Over a week since I blogged...and for good reason! We've been having way too much fun and there's been no time. This will be a long post :) and you may have missed the last one on 12/24 with John's beach adventure. Check the photos!
Saturday, Dec. 23rd: The 6 of us went whale watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation. It was a great tour, the weather was perfect, and we saw several humpbacks. We were lucky that two of them surfaced close to the front of the boat.
After seeing the whales we had a quick bite to eat at the Blue Marlin at Ma'alaea Harbor and headed to Lahaina for the Warren and Annabelle's Magic Show. If you're like me, magic shows aren't all that interesting. This one is different! John had read about it, it had really great reviews, and we all decided to go. Annabelle the ghost starts the evening in the parlor with piano tunes (she takes requests) while you eat pupus and enjoy beverages. 
Then you move into the 78 seat theater and the real fun begins. Warren Gibson is not only a magician, but a stand-up comic. His close-up magic tricks are amazing and we were laughing the entire two hours. (John was given a dinner certificate for answering a trivia question about Mayberry, RFD and we had a yummy chinese lunch a few days later :) Who would ever think of going to a magic show on Maui? We wouldn't either, but we all recommend this! It was a riot!
Christmas Eve we enjoyed a true Hawaiian luau at Old Lahaina Luau. We'd highly recommend this one to anyone going to Maui. The food and the show were outstanding. 
The tables each seated 8 and when we were escorted to ours we noticed that the other couple at our table were James and Jean Brooks. When they came back to the table we introduced ourselves as "also the Brooks". We asked where they were from and were astounded when they said Libby, Montana. By Montana standards they are our neighbors! They have family in Eureka! Who'd have guessed??? It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve and we made some new friends.
We had a great family Christmas. Since we were traveling we'd agreed that everyone would bring stockings to fill with gifts. I got some ribbon and we hung them on chairs as we had no fireplace. Santa found them and they were filled to the brims.
Afterward, we headed off to Hana. Although John and I had been more than once, it was the first time for the rest. John volunteered to drive one of the cars and we headed off in Susan and David's convertible with the top optimistically down. The sky to the east look ominously dark. The weather turned out to be fairly reasonable and we only wimped out twice and put the top up for a bit. 
We had a picnic lunch at Waianapanapana Park where John and I had stayed in the cabin and continued on to Charles Lindbergh's grave at Kipahulu. Corki and Fred headed straight back to Kihei and the rest of us took it a little more leisurely with stops for coffee and waterfall visits. Meanwhile, Corki heated up the scalloped potatoes Susan had put together the day before and got the ham in the oven.
By the time we got back, there was a delicious Christmas Dinner ready to eat. It was a great day and we all had fun.
Tuesday was an easy day for everyone...shopping, beach, and pool! Wednesday was our last day on Maui. Susan, David, John, and Cindy went on a submarine ride off shore from Lahaina. 
They took us to 133 feet and to 2 reefs where we saw schools of tropical fish and some divers exploring a sunken ship. It was a fun ride for us non-divers. Afterward, we met up with Corki and Fred and ended the trip with a sunset cruise. 
Perfect way to end the week!
John and I flew back to LAX on Thursday, December 28th. Yes, we were ready to come back. We'd had enough aloha in the last two months. Our plane was later getting in than expected (what's new?) and it was after midnight before we arrived at Gigi and Darrell's in San Juan Capistrano. We had a wonderful visit with them as always, but way too short. We got to meet Darrell's brother and his family which was an extra treat. They are nice people just as those of you who know the McDougals would expect. We all had a nice little Christmas celebration around their beautiful tree.
We left for Washington late Friday morning and took 2 overnights to get here, arriving at Lynn and Arthur's on Sunday afternoon. They had some nice little gifts waiting for us including......a BIG bag of contraband Starbucks Mocha Powder!! Nice to know someone who knows someone :) We had a great time at their New Year's Eve party 
and are staying here till tomorrow. We saw Brad for a few minutes this afternoon and got some shopping done. (Need to get those things that are not available to us in rural Montana :) Tomorrow we will be taking the ferry to Victoria for my birthday and will return on Thursday for a few days with Elaine P. We are acclimating to the colder weather in anticipation of the cold and snow we are going to find at Whitefish! We were commenting this morning, though, about how "refreshing" it is! Hope you all had a Happy New Year's!
