We are back from Maui, Hawaii, and chilling shamelessly in christmasy Chicago. Yesterday, we saw Nutcracker in The Joffrey Ballet and despite the popcorn they sell and eat in the gigantic and very elegant Auditorium, the show was absolutely wonderful.
But here are some a bit different kind of Christmas memories to share. Merry Christmas everyone!
This was what expected us after nine hours of flying to Maui. We barely managed to take these pictures and then dropped to bed. The time difference, however, made even me to wake up sevenish the whole week so we could enjoy the light of long days on the island. 
The climate in the fiftieth state of the USA is perfect. It is not often that random raindrops fall from what seems to be a blue sky. This means rainbows are a very usual vision. We saw at least five, here is one.
The Pacific is not always calm, but the bay we were at, usually is. It was funny how it almost sounded the same early in the morning as the Lake Shore Drive at home.
The next day we took our rental to a small tour in the neighborhood. The street signs in Hawaiian seem like a drunken Finn has named them after arriving at Tallinn Port on a cruise ship. Not only because of that I felt quite at home on the little green island.
Surely, the Iao state park and the Iao Needle, Kukaemoku in Hawaiian, on the far left here really reminded us of the second home, the Engadine. Everything grows so well in the friendly climate, humidity and the volcanic ground that the greens occasionally seemed out of the Jurassic Park. 
There are several little towns and villages on the island, neatly located around the coastline. One of our favorites was Lahaina, touristic as hell but cute, and with some Käsmu meets St. Moritz but friendly kind of flair to it.
Judging based on what one sees in those towns the locals prefer big cars. Mostly beasts that look like this one here. 
Also it sticks out that there is a large choice of religious congregations to choose from. From what Google offers one can understand that before the missionaries arrived from the mainland with Christianity in the 19th century, the Hawaiians mythology, gods and legends had been more nature-oriented. (Told you I felt like at home in many ways.)
In modern days, the Bible is taught online, or, alternatively, from the front windows, as here in Lahaina main street. 
We switched between pool and driving, so the next trip took us to the Haleakala volcano crater and national park. The blue sky could only be seen in the side window here and...
... the only thing we saw up there on 3055 meters above see level was each other and Clerg was disappointed, we decided to come back later and change the route for the day. 
So we set off to explore the Hana Highway that our map guide promised to be a spectacular ride. And it was - 50 km and 620 curves. It took us 3 hours to drive it. 
The West coast of Maui was much rougher than what we had seen before. The nature was bigger and somehow angrier, the plants seemed poisonous altogether. This is where the dangerous scenes of the Jurassic Park would be shot. 
The rocks and sand on the seaside are black because they are volcanic. When we finally reached Hana, a quiet little dark town we had a quick burger in the local sports bar and headed back the same curves. By the end of the road I felt sick like a dog. 
The next day we laid low at the pool on lounge chairs and enjoyed the sunset. You can take millions of photos like this and I believe Clerg did, too, and still almost not believe them yourself. 
The second attempt to conquer the Haleakala was already much more successful. At the entrance sign even a Nene, the Hawaiian national goose came to welcome us back. 
The colors and contrasts were truly breathtaking and Clerg was happily hopping from one trail to another with his lenses. 
The Hawaiian islands are the most remote island group on Earth. This means that the nature there is unique and stayed far away from the developments of the mainland. The islands are still trying to protect the species that only live there and this is why we sacrificed a suitcase lock to the local Agricultural Inspection who apparently opens all luggage in search of fresh fruit or plants that could endanger the local species. 
The darling below is a plant called Silver Sword. It can live up to 50 years and only blossoms once in its lifetime, and dies thereafter.
Haleakala is still considered a sacred place, a wilderness of the gods, and it is easily understandable why. According to the legend, the Maui God had fished the island from the ocean. On the numerous information boards one gets a much more professional geological explanation but to sum up, those holes in the crater are not the directly from the volcano but the result of the erosion. The mountain used to be hundreds of meters higher.
Like every other place that can be found in tourist guides and lives off the money that the tourists bring there, Haleakala is not an exception. Buses of Japanese are driven up there and Clerg is nothing against their photographing volume. Here we are posing to one who wanted to photograph us.
Happy that we could see it all we drove down and even if I was sick again it was a fair price to pay for all this beauty. The curves took us to Paia, a little town that seems to be a surfers` paradise.
Think about it - the weather is constant the whole year around and you do not really need to do much to be warm or have a full stomach. What a life. 
We sat on the beach for some time and another film came to my mind, the Beach, you know, the one with Leonardo di Caprio. Everything looks like a movie.
The week was over so soon. We packed the cocoa and mango soaps that the cleaning lady had provided us very generously with and said mahalo, thank you, to the wonderful Maui. 
The flight back from the Kahului airport was so much more conveniently an overnight one so I cannot say I remember much of it. The Christmas decorations from Maui are like in a weird dream - even if everything is a bit surreal, it actually makes sense in the end.
Tomorrow we are hunting down a Christmas tree in Chicago.
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