Happy Birthday to me!

My step-dad, Jim, has a little sign in his basement bathroom that reads "It is foolish to resent growing old; many are denied the privilege." This year, I experienced celebrating another year of life as nothing but a privilege and just felt happy all day long. It was gorgeous, sunny and warm, which didn't hurt. I spent some time in the morning with Chase and Kayleigh, my regular Friday buddies, then went to Alondra's around mid-day, where she and her entire family sang me Las Mananitas and "made" me dunk my face into the tasty chocolate cake they got for me. Alondra and her cousin, Jorge, and friend, Jewel, then joined me at our house for some drawing and prism-coloring. Jorge cracks me up with his questions that always start with him half-shouting, "Hey Mira!" "Hey Mira! When you were my age, what did you want to be when you grew up?" "Hey Mira! Do you get paid to be a Big Sister?"

Eric and I went to Powell's for a bit in the afternoon and I picked out my birthday book and then we met some friends for a somewhat-impromptu dinner party at McMenamins Grand Lodge. We had talked with Eliser about hanging out, but we didn't decide until Thursday night that we'd go to dinner, so I was surprised when all these folks said yes, they'd be there!

I had a great time hanging out with all these wonderful friends and loved seeing some folks connect who hadn't known each other before. Even Daniel had a good time, I think.

I ended the perfect day on the phone with my mom, who told me about the day that I was born. It was a sunny day like this one and she rode her bike that morning with my brother, who was three, in one of those plastic seats on the back...

I was born at home that evening on a big green couch and the midwives didn't arrive before I did, so my dad caught me. I just love hearing my birth story and every time, there is some little detail there that she hadn't mentioned before and the picture of the day becomes just a little bit fuller and clearer in my mind. Like this year, she said that the cake she made earlier in the day of my birth was a dense carrot cake. I never knew that (I knew it had to be dense, though. My mom's cakes are always dense). I do love carrot cake.

The very best part about it is being reminded that my mom was so happy and that my birth was a wonderful experience that she shared with my dad. It's a reminder to me that I have never not been loved.

A happy birthday indeed.

Our beach(es)

One of the top items on the vacation to-do list in our minds was "swim in the ocean as much as possible" and that item was enthusiastically crossed off. Though we knew when we made our reservations that the nearby beach was a nice one, we didn't realize that we would be staying across the street from one of the best swimming beaches on the island. More than once when we were off exploring, local folks that we asked about good places to swim recommended that we got to Kama'ole I, which we quickly came to refer as "our beach." We'd nod knowingly and smile a bit smugly as if we had done something to make it so.

Kama'ole I (just north of Kama'ole II and Kama'ole III) is also called Charley Young Beach and has fine sand, no rocks and isn't too steep, something that makes swimming a bit more challenging and dangerous in some other areas. The waves were perfect for body surfing and the water was a delightfully warm temperature. We swam at all times of the day, but the pre-sunset swim was my favorite and we spent many evenings watching the colors change as the sun descended toward the water, then climbing onto our towels to enjoy its final descent. Sunset was at 6:15 every day, so that left plenty of time to play after dark. And because our town isn't the tourist epicenter of the island, the beach was never crowded. So nice.

Just before sunset on two evenings during our stay, a blast on the conch shell called our attention to the lawn just above the middle rocks where people were getting married. We saw a third wedding on a different beach.

This is actually just around the bend from our beach, in Kalama Park.

Shave Ice with ice cream at the bottom. Divine.

Kamaole III.

I miss our beaches.

Hawaii

Our time in Maui was just perfect. It was the first trip in six years of marriage that was more than three days long and didn't involve visiting people or something related to work or studying and we've decided that we need to make it a habit. Our week was a great mix of hanging around our neighborhood and zooming off for little adventures in our cute vegetable-oil-powered yellow bug that we rented from Bio-Beetle. The bumper sticker on the back read, "Your fries give me gas."

One of our first stops after the rental place was Down to Earth, an awesome little natural foods store in Kahului with tons of local produce and a killer vegetarian hot food bar.

This was our home for the week (our place was on the third floor behind the cluster of lower palms):

View from our lanai (balcony):

I may have to have a few installments here. There's just too much good stuff to share!