Monday, January 18

By now, everyone has caught my cold. Jeff and Mark both went to a clinic this morning, and Sally goes tomorrow. We have a pharmacopia of meds, cough syrups, cough drops, Kleenexes and decongestants. I do want to thank you to the Wailea Makena Urgent Care which took such good care of me and Mark.

Fully medicated, we drove to Lahaina to meet a friend, Marlin, for lunch. He has been living in Hawaii for about ten years, and has a couple of accounting firms on Maui and Oahu. Good lunch and good company at Duke’s Beach House.

After lunch, we went into Lahaina to see the huge banyan tree. Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1820 – 1845. The tree is located at the site of the Old Lahaina Fort which was built in 1831. After the fort was demolished in 1854, a courthouse was built on the site. The tree was planted in 1873, and is the largest banyan tree in Hawaii. Its trunk and aerial root system covers 2/3 acre.

There was an art fair in the square under and around the banyan tree, so we did some exploring while we were there.

On the way back to Wailea, we stopped at a scenic overlook, Ma’alaea Bay, where people were whale watching. We’ve had great luck in seeing so much activity.

Next stop was a roadside beach, which was fairly quiet. We spent some more time looking for whales, walking the beach, and just watching the water.

Another beautiful day comes to an end in paradise.