have welcomed and embraced us...leaving me with a sense of well being...something I will not soon forget. And the opportunity for the artist is overwhelming and I have taken full advantage...doesn't get much better than this. See some of my recent art work below, watercolor then oils...
View from Makapu'u Lighthouse
Jim and I took a long weekend to spend time on Maui in February with his cousin Rhetta and her husband, Steve, both from Meredith NH. They come to Hawaii every year and spend a couple weeks. Rhetta and Steve visit Jim's Aunt Marie, Rhetta's 98 year old mom in Sacramento on their way to the islands and then again on their way back east. Aunt Marie is great, healthy and well. She lives in a beautiful assisted living community in Sacramento, where Jim and I visited her last December on our way back to Hawaii.
Watercolor by Sherri Reeves
Kula Bistro, upcountry Maui, our sweet Italian find, was the favorite place to eat during our stay, having been introduced to the place by Rhetta and Steve a few years ago. Think we ate there twice on this visit. We all stayed in a B&B right in Kula, a hidden gem with an artist community, Makawao, nearby. Sherri Reeves has a beautiful store displaying all her work...ladies knit tops, cards, prints as well as original works of watercolor paintings. Would I love to live here!
We were fortunate enough to meet, chat and take a photo with Head Chef and owner, Luciano Zanon. As a young man, he worked in a small family owned trattoria in Venice, Italy. Luciano is a humble, quiet man with much talent and well known as one of "Maui's most inspired chefs." He kindly sent four cannolis over to our table on our second evening dining at the restaurant. Luciano made a point to tell me, "...these cannolis are the real deal!" I had no doubt! Luciano and his wife Chantal opened Kula Bistro in 2012...a "must stop" on your next visit to Maui. Luciano aims to please and you will not be disappointed.
Check out the next picture of the 85-90 pound Marlin, just caught in Lahaina, Maui. The area, called Lahaina Banyan Court Park and port is reminiscent of Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. The very famous and largest banyan tree in Hawaii and said to be the largest in the USA, was planted in Lahaina in 1873.
Jim has been busy with work and finds less and less time to enjoy the best of the islands but we are fitting in the fun wherever we can, taking every opportunity to spend time outdoors because, well, this is it! He and his boss will be retiring this year... Jim sooner rather than later, hopefully by fall and boss by year's end. It will be bittersweet of course as Hawaii has be home for Jim for the last eight years and a winter respite for me for the same time. "Home," wherever that may be, will be an adjustment, for sure. Change is good, as they say. We are banking on that and embracing the gifts to follow. It is time, time to bid the gig and paradise "adieu" with gratitude and appreciation. We know we will be back to visit....Hawaii is part of us now.
I actually depart for home on May 1 and Jim will follow mid June. Some good news on the horizon... we are going to Italy, June into July! I am painting for 10 days with eight other woman...yippee... a dream come true. The artist group will be staying in a villa about an hour from Siena near Tuscany. The instructor painter is Italian, has lived in Italy over the years and speaks Italian fluently. When she invited me to join the group I felt I just could not pass it up. Jim and I chatted about him meeting me in Italy after workshop and so it is....
Jim will fly to Rome at the end of June and meet me in Perugia, a college town and the capitol of the Umbria, just south of the Tuscany region. He and I will spend another 2 weeks touring Siena, Tuscany, Florence and Cinque Terre before heading back to Rome then home mid July. We were/are in the planning stages of a month long Italy-Amsterdam trip next year to celebrate Jim's retirement, which will likely still happen. I was gonna do the Italy painting holiday on my own but we decided timing was right for Jim to join me giving us an opportunity to get a taste of Italy then making our other plans accordingly. Let the adventure begin and continue... so grateful.
Needless to say, we are busy packing and unloading in between finding time to visit our favorite places and eateries around the island before we depart. Jim and I both acknowledge and recognize we have been given a gift and we are humbled by this gift beyond our wildest dreams, to experience Hawaii. If you have never been, you must...plan on at least two weeks so you can visit other islands.
To quote a gal I follow, Suzanne Giesemann, "Ride the waves like a surfer- neither one better or worse than the other, the troughs or the crests are simply opportunities to G.R.O.W." And so we have.... let the growing continue.
And, lastly, enjoy a few haikus written by me while in Hawaii. I have been writing haikus almost daily for over 10 years... these were written a couple years ago. Can you haiku? Go on, give it a try.
Let uncertainty forever imbued salient climb
be the fuel that ignites a sense of comfort and joy consumed by the not knowing
your forward motion washes over me view, the catalyst
Looking forward to being back home in New Hampshire and catching up with all of you peeps!
Aloha nui loa,
Robin and Jim
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