#113 Have lunch with Joel Stein

So, I have a favorite journalist.  His name is Joel Stein.  He is an amazingly witty, sarcastic, writer who I happen to love reading.  His column used to be the last page of Time every week, which is actually kind of a special place; however, he was recently ousted by some strange 10 questions thing that usually contains painfully boring obvious questions asked of famous people. Anyhow... now he is the second to last page, which is really, well, odd, but I love his column. Except that one time he totally bashed the Common Core standards, which resulted in me sending him a strongly worded
Facebook message, which he surprisingly responded to. Anyhow...

My point is -- I would love to have lunch with this guy.  First of all, because he reminds me of the type of person I enjoy being friends with: people who tell it like it is. Those with whom you always know where you stand. Second of all, I would love to ask him about his thoughts on writing. I'd love to know his process. It would just delight me.

For now, I will watch his funny videos.

Dancing... funk class - take 2

Today I went back to the funk class.  At first, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is just as hard as before..."

     There were four brand new people tonight. When the teacher asked, "Who is new?" I said, "Well, it is my second time," She waved me away and said, "Aww, second time, you are going to be fine." I did not believe her. Her advice to new people is to come back at least once more, as it gets easier the second time. 

     Three of the four new people left after only a short time in the class.  This made me really proud of myself for sticking it out for the entire class and for coming back. 

     About halfway through the class, I started to realize that there were occasionally moments where my feet were doing what they were supposed to do in a sort of muscle memory kind of way. Like... I wasn't having to think through every single move, some of it was just happening. I still missed quite a few steps, but I also tried to focus on relaxing and just moving a little too and feeling more confident in myself to just allow myself to realize that its okay if I look like an idiot. 

    So, this is growth. Now the difficult part: Jazz is moving to Tuesday nights at 7:15 (it was on Thursdays).  Note that this would have been great had it happened in February.  Sigh...  Funk is from 6:20-7:20 (but it really is like 6:25-7:25).  Boo.  They are about 15-20 minutes apart in driving distance and parking is a bit of a pain in both locations.  I clearly am going to have to choose.  I might split my time 50/50.  Not sure.

     The thing is... I definitely grow more from the jazz class because it is right at my zone of proximal development as a learner (non-educators will probably need to look that up). I am not sure which one is a better workout.  Jazz hurts... but in a good way.  The warm up is I - N - T - E - N - S - E!  The class and the choreography moves much more slowly though, so I rarely break a heavy sweat. The funk class is a bit above my level and moves really fast, so I am pretty much in a constant sweat in that class, but it doesn't really hurt. Is it true, no pain no gain?  Funk, however, is free with my gym membership. Jazz is $15 a week.  Hmmm....   decisions decisions.

     On the plus side, this does open up my Thursday nights to try Laughter Yoga. 

#6 Learn to Dance - A few epiphanies today

Today I pushed forward in my "learn to dance" quest by going to the Zumba class at my gym.  Now, I recognize that Zumba is only 1/2 dance class, because it is really like 1/2 workout, but I clearly just need practice trying to copy choreography, so I figured... dance is dance, and I went.

This morning, my friend Tina had asked me what I thought of Zumba.  I told her that I hated it because I can only follow dance moves if someone breaks it down step by step, slowly and does the same sequence multiple times. Zumba is like: ready, set, GO! You are just supposed to copy the teacher and try to follow along and hope you can figure out what the heck is going on.  I really hate feeling that lost, but I thought, "Well, maybe I've improved since last time I tried."  It was like a year and a half ago, maybe two years.

I guess I have improved a little, because it wasn't quite as hard to follow along tonight. It might also be that the instructor was better. I had a few revelations tonight at this class though.

I realized that, while I have been focusing so much on just watching and figuring out what's going on, I have neglected to count in my head.  I think I was thinking I would figure that out later, but once tonight, towards the end of class, I just figured, "Maybe this would be easier if I tried to count as I do this."  Ya know what... it was easier. Haha. The patterns really became that much clearer and I had a much better sense of when something was about to change.  I think that, instead of trying to remember the actual steps so well, I need to just try counting and remembering the counts of things.

