We've traveled a good deal of the time this past month or so: first, the Taiwan trip at the beginning of November, then to California--Cupertino, to see my daughter and her family--and after they joined us at San Francisco airport, literally at the departure gate, we all spent Christmas week in Maui. My son-in-law Dave had been offered a house for the week by a friend from one of his professional associations. Eileen and I had been to Maui before but that merely reinforced our overall enjoyment of a wonderful place: great weather, so much natural beauty to enjoy, the chance to enjoy six different beaches--five had great swimming and sand, while the sixth, on the other side of the island, boasted huge waves and a few surfers on them on an overcast day there.
We found the places that also are frequented by the locals to be most enjoyable: for traditional Hawaiian, the outdoor seating with a great view at Aloha Mixed Plate was superb, and was even do-able with two young children--my grandsons; Joey's Kitchen Napili had a down-to-earth air and terrific Asian fusion menu; Leota's Kitchen and Pie Shop in Olowahu had amazing sandwiches and yes, pies and bread pudding; Seascape at Maalaea was delightful outdoors for lunch at the Maui Ocean Center, a fascinating aquarium with so many specimens that are unique to Hawai'i; and getting coffee most mornings at the Coffee Store in the Napili Center, near where we stayed, which had not only great coffee, Kona as one choice, but marvelous croissants, which were delicious without seeming at all French.
We did find that much progress had been made in rebuilding Lahaina after the awful 2023 fire. We'd stayed in Lahaina on our previous trip and while some of it is back in action, there's still much left to be done.
The New Year's house party to which we've traveled in Richmond and Manassas was hosted by another of our four couples as our hosts for all these years truly had too much on their plate this time and we'll just hope they'll be with us to celebrate next year. Since we were driving home that night, it was slated for an early pre-New Year's wrap, but sure enough, we all were having such a great time courtesy of Maureen and Vic Stone that we weren't home till after the ball fell.
Eileen and I did take in the movie "Wicked" which was definitely good entertainment, had great production values, and decent performances too. It didn't need to be almost three hours long, so it did drag, and especially since theres to be a Part Two at the end of 2025. I remember being surprised at how I enjoyed the musical seen in New York a few years ago, as this much more recently written prequel to The Wizard of Oz worked on Broadway. Yet, in the atmosphere is always the 1939 film, close to perfection. I almost thought that in addition to the novel from which the show and movie were drawn, perhaps some of the film's story drew on the many sequels that L. Frank Baum produced. When I saw the show, it had enough heft that I didn't miss Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, and Frank Morgan; this time I did, a bit.
