What’s a Paniolo, you ask? Well, it’s a Hawaiian cowboy. Don’t worry, I didn’t always know there were cowboys in Hawaii either. They ride wild boars, wear grass skirts and make ropes out of palm fiber to lasso ripe pineapples. NOT!

We went to Upcountry a couple of days ago with friends and got a little taste of the other side of the island. Upcountry is a region of central Maui consisting of Makawao, Haiku, Kula, and other small rural towns. There are long winding roads, small general stores, large estates, farms, and horses. It felt like a mix of Ohio’s Metroparks with a smidgen of California forest and a little bit of a small cowboy town out west somewhere. It sure didn’t feel like we were in Maui anymore. Kansas, maybe.

We started the day in Makawao. We dropped off Ashley where she works, a cute boutique clothing store called Jewels of the White Tara in the center of town. The rest of us not-working losers stuffed our faces with a big bag of rare, delicious donuts (the general store/bakery closes whenever the owners feel like it, sometimes for months at a time), some coffee, and took in the almost sickening level of charm Makawao had to offer. We drooled over $1900 hand tooled, hand stitched cowgirl boots at Aloha Cowboy, and Kent bought me some amazing yellow tagua earrings from Goodies. We shopped for a while and realized that Cheya knows just about everyone in Makawao.

We stopped in at Cheya’s high school – and everyone knew him there too. They even asked us to stay for lunch, which by the way, was the most amazing cafeteria lunch I have ever had in my life! We sat at the cool kids table and got all fueled up for our hike.

Hiking to twin falls was awesome. Aside from my traction-free paper thin shoes and a few mosquito bites, I would say that it was a perfect day. We ate wild berries, both Cheya and Kent got weird foot injuries, and we swam in a waterfall. We found some “sensitive ferns” that react instantly when you touch them. At the end, we gazed at beautiful bamboo as the sun set behind us. Can it get any better? Well, yeah! We ended the day with an hour at Mana foods, a great grocery store in Paia full of local veggies and good wholesome food.

It takes approximately two minutes, 10 seconds to get to this awesome beach called Keawakapu by vehicle. I am not exaggerating. That said, we still miss Skunky!

30 second exposures of the night sky over our house.

The 89th Maui Fair is in town, although we can’t figure out where it came from. Do they store the rides all year in a warehouse or does the entire carnival arrive on a boat? The important thing is that it’s here and it was really great. It would appear that the entire island goes to this fair, which made it even more fun. Back in the Midwest I think we have become jaded about fairs because we see so many in the summer months, plus we just have so many entertainment options fighting for our attention. The Maui fair, on the other hand, was PACKED with thousands of people!

Often Maui feels like a small town, in the best possible ways. In the short time we have been here we have already begun to run into people we know, all over the island. In fact, tonight we ran into Brad, the guy we have been buying used furniture from. He came over and gave Darlene a big hug and we chatted for a while. It’s those small moments that help us feel less alone here. Most of those moments come from the people of Maui, who are so incredibly welcoming and easy going. I know I keep saying that over and over but we are still getting used to it and it’s amazing what a ripple effect kindness and civility has on everyone.

This is happening, right now, out our front window. WHAT?!?

Last night was our last night in our Wailuku sublet and we have mixed emotions about it. We are very excited about having our own place again and unpacking the suitcases for good, but Wailuku really feels like home now. We were so incredibly lucky to have Cheya and Ashley as our neighbors. At a time when we were feeling completely lost and alone on this island, they took us out, introduced us to their friends, answered our millions of Maui questions and became great friends. I know we will still hang out with them all the time, but it was nice having them right next door. Cheya’s dad Mark, who lives in the main house has also been wonderful to live next to. Not only is he a super nice guy, he’s also a talented artist who has lived a very interesting life.

Living at the base of the West Maui Mountains, overlooking the Central Valley and the ocean has been incredible. Every single time I drive up the driveway and see those mountains, I can’t comprehend that I live here. It took a couple weeks but we eventually grew to love all the strange jungle sounds and critters. That first night I could barely sleep with all the unusual sounds just outside the window. Every night a cool breeze comes down from the mountain and creates the quintessential perfect evening under a sky filled with all the stars we never got to see living in a major city. I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up living back in Wailuku some day.

Then there’s Skunky. Oh Skunky, we are going to miss you SO MUCH! She was the first the welcome us to the house and seemed to immediately adopt us as her owners. We will miss her long meeeeeeeeooooooows that last longer than any other meow we have heard. We feel like we are leaving our pet behind and it’s breaking our hearts. Luckily Cheya and Ashley have agreed to keep feeding her and giving her love after we leave. Skunky is the best!

The car is now almost fully packed and in a few minutes we will say goodbye to Wailuku and hello to Kihei. Thanks for taking such good care of us, Wailuku.

We finally got the keys to our new place and have started to truck what little we have over. We also had a chance to put our bed frame together for the first time and see just how enormous it is. Wow, it’s huge! We might end up selling it and getting a new one, which isn’t all that bad because we should be able to sell it for at least double what we paid. We will know better once our memory foam mattress un-compresses for a couple more days. We ended up getting a great deal at Amazon and somehow the shipping of this 80 lb mattress 2nd day to Hawaii was only $40. Hopefully we will be fully moved in mid-week and finally unpack these suitcases and have our own home again. It will be bittersweet though because we really love living so close to our friends and we worry about Skunky, who has become VERY attached to us, and vice versa.

I’ve always been a cat person. My drawings as a child usually consisted of one of two things: a picture of a cat or the words “I love cats!” Let me note that I would at times substitute the word love for a heart – I need to be accurate here. Sometimes I would get a little bit crazy and draw a cat and have a word bubble coming out of the cat’s mouth saying , “I love cats” which I guess make all of these adored creatures a little narcissistic. Now, if I was to draw an image as a gift for someone else, say, my mom (flowers) or my dad (guns and cigarettes), I would take the time and cater the image to what I thought they liked.

On my third birthday, I received the best gift ever: a tiny, orange striped, white chested kitten that I named Tara, a name I found in my mom’s Baby Naming Book. She meowed and whined through my early stages of dressing her in doll clothes and walking her in my toy stroller, and eventually made it all the way to Chicago with me. She lived 21 years, making her my longest roommate. Since her passing, I have always felt a little empty. That’s why I always latch onto other people’s cats. (Deb knows what I am talking about.)

Skunky came into our temporary lives here our very first day of our sublet. She started begging at the back door earlier and earlier each day, spending more and more time with us. Soon she was kneading our laps, lovingly with her sharp claws and I think I have at times heard a faint purr. In contrast, her meowing is not faint. She meows at you whenever she sees you, as if just to say hi. She has this cute tongue that she sticks out when she meows, which happens to have part of it missing. She’s definitely an outdoor cat with a lot of fights under her belt. Even through she’s a frisky, half-tongued fighting cat, her coat is very soft.

She has an arch-nemesis, Nunie, that lives in the apartment to the left of ours. Although they have gotten into a lot of fights in the past, Skunky seems to have stopped picking catfights since we have been giving her food and attention. They still have daily stare-downs though.

As we near the end of our sublet, we are starting to get very sad. We are unable to have pets at our new place and there are also a lot of questions of who in the neighborhood Skunky may really belong to. So, last night, we discussed the whole thing with our neighbor-friends, and thankfully they will continue to take care of Skunky Meow Cat. We will be able to move this weekend knowing that she will be loved and cared for.