Hawaii 5-0. I mean 4-0.

Turning 40 is painless when you are in Maui. In fact, it was downright enjoyable. I started off the day here ...

(reading a book while taking a long, soaking bath -- pure heaven!)

.... Continued the day here ....

.... And finished up the day eating this ....

I mean, seriously! It was a fantastic day. Plenty of leisure and lots of incredible food. :)

This was our 4th time to Hawaii, and the 2nd time that our luggage didn't arrive at the same time we did. 50/50 -- not great odds. This time, the airlines gave us these lovely condolence bags full of soaps and lotions so we wouldn't smell too badly for the next couple of days.

Mike also convinced them that we needed to go shopping for one outfit each since we didn't have any additional clothes to wear. Buying a new swimsuit on someone else's dime is pretty nice. Happy birthday to me!

We stayed in Lahaina at a hotel that was so beautiful.  Right on the water with connecting pools, fountains, slides, restaurants .... you name it.  Here's a peak:

Mike & I booked this trip for just the 2 of us, but we soon discovered that 3 other couple friends of ours would be there at the same time as us and just a couple of hotels over. We ended up playing with them almost daily.

We beach hopped with them, hung out at the pool at our hotel, shopped together, went to a magic/dinner show and went on a whale watching cruise. The whales were such a memorable part of our trip last time and this year certainly didn't disappoint either.

This video is too far away to see detail but you can at least see there was definitely activity. We came across a 'competition pod' of several male humpback whales who put on quite a show.

The one thing that we always do well with the Knowltons when we're together is find great food. Brian & Sue are foodies and we're always happy to tag along. It certainly isn't hard to find great food in Hawaii.

Check out Brian & Sue's dinner ... a whole fish, eyeballs still staring out and all. But they were right on -- the fish was delish!

Fantastic way to turn the big 40. I'd highly recommend it to anyone. :)