I'd been contemplating a blog about Hawaii, when I came upon an article in the Washington Post that says it better than I could.

I have read criticism about the time our PE is spending in Hawaii, rather than getting down to work, and it has really irritated me. The man's life has been a roller coaster for 2 years and he's about to spend the next (dare I hope) 8 years in the biggest pressure-cooker-in-the-world of a job. Coming in fresh and "centered" is a good thing.

We started going to Maui every year about 12 years ago. We both had pretty high stress jobs that could be 24/7 when we let them. We decided to buy a time share in Maui that could not be delayed or traded easily, that would force us to spend a defined period of time every year away from the pressure.

What an amazing gift to ourselves that turned out to be. There truly is something about the the "aloha" spirit that is regenerating. It's hard to be in too much of a hurry, because the "flow" just won't let you rush. Everything moves slower. If it doesn't get done today, it will tomorrow, or the next day, maybe. If not, who cares? Was it really all that important, anyway?

Over the years our adult children, and now grandchildren go with us. Per her request, we scattered the ashes of our oldest child offshore of our unit last year. The times spent there as a family were so important to her that she wanted her remains to be there forever. We chartered a boat at sunset to dispense the ashes. That is not a time of day when you see many whales. We had seen none the whole time we were on the water. Within seconds of the final bits of remains hitting the water a whale came to the surface, right where we had spread the ashes. No big leap... Just a blow and a gentle hello. We wept in silence and said goodbye, knowing she was in good hands. True story.  Hawaii is like that.

We head out for this year's trip in a couple of weeks and will be there for the inauguration. If we couldn't be in D.C. it's at least the next best place...should be quite a party.

I'm glad our PE is gearing up for his new job with a couple of weeks of aloha. He'll need it.