Akaka Falls

Over the holidays this past December, we broke with family tradition and, instead of gathering around tree and hearth as we've done as a family every year since 1982, all of us headed to the Big Island of Hawaii for an entirely new sort of celebration. My wife and I had been there once before, staying at what was then the newly opened Hyatt Regency Waikoloa for a meeting of the National Spa & Pool Institute's Board of Directors.  (I recall that Skip Philips was chairman at the time.)  After that meeting nearly 25 years ago, Judy and I had taken several extra days and motored around the island at a leisurely pace, staying in tiny motels and spending most of our time