Life in paradise

This is a quick update from Jeff and Christin and Steve. In case you hadn't heard, we all moved to Maui just before Christmas. It was rough going to begin with, but we're starting to get into the groove of things now.

It wasn't long before we found a cute little ohana to rent. We (read Christin) are still working on getting the place decorated like we like it, but at least it's suitable for living. Here's a picture of Chris and Steve in front of our place:


On Christmas day we all took a hike up Haleakala crater, which makes up the East side of Maui. It rises to over 10,000 feet. Here's Chris and Steve at the top:


And of course being at the top looking into the crater made me and Steve want to backpack into it. So the next week we did just that. We took about 4 days and explored the whole place. We ran into all sorts of terrain from desert to rain forest. It's was beautiful:




So right now I'm working at a tax office doing tax returns (what else?), Christin is doing massages, and Steve is working as a bellhop at one of the big hotels here (he just saw Christian Bale and Steven Tyler the other day).

More recently we all took a Saturday and hiked around Poli Poli State Park. It's on the side of Haleakala, and one of the few places where redwood trees flourish like they do here:



Sadly, a couple days after we were there someone started a forest fire there and burned thousands of acres of the park. All started with a discarded cigarette. Broke my heart. We're anxious to revisit the park and see what's left.

And here's one last picture of all of us on our trip around West Maui mountain:



So, in short, things are good here. We'll keep you posted on all our adventures. Now that we have a computer and at least limited internet at the house we can update more. Hope all is well with the rest of the family.

Aloha!

Jeff