april • 2019 keiki cover models

Aloha and Mahalo to Kaianu David Valdivia and Kalena Kekoa Nohealani Romero, this month’s keiki cover models!

Kaianu is ten years old and in fifth grade, and sister Kalena is six years old and attends kindergarten. Mom is Kinoikilaioalana Almeida, night auditor at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa, and dad is Edgar Romero, night manager at Honua Kai Resort. The family lives in Wailuku.

Mom shares, “Kaianu enjoys math at school, and Kalena likes art and computers. Both love the water, swimming, snorkeling and SUP. I tell them both to fill their lives with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell not stuff to show. We work hard to take the kids on vacation to show them different parts of the world.” Great advice for us all!

maui ocean center’s new humpbacks of hawai‘i exhibit & sphere: immersing guests in the world of gentle giants

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swim among Hawaiian humpback whales, the gentle giants of the sea? Inside Maui Ocean Center’s (MOC) brand-new, multi-million dollar “Sphere,” you’ll encounter what looks and feels to be just that. For the first time in the entire world, guests at Maui’s own aquarium can experience the mystery and majesty of one of the largest mammals on planet Earth as no one has before.

While the Sphere was under construction for approximately a year, who among us didn’t wonder as we drove past, “What in the world is going to be under that shiny, white dome?” “This is the culmination of three years of preparation and work for us,” says Tapani Vuori, MOC general manager. “The Sphere is a groundbreaking, fully immersive humpback whale experience. You are part of the ocean environment with the whales once you’re inside the dome. It’s the first of its kind in the history of the U.S., and even around the world.

27th annual ‘celebration of the arts’ festival at the ritz-carlton, kapalua april 19-20, 2019

The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua is proud to host the 27th Annual Celebration of the Arts Festival, a beloved cultural event which has taken place on-property every year since the resort’s inception in 1992. On April 19 and 20, some of Hawai‘i’s most reputable artisans, educators, cultural practitioners, speakers and entertainers will convene to celebrate the islands’ history and culture with resort guests and locals alike, through traditional ceremonies, music and dance performances, local cuisine, film screenings, hands-on art demonstrations, informative speaker panels, and more. These various immersive and exciting activities will center around this year’s theme – “E Aloha I Na Mea Kanu…Love all things that are planted” – a poetic verse referring to the growth of crops, life, ancestors, thoughts, deeds and consequences.