Last Saturday, 01/18/2020, some of our Punzal Vision team members attended the Island Eyes Conference held this year at the Hyatt Maui in Ka’anapali. We stayed at the astounding Hyatt Residences Club. The ocean view from our room could not be beat! We woke up and went to sleep with Kaho’olawe, Lanai, and Moloka’i in sight, and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. Every day, bright and early, we went to continuing education classes for six hours.
We were among hundreds of other Optometrists and Paraoptometrics, some of whom we created new friendships with, but we all shared the same goal- to further our education and to maintain our credits required for our certifications. We had the honor of listening to other Optometrists present on topics such as Early Diagnosis with Functional Assessment, Adult Strabismus, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Prism, Technology and more. We celebrated midweek with desserts and drinks in the Presidential Suite, mingling with fellow conference goers.
Aside from classes, we kept ourselves busy with extracurricular activities throughout the week. On Sunday, we all did the Maui Oceanfront Marathon 5k- hands down one of the most beautiful three mile courses.
For the rest of the week, playing tourist was our favorite thing to do! We visited the lovely Ali’i Kula Lavender farm, watched the sunrise at Haleakalā (30 degrees wind chill), drove the Road to Hana and continued around the backside of Maui, and ended it all with whale watching on the beach right in front of our hotel on Friday afternoon.
We took away many helpful pearls and information to provide better care to our patients, and we are so grateful for all of this along with the special memories from this past week.
Mahalo Maui for being so good to us!
