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March 16
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Maui: March 16, 2000

Today was the big "B" day. It's finally the day when I turned the big "40," or as I continued to insist that this was my "39.99th" birthday celebration.

Here is a copy of my birth certificate stating that I was born at 7:23 A.M. on March 16, 1960. I was born at the Provincial Women's and Children's Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

We started our last day at the Ritz-Carlton with a double latte with non-fat milk for Theresa and a hot tea for me. I picked out the tea that I wanted: passion fruit, because I want to live the rest of my life with passion.

Could that be Theresa and I doing a tandem parachute jump? Ironically, the reason that for me to celebrate my "39.99th" birthday with 39.99 activities was that Theresa did not want me to go sky diving. Theresa told me that if I ever go sky diving I don't need to bother to come home! I opened the sports page of the Honolulu Advertiser only to see a story on skydiving ( http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/Mar/16/recreation.html ). So no sky diving today for me :-) However, our Maui adventure continued.

Recently I saw on TV a motivation speaker on PBS. She concluded her presentation by saying 

    Yesterday is history. 

    Tomorrow is a mystery. 

    Live and appreciate today for it's a gift. It's why they called it present.

So I wanted to celebrate my 39.99 birthday not by dwelling on my past adventures nor planning for future adventures (even though quite a few of the remaining of 39.99 activities are yet to come :-), I wanted to celebrate today. 

Do I eat to live or live to eat? :-)

Part of my breakfast consisted of cheese blintz, fresh papaya, and a chocolate croissant topped with warm chocolate sauce and macadamia nuts. After another sumptuous breakfast buffet, Theresa and I checked out the hotel and headed toward Lahaina. We walked along Front street for 4 hours.

Here is a Live WEB Cam on top of the Longhi's restaurant, where we had dinner last night. ( http://readyset.net/lahainacam.hmx )

Here is a Live WEB Cam on top of Cheese Burger in Paradise. ( http://www.mauigateway.com/~video/index.html )

An old Chinese temple.

The famous Banyan tree.

The waterfront at Lahaina.

We even bought another two colorful Aloha shirts; it's a weakness of mine :-) I liked the Tommy Bahamas shirt that I got. We also had lunch. Ironically we shopped and ate lunch at the same place: the front of the place is a restaurant (Woody's Island Grill) right on top of the water, and the back of the place is a clothing store. I enjoyed a blackened Ahi tuna fish sandwich and a mango fruit juice smoothie. 

Theresa was trying to shop for a special birthday present for me. She almost had tears in her eyes as I insisted that I didn't like this and I didn't like that. I'm very difficult to shop for.

Besides, I don't ever need a birthday present as I got my most special present 22 years ago. On March 1, 1978 Theresa and I met for the first time. On March 16, 1978, my 18th birthday, I took Theresa out for our first date. It was a special evening to remember. So every year on my birthday we also celebrate our first-date anniversary!

On the way to Wailea, I was getting sleepy so I pulled off to this scenic look-out point where a lot of people were watching whales. Theresa laughed at me because while she was able to spot a few whales making spectacular splashes, I missed the whole thing since I was busy stuffing my face with Maui potatoes chips, chocolate-chip cookies, and butter pecan macadamia nuts! I was a pig. I would have been a good roast pig at a Luau :-)

After another 20 minutes of driving we arrived at the Kea Lani Hotel Suites and Villas. Kea Lani means White Heaven. Ritz Carlton was nice but it was below my expectation. I did not know much about Kea Lani before hand. The only reason we stayed at Kea Lani was that we were being kicked out from Ritz-Carlton due to a National Lawyer Association Convention. So we got to stay here at Kea Lani. We were very blessed because Kea Lani overwhelmed my senses. I was offered the upgrade option to a corner room with deluxe ocean view. 

We stayed at room 640. We had a commanding view of the ocean, beach, pools, hotel grounds, Molokai, Lanai, Molikini, and this deserted island. We had a great view. All the rooms here are suites, which consisted of a large bed room, sitting room, and an oversized bathroom, which has a nice marble shower and a huge tub.

A 180-degrees panoramic photo of the view from our room 640. You can see the small, dark Molikini island on the left.

The lower one of the two activity pools.

The upper one of the activity pools. I used the water slide the next afternoon to go from the top to the bottom pool.

The adult pool.

We had a special wine and gourmet food dinner the next evening under the tent.

The sitting room in our suite.

Wet bar, which was next to the multi-media entertainment center, which even included a DVD movie player.

Marble shower.

My sink.

Marble bathtub. It was a pity that Theresa and I never had the time to enjoy it. Next time!

Our comfortable king-size bed.

The back of our room.

Orchids were everywhere in the public areas.

We were on the corner on the 6th floor, one below the top.

Another view of our room looking up from the activity pool.

We were surprised by a small gift that the hotel manager presented to us. I'm going to find just the perfect picture for this frame to commemorate my birthday.

Theresa surprised me with a Tiffany tie clip.

Fortunately for Theresa and myself, we were able to find just the perfect watch for me for my birthday at the gift shop at Kea Lani. After we got home Theresa got it engraved "To Stephen, Happy 39.99th Birthday. Love, Always and Forever --Theresa." It's a really nice multi-function analog and digital Millennium-edition watch from Bulova. I love it.

  In addition to suites, Kea Lani also has multi-rooms villas fronting the beach.

Before dinner we took a sunset walk for 2-3 miles past all these other hotels (e.g. Four Seasons, Grand Wailea, and Outrigger). It was nice to enjoy the most perfect sunset that we have ever seen. It took 2 minutes and 22 seconds--how do I know? I timed it with my new watch.

On our way we were impressed by all the parties that we saw: an intimate, catered private party in a ocean-front condo, a cocktail party for work-related gathering as everyone was wearing a prominent name tag, and a couple of huge luau dinners and shows. I was impressed by the number of people at the buffet line.

We concluded our evening by having dinner at Rick's Seafood Restaurant at Kea Lani. The service was impeccable. Have you ever been to a place where they change the water glass during the middle of dinner? 

We had escargot for appetizer.

Theresa enjoyed her scallop, and I enjoyed tiger shrimps on a bed of fettuccine. Since my mother was not around to fix me a bowl of noodles with hard boil eggs, I had noodles for dinner it's my Chinese family tradition to have noodles as a sign of long life!

We had a great day celebrating my birthday. It was my best birthday ever. I loved being here with Theresa. I'm glad to report that life is not over at 40. It's trite to say that life begins at 40, but I'll say it anyway. I'm optimistic and enthusiastic. I'm looking forward to many more years of health and happiness. The best part is being able to travel the journey of life with Theresa.

    Yesterday is history. 

    Tomorrow is a mystery. 

    Live and appreciate today for it's a gift. It's why they called it present.