It's a thought.

I also realized that I am more out of shape than I realized I was. Keeping up with that class for a full hour was nearly impossible.  I did, sort of, manage to keep up, but just enough to get the steps and follow along. Forget all the hip shaking and bouncing and stuff that makes dancing look somewhat decent.

Which is another realization I had... I look awful. I mean, seriously, I could not look more awkward dancing if I tried.  I spend most of my time watching the instructor and other good dancers, so I seldom look in the mirrors, but when I do, it is not a pretty sight.  I envy the young, cute, skinny instructor who can do all of it and bounce and swing and twist, all while keeping a smile on her face. I don't think I could keep up with the bouncing and hip shaking, even if I wanted to. Which I realized that... I don't want to.

Which is my final comment... I think I have some sort of awkward block against wanting to shake my hips or bounce or whatnot.  I think I have subconscious body image issues. It's like I feel like am too fat or old for this and like any shaking of any of my body parts is just going to be disgusting.

I don't consciously believe this. In fact, I consciously truly believe that girls with some curves are beautiful and that you can't really "shake your groove thing" if you haven't got any groove thing to shake.  But shaking IT all just reminds me that IT is all there, and I think this is subconsciously why part of me is not willing to give in to trying to dance with rhythm, with a groove. It makes me feel fat. Bleh....

The only solution to this is to lose the weight and get in better shape so I can keep up and try to add some pizzazz to my jazz....

#6 Learn to dance hip hop / #24 Be in a flash dance mob

So, as I was mentioning earlier, I want to dance.  When I wrote the list, I wrote that I wanted to dance hip hop, but I am now realizing that really, I just want to learn to dance... period. Not so much ballet, that doesn't really appeal to me, but everything else, anything else, would be great.

I want to be able to learn choreography in a decent amount of time and try it and remember it and get it.  I want to be able to move my hands and feet together at the same time. Learning this impacts #24, because I have found a flash mob organization, but I have to be able to learn the dance quickly from a video and do it after just a morning of practice.  It also affects #103, because I stand a much better chance of being able to get back on stage if I have the advantage of knowing some dance.

I set out about achieving this goal in January. I think that somewhere in me, I believed that perhaps, because I am musically inclined and have an ear for rhythm, I might have a natural ability and if someone would just show me the steps and stuff, I would be able to get it.  Wow, was that SO not the case.  I started out with a beginners' jazz class at a small studio. This was the perfect class for me -- really small, just a few people, with teachers who were really willing to work with my utter inability to dance and my painful lack of technique.  It was a true beginners class, which was awesome.

Unfortunately, it was also on the same night of the week that my graduate school classes were on, so come February, I had to quit.  I went to about 4 classes before I quit though, and I think I must have learned something. As frustrated as I felt then, I think a few things stuck.

I went to a funk class at my gym tonight and a few of the steps were similar.  In January, simple kick-ball-change steps and padabures were throwing me off horribly. I saw with my eyes what my feet were supposed to do, and conceptualized it in my mind, but somewhere between my head and my feet, there was a lapse in communication, because my feet refused to behave.  How dancers control all of their limbs all at once and make everything do what they want it to do, altogether, is beyond me.

Tonight, however, at the funk class, I nailed the kick-ball-change multiple times (it helped that it was the first step in the sequence) and mostly managed the padabure. The class was really, really hard.  It is a weekly class that had about 30 people in it, many of whom come regularly every week and work on the same routine for several weeks. I was one of the only newbies and it moved really, really fast. We worked on a "warm up" routine that was almost harder than the actual routine, which I think I only got about half of.

