Surprises

Veterinary Services (and science)

We decided to put some ads out on the public boards to make some cash doing veterinary services and science. Okay, we just found it.
The beach in Paia. Yummy sea foam.
Visual treats for the eye to follow everywhere you look!
Joel took off his beard before the whole head of hair.
Clouds and ocean or white fire and icy terrain?

Our Backyard

The North Shore of Maui, our backyard. It takes us 5 minutes to walk to this view.
We can't swim in it, but we can stare at it.
Joel ponders.. "Are there ETs hiding in that rock?"
Pink clouds and white foam.
A view from one of the guest rooms. One of the tiny gardens is on the left side, under the palms. We munch lettuce, kale, and mustard greens from this garden. That blue in the background is the ocean.

Scenic Train Experience

We uploaded these train photos a little late because they are on Ashley's special art camera that is reserved for art photos only and we've been using another camera for the blog. So, the following are from our Pittsburgh to Seattle train adventure Feb 19-22.







We didn't see any moosies but we did see a few buffalosies. (see above)
The vegan Gardenburger was served on a bun that had partially hydrogenated oil in it. Thanks.
Endangered Species chocolate bars are good masks for long trips.

Settling In

Greetings! We are no longer sick but we have been seeing a lot of ETs lately. Here, a WWOOFer ET named Sebastian from France emerges from Ashley's brain, while a visiting ET named Kutira from Seattle observes.
Nighttime ritual of shape-shifting in the WWOOFer kitchen. Shannon (Maine/Spokane) and Sebastian.
A cinnamon snail and coffee from an expensive but ecofriendly cafe. Joel wanted the snail so much with his coffee that he didn't ask if it was vegan and proceeded to pay four dollars for it with only minimal scolding from Ashley.
Beach muffins in Paia town with no feet. Thank you to Kutira for the photo taking.
Kutira came to visit us because her mom named her after the Kutira who owns this place, after the mother repeatedly saw the name printed on clothing in the washroom of an Indian ashram. She was with us for 4 days and we came to be very close with her. She's a good one.
Our WWOOFing tribe retiring from a day of waves. Shannon, Sebastian, Aria (New York), and David (Switzerland).
Ashley takes up the art of ikebana (flower arranging) instead of working the fields for a day.
Maybe Ashley could be a professional flower arranger someday if the art thing doesn't work out. But it will!
Balinese sculpture is all over the grounds here like coconuts.
Friendly ETs come to Hawaii to put ropes around on rocky slopes for humans who hike.
First sighting of a Hawaiian deity.
A dancing tree poses before leaping into the freshwater pool of unearthly blue.
Love muffin moment!
Ashley took up a cleaning job for 2 days at a nearby farm. This was her road to work.
It's sort of surreal, isn't it?
This is the top of a 300-foot waterfall. The water flows toward the shaded area and then drops straight down. It is sort of difficult to see, but just imagine the sound of the waterfall from this vantage point and you will understand.
Yes, that is a swimming hole and no, there are no snakes in it! We promise to swim in it soon.
Hello ocean! The cloud cover is intense on the North Shore of Maui, but we hear that it will clear up when spring comes.
Bounty of the produce department. You know you are in Hawaii when the produce aisle includes machetes for sale.
A precious papaya from Molokai presented by a friendly ET collecting Earth specimens.
Ashley's soul food. Many varieties of avocadoes grow here and Ashley will devour all of them in due time.
Maui purple sweet potato fingers. And a sweet Maui muffin.
Rambutans! Such ETs. Here's a link about them: Rambutans
Ashley possessed by rambutan spirits. Joel exorcised them with dish detergent.
16 inch 17 dollar vegan pizza from a flatbread restaurant in Paia. But, it was not so delicious. No flavor! Not even the crushed red pepper flakes helped. We wanted to jump into the kitchen and show them how its done! More garlic! Cayanne pepper! Black pepper! Come on, people!
Joel watering the baby kales, chards, and herbs. Just one of our many daily tasks.