(A reworked post from 2012.)
I’ve told you
that we used to have a condo on Maui. Many people, ourselves included,
consider Maui to be a paradise on earth. Unfortunately, many 4, 8 or even
more-legged creatures share that opinion. (There are no snakes in
Hawaii, though--not even at the zoo.) When a sugar cane field is burned
at harvest time, it leaves a lot of homeless field mice who decide to bunk with
you—just until they can find another apartment. (I have to admit they
were sort of cute when their little paws & noses would suddenly appear over
the top of the drapes, like a tiny, furry Kilroy.) He had no problem
getting rid of those. He would have me bait & set a trap & when WE caught one, he would tell one of our
sons to take it outside & throw it in the trash. He would kill cockroaches for me, though!
Bud was on Oahu
studying to take the Hawaii Bar Exam when I flew over from Maui to visit him
for a few days. I left our kids with my sister-in-law & her 3 kids.
Right after I left, a nearby cane field was burned & in came our new
“tenants”--field mice!! Natalie didn’t have the heart to kill them—she cries at Walt
Disney movies—so she had my boys trap them under a glass, take them outside &
release them. That didn’t work. They came back in. Where did
she think they were before they came into our house the first time?
Millipedes
were another story. This is the
foolproof method he devised to get rid of those 6” intruders; he would yell,
“Fran! There’s a millipede on the
ceiling!!” They seemed to like to hang
out (literally) right over our bed. I
would come running in with my stun gun (can of hairspray) & zap the
uninvited guest. If you press down on
the lever until you’ve painted them white, they die & fall off the ceiling. Then I would pick them up & dispose of
them.
We
once stayed in a resort whose name I can’t remember on a Hawaiian island I can’t
remember. It may have been Kona Village, but I’m not sure. It was in a beautiful lagoon & the hotel
“rooms” were individual one-room huts with grass thatched roofs. There were only 2 ways of getting there; boat
or plane. Meals were served in the
longroom—a dining hall. Everyone was
warm & friendly & it was very charming & picturesque. I loved it--until when we went to bed. It felt like there were thousands of 2”
kamikaze pilots on maneuvers. There was
no insect spray in our hut so I went to the office to borrow some. They said I shouldn’t kill the insects—that
they were our friends. I told them I was
all grown up & old enough to choose my own friends. We didn’t stay there very long.
Don't get me wrong; I loved Maui & our condo!! A client of Bud's gave us a golf cart & an old VW bus & had them shipped over to us. Our condo was at the top of a hill overlooking the beach. When we went to the beach we stayed there all day. The association had a large cabana on the beach with a kitchen & bathroom facilities. We would ride the golf cart to & from the beach.
We drove the bus all around the island. My kids & I brush painted it Yellow Cab yellow
& covered it with cartoon drawings. (How often do kids get to paint
pictures on a car with the owner’s permission?) On the
front it said, “Holo holo duck” (wandering around duck) & had my fishducky
picture, wearing a lei, on it. I was taking the kids from Kaanapali to
Lahaina one day & stopped at a hotel to pick up a friend. A lady
approached & asked if this bus goes to Lahaina. I told her it
did. She asked the cost & I told her it was a free shuttle. I
drove her to Lahaina. She may still be there waiting for a ride
back. If you see her, tell her we went out of business.
That's me peeking out the window.
One
year (pre-condo) Bud & I decided to go swimming with dolphins. The Kahala Hilton Hotel had a large lagoon
which was used as a “storehouse” for the local Sea World. It was fun—more so for Bud than me. Dolphins are much too fast to catch. To interact with them, you had to float
quietly until they came up to you. I
couldn’t float—he could. (I almost
drowned as a child & didn’t learn to swim until I was a teenager, when I
taught myself.) He was able to grab a
dorsal fin & the dolphin took him for a ride! I was so frustrated that when we got home I
took swimming lessons at the YMCA.
An
even better dolphin encounter: Our son,
Blake, is a drug dealer rep for a pharmaceutical company. He won a contest at work. The prize—I
am so jealous--was private time with the dolphins for him & his wife at a facility in Florida! Below is a video of
their session. It looks like so much
fun!! Click here to see them.
People are so friendly in the islands. We were standing near some tables while waiting to be seated in a restaurant & I was looking at the menu. I saw that they had turtle soup & asked Bud how he thought it would taste. A kamaina (native) seated nearby told me that it was delicious. He said the had just been served some & had not yet tasted it. He insisted that I taste his. After a few "I insists" I did--it was wonderful!!
People are so friendly in the islands. We were standing near some tables while waiting to be seated in a restaurant & I was looking at the menu. I saw that they had turtle soup & asked Bud how he thought it would taste. A kamaina (native) seated nearby told me that it was delicious. He said the had just been served some & had not yet tasted it. He insisted that I taste his. After a few "I insists" I did--it was wonderful!!
How do you suppose they
get all those little shoes on?
How do you avoid infection from biting insects?…That’s easy--don’t bite them!----fishducky
