it’s almost time for our next road trip. I think most of you will appreciate that I don’t write a blog post about life on Maui every week. It might get a little repetitive to read “Another fun Tuesday Night with friends”, “Another exciting tennis match” or “How lucky I get to play Ultimate frisbee and golf, even in winter” week after week. But since the blog is called “Best of Both Worlds”, at least I want to mention our time here on Maui. After all: It’s still our favorite place in the world! And maybe some of you want to know what new sport Sandra and I started, for what nationality we applied, how often we went scuba diving, who came to visit, whether I survived my annual ski trip and what we did when we didn’t not work.
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| Taken on a short break from work, no wonder we keep coming back to Maui |
After 20+ years, Sandra did not go back to her old job. Might have been too weird to go back to the same place with all new people, so when Ute offered her a job at the Kapalua Ziplines (before we were even back on island), Sandra decided it was time for a fresh start. It’s a very pleasant job, the co-workers are fun and the boss is awesome. The only downside is that if you work at a zip line, you have to zip at least once. As you can see, Sandra hated that part:
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| Tough Day at the office |
My little German vacation rental business is just now slowly starting to get going again. So I mostly drove for Uber. I can’t really explain why I enjoy it so much. The whole thing seems like a game to me. Kind of like Pokemon Go, you drive around the island, pick up all kinds of characters and collect points in forms of fares, tips and ratings. I also enjoy the element of surprise: You never know where the next ride goes and who the next passenger might be. Could be a visitor from one of the 50 states we’ve been to, could be a local heading to work or a resident from Lanai heading to the harbor…or it could be a rock star:
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| In case you don't recognize him without the make up, it's Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist of KISS |
I always thought I’ll start pickle ball when I can’t play tennis anymore. Turns out it’s the other way round: I can’t play tennis anymore since I started playing pickle ball. But we didn’t want to be the only two people on the island not playing this trendy new sport. We liked it so much that we’ll buy a second set of paddles for Joy to add pickle ball to our road trip activities. I promptly lost when I switched back to play tennis with my buddy Dave after winning the previous 25 matches. But pickle ball is so much fun, I’ll keep playing, even if it ruins my tennis game.
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| Our first Pickle Ball game, now we are hooked |
On our way home from Germany last fall, we enjoyed a few days in Colorado for a wedding. Since the rest of the Maui ohana couldn't make it, there was a very fun re-enactment here on Maui.
Christmas was extra special this year since we had almost all of our Colorado friends here on Maui. For the first time ever, Sandra and I even cut our own Christmas tree to make sure the visitors staying with us had a very Mele Kalikimaka. The festivities included a star gazing cruise, a few rounds of disc golf, a fun night at Jack & Annie’s and a joyful play about Buddy the Elf!
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| Our first Christmas tree harvest |
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| Stargazing Christmas Cruise |
Mele Kalikimaka
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| Napili disc golf |
We finally got the permission from the German government to become dual citizens. In German it’s called “Antrag auf Beibehaltung der Deutschen Staatsbürgerschaft”…with a name that long, no wonder it took over a year! We had a fun trip to the very cute German consulate on Oahu to pick up our “Beibehaltungsurkunde”. Now we applied for American citizenship, all we have to do is wait 4 to 14 months, stay out of trouble, pay a lot of money and study for the civics test. Luckily, there are still some historical sites and presidential libraries we haven’t been to, so by the end of this next trip, we should be good to go.
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| On our way to dual citizenship! |
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| Great excuse to go holoholo in Honolulu |
Somehow we manage to visit several national parks, a few state capitols, several hikes and a handful museums into a month on the road. But we only managed to go scuba diving one single time in the six months we were here. But at least we finally got to go diving with our friends Ovick & Karine for the very first time. And as always, the first thing we say after re-surfacing was: “We should do this more often”…and then we don’t.
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| Scuba Diving at Mala Wharf |
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| Always nice to see that little white tip... |
The blog should really be called “Best of Four Worlds”, because our annual tradition now seems to include Living on Maui for half the year, traveling in Joy for several months, spending a longer period of time with our family in Europe and for me also a now traditional ski trip to Colorado. Since I didn’t start skiing until I was 45, I still have some catching up to do. The advantage of starting so late: I still get a real kick out of even the easiest runs at any ski area. And I'm getting just good enough so that friends who actually know how to ski are willing to ski with me occasionally.
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| Hau Oli La Hanau at Ski Copper |
Greg, I've a feeling we're not on Maui anymore
Visiting friends are always a good reminder how lucky we are to live in a beautiful place like Maui and a good excuse to play tourist in your own backyard.
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| Finally, at least a few Europeans find their way back to Maui |
On Monday, we are heading out and can’t wait to see Joy again. We’ll start in Atlanta, then we plan to head northeast along the Appalachian Mountains, visit friends in New England, then family in Europe, return to Joy to head southwest…all subject to change. If we were to see anything on the road or in Europe that we find interesting, I might write an occasional blog post. And if we don’t find another place we like better than Maui, we’ll be back here in half a year.
A hui hou,
Chris & Sandra
