I started this blog (originally named Defenestration Corner) in March, 2000, with no particular theme or purpose – it was just a place I could share things of interest. Travel was a big interest; my first travel post was that same month (a ranking of Real Ales I was drinking at a pub in Stratford-Upon-Avon), and I did my first trip report in May, 2000 (Amsterdam and WWW9).

I blogged when the spirit moved me; every so often, I’d get on a hot streak and blog every day for a few weeks. But there would be other times when I’d lose interest and only blog every few months – or even just once a year.

Things changed on March 17, 2020. I started my Quarantine Journal on the first day of the Santa Clara County “shelter-in-place” order, and I haven’t missed a day since.

How long will I continue? That’s a good question. I guess I’ll keep going until I miss a day!

It was still windy this morning, so it’s just as well that we were leaving Maui instead of planning to snorkel.

All of our travel was uneventful; perhaps the most interesting thing to report was that Hertz had plenty of cars available, unlike when we arrived last week.

I’d never noticed the sculpture “Maui releasing the Sun” at Kahului Airport before; I don’t know how I missed it. It’s the only photo I took today, too!

We took a taxi home from San Jose Airport instead of using a Lyft; we didn’t have to wait for it to arrive, and the cost was the same as the Lyft we’d taken to get to the airport last week.

It’s good to be home.

It was so windy this morning that the resort cancelled the Craft Fair, so I didn’t get a chance to buy another fish-printed aloha shirt as I had hoped. Instead, we walked the Beach Walk and enjoyed the postcard-perfect view of Kaanapali Beach from just north of Black Rock.

We didn’t see many snorkelers or swimmers, but I guess wind doesn’t bother scuba divers.

And the birds didn’t care, either; here’s a Pacific Golden Plover near the Sheraton.

I had hoped to get more photos on the Kapalua Coastal Trail this afternoon, but it was impossible to find parking anywhere near the trail, so we gave up and started packing for our trip home.

Our next Hawaii trip will be to the Big Island; we haven’t been there before, partially because the Westin…err, Vistana Vacation Club didn’t have any properties there. But now Vistana has been bought by Marriott’s Vacation Club, creating a way to transfer points between the two systems without losing too much value in the process, so I booked a stay at Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club as well as booking a return trip to Maui for next year.

I’m hoping for calmer conditions for both trips!

The winds picked up overnight, as predicted, so we didn’t even try to snorkel this morning. Instead, we walked the Beach Walk. We saw a couple of snorkelers, a few swimmers, and even some folks out for a morning row.

We walked a bit past Whaler’s Village – this is a fairly slow week here, so restaurants are doing last-minute maintenance before the hordes arrive for Christmas.

We’d read about Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center in Hawaiian Airlines’ magazine, and it sounded interesting. It occupies 25 acres which used to be a sugar cane plantation and mill before becoming the Baldwin family estate, Kalaunui. During most of the year, the main building hosts art exhibits; during December, it’s basically a gift shop. We didn’t know that until we got there – luckily, there was one room that still had an exhibition: Grafica: Auwahi.

The main role of the center is to serve as a learning center for the visual arts; they have classes and provide facilities for printmaking, ceramics, and more. The grounds are beautiful and well worth a visit. We started by walking the “Sugar Mill” route, which features the old sugar mill.

There’s artwork scattered over the campus – I liked the way this piece framed the mansion.

We had to prove we were here, of course.

This interesting piece was near the ceramics studio. I call it “Totem Cups”.

There were hibiscus plants all over the grounds, including this unusual Hawaiian White Hibiscus, which Hawaiians used as a mild laxative and made into cordage.

We drove back to the resort with just enough time to catch the shuttle into Lahaina and meet our friends at Warren and Annabelles for dinner, drinks, and magic. The magic started early – somehow, none of us shared a vertical axis here!

And that was before Diane and I had even gotten our drink – the Honeymooner’s Heartthrob.

The show was very entertaining; there were two magicians, John Shyrock and Chris Blackmore. We’d seen John in 2019; he specializes in sleight-of-hand magic, with some comedy thrown in. This was our first chance to see Chris – he was much more generous with the comedy, but the magic was very good, too. I was a little disappointed that the resident ghost, Annabelle, didn’t play music for us; maybe she’ll be back next time.

We spent the day in Upcountry Maui, mostly in Kula. We started at the Kula Botanical Gardens; it was our second trip there. They were badly hit by flooding a year ago; there are still a few areas that aren’t open (like the koi pond), but the garden looked terrific. I’m restraining myself and only posting 17 photos (I could have posted that many hibiscus alone!) – do visit if you come to Maui!

We tore ourselves away from the garden after nearly two hours and drove into Kula proper for lunch at Kula Bistro; it was delicious and fairly reasonably priced for Maui. Recommended.

Our next stop was Ocean Organic Vodka; we were lucky, and they had an opening for a 3pm tasting (we should learn to plan ahead); we got there at 2:53. Plenty of time!

When we visited them a few years ago, they only had vodka and a very new rum; now, they have three rums, a gin, a bourbon-barrel rum, and the vodka. We tried them all.

We returned to the resort and took a walk to burn off a little of the day’s consumption; it was dark and windy and slightly rainy, but it was a lovely evening anyway.