Vacation in Hawaii

Part 1 - Maui Before I dive into the splendors of Maui, let me give you a little history on how I have been coping with vacations the past few years. In a word, poorly. I stress so much the day or two before I leave that my gut goes off the deep end. And I could on with symptoms from there, but I won't! Suffice it to say that I don't vacation terribly well, and that really stinks from my point of view. This time I had a new plan! First of all, drugs! Like some mild, short-term relaxant, which I never took. But I had it! I also started packing earlier, started making lists earlier, etc. And it worked! Dale and I had a blast! On Maui, the sun sets behind Molokai. The famous Banyan Tree in Lahaina that takes up the entire city block. So we stayed in Lahaina at a B&B called The Plantation Inn, which was absolutely charming, and we loved it, for many reasons. The decor was done entirely in Island-style Victorian Era, and it was very well-done. The gardens were also beautiful, and you could swim in the pool or lounge in the hot tub 24/7. Lahaina, was also ridiculously hot and humid! Like even the folks that live there were complaining!! So we strolled through Old Lahaina Town (which was only 2 blocks from our B&B) and poked in and out of the shops, and ate Shave Ice, and spent money, and swam at the pool, and took a sunset horseback ride one night, and another night we had a fabulous dinner at Gerard's. Dale snapped this shot of sunset for me on the way down during our sunset ride. Andi riding Jake, wearing the hat big sister Kathy bought me in Maine, to keep me from turning into a crispy critter!

Gerard's is actually attached to the B&B we were staying at in Lahaina, and they do Contemporary French Island Cuisine. And they do it really well! I can honestly say it was the best dinner I have ever had! It's certainly not cheap, but the food was excellent and the presentation was beautiful and artistic, and the portions were fairly decent too. I hope I get to eat there again....

Now we never really left Lahaina, except for the sunset horseback ride. But we were happy as clams, just taking life slowly with no worries at all. We didn't have too much motivation to move in that heat, so we didn't move much. We did however acquire a new piece of artwork for the living room, which will be sent over to us here any day now. This piece was done entirely on a flat sheet of aluminum with a dremel as the artist's tool of choice. It's an amazing technique. The Plantation Inn.