Every winter a certain Maui girl comes to the mainland for a visit.  This is primarily organized around unwrapping the faithful Tahoe and packing up the ski gear, both of which are stored at 1880, and heading out for snowy mountains.

Shopping, movie-going, and favorite eats play a huge part in Oregon.  Then a drive through several western states relate to skiing.  Didn’t get a new ski picture this year, but here is a great TBT shot from Crested Butte :

Then on to NorCal for some sisterly and Auntie-Boo related activities.

And after a day of travel, back to hit the ground running early this morning and back to work on Haleakala.

While she was here, I became the proud recipient of a previous plant study:

Trematelobelia macrostachys

And here is the artist in the rain forest studying the real thing.

Always love having these girls come and go.  Of course, we miss them when they go, but it’s all good.  “We’re all in our places with sunshiny faces.”  Some of us enjoying more actual sunshine than others!