Postcard from Ka'anapali

Here's the hazard of blogging while jet lagged .... I've deleted a post that took nearly two hours to write very early Sunday morning as I sat in my Portland hotel room. Much later in the day, while I waited at the Alaska Airlines gate to board my evening flight from Seattle-Tacoma Airport to Maui, I tried making a couple of minor editorial corrections to the post and ...Poof... the next thing I know, it evaporated as I quickly tapped a couple of shortcuts onto my keyboard.

Sigh. The post was a pretty nice musing on the connection between D.C. and Hawaii as the country waited for the second inauguration of President Obama, native of our 50th state.

I won't bother trying to re-create the entire thing at this point. So I will stick to the basics and thank Kent Rayhill for allowing me to use the wonderful still image, above, from a 1964 promotional travel film he unearthed. Kent is a filmmaker who posted this vintage travelogue on the blog he keeps for his company's website. It's 19 minutes long, but it's well worth the time to watch. The film does a nice job of highlighting 19th and 20th century political history, geography and island culture here on Maui while giving us a taste of the wonders of midcentury modern travel. The clothes! The cars! The cocktails! It was so suave and classy back then.

Perhaps I should explain why I'm in the tropics this week, as friends and family back home in the D.C. area return to work one day after a chilly MLK holiday and the above-mentioned inauguration. Last summer my stepmother, Beth, urged me to join her and my dad on their annual two-week sojourn to the island. My father eventually opted to stay home in North Carolina with Logun and Kai, their Great Danes, instead of joining us. I miss him and wish he had been here to join us on some of our side trips this week, particularly the trip to the woodworking and furniture making studio that Beth and I will visit this afternoon. Instead, Dad and I are planning to visit some woodworking shops in Pennsylvania this spring, after he and Beth have migrated there for the summer.

My Dad and Beth have been coming to Maui for so many years that I consider her a long time seasonal resident. She knows many of the local craftspeople and checks in on them from year to year. Clearly, I'm fortunate to have her as a guide on my own inaugural trip. This week's agenda includes whale watching and volcano-hopping in addition to the workshop I mentioned above. We also hope to stop by the studio of Kari McCarthy, a painter and graphic designer. It seems Maui was made for art and craft. (Also:  coffee, papayas, pineapple, cane sugar, and abundant sunshine.) I should also mention how friendly, relaxed and welcoming the residents are here. Kent has suggested that we try Monkeypod Kitchen in Wailea, near his home in south Maui. I had asked for a recommendation for a restaurant to me in Maui's emerging craftbrew scene. Kent says this one is his favorite.

Maui seems to be the perfect place for me to rejuvenate while I start a new chapter of my life, on my own, but still in the company of loved ones and friends who have helped me through some pretty rough times during the past year. Now it's time to stop typing this morning. I'm going to step out on to the balcony and watch the sun rise. Aloha, everyone!