No tennis, beauty walk, off to Kula for vodka and goat cheese, lunch in Provence!!!

We started our day with an attempt for tennis. Too bad the girl who worked there didn't tell us when we visited the first time that there was a giant tennis tournament. Disappointment by Alex, but new plan for a walk while Jim explores the soon to be Montage spa. Strange how our $25 resort fee is becoming less and less amenities by the day, but we still have the trails and Kapaula bay with nice potty! (Most likely upgraded due to Montage!) Alex and I decided to walk the trail in the reverse direction. En route, we saw a painter who was amazing! LOVE watercolor! While walking Alex explained his priority for his next cruise to Europe. We listened to Lupe Fiasco/Jennifer Hudson Remission song and a few other fun music chosen by DJ Alex. I honestly must say that I have never felt better. Even with few side effects, my mind being clear is such a plus! We saw a nesting bird, fish along the trail, and help to take photos of random Japanese tourists along the path. 

Off to Kula for Ocean organic Vodka tasting and tour! Our tour guide was from the Northwest, David and was very knowledgable about the process of making vodka and their new rum. Rum will debut on Monday called Wave and vodka is available in Costco in OC. Great views, who knew there were so many types of sugar cane, tasting sugar cane, goat cheese truffles, and a free shot glass. The chickens are used for pesticide. Great fun tour even for Alex who got to taste the Mahalo water which was $6 for a shot used in their vodka process. I couldn't taste a thing, but had fun. Then, our adventure for lunch. We found La Provence which I saw online had sandwiches, but didn't read that in the weekend it was only crepes and eggs. Tiny place with a nice view and an excellent place to practice Alex 's French which he is learning on DuoLingo (recommend the app!). You repeat the phrase and it tells you correct or not. Our waiter from France told Alex he needed to practice. We all ate crepes with yummy salad and roasted potatoes. All was delicious and we left for Surfing Goat Dairy which is now a full business enterprise since we came here 2 years ago. Alex started his tasting with sun dried goat cheese and another one with olive oil. I was the only one who fed the single ladies and decided to not feed the Billy goat since tour guide told us he smelled like pee. 

Lastly, Alex tasted 4 other goat cheeses and loved Ole which was spicy. He wanted some to take back to the condo, but we told him we would try to get some later. The tour guide gave him Ono goat cheese quark gelato since the other boy wouldn't try any goat cheese. Of course, Alex liked lillikoi flavor. We bought some goat milk soap which I liked in plumeria and Jim got a mug so he could use that instead of the shot glass of coffee we have in the condo. Happy to support the business! We ended up getting Garden Fantasia flavor at our Honolua store in Kapalua. It was yummy and tasted like pesto. Alex put it on his burger! He also dipped gold fish in it. The boys enjoyed a sunset swim and I just enjoyed my Primo Hawaiian lager. I'm thinking the Ocean vodka shot and lager is a cancer cure. 

Nurse shark, boogie boarding, Flamenco music and more!

Mo

Yesterday, our goal was to prevent Alex getting more sunburn by setting the timer on our phones. We applied and re-applied, but he still got a bit of sun on his nose and ears. Kapalua Bay was rough and cloudy, so snorkeling was not happening. Alex enjoyed riding the little waves (too big for the many baby visitors who were expecting calm waters) and playing with his new 5 yr old friend from Sacramento who thought Alex was 18. His new friend did not know many answers to Alex's numerous questions, but loved the fact that the "18" year old was playing with him. He even asked if Alex had fun being his friend and playing. So cute! His parents thought it was funny too! The waters calmed and Alex started his snorkeling adventure, but Alex was quick to exit the water when he saw a nurse shark along with bright colored fish. It was the nurse shark that freaked him out. We avoided the high sun and planned the rest of the meals here since we realized it was Labor Day. Kapalua was already packed with locals too.  

We gave up on our search for Jazz and settled for Flamenco music at Sangrita where Jim and I could relive our memory of Madrid! Plus Sangrita had the best salsa according to Alex who ranked it 10 out of 10. Sangrita is healthy Mexican with a lot of flavor and good fats. All I know is the oon tacos were yummy and Alex licked his plate clean of steak tacos, rice and black beans. We ate their version of a flan which was more like a cheesecake and not sweet which was fine for me. My sweet taste buds are messed up and I could barely taste the salsa which meant it was spicy! We ended our night with search for zinc for Alex's nose and somehow he ended up with a Hagen Daz ice cream bar. Last up, we walked in the darkness with the help of our phone lights and music chosen by Alex which was Linkin Park, A Light that never comes along with his Dumb Ways to Die from last year Social Sci class?! Once it started raining, we walked back. I had to try to get in my 2 mile walk a day since I have had zero exercise all summer.Maui air is so healing and I am on a fitness boot camp post chemo to gain strength to get back in the game! 

Mother Clucker chicken

Great Happy hour deals!!!

Got all our meals planned for the rest of the trip. Off to Kula to stay out of sun a bit today!

Dragons tail, waterfall, swimming in the pool, condo meals!

