Six Days, Seven Nights (or thereabouts) on Kauai, pt. 1

In this period of COVID-19 lockdowns, it has never been more enjoyable, nor therapeutic, to relive past travel experiences. Fortunately, I have been writing about these experiences since 1999 so can read about them over and over again. Here is the first in a series of stories from our first trip to Hawaii in 2000, …

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The Hikers’ Credo: Six hours in the Honolulu highlands

The Manoa Falls hike started at Ala Moana Mall. We boarded the number 5 bus and were transported through one of Honolulu’s swankiest subdivisions. Behind the cubic “Hawaii 5-O” era homes, grey clouds hung low, creeping across deep green hills, shrouding them in heavy mist, the air humid and stagnant, but perfumed with tropical flowers. …

5. Intangible benefits of travel writing

In the previous four entries of this blog, I focused on activating non-visual senses while writing, on stories instead of places and things, on using writing as a means of committing a trip to memory, and on discussing reliving those memories over and over again, especially when we are quarantined inside during a global pandemic. …

4. Relive your entire experience

This is the most beneficial aspect of writing about vacations. A few months ago, I read my travel story from our first trip to Hawaii. This trip was back in 2001 and I was instantly transported back to Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, and beautiful Kawaii. The picture of me sitting on Secret Beach, in Kawaii, …

3. Commit your trip to memory

I am not an expert on memory, or am I? A few years ago I decided to learn Japanese because, as an English Second Language teacher, I wanted to "put myself out there" and see how hard it was to learn another language. Of course I didn't want to make it easy on myself by …

2. Focus on stories

One of the most beneficial aspects of writing about travel is that it forces you to focus on stories instead of things and places. Don't get me wrong, things and places are important; I would never advocate going to Paris and NOT seeing the Eiffel Tower, but you start to think about places as settings …

1. Pictures don’t capture everything

I have taken a lot of pictures on vacations over the years and while they help jog memories of locations, they're a little static. I must first qualify that I am not a professional photographer, just a practiced duffer, but regardless of how accomplished you are as a photographer, the camera is visual medium and …