Right now, I look terribly ungraceful and miss many steps.  I don't have that natural hip swing or attitude thing going on and it feels very forced to me.  But even in just one hour, I got better. Some of what I learned in January was really helpful, like when the teacher told me over and over again to just focus on the feet before worrying about the hands. Although I felt kind of stupid not trying the hand stuff at some points, when it confused me at all, I tried not to worry about it so I could just work on getting my feet to do what I wanted them to.

I want to go back to the Thursday class. I think if I went regularly, I would learn a lot. It is a little bit pricey and money is tight right now, so I feel kind of guilty spending the money, but I just want this so badly.  The class at my gym is free (well, it is included in what we already pay, which is practically nothing), so at least that is something.  There is also a belly dancing class on Fridays and well... dancing is dancing, so I might check it out.

Maybe all this dancing could help with #67 too. I want terribly to NOT be overweight.

I've gone through moments this year where I have thought to myself, "You are too old for this.  People learn to dance as children, not at 30..." but the woman who teaches the jazz class started when she was much older and at the gym tonight, there were some women who were at least in their fifties, maybe in their sixties, and they appeared to be beginners. There was even a guy who looked like he was probably 70 something. If they can dance... so can I. At least I'm off to a start.

#103 Get Back on Stage

If you asked me a year ago, I would have said (and wholeheartedly believed) that 2013 would be the year I would get back on stage, but alas, it looks as if it is not to be. Not for any lack of effort, that's for certain. As soon as I finished graduate school (okay, before even, I went to an audition the week before I graduated), I started hitting the auditions.

There were several things I didn't expect:

• I didn't expect that I would be so rusty. 
• I didn't expect the theatre world to be SO musical theatre based.  (Do people not enjoy just plays any more?)
• I didn't expect my nerves to so incredibly get the best of me. 
• I didn't realize how much competition I was up against, even locally. 

Sigh.  I certainly was rusty.  At my first audition in May, I made a TON of beginner's mistakes. Things I even tell my students NOT to do, I slipped and did myself. Nerves really had a lot to do with it. I don't know what was wrong with me, but at the first couple of auditions I went to, I was a nervous wreck.  The second one was better than the first, and the third audition was actually really good, but I don't know where this anxiety came from.  I do not usually get nervous about performing.

I also didn't realize that the local theatre scene has blown up.  Years ago, when I was a teenager, a lot of these little tiny theatre groups didn't even exist and the ones that did certainly did not have hundreds of people showing up to auditions. That is literally what is happening now. Hundreds of people are showing up to the auditions I am going to. (Yet they still seem to have trouble nailing the parts for young men... what an unjust world we live in. Oh that I were a man...)  It is no wonder I cannot compete.  If it were straight acting, just cold reading or monologues, then I think I would stand a better chance, but I have not had voice lessons in almost 15 years, and my resume has little to no musical theatre on it.  I love musical theatre, but I just haven't had the opportunity to be in a lot of it.

And then there is the dancing issue.

I don't know how to dance, which is so funny to me, because I want to SO badly.  I don't know when this changed in me, because as a kid, I really wanted nothing to do with dance. I quit dancing when I was like 8.  I think it really was a coverup because I so very much hated the dancers I danced with.  And I'm not speaking about any specific girls at any specific studio or dance group, because I tried a few different things as a kid, but I really just disliked dance girls.

Anyhow.... this is kind of another post, so I will continue this in that post.

But, my point it, yes it is only July, but the nearby theatre circuit doesn't seem to have anything else I would be able to do between now and when my students will have their show, so I will need to wait until after that is over in November and then get back to the auditions.

#45 Speak at an educators' conference

In the fall, a colleague of mine submitted a proposal to present at a statewide conference for charter school teachers and administrators.  He had mentioned it to me to see if I wanted to submit a proposal too, but drowning in graduate school work, I ended up missing the deadline.

Well... he didn't miss the deadline and his presentation was about something that I have a LOT of experience with -- using non-profit organizations as a resource for authentic instruction.  Knowing that this is an area I have some expertise in, he asked me to partner with him in his presentation. I was thrilled. 

