Carmel

So here’s my story. I moved to Maui Jan 07 from Phoenix. Maui is a great place for me for so many reasons, the weather, the people, the land.In addition to my job (which sucks up 50 hours of my week), I am involved with Toastmasters, I hike once a week, and try to get the beach once a week. My favorite island activity is kayaking – this is so much fun – at least the way we do it.So what have I learned here? Be prepared:: fun and disaster are a moment away. So I keep my trunk packed beach necessities, extra clothes and toiletries and emergency supplies. On many occasions I get a call about a gathering at the beach – so I always keep chairs with me and sunscreen! Clothes – because many times I have been caught on a different side of the island than my house and can’t get back due to the road being closed due to fire or accident. One time I was stuck for two days. Since I’ve been here, the road was closed for two days due to fire and many hours due to accidents, a threat of a hurricane, small earthquakes, flooding and a 3-day power outage, a fire in the field next to my house – so you can see – I have learned to be prepared.I am involved with Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) – it’s an initiative through FEMA to empower communities to respond to disaster when the emergency workers are overwhelmed or can not get to the event. The training was a blast and now we are organizing on our own. We are now South Maui Area Response Team (S.M.A.R.T.). I also keep my emergency pack in my car.What do I do for fun? Hiking is so much fun here. There are several groups that get together to hike – I’m not a regular with any of them – I prefer smaller groups. The environment changes with elevation – so it can be 30 degrees at the top and 80 at sea level. So I have to layer! I am never prepared here – I always freeze. There are difficult hikes and really easy ones too. My favorite was one that we found in Iao Valley – it isn’t in any of the hike books – the trail wasn’t maintained very well – it was difficult and the elevation gain was painful – at one time we were climbing through trees and had to pull ourselves up by tree branches – the pay off was amazing, waterfalls in the distance and then a view of the harbor and upcountry.Champupu – this started out as a Thursday Night Champagne Club (TNCC) and then changed to Friday night cause of the amount we drink. This group is a blast – we spend more time renaming ourselves – we recently added a gar at the end…champupugarrrrrr (kind of like a pirate) the gar is for cigar. We compete with the guys for the TNCC title Thursday Night Cigar Club …so we are also looking at TNCCC name champagne, cocktails and cigar… this will be an ever-changing name.My favorites places/things:: the Maui Ocean Center (aquarium), pumpkin curry at the thai place, spring rolls and fish sauce, Café O’Lei lunch specials, papaya seed salad dressing, the beach, won ton soup from ba’le and of course people watching! I love to scrapbook and make cards – I spend more time buying the stuff I need than actually doing it. I like sodoku, puzzles, and cooking... Political debate, catching up with friends from high school, watching the news, my ipod, buying crap I don’t need only because it is on sale, the tv attached to the elliptical at the gym – dang that was a great idea!So this should give you a little insight with out revealing too much. Have I left anything out?