chickens and cakes

We're at the airport in Honolulu, waiting to fly back to Chicago! While not ideal for birthday revelry, this week has been pretty great so it's hard to complain.

One of the greatest parts of any trip (especially family vacations) is an excess of tasty food -- mm. This one was filled with lots of Hawaiian local specials (i.e. macademia nuts in everything, pineapples, and Kona coffee), and other great stuff:

mini mocha souffles!


organic chicken and fingerling potatoes (Christmas Eve dinner)


Pineapple-rum cake with lavender-vanilla bean ice cream and sauteed pineapple


warm chocolate cake with vanilla coulis (and a santa!)


...and finally, my last meal of being 23: fried chicken and waffles

a very green Christmas

I've gotta say, being in Hawaii makes it really hard to remember that this is the holiday season. Palm trees just don't have that same festive feeling as 10 inches of snow, you know? Clearly I don't mind being somewhere warm, etc. but I do miss the festiveness of NY/Chicago from before I left:

trees being sold on 6th Ave

SoHo Park

elbow-deep in Latkes

Festivus party

Back home at the Celtic Knot in Evanston

Mind you, they've decorated loads of little christmas trees (with pineapple ornaments) and wrapped up the palm trees with white lights, but it's just not the same...

my view from The Terrace restaurant last night

a whale of a good time

My dad and I took a drive over to Lahaina today and went on a whale watching tour given through the Pacific Whale Foundation. We saw at least 7 humpback whales, who were very active around the surface, and seemed to like us! The tour overall was great - I highly recommend it if you're ever in Maui. We even saw some cute little dolphins at the end of our trip as we were pulling back into the harbor!

(I was going to open with a joke about these being full-time whales, rather than freelance whales, but I'm restraining myself.)

While in Lahaina, we also saw this crazy crazy Banyan Tree. Check it out:

Aloha!

Greetings from Maui!
(please don't hate me!)

driving to Kapalua

roadside view

I made a friend while having my coffee this morning!

The view from our room

Poolside, day 1

In our first full day in Maui (Kapalua to be more specific), we have enjoyed the warm weather and sunshine, but have not actually done a whole lot. I went running and to the pool; my mom went for a walk and to the pool; my dad took a walk down to the beach and attempted to do some snorkeling (he was only somewhat successful as the current kept knocking him over). We just returned from dinner at Merriman's, a mostly local/sustainable/farm-to-table type restaurant, which was excellent.

Tomorrow we are going whale watching(!) and then... who knows. Stay tuned!