Sunset shot

Did Turner ever visit Hawai'i? I have envied many Blippers (think Booky Goatherd, Waipushrink, PaulFS, and Musings for starters) their beautiful sunsets. We seldom get much color in Portland, and when we do, I always miss it. More are on Flickr now, in the Hawaii set I am adding to daily.

Today was just too fabulous, visually and emotionally, for words. We started at the so-called Maui Swap Meet (really a kind of market, not about swapping at all), where we went in search of fruit and vegetables. We found strawberry and rainbow papaya, purple potatoes, yellow zucchini, and banana macadamia bread (counts as fruit in my book), and the setting, surrounded by mountains and palm trees, and the ethnic mix--utterly Hawaii--kept making me gasp for joy.

Then we set off for the Alii Lavender Farm and the Surfing Goat creamery--both in Upcountry Maui, vast meadows and farms, wonderfully fertile land, dotted with micro-climates: we went from desert to tropics to a temperate zone in all of twenty minutes. While we were up there, the mists came in and buried the island below us, and then the rain came, and then there were rainbows. We descended to Lahaina, could not find the woodcarver (we'll go back and find him), and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearly 4 p.m. and I was exhausted. The family went off to swim and I read my Blip comments from yesterday and listened to the silence. Finally got out to the beach during sunset. There were so many beautiful pictures today, I've only put a few on Flickr and will catch up with more later. But oh, what a glorious day. What a life!

I almost always feel that my life has been so rich that it would be perfectly OK to die any time. What more could be added? But today being here, in all this beauty beyond imagining: I'm so glad I made it. What a day.

And there is one more thing to add to all this glory that was today: wonderful comments from you. Thank you. I am not commenting, nor responding to comments this week, because it takes all my breath to be where I am right now, but I have read every comment and they have added to my bliss.

P.S. Edited. Was giddy when I posted last night.