Ironically, as I write the title of this day's blog, I realize Pole Dancing can have two meanings that both apply to me today (the graceful Polish part of me that is).
We arrived in Maui yesterday afternoon, got our rental car, etc, found our condo, ate dinner, hung out with Loribeth and her roommate Amanda, took Evan and his new friend little Scottish Ian to the playground. Ian is a trip, they had so much fun together! It's amazing how two kids the same age can be somewhat easier than one. The two played so well together!
Anyhow, onto today, and pole dancing. Loribeth's roommate is a pole dancing instruction. She's not a stripper, just a pole dancing instructor, as in those people you hear about on cable tv who do pole dancing for exercise. She's apparently the only one in West Maui. This evening's dinner conversation was interesting. Amanda is purchasing a video of the "Pole-a-palooza", a pole dancing competition, that is tax deductible as a business expense. Just found that an interesting and amusing fact.
Amanda allowed me to come check out her class today and give it a try. Loribeth took Evan to Barnes and Noble next to the class and entertained him with trains and books. The classroom/studio is a room with two ten foot tall poles, and some yoga mats. The first 40 or so minutes of the class is Pilates, which I was a little concerned about after having an overly chalenging experience with a Pilates class once. This one was actually a lot of fun, and just the
right amount of challenge. I'm sure I won't be able to move tomorrow. The second half of the class was the pole dancing lesson. I think the name of the move we learned was called the fireman spin. Anyhow, I have a lovely bruise on my right shin as a result, but after several tries, I was able to accomplish the move, sort of. I can't imagine anything I executed was nearly graceful enough to be considered anything beyond exercise, and the entire experience certainly makes for an interesting story. I did have a lot of fun though, and the other 7 women in the class were great. I think we all had a lot of fun.
We grabbed some pasta for lunch and ate on our lanai, then all went out to "Airport Beach", which is basically the part of Kaanipali Beach that is north of Black Rock. The waves weren't too high there, but there was definitely an undertow, and the shore drops off pretty quickly once you manage to get in. We played with Evan for awhile, then all took turns getting in the water. Evan was very upset when Jon was swimming and almost started to cry. When I tried to go in with Loribeth, I made it in far enough that I was treading water, which was still pretty close to shore. Evan started to cry, despite my treading water and trying to wave to him. I happen to pride myself on being a much much better swimmer than I am a pole dancer. Much better. Anyhow, seeing Evan crying, I decided to try to get out of the water to get to him. Unfortunately, this is the point I put my back to the ocean, something you are never supposed to do, and was temporarily overtook by a wave. Once I resurfaced, Amanda, Loribeth and Jon all found it very amusing. Particularly when the next wave dragged my onto the shore and deposited me in the sand, thanks to the quick shorebreak. So, to go along with my bruise on my right shin, I now have the sand equivalent of rug burn on my left knee.
After that, we sat an the beach and could see humpback whales breaching and playing on the horizon. It appeared that the two whales were in competition with each other, so there was lots of fin slapping, tail slapping, breaching, etc. We probably watched that for about half an hour, then came back to the condo, where we saw a sea turtle from our lanai (patio/yard), ate dinner, hung out, and now I'm ready for bed!
All in all, lots of adventures and fun though. But, I'm going to regret it all tomorrow when I can't move!
Good night!
Today Jon and I learned that the "best banana bread on the planet" can be found by driving a one-lane, two-direction road for five miles, up and down mountainsides and cliffs along the ocean at a place called Julia's in Kalakuloa. It isn't actually a place so much as a little green stand at the side of the road.
o begin our drive, we actually drove north to Kahana and dropped Loribeth off at work. Then, we continued down to Slaughterhouse Beach. Apparently this is a good spot to see spinner dolphins, however this morning was very windy in that area and the waves were rough there, so no dolphins. We continued on to Nakalele Blowhole and hiked part of the way down to see it. The surf was just right that this was more impressive than the Halona Blowhole on Oahu, but it was way too windy and rocky to walk Evan all the way down to the blowhole.
Evan feel asleep when we got back into the car, so we decided to drive the long way around the north section of the island. It was a beautiful, and somewhat nervewracking drive, but Jon seemed to enjoy it. Once we got into Wailuku and went to the Iao Valley State Park and walked around, looking at the Iao Needle.
We came back and spent some time hanging out at the condo, walked along Ka'anipali Beach, and then Loribeth and Amanda came over and cooked dinner for us. We've had a lot of fun hanging out with them, it's been so nice having people here who know their way around, and it's been great spending time with Loribeth! Now we are watching The Pink Panther, and soon it will be time for bed.
