Maui, Hawaii

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On Saturday the 14th of September, Major and I flew off to Maui, Hawaii with Dr. Derick and Jo Taninguchi, Chidamoyo alumni from Seattle.  They had rented an apartment for a week and invited us to come along to celebrate my 65th birthday!
  
We were so excited.  Major had never been to Hawaii and I had never been to Maui.

We arrived at 1 p.m. local time and were on the beach right in front of our building within minutes!   We were on the 6th floor with ocean views and we slept with the sliding doors open to enjoy the ocean breezes and to hear the waves as we slept!
We were joined by my best friend from Nursing School, Cathy Holdener and her husband Bart who had flown over from Sacramento, CA 3 days before us and were in the same apartment building, 2 doors down from us.
On Tuesday, Rachel Taninguchi, the daughter-in-law of Derick and Jo flew in from San Diego to be with us for the rest of the week.  She and her husband Kevin were married by Major in December 2015.  She surprised us all as she had days off from her nursing job and came to be with us!  It was so great.
We had a wonderful time going to the swim in the ocean several times a day and their pool, we ate lots of fish and went out one day to snorkel and saw turtles and lots of fish and coral. We even got Major in the water to snorkel for a little time.
We went to Mama’s Fish House for a birthday celebration for me a few days early and had the most fantastic dinner.  We had wonderful food with a wonderful setting and special friends to celebrate my 65th!
We ate lunch at an old sugar mill.  Major got to eat bone marrow and was so happy!  The gardens were so beautiful and still has lots of parts from the old C and H mill. 

We went to Lahaina one day and visited all the shops and the big Banyan tree.  We walked through the town and really enjoyed it.  
We spent a lot of time on the beach just relaxing and eating a lot!  It was so much fun it was hard to leave after one week.  On the 21st we flew from 95-degree weather in Maui to 60 degrees in Seattle and rain the night we landed!
We spent 2 more days in Seattle.  We spent 2 nights with Taninguchi and then moved back for a night at Gail’s.
Cheri Gail had breast cancer surgery on the 18th of September and so it was good to go and spend some time with her and the family.  She is recovering well and waiting to hear if she has chemo and radiation or just radiation.  Please pray for complete healing for her. 
On the 24th of September we flew from Seattle to Santa Rosa and finally were home! 




Derick and Major

Birthday dinner at Big Mama's

Major and Bart

Major getting ready to Snorkel


Turtle seen snorkeling



Major and Derick in the Ocean





Breakfast for Major

 Birthday dinner with Bart and Cathy and Derick and Jo

 Plantation lunch with Jo and Derick and Rachel

 Jo and Rachel with Kathy

 

Dawn, Major, Cheri and Kristen (Cheri with Sisters after her surgery)

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