We decided to get Alex a "horrible" hat so he could protect his fried ears from the day before and then, I lathered some zinc white paste to give it an overall cool look. He gave up on avoiding the photos once he was climbing the rocks of Dragon's tail, not to be confused with Dragon's teeth located in front of the Ritz Carlton. The Kapalua trail is about 2.8 miles (and I did it!!!) between the Villas and the Montage. There are nesting grounds for birds and amazing views. The breeze was perfect until the 2nd mile when I just had to sit down. We watched all the snorkeling boats go by and saw Molokai and Lanai. We were going to go to Kula to the Surfing Goat farm and Ocean Vodka distillery, but may wait until later on that. 

We liked having our lunch and dinner of chow mein noodles and tofu made on the island. Boys managed to swim in the almost empty pool. I talked to a lady who told me she booked through Outrigger in February and got an upgrade ocean view for a real bargain. I'm now convinced when you book with Costco they automatically downgrade you despite your payment for an upgrade (CSI crime condo). We did attempt to find some live Jazz for Alex, but odd is that next week is a Jazz festival. Friday we will try Flamenco music?? A nice reminder of our Flamenco days from Madrid. The boys watched Godzilla while I passed out! I have to say it is super nice without the electronics Alex mode! We can actually have multiple conversations with him...Meanager is gone!

Day one Maui adventure: turtles, octopus, state fish, eels, and more!

After our initial walk to check out the pool and tennis courts, we packed a picnic and we're off to Kapalua Beach for some snorkeling and for me to sit under the umbrella. We were lucky since Alex found us these great Kmart chairs for $11 each plus a $12 umbrella. In addition, a boogie board which Alex used to float on to do his snorkeling while lying down. We also had the standard water football. Alex was very busy as he likes to do every activity planning for tennis and swimming later. He reported back to tell us of his encounters with turtles and report on the tourists not following the rules (touching and invading the turtle's space). He was very excited about the octopus, giant fish with a school of 1000s fish, and eels. He used the entire underwater camera. He barely sat for lunch and we forgot one thing: his ears NOT covered with sunscreen. Yep, they are fried. Oops, I was so caught up with relaxing I forgot and Jim was on holding the umbrella over me since there were giant gusts of wind.

We went to Safeway to pick up a few items for our speed shopping adventure that none of us wanted to do. Then, dinner at Honu Grill which is one of our favorites from 2 years ago. Before the drive to Honu, we had a little issue with our rental car which was very "special" and not worth the mention to relive the issue. Let's just say that the dependency on our Ford Fusion rear camera is problem since the rental car did not have one. I was obsessed by the sunset and must have taken a zillion photos. As the sun was setting, Alex seemed to glow red more. Uh oh, aloe is an emergency purchase. Dinner was yummy and Alex who never likes French fries ate all of them since they had cumin and other unique spices. We loved the kale salad! Dessert was full of nuts, so we went to Yogurtland in Whaler's village. Of course, I had to do a little shopping to get parking validation! Hoping the aloe worked on Alex's ears!!! 

aloha kapalua good morning maui

slept great and off to start a great day!

Our view from the condo

Goldilocks and the two bears or am I the bear?

Besides being delirious with normal fatigue, I was feeling the effects of this new drug. I am definitely in slow motion and the rash on the hands is worse (keep hoping it stays on the hands), lymph nodes are seeming to be active, so as I tell my "bears", "I'm cured!" I had called the Kapalua Villas prior and explained our last visit with a disgusting first room followed by no AC in the second villa which was followed by our final best room. I was assured that we would get that room or better since Alex remembered the room number. You know what happened? The person I talked to forgot to do her job, so they did not block this room which they could have done. Yes, we all forgot to follow up as we were busy with the cancer job. Shame on us. They have a guy drive us to the first room. I do have a heightened sense of smell due to no taste, and Alex is usually not so in tune with smells. We barely walked in and both Alex and I smelled the odor of disgusting mildew, mold, and stank! Carpet stains from CSI scene? What? Back to the front desk, 2nd attempt. At this point, I am in shutdown mode and Jim takes over in his calm manner while I blurt out every so often that I had chemo yesterday and can't be in a dirty place and especially smelly place. Off we go, they give us 3 choices. The first one is okay and definitely better, but a huge walk to the action (beaches and tennis courts). The second one was horrible with disgusting carpet, but not CSI stains. It had the odor of McDonalds combined with stale air and a dirty boy smell. It wasn't Alex, but I had to double check. The last one was BRAND new, just painted with brand new beds. We'll take it. Alex really was excited since he had the master bedroom with twin beds and giant spa shower as he said. So, finally after this very long process we move in...Next came dinner, we went with an easy idea of Hula Grill. Of course, to top it off, our entire order was messed up. The Manager came to apologize and took off one item even though he offered to take off 2. We were too tired to discuss it further, so we left with a new adventure in dining and said we won't go back there. Many places to dine in this area. Goldilocks and her bears went home and fell fast asleep.

En route to Kapalua

On our way to Kapalua. Hoping for the best, but it didn't quite work out that way. We were all exhausted. All smiling faces inhaling the tropical floral air.