The view from paradise

Aloha from Maui! Mike and I have been here for three days. Yesterday was Mike's brother's wedding, held at the Grand Wailea Resort, a spectacular place that is so gorgeous, it's almost overwhelming. What a place to get married. Since we arrived Thursday night, we've done a lot of wedding-related things, had some beach time and taken a few walks along the shoreline. Mike took the photo here during a walk Saturday morning. The early mornings are the best -- the heat and humidity haven't kicked in quite yet, the light is perfect for pictures and it's quiet. It's the off-season here, although there are still tourists around. It's just not packed like I've heard mid-summer and winter can be.

The wedding festivities are over, but our vacation is only half over. Tomorrow we will do the ever-famous Road to Hana (I remember driving this road on a family vacation to Maui as a kid), then we fly out tomorrow night for Honolulu, where we'll spend three days.

This is the first warm weather/beach vacation Mike and I have ever taken. Most of our trips are so busy and packed with one thing after the other, in the end we need a vacation from our vacation. This afternoon we went to the beach with the intention of going snorkeling, something neither of us has ever done. We got there and saw the waves were pretty rough, so we skipped the snorkeling and decided just to spend some time wading/swimming (the waves were too high to do much swimming) and soak up the sun. It was nice just to spend an hour or two on the beach together. We both agreed that the whole idea of a beach vacation is pretty appealing -- more so than we thought. Then again, we've both had quite a crazy season of working the past two or three months. We needed to go someplace like Hawaii, where you really don't feel the pressure to do a whole lot except relax. It took me about three days to start feeling relaxed. I'm still a little uptight. This afternoon I got irritated with an "island driver" going about 30 mph in front of me. I sped around the guy about the same time I realized I'm not in my bustling, had-to-be-there-five-minutes-ago life right now. I can get stuck behind a guy going 30 mph and not care. Where do I have to be to drive in such a hurry anyway?

The sun has just set here. A few minutes ago the sky was ablaze with pink and orange. Now it's cooling down and getting dark. I have some packing to do before the next leg of our journey tomorrow. I'll write more about our trip when we get back.

My first day of golf

I had my very first golf lesson ever yesterday. I had been talking about wanting to learn to play for a couple of years, and Mike gave me a set of golf clubs for my birthday. I signed up for four lessons at a golf course down the street from where we live.

Today my arms and wrists are sore, my neck is stiff, and I realize just how much practice it's going to take to just get a basic swing down. (My instructor calls it a "turn," not a swing -- you're just turning your left hip to hit the ball.) Mike tells me it could be a couple of years before I feel like I have a comfortable swing. No wonder people get frustrated with this sport. We watch these professionals on TV who make it look so easy --not taking into account that the likes of Tiger Woods have had a golf club in their hands since age 3 -- and we think, "Well, gee, I should be able to do that." Yeah, right.

What I've learned so far is that if you pick up a golf club and swing it like you think you should -- without any instructions at all -- you're probably doing it incorrectly. It's not a natural movement. Yesterday I figured out my first weakness -- I twist my wrists in the back swing, and therefore when I bring the club down to hit the ball, I don't hit it right. I've got to keep my left elbow locked, my wrists locked, my body leaning forward, my knees bent but not bent too much. Boy, it's a lot to remember.

After the lesson I hit some balls at the driving range with Mike. He gave me some pointers, and the other men around me started giving me pointers, too. (I quickly learned not to listen to them . . . Mike said everyone who golfs thinks they know how to do it. I decided I'm just going to pay attention to my instructor.) For my first day, I think I made some progress. I'm no Annika Sorenstam or Michelle Wie, and I don't think I ever will be. That's not the goal, anyway. Mike kept telling me to relax and have fun. I kept getting frustrated that in one day, I didn't have a perfect swing.

I think I'm going to enjoy it, though, if I can relax. It really is beautiful out there, with the green grass, trees, the quiet and nothing to worry about except, of course, how you're playing the game. I'm nowhere near ready to attempt an actual course yet. I've still got a lot of time at the driving range ahead of me.