{Beautiful, Wonderful Maui}

Grab a lemonade and travel to Maui vicariously...
This is a monster post, but I tried to keep the writing to a
minimum so it wouldn't take too long to sort through.

This trip was awesome. The company David works for (PCI)
took all of us, which is incredible enough. They spoiled us rotten
with amazing and fresh seafood, flawlessly arranged transpor-
tation, nightly dinner with an ocean view, an incredible hotel,
and fabulous activities like kayaking, snorkeling, hiking, and
a spa treatments. I am so appreciative to have had this
experience,again. Just amazing.

{Since almost everyone toted a camera around, I had a ton of
photos to choose from for this post. I decided not to include
all the people pics because it was just too much! So, these
are ones of the landscape or of D and me, mostly. I did think
about breaking this up into multiple post because it is so
enormous, but whatever... You'll make it! I have to
thank everyone else for their photos, especially Bridget
who contributed so many wonderful ones. Enjoy!}


Barb, James, me, David, Anthony.
It was so surreal. One minute we were rushing
around Phoenix to get to the airport in time.
The next, we were walking out of our ocean view
rooms and toward the sound of waves crashing
into the shore for dinner. It sure beat the
concrete paradise where we spend most of our
days!!

Of course, there was golfing. Wouldn't be a PCI Trip
without it! They had the option to go three times.
David went twice. Kapalua and The Plantation Course.
Golfing on the Pacific Coast -- not a bad day at the office!






Not everyday you find a snail out and about.

While they golfed on the first day, the rest of us
went for spa treatments!! SOOO NICE. I had a 50
minute massage (heaven), and my lucky bits got
wrapped in Moor Mud from Austria. Fancy shmanchy!
We all met up afterwards for a really fun girls lunch.


Adriana, Bridget, Sarah, and me.

We stayed at Ka'anapali Beach in West Maui by Lahaina.
Home of this little bit of land called black rock. We climbed
out there and jumped off!


This gives you a look at the whole thing.


Here's David climbing out. It was rough on bare toes
but so worth it.


The jump -- which incidentally, is 40 feet high -- was one of
the highlights of the trip for me. Barb (our fearless leader)
got it started. Then, Cynthia, Lillian, Jason, David, and I
all followed. It was AWESOME. This is Jason's jump.

It took me quite a while to decide to leap off the rocks and
into the air. When I was just about to do it, I chickened out
and leaned back at the last minute. Always so damn graceful...


...but I finally did it -- Twice!
(Looking like Michael Jordan here. Nice! Do you
think he plugs his nose when he jumps into water, too?)


Beauty everywhere

The next day was our day trip (kayak, snorkel, hike)
and dinner at the luau...

Kayaking on the ocean was -- hold on, I don't want to over
state this -- ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. This is Barb and Jason.

And then we put flippers on and jumped in to snorkel.
How cool is that?!

Sea turtles! They were everywhere. Incredible.


We saw so much, and the water was very clear.


Here I am with Betty and Angie.
After we all dried off, we jumped into vans...


...and went on a hike. Here's D and me between
points of interest out there.


They gave us these sexy little Japanese style shoes to wear.

One of the places we stopped was a waterfall.
I had to climb in. It's the closest I'll ever
come to looking like a Victoria's Secret model. : )



Then, more hiking and a few more stops.
How cute is my husband?! :)


I think this is everyone that joined in on the kayak-snorkel-hike
day, except for Sarah and Adam. We had such a good time!


Our guide picked us a few of these. I don't remember
what they're called, but they smell like pure heaven.


Paul, Adam and David at the end of the hike.
Look at that view! (Paul and Adam are the guys D
gets to work with when he's in Albuquerque.)


Me with a camera, no shock, while we were
meeting up for dinner.


My third eye.


Mandi, Kim, Adriana, Angie, Betty, Sarah, Cynthia, Bridget,
me, and Lillian


Guys on deck


This years luau was awesome!

Bridget captured these...






That night, we also learned you can buy matching
outfits in Hawaii. Wow!!!


Paints awaiting a dab by an artists brush at a
gallery outside the luau.

We had some great beach and pool time.


Here's some beachy eye candy. I spent about an hour or so
out there solo, taking in the view, dozing off. It was
fabulous!!







People did a bit of this and that on their own...

Here's Bridget and Paul - we didn't end up with this group
when they were parasailing, but it looks like they had so
much fun!


Can you imagine one of these swimming up to you in the ocean?!



Another night at dinner...

Employees only! This is everyone from AZ and NM.


All the girls with Bob.


The ladies of PCI.


Me talking with Lillian and Cynthia.






There was more fresh fruit available to us on this trip...
Amazing!!



Lillian, Kim, Mandi, and I went into town and did some
shopping one day! I was in the photo mood then...



























I bought an ornament from this lovely lady. She is a local
elementary art teacher. In talking with her, I learned one
representative from each state is chosen to make an ornament
for that state to go on the White House Christmas Tree. Not
sure if that's yearly or for each presidential term. At any
rate, she was chosen for Hawaii! Her ornaments are amazing.
I'm so glad I got one!


We stopped at the Lahaina Ice Cream Parlor to refuel afterwards!
I think this is seriously the best ice cream I have ever had.
EVER.


David and me at Kimo's on Sunday
That night, Chris Mumford (regional VP) said a
few nice words...


And here he is with Barb at dinner.


The state flower


The end