The week before, I went through all of my resources and came up with some good stuff, including photos, and then the night before he and I stayed up until about 1am preparing our Powerpoint and getting prepared, but it really paid off. 

The presentation went really well and we got a lot of good feedback.  I went to a lot of other sessions at the conference, and I really feel that ours was high quality and of great use to teachers.  This was sort of a watermark moment for me. Even though I have always viewed myself as a "teacher leader," I really had only thought of myself as being a leader at the school level, but this really made me believe that I could be a leader at a higher level too.  Not like I want to become an administrator -- I don't.  I just think that perhaps I could become someone like the greats I read about and brag about, people like Kelly Gallagher or Cris Tovani or Penny Kittle. 

Maybe someday. 

#62 Throw Colors at Holi Festival

Watching a spontaneous throw happen from afar

This year Los Angeles had its first ever Holi festival.  I was really excited to hear about this, as this is something I have wanted to do for a really, really long time.  What fun it was! The bands were incredibly fun and the big color throw was awesome. They did one every two hours, but we were only able to stay for ~3 hours, so we only got to see one big throw.

At the bhangra stage

Marc and I had a great time doing rhythmic yoga and dancing group bhangra. I saw this one BuzzFeed list of signs you are turning 30, and one of them was something along the lines of "You think about going to a music festival but decide you are too old for that stuff."  That made me laugh because it is half true.  I think about going to something like Warped Tour and it just sounds like a nightmare. As much as I loved moshing in my teens and early 20s, the idea of trying to avoid getting elbowed in the face does not sound like anything I would pay to do.  But stuff like the reggae festival and this, right up my alley.  You stand a better chance of getting hugged by a stranger than knocked down by one here.

The video at the bottom is an excellent snapshot of what is was truly like. 

62. Participate in a holli festival and throw colors.

I first saw this on the tv show The Amazing Race when they were in India, and it looked like SO much fun, it was added to my list instantly (well, in my head anyway).

This year, there is a festival of colors happening here in Southern California, and I really want to go.  I think I am going to.  I kind of want to bring my kids, since I think it looks like fun, but Vinny is OCD, so I can't tell if he will think it is fun or frightening.  I might show him the video and see what he thinks.

Everything about this looks like it could be the best time of my life:
http://www.festivalofcolorsla.com/

#18 Make Homemade Tortillas

When Marc and I were just friends, we used to go to Acapulco a lot for lunch. They had a cheap lunch buffet that included a taco bar where a woman would stand and make the tortillas fresh and you could fill them with meat and salsa and stuff. LOVED that taco bar, and I felt like it was the fresh, homemade tortillas that really made it so good, and I've wanted to make my own ever since.

Let's face it... just about everything tastes better homemade. My old play group once had a "homemade only" potluck. I think that was my favorite potluck.

So, I decided that this week was the week. I was gonna do it. My friend Tanya said she wanted in on it, which was great, because buried life tasks are so much more fun when they are done in the company of friends. Her husband Craig picked up some carne asada from a little Mexican butcher near his work, and they came over this afternoon. We experimented. We read a recipe online and the recipe on the bag of masa, and sort of just went for it. The first batch was awful. We misread the amount of salt. They tasted like play-doh pancakes. So, we dumped that dough and tried again.


The next batch was okay, but when we tasted them, we realized that we were making them too thick. They were too doughy. So, we made the balls smaller, smooshed them harder, and tried again. The tortilla press really makes a lot of sense now. Smooshing them with plates worked, but it was a LOT of work. I really enjoyed making my own tortillas, but I think I need to buy a tortilla press if I want to do it again. It would make it much faster and easier.

We had such a fun time. It was great. I made two homemade salsas to have with it -  a roast corn one and a pico de gallo, both full of delicious stuff from my garden.



 

What a meal. It was, as Tanya called it, a meal that really touched our souls. 

