What Maui Looks Like Right Before You Leave It
Before the emails start and the days accelerate and the restaurant pulls me back into its orbit, I step outside on to the lanai. The pool mirrors the blue above it. The trade winds play on my skin like a whisper. I sit at my table and try to take it all in, the way of chewing slowly when you know the meal is almost over. These are the last mornings. And they alone make it hard to leave.
May-cember Is Real
It is a Tuesday night in early May and I am standing in my daughter's school auditorium, phone in one hand, program in the other, Resy notifications going off in my pocket while I try to be fully present for the last performance of the year. May-cember is real. Here is how I move through it.
I Overpack Every Time. Here Is What I Know Anyway.
The cost of overpacking is not the airline fee. It starts before you ever leave the house, in the weight of too many decisions, the friction of dragging something heavy up stairs built centuries before wheeled luggage existed, and the frustration of arriving somewhere beautiful feeling burdened instead of free. Over years of leaving Maui for long stretches across multiple countries and cultures, I have developed a philosophy that has made me better at it. Not perfect. Better. Here is what I know.
We Don't Take Trips
I stopped asking myself where I want to go a long time ago. Instead I ask who I want to be with. Every departure from Maui, thousands of miles of ocean between us and everyone we love, has to be justified by what is waiting on the other side. This is the most practical travel advice I can offer.
Summer Travel Planning: One City, One Beat (And How I Actually Plan It)
After years of overstacking our summers, too many cities, too much driving, arriving back on Maui hollowed out instead of restored, I stopped building itineraries and started building beats. One city. One purpose. One note in a greater song. Here's how I actually do it, and the simple tools that make it work.