Some people have a fantasy about becoming shipwrecked on an island, but an island that has all of the necessary ingredients to build a life on… a life that makes you choose to never return home.  Maui is like this fantasy come to life.  So much so that it does not feel real.  It feels surreal.  To fly away from Maui is to feel as if you have exited a dreamscape.  There are post cards with paintings on them that are for sale in shops.  Postcards where you see part of what is underwater and part of what is above water.  Underwater, there are neon colored fish on top of coral reef.  There ..read more

The austere lava rock that covers this island adds a severity that contrasts with the generous fertile energy of the vegetation.  The people here mirror this contrast in the landscape.  Where I am, the ocean is gentle.  It collides with the rock slowly in a way where the ocean spray looks more like play than war.   Hawaii is the most isolated population center on the earth.  It is surrounded by so much ocean on all sides, it is a wonder that any life exists here.  Hawaii is 2,390 miles from the coast of California, 3,850 miles from the coast of Japan, 4,900 miles from the coast of Chin ..read more

Sitting in the water on a seat that is half submerged, the bar tenders walk back and forth in the pool bar tipping Bacardi and Vodka bottles and brightly colored syrups over the rims of delicate cocktail glasses.  I have always loved swim up bars.  I remember the first time I saw one.  My parents had taken me to a resort in Mexico.  I was 11 years old and I drank a virgin pina colada out of a pineapple with a straw.  I was a selective mute as a child.  So I didn’t say anything.  But I remember feeling like it was magic.  I was from a rural town where that kind of thing could never be dream ..read more