Making the Most

(My entry in class of 2014's book about their lists and such)

     In 2010, while home on maternity leave, I discovered The Buried Life, a show about four young guys who seemed to have the perfect balance between planning for awesomeness and spontaneously letting awesomeness occur. They would do things like set out to have the greatest party ever, without even knowing where it would happen, but believing that it would. Sure enough, just like in every other episode, they achieved the perfect balance of asking just the right questions and finding just enough luck, and they pulled off the most amazing party, complete with rooftop stage and surprise musical guest.

     Inspired by the show, I made my own list. Although the guys on the show had 100 items, my list only had 50. I guess I felt like that was good enough, or perhaps just manageable? I just knew my life had changed for the better. Let the amazingness begin.

     But I accomplished so little that year. Of course, I did give birth. I spent the majority of the year pregnant and the rest of it nursing.  I had important priorities.

     Regardless, in January 2011, I realized that the idea of the buried life is to live life intentionally – not to have a list of things you hope happen to you before you die. Yes, life can be lived that way… waiting for things to happen… but that is not the life poet Matthew Arnold was talking about when he spoke of an “unspeakable desire… a thirst to spend our fire and restless force tracking out our true original course” (49-50).  Fresh with this realization, I did something I never do – I made a New Year’s resolution. I resolved to make an effort to cross things off my list.

      I also decided that my students could benefit from such a project. As I began planning for crossing off items, I found myself doing quite a bit of research. It was really about asking the right questions and hoping to find a good answer. This is really the basis of all research, and I thought that students could benefit from experiencing the buried life research process. Perhaps they would begin to see research in a different light. Instead of seeing research as the process of searching for stuff to shove in a paper to make it sound good, they would see research as the process of finding information to achieve a purpose. Farfetched? Perhaps, but it might just be crazy enough to work.

     The project took some prep work – we spent time reading the poem and watching the show and making lists, but eventually I got them on computers, actively, purposefully, searching. They began budgeting and realizing that some things are more costly than others. While some students felt practically hopeless upon seeing the high price tags attached to their dreams, I could see other students were empowered. They might not cross off those expensive items this year, but it gave them a reason to want to work hard and have a decent income someday. I hadn’t considered that reaction. Let’s just say that the side effects of this project were even better than I could have hoped.

     They learned a lot. They learned persuasion as they went about convincing their parents to help them with their goals. They learned that some things are not worth trying to talk your parents into and that some of their parents are pretty good at persuading too. As they looked at hundreds of sky diving companies, they learned that none of them take minors, no matter what paper is signed or who is strapped to your back. Disappointing, yes, but it also forced them to read a whole lot of expository text they would not have read otherwise. They learned, literally, to read the fine print.

     And you know what… they made some pretty awesome memories too. Life is truly about the moments, and I know my students created those moments last year. Some went to their first rock concert, while others rock climbed. Some learned to knit, while others knit bonds of friendship they never expected. Some convinced their parents to teach them to drive, while others became experts at driving their parents crazy. When I look back on last year, there is one thing I know for sure… it is a year we will never forget.

     Of course, there I go… like a typical teacher… talking all about my students’ experiences, rather than mine, but I think that is part of what I learned about myself this year.  Sure, there are a lot of things I want to personally experience in life, but I have found the true joy in my calling as a teacher. People like to talk about parents living vicariously through their children, and as a parent, I know how much joy there can be in this. Ask any parent who has brought a child to Disneyland.  Nothing compares to the joy that fills my heart when my son sees that castle. As a teacher, I have more than 100 kids. As I set students about tasks that ignite passion and spur new experiences, I live through each of them, and my life is wholly richer for it.

     The past 18 months have been amazing.  I started the project again in the fall of 2011, with a new class of students. I blogged my own journey alongside theirs, sharing my worries about whether or not my one-year-old daughter could handle a full day on “The Road to Hana” so I could swim in a tropical waterfall in Maui. They pushed me to go for it, and when I came back with pictures and videos of my breathtaking moment beneath Waikani Falls, I think we kind of all celebrated together. I told them about the adrenaline rush of swimming to the falls, turning around, and looking up at this lush green paradise, hours from civilization. I could see their eyes light up, imagining their own adventures to come. 

