funk in deep freeze

Reason #387 why I love Maui

02 Jun 2010 2 Comments

by meganfinley in maui

Perhaps I should explain how we got to do that awesome photo shoot that I just blogged about with one of the best wedding photographers on Maui…

David and Aaron "surfing" in Maui.

The biggest reason why I love Maui so much is that every time I go there I meet at least ONE incredible person who changes my life in one way or another. But this trip was unique because the person I met on Maui wasn’t on Maui yet when I met him…

It started on the plane ride out there. That was awful at the time and funny to me now. I sat down at my window seat (I like to have a window seat when I fly too Maui so that I can see the beautiful island as I ask it for permission to land) and then another woman sat in the aisle seat and no one was in the middle, so that was a blessing! I was pretty excited.

And then a family of four (two adults and two kids) sat down in the three seats behind me. Screwed. Immediately the kids started screaming, I mean top of their lungs just screaming to make noise. After the first five screams it became clear that the parents had NO intention of stopping their kids from behaving like that. Awesome.

And then the woman to my right starts doing this horrible deep cough that just gave me the wiggins. I hoped that it was a one time, something was stuck in her throat, kinda thing. But no — it happened over and over again. I’m telling you that sound is not even anything I can attempt to describe. Just know that it gave me chills and made me nauseous every time i heard it.

And then the children’s screaming turned into screaming AND kicking and that’s when I lost my shit. I thought there is NO WAY that I can put up with this for four more hours. So I packed up all of my shit and said excuse me to the hoarker sitting next to me and then made my way to the back of the plane cruising for an open seat.

That’s when I saw this guy who looked about my age, and like he probably lived on the islands, sitting in a window seat with the rest of his row available. I asked if I could sit in the aisle seat because I was about to beat the shit out of a little kid and he said, “Sure!” And let me tell you, first class wouldn’t have felt as luxurious as that little quiet aisle seat felt. I was immediately happy and de-stressed. I watched the movie with a blissed out smile on my face, happy all the way to Maui.

While in my little happy seat, I went about my business editing wedding photos and that’s when he leaned over and asked if I was a wedding photographer. I told him that I was and he told me that his wife was a wedding photographer on Maui! This opened up all kinds of conversations, I learned that his name was David, he’s a kick-ass graphic designer, and he and his wife Jana had just moved to Maui from Oahu, and that he had just spent the week in San Francisco, so we were in the bay area at the same time.

Anyway, because of that chance meeting on the plane to Maui, we made two new awesome friends (seriously, look how freaking cute they are) who let us do a fun photo shoot and then taught us to surf. We can’t wait to get back to Maui and hang with them some more, and the next time I *will* stand all the way up on that damn board!