It’s the end of day one in Maui and I’ll tell ya, vacation works. I’m feeling good, relaxed and thrilled to be wandering around in shorts and flip flops with my hair pointing most every way. It’s awesome.

We started the day by sitting on the beach and playing in the water. The conditions were really calm (winds pick up in early afternoon) but even then the waves off the beach were strong enough to be a good time thanks to the steep drop off at Kam 2 beach. We made up a game of seeing who could stand in one place the longest (Lex won).

The rest of the day was spent wandering about. We took a short drive down to the Kealia Pond National Reserve. The reserve is there to protect one of the last wetland areas left on Maui (in all of Hawaii, actually) and is key to protecting two native bird species: the Hawaiian stilt (ae’o) andHawaiian coot (‘alae ke oke’o). We saw some of the stilts but no coot. Apparently the stilts have the longest legs in proportion to their body of any bird in the world. If ostriches had legs as long, proportionally, they’d be taller than a single-story house!

We also visited a few shops full of shitty trinkets just to see what kind of crap is available on this island. It’s about the same as every other island vacation. We wiped that clean with a view of a really nice sunset and dinner at a hole-in-the-wall fish and chips place. Finally, we finished off by discovering that we share the same favorite piece type in Gardettos.

All in all, it’s been a great goddam day.