     This year, I crossed off one item after another. I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I hiked a volcano. I got published in my local newspaper. I rode a mechanical bull. I caught beads from Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans. 

     Inspired by my students, I more than doubled the size of my buried list.

     But, more importantly – Kimmy rode a roller coaster. Stephanie learned to bake. Several of my students went ziplining. Veronica watched the sunset on the beach. Brenda raised more than $200 for the Autism Walk.  Eric recruited a quidditch team. Diana confessed her feelings to her crush. And I suspect there are other things I will never hear about.

     Abraham Lincoln once wisely commented that, “in the end, its not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”  As I’ve watched my students fill their year with life, I have experienced something I never expected: I’ve learned that life really isn’t about making the most of your time, but about making the most of everyone around you.

#3 Experience Mardi Gras in New Oreleans

This was probably my favorite float.

Last night, we went to our first Mardi Gras parade. Exciting!! This stuff is a big deal here. The floats were really elaborate. We caught lots and lots of beads. They were throwing some other stuff too, but we didn't really get anything else. Marc almost got this cute purple snake to give Vinny, but this crazy woman next to us (like seriously, I think she was a few screws loose) wanted to fight him for it, which totally wasn't worth it. No one else here has been like that though. Everyone is very gracious and kind and considerate. Even though the parades are very crowded, there isn't any real pushing or shoving or anything. Just lots of happy people. :-)

At the Cajun Cabin

After the parade finished, we were able to cross Canal street to wander around the French Quarter to find some dinner. We found the perfect little place- the Cajun Cabin. Seriously, this place was adorable. It has wooden paneled walls so that it really looks like a cabin, but it kind of looks like you are outside the cabin on like the deck (but I mean inside the restaurant it looks like this) because it has swampy looking trees everywhere, covered with little white lights. The food was excellent too. They had both Cajun jambalaya (brown) and Creole jambalaya (red). I much prefer Creole food to Cajun food, so I was super excited that they had the option.

Bourbon Street has a really fun vibe at Mardi Gras. Lots of cops on horseback keeping the drunk people in line, but honestly, it is not quite as chaotic as it seems on television. Of course, the actual day of Mardi Gras it is technically two weeks away, but this is still Mardi Gras season, and there were a ton of people, but everyone is just so celebratory. Eat, drink, and be merry!  They sure are good at that here. It is kind of funny to think that all of this is actually related to Lent and started for the purpose of partying it up before giving stuff up for Lent.

Today we went to another parade. Last night was the Krewe of Oshun. As we were watching it, I was sort of wondering... where are all the white people? I know they kind of segregate things here, but I was surprised that there really like no white people in the whole parade. I thought to myself, "Hmm.... I wonder if there is a white parade?"

Yup. There is a white parade. We went to it today. Now to be fair, the white parade did have some all black schools marching in it too (unlike the black parade that had NO white people), and some of the all white schools did have a couple of black students, but the lines are pretty clear here. I was thinking about how complicated that must be. Like... there were lots of dance studios with groups marching in both parades. But the black parade had all black dance groups and the white parade had all white dance groups. As a parents, how do you know which one to sign up for?  I mean, clearly they aren't labeled. That must put people who are new in town in a lot of awkward situations.

There are actually two more parades this evening, so we are going to try to get some rest and then hopefully catch a bit of those parades.

Surfing

So, one of the items on my buried list is learning to surf. When we were in Hawaii, I realized that I am less of an adventurous swimmer than I used to be, and I don't know if I will ever really be able to learn to surf, given my relative fear of animals lurking beneath me and stuff like that.

But, I just found out about something that may work for me someday. At Disney World, you can take surfing lessons in the morning at the water park before it opens. This sounds perfect for me!  No creatures. Perfect waves. Instructors. Controlled environment. And who knows... if I can learn to surf in an environment when I am not terrified, then maybe I could actually surf in the ocean here in Cali.

