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Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Units

March was exciting because the parental units came out to visit me on Maui.  My parents have been to the island several times, and definitely knew all the fun tourist things they like to do.  I got to take a couple of days off work to hang out with them, and show them the local side of the island.

The first day I took them to my favorite beach, Keawakapu.  My dad, enjoying the view!
Unfortunately it was actually a bit cold when we were just sitting on the beach.  However, it felt good to them since there was no snow!
One of the major things we did while they were in Maui was go Scuba diving.  Although I'm dive certified I didn't dive much when I was in Maui simply because I didn't have a dive buddy, and it's kinda an expensive hobby.  We got up early in the morning and took a boat out to Molokini, a crater a couple of miles off the coast.  We did a wall dive on the back side of the crater where the ocean floor is a steep drop off to several hundred feet, and there's a strong current.  We stayed above 120 feet, but this dive was a bit of a spooky adventure.  We did another dive clear down around the tip of Maui through some fun lava formations and lava tubes.  The next morning we did another deep dive out at the crater, then we finished up the day at a wreck dive.  We saw lots of fun wildlife including sharks, turtles, eels, lobster, and tons of fish.  It was a total rush to be back diving after a nearly three year hiatus!


At the wreck dive checking out my turtle buddy!
 My dad bought a GoPro just to take diving.  It was fantastic!  However, he mostly took videos, and not very many pictures.  The best part was when they left, I inherited the GoPro and it became my early birthday, or something.



We got in plenty of beach time, and drove around to see the blowhole.  My dad is also particularly fond of Bubba Gump's shrimp shack.  So much so that we ate there twice while they were there!  I also took them to a couple of my favorite places, and we spent our last evening at Mama's Fish House, an incredibly fancy and delicious local favorite.
Looking down at the blowhole.  It wasn't really impressive when we came - it's pretty dependent on the tides and currents.
Some thoughtful person had decided to place signs all around warning off careless Mainlander's.  


It was nice to have my parents come visit.  It felt like an incredibly short visit - which it was - because of flight delays, and my dad needing to get back for church obligations on Sunday.  However, I was glad to see them, and glad they got to check out my Maui life!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Puppy Love

Let's do a quick re-cap.  The beginning of March my co-workers and I all started getting puppy crazy.  My friend Michelle flew over to O'ahu and picked up a papillon puppy, and started sharing all kinds of fun puppy stories.  My other coworker Melanie was also considering getting a Pomeranian puppy for her daughter.  So when Michelle told me there was a litter of Maltese puppies listed on Craig's List, I too got very excited about puppies!  Seriously, I've been wanting a dog for years, and just haven't been in a good situation to have one.  Plus, finding a particular breed of dog on Maui is actually pretty difficult, and I've definitely wanted a Maltese.  I figured that since I was finally done with school, and I was heading back to Cedar to work, I was ready to get a dog.

I drove over and met the puppy, and immediately fell in love!


What a cuddly little guy!  He just loved to snuggle with me.
I very seriously considered getting this little guy, and had already worked out how I could fly him back to the Mainland when I moved.  I named him Chewbacca, and he came to stay with me.  However, probably less than a week after I had decided to buy him (and a day or two after I picked him up), I found that I had to make some changes with my work plans, and suddenly my future was a lot more uncertain.  I finally decided that since I wasn't entirely sure where I was going to be six months down the line, getting a dog wasn't a very smart decision.  Chewy ended up staying with me until the new owner was able to come pick him up, which was a lot of fun, but it did make it harder to say goodbye!

Now that I've moved back to the Mainland I've decided I won't be staying in Cedar City long term, and I'm glad that I didn't end up keeping my little Maltese puppy.  Besides, I've really enjoyed playing with my parent's dogs in the meantime.  Believe me, I will be getting a dog for real when I figure out my life!