Aloha Friday Everyone!
The last Friday before Xmas, and for me at least, before a full week off for the holiday. Sweet!
Back to task, I reluctantly woke up from a very vivid dream about Maui this morning, and it was too unreal. I know it’s been a long while since our last post here, but it certainly isn’t because our Aloha for Maui has faded. The holidays, among other things, have been monopolizing much of our time lately, but that’s not what you want to read about, you’re here to Talk Story about Maui. 
Our Next Trip(s)?
Perhaps one of the reasons gorgeous visions of Maui popped into my dreams last night is that we’re thinking about fitting in our next trip early in ‘10. Originally, we wanted to return in February for a week as we did this year, as that seemed to be an amazing time to see the whales. Unfortunately, our budget window for that trip sort of came and passed, so now we’re thinking of something in March.
We’re almost certainly going ahead with our plans to return in August for the Maui Photo Festival after such an amazing time in September, so that throws our annual trip budget a little curveball. Originally, the plan was to spend the entire month of August on Maui (2 weeks vacation, 2 works telecommuting) as an initial test to see if the island lifestyle was indeed for us. That is certainly something we still want to do, but planning two trips for consecutive years is forcing us to consider additional sacrifices and savings on top of what we already do each year.
Change of Venue
While we are evaluating a trip in March, we’ve committed to mixing it up from what we’ve done in the past. As you’re able to tell, our previous trips have all been focused out of West Maui, more precisely our absolute favorite Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali. No question that is an amazing home base for two weeks in paradise, but the accommodations we indulge in there, while well worth it, aren’t the most budget friendly.
So, in order for us to squeeze in two trips (a total of 5 weeks, actually) this year, mix things up a little bit and get a different sense of the island, and be closer to some of our cool friends in South Maui, we’re going to be looking at condo rentals in Kihei this time around. We’re not entirely strangers to the condo rental idea ourselves, since that’s what we do when make our seasonal visits up to Door County, WI. It’s just that we haven’t done so yet on the Valley Isle up to this point, and as I’m just starting to scratch the surface, there are a ton of options out there.
When talking about an early trip in ‘10, I had initially wanted to return to Hana and spend at least one night there as we did in ‘09, but that might have to wait until August. 
The good news is there is still so much exploring (and photos) that we have on our list just around South Maui itself that it would more than fill up an entire week. Take La Perouse Bay, for example, which my friend and Maui photographer Peter Liu (@PeterLiu47) has captured so beautifully at sunset on his blog.
Stay Tuned
Although we still haven’t finalized whether our March trip to Maui will happen or not, I still hope to have more details soon and maybe even an update to the site here and there depending on how ambitious I get next week. To say I’ve been spreading myself thin would be an understatement (just ask my wife), but just because I can’t update this blog as much as I’d like to doesn’t mean the Aloha spirit in my heart is not always with me.
Wishing for the best, I can’t wait to see all my awesome Maui friends in person again real soon.
Mahalo,
– Kris
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