It is certainly worth a shot. I think it will be part of the planning of our next Disneyworld vacation.

#53 Ride a Mechanical Bull

One of my students put this on her list last year and I saw it and went, "Oh my gosh!!! Me too!" So on my list it went, as #53.

This past weekend, I went on a girl's night out with some of my favorite mom friends and my best friend Mo. The initial plan was to go to Howl at the Moon (which we also did), but when discussing dinner, Saddle Ranch came into the discussion and someone brought up the bull. Oh yeah.... the bull.

Well, of course I had to ride it, and much thanks to my rather outgoing friend Heather, she even hooked it up with the hostess for me to go for FREE. Woo hoo!

I will admit, I was CRAZY nervous at first. Once I first got on, I started to think, "Oh my beejeezees. WHAT am I doing up here? I'm gonna injure myself."  The operator's advice was hold on tight, use one hand in the air for balance, and go opposite the direction of the bull. I gave it my best shot.

I think I lasted maybe 8 seconds, which honestly felt a lot longer than it sounds. I think the operator thought I was gonna go down right away (which I didn't), since he went easy on me at first, but once he decided to really give it a go, I was not quite prepared for that and down I went. Boo.  Oh well, it was a blast!

#43 Hike a Volcano (and an ACTIVE one at that!)

In the lava tube.

On October 13, 2011, we woke up in Kona, Hawaii and by noon set out on an AMAZING drive to cross off #43, which was something on both my list AND Vinny's. 


When we first started talking about going to Hawaii, the only thing Vinny wanted to do was visit a volcano. We weren't even planning on going to the Big Island on our Hawaiian vacation, but when your 5-year-old has one desire, your vacation plans can be altered. 
So there we were, in the coffee capital of the world (well, MY coffee capital- totally my favorite coffee ever), and we set out for the 100 mile drive to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This was amazing. The park has 11 of the 13 climate zones found on earth. Yup. We must have driven through like 10 of them. I don't know if it was the volcanic gas or the plants or just the multiple climates, but my sinuses did not forgive me for weeks. Oh well. It was worth it. We saw rain forests and giant lava craters and hiked through a lava tube. The lava tube was everything I had hoped it would be (Vinny too). 

End of the lava tube hike

What's funny is.. I didn't want to hike a volcano if it was going to be exhausting and totally kick my butt in the process. I am not much of a hiker really, so I just wanted to enjoy it. Boy did I ever! It is not hard to enjoy a hike through a tropical rain forest.

Outside the lava tube.

 Later that night, we even saw the active eruption of Mt. Kilauea. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Breathtaking.

Yes, that is lava.

October 11, 2011 - #34 A Tropical Waterfall

- I am reposting this from my other blog. It was AMAZING. - 


Today definitely ranks up there with the best days of my life. I cannot believe all of the amazing things I saw today. I really have to give a huge thank you to the writers of Maui Revealed. With this guidebook in hand, we adventured around the island of Maui and saw all of the best stuff. It was amazing.  And, best of all, Tiana was a total trooper! We packed well and she had a great time. Perhaps the best time of all of us.

We started out early to try to beat the crowds, and it was very effective. We were the first people at almost every place we stopped. Well, either we were just earliest, or it was the lemming effect- people stopped where we stopped because they saw us stopped there.

Since we rented an AWD vehicle, our first stop of the day was down a tiny dusty road to a little bay where we saw a black sand beach that we were pretty sure we could get to. Turns out we could. So cool.

Next, we passed by all the things that guidebook said were either not that cool or too much of a hike. We were trying to be realistic about what we could do with the kids in tow. Tiana loves the backpack (shout out to Carmen for the gift, thanks a million), but Vinny is a total baby about anything he deems scary.

