Island Time...

WOW!

My family and I have been on a long-overdue vacation in Hawaii for the past week, and it's been absolutely incredible. As some of you know, I spent five years of my childhood living in Hawaii Kai on southeastern Oahu...so it's always a particular treat for me to be able to make it back here.

Spent 4 days on Maui at our timeshare in Kaanapali (the pic is the view out our window), with long stretches of snorkeling interspersed with short breaks to eat amazing food. Local food in Hawaii is...well, for me, it's kinda my soul food. It's a sublime blend of Asian (mostly Japanese, Korean & Chinese), Hawaiian and little dashes of American & European influences. Also had a great visit with Gina's brother & family who live about 5 minutes up the road from where we stayed.

Yesterday, we flew back to Oahu and visited with my parents and my brother & family. Watched the July 4th fireworks over Magic Island right out the window of my folks' condo. Happy July 4th to all of you of the USA persuasion, by the way!

I did bring along my bass in case I feel inspired one of these evenings to do some more writing and/or shedding...but for right now, I'm just recharging the batteries. I'm heading into a pretty busy stretch of conferences and road dates upon returning to the mainland the middle of next week, so have been taking the opportunity during this trip to get some focused quality time with my wife and daughters. It's been awesome. God is good.

Hope each of you are enjoying the summer, and are finding some downtime as well.

Blessings- Norm