In November Cathy and I decided to take a vacation this January. When we were talking about destinations, Cathy didn’t seem too excited about any of my suggestions until I mentioned Hawaii. I had never been there before, but Cathy had, so I really didn’t care which island we went to.
Cathy loves to research and plan trips taking all factors into consideration. Well, after spending a couple or three days looking into options, she decided we should go to a place called Kaanapali on the island of Maui.
As you may or may not know, Kaanapali is just north of Lahaina. Lahaina was the city that was devastated by wildfire last August. Cathy chose Kaanapali because the wildfire not only destroyed Lahaina, but also devastated the local economy. The travel information indicated that the locals wanted visitors to come and spend their travel dollars to help the area get back on its feet.
And so, Cathy booked us eight days at a beautiful resort right on the beach. We went armed with instructions on what to and what not to talk about with locals as well as extra cash for generous tips. We were glad we had the information and the cash.
Driving to Kaanapali we had to drive through parts of Lahaina. The Lahaina streets were blocked off and visual barriers were set up to try to screen off the destruction. But, since the land slopes toward the sea, the screens could only block so much.
We drove for miles realizing that what was on the left and sometimes the right of us had all been destroyed. It was far worse than what I had imagined from reading and watching the news sources. There is no way to adequately describe what we saw, especially in the short space of this writing.
In the resort area, a portion of the beach is used for people living in tents. Some of the hotel space is used to house locals. Some of the restaurants prepare free meals for the homeless. When we stopped to realize that nearly every one of the workers in the resorts, shops, restaurants, and services that we met and interacted with were probably former Lahaina residents, we were humbled by the disruption to their lives and what they were doing to move forward.
We, the residents of Weiser, are fortunate. We take our lives and our possessions for granted when tragedy can happen to any one of us or all of us at any time. I am just thankful that we do have the town we call Weiser and each other.
While we were gone, I was also mindful that we had unintentionally left when the unusually mild winter we had been experiencing decided to act like a normal Idaho winter. We felt a little guilty about that, but not enough to rush home. Sorry!
I was also mindful and thankful for your City employees. Just as I knew it would, everything ran smoothly and all issues that came up were managed while we were gone. I cannot emphasize enough what a quality crew you have working for you at the City. I have worked closely with literally hundreds of businesses in my career as a commercial lender. Very seldom do you see the dedication, professionalism, and teamwork in an organization like there is in the City of Weiser. I did not have to be concerned about leaving knowing that capable hands in all departments would be taking care of everything.
Well, that’s it for this week. We are fortunate. Weiser really is a great place to live, work, and play.
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