We stopped at the sight I was most looking forward to, Upper Waikani Falls, also known as Three Bears Falls. As I got out to change my shoes, I realized that Marc was wearing flip flops. "Where are your hiking shoes?" I asked. "What do you mean?" he replied, "I didn't think I needed them today." Sigh. After a small discussion in which we argued over whether or not it is my responsibility to grab everything we will need for the day, we decided to brave the hike anyway. We followed the path suggested by the guidebook, or so we thought, down a rocky creek bed. Possibly the toughest thing ever, but really only because Vinny was being incredibly melodramatic and unadventurous. He cried about half the way there, yelling, "I want Grandma!" and "I don't want to die!" If you saw this hike, you would laugh hysterically, because it was not scary at all, he was just acting like a ninny. 

Fortunately, we eventually got there and I crossed off #34 from my buried list... swim in a tropical waterfall. Oh wow. Amazing.  Breathtaking. My heart was beating so fast. 

I totally have a thing for waterfalls. I climbed into my first waterfall when I was 17 years old in the mountains of Colorado on an off-roading trip with my uncle. Since then I have been hooked. Last July, while 7 months pregnant, I swam in a waterfall in Tahoe. Also amazing, but I desperately wanted to try it in a tropical one where the water was not ice cold. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Fortunately, Vinny was excited once he got there. He thought the name of "three bears falls" was perfect and loved calling them by name "Mama Bear" "Papa Bear" and "Baby Bear." (The video above is me in between Papa Bear and Mama Bear).

On the way back up, we figured out a much easier way, which was probably the "easy path" the guidebook referred to. We found some people about to start the path down and saved them the trouble. We ran into them again a few more times throughout the day and they thanked us for it. 

Next, we stopped for lunch at Pua'a Ka'a State Park. Well developed area with tables and stuff, but really, nothing that exciting to look at. We saw lots of people staring at the falls and probably thinking about going in, but the pools at the bottom were kind of gross and had lots of tadpoles. (There's another "T" word Vinny learned. Unschooling this week has been pretty awesome). 

Our next stop was a detour from the main highway to the tiny village of Nahiku. Oh my gosh. Craziest little place. Maui Revealed said it must be "where plants go when they die," and he must be right. Anyone see that movie Ferngully in the 90s?  It was one of my favorites, and this place reminded me of it SO much. Vines hanging down from the trees everywhere on the tiniest little road through the most old school "Hawaiian" village you could possibly imagine. And it dead ends at the ocean at a spot with the most breathtaking view. The waves break into colors of blue I have seen nowhere else in nature. We almost didn't want to leave. I honestly think that when I meet Jesus, I am pretty sure he will be standing somewhere that looks just like this. The photos just don't do it justice, but hopefully you can get just a hint of what I am talking about. 

 

Finally, we continued to Hana. Not that much is really in Hana, although honestly, I could retire here. I would fit right in with this lady.  

We did stop at the black sand beach, It was different from the first one in that there was greenery growing out of the lava fields and ancient burial grounds all over the place. Vinny loved the little caves; Tiana loved the sand.

Tiana could have played in the black sand all day. She thought it was way cool.

Admit it... Marc looks great! (Jealous, party of 1)

We ultimately drove on, hoping to make a quick stop at the Seven Pools before heading home, but by the time we got there (11 miles from Hana, almost an hour drive... yeah), Tiana had fallen asleep, and we were not about to wake her up and expect her to hike. Some day, I want to return to Maui without the kids (or when they are much, much older) to do all the coolest snorkeling spots, go ocean kayaking, stay in Hana for a night, and hike to Waimoka Falls at the top of the seven pools.  So... we drove on. We took the more adventurous way back to civilization,  around the dry southeast side of Maui, where the road was often one unpaved lane, and then through the upcountry. We felt like we were on an adventure ride like Indiana Jones or something. 

Once in the upcountry, we stopped at a park for the kids to play in the shadow of the Haleakala Volcano summit. 

Amazingly, we somehow made it home in time to eat an early dinner and pick up Hula Cookies for dessert. What a day!