Days 3 and 4...just your typical Tuesday and Wednesday in my world....only COMPLETELY different! We dodged a bullet when Hurricane Felicia was downgraded to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression. Even the tropical depression missed us, much to the dismay of islanders who desperately needed the rain. We spent most of Tuesday in Lahaina which was sunny and gorgeous even though it was a bit rainy at our condo. We even got a little touch of sunburn! Today was rainy in the morning, but we missed most of it by traveling to the windward side of Maui. After a quick meeting with the awesome folks at the Maui Humane Society we had lunch and went shopping in the surfer/hippie town of Paia. We then drove into the upcountry where the temperature dropped by over 10 degrees in the span of 3 miles! We found lots of great local art galleries and chatted with lots of nice folks before driving back to the condo for gin and tonic on the lanai. The palm tree photo that accompanies this posting was taken from that vantage point...it was tough to put that drink down to take the picture, but I felt obliged.

More to follow. Hold down the fort in East Tennessee...and, know that even though there are lots of wonderful places in this world, there really is no place like home....