Lets try again

Here I am again at Maui Coffee Roaster, only this time with a solid internet connection and a some seriously gorgeous weather. See, this is another reason to love Maui. Yesterday I loved the rain, and today I love the warm sunny breezy weather. Next week we are actually supposed to get 3 straight days of rain (so I hear) and I am really looking forward to it.

So what have I been up to?? Lets start with Thanksgiving. Wow. My favorite holiday for sure. Even better than Christmas! This year I was on Maui, I went to my Hot Sails Maui bosses house for a feast. Everyone brought delicious food and we ate on a luscious, green, palm tree covered yard only a few yards from the ocean. Before we even had time for our dinner and dessert to settle, us girls were ready for some water action.

After batting our eyes and politely smiling, Jeff offered us some standup/longboards for some light wind evening sailing. 5 or 6 of us cruised the coast as the sun began to set. Plenty of laughter filled the air as Laura and I doubled up on an old SUP board, practicing our balancing acts and pushing each other into the water.

When we returned to the beach, someone said to me "Was it fun? But there was no wind!" Don't you understand though????? Its not always about the perfect wind and waves and conditions. For my friends and I, its about US! We laugh and be silly and make fools of ourselves. What I love most about these girls is that no matter what the conditions, they find a way to make it work and have fun doing it. And we had a blast. And thats what Maui is about... finding ways to appreciate everything life has to offer. Laughing no matter what, because its all too wonderful to take too seriously and let it pass by.

Here are four of us girls on the beach before dinner.
We all work in the same building, they work for Kanaha Kai and I work for Hot Sails.



Here is the group eating, the shot was taken from the beach.



Collecting our food. There is me on the right, my best friend Laura in the green, and Ray is hiding his face for some reason..




Feeling so Thankful to live here...



Us heading out for light wind sailing...



Sunset over the West Maui Mountains



Not bad to be on the water in the evening!




After the sun went down, we all cleaned up and had a bonfire on the beach. Here is a crazy cool picture of me and Chiclet (Laura!)


We all sit around the fire




So that was my Thanksgiving! I missed the family this year, and as Christmas gets closer I miss them even more. All my roommates leave this next week, so it looks like it will just be me and Rocko to hold down the house!

So what else have I been up to?? Finals has been torturing me, ever so slowly. School itself isn't so hard as it was in California, but being on Maui makes it incredibly challenging to focus. In between school and work.....


Maria and I went tandem sailing! Two sails on one OVERSIZED board. No joke, the board we used is ridiculously large. After we sailed, we took one sail off and left one on...then we put four girls in bikinis on it. Yup, silly us, pretending to be Rose on Titanic...cruising across the water with are arms out. Our laughter could be heard all through Lowers Kanaha I'm sure. It was sooo fun. Next time I promise there will be pictures of all of us on the board.


Sometimes I meet up with the girls to surf. Last week we met up when it was still dark. The waves were less than epic, but it was fun anyways. We "synchronize surfed" and were trying to all catch the same waves. Aside from Lauras cut foot, it was the best way to start the day. We all parted ways for work and school, wishing the morning would last longer.

Left to right: Maria, Laura Kearsley, Laura Martinez, Aree, Me


Me and Laura



Laura's foot



Over Thanksgiving break, Ray came over to Oahu to hang out and spend time with his Maui buddies. While he was here, he got his first opportunity to head out on a jet ski for some Tow Surfing photos. For those who dont know, Tow Surfing is how you catch waves when they are too big to paddle into. A jet ski tows a surfer onto a huge wave with a rope similar to that used for water skiiing. When the surfer is on the wave he lets go of the rope and rides the wave. Jaws is an insanely huge waves that breaks a few times a year. On this particular day, my roommates Juan and Andres towed eachother onto Jaws and Ray sat on another jet ski for taking pictures.

Here is Jaws


Here is Juan and Andres, towing onto the wave


Pretty cool shot...you can see the surfer on the wave


The wave is soo big, and this is a SMALL day at Jaws!



So thats been my life lately!
My last final for school is Tuesday and what is today... oh...the 12th! EXACTLY one month until I begin nursing school!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight is the going away BBQ for my roommates, I'm going to miss them soooo much! This weekend I get to go to 2 Christmas dinner parties and maybe I will finally feel the holiday spririt. Its kinda hard to remember the time of year when the weather is so warm.

Miss you all sooo much!
Hope your school finals aren't killing you =)

much love
Sierra