Mele Kalikimaka

Down town Lahaina's Famous Banyan Tree ready for Christmas!

I fell in love with this Stand of Trees on the Road to Hana

Another mighty Banyan Tree on our Hike

A beautiful black sand beach

Self-Portrait of a Very Happy Pair

Sunset at Makenna Beach

Back in August, before the world fell apart, we planned a trip to Maui for early December. While now, it hardly seems practical, it has still been a blast.

Steve and I arrived last Saturday afternoon. We stayed at a tiny, but beautiful condo right on the beach in Lahaina. We've enjoyed great seafood, some amazing hikes and beach time, not to mention the very strange experience of hearing Christmas songs while wearing flip flops at 85 degrees.

Some highlights were the crazy Road to Hana, (which we didn't take last trip because we had a bored teenager in the back seat), a beautiful hike through a bamboo forest to the tallest waterfall we've ever seen, and some incredible sea food. It's also amazing to remember what it's like to have plenty of time together, to sleep 9 - 10 hours a night (incredible!), and have skin that no longer looks like Edward Cullen's less the sparkles (at least for another week and a half).

We also had a wonderful dinner with my former boss and her husband, who have since retired and now live in this Paradise. If you sense any bitterness here, I'm sure it's your imagination. When the market recovers, in another 25 years or so, we can afford to come live here as well. Of course this will depend on other factors such as our strategy for winning the lottery, searching out a buried treasure with our metal detector, or finding a long-lost rich uncle who will come to love us with his final breaths. (If you know either of our families, you realize that this last one is a real long shot.) In the mean time, we have no problem watching how the other half lives and pretending it is us for brief moments in time.

It has been a great week and a wonderful contrast to years' past with the Hectic Holidays breathing down our throats. It's also a great reminder that yes, Virginia, there is Life after Children. This trip was a wonderful one to take with Brian a few years back and we saw so many things this past week that made us miss him, but it was also fun to try the trip again at our own pace and style. My only real concern now is that, well, .... next week is really going to suck.