Date: December 10, 2008


Hawaii - The Epilogue to a 52 Part Series
 
Anyone who looks at this blog for the first time today would assume that it was written as it occurred from December 16, 2007 to January 14, 2008 .

Considering how much thought, research and just plain work that went into the writing of this blog, it would have been a stretch to write it as we were traveling. I must add that such an endeavor would have left no time to do any sightseeing not to mention travel.

For anyone who might have stuck with me from the start and read all my blogs, you will know that this blog was written bit by bit over an entire year. Over that time this fabulous trip has been relived in detail through photos and blogging to wrest out the last significant memory.

The point being that this trip was too good and also perhaps too expensive to simply let it pass into history with the words "we had a great trip". As I wrote the blogs over the course of the year, it was difficult at times to reconstruct the details of the trip and it was only with the help of the plethora of photos and the internet that the details were fleshed in.

It is amazing how quickly one forgets the details of a trip or how easily facts are confused due to an avalanche of visual stimuli to which one is exposed during a trip of such magnitude as four weeks in Hawaii. Blogging was an invaluable aid in bringing back the details of this trip and in many cases giving a better perspective to that which we had seen.

I have often said during my blogging that I love traveling but I hate preparation.

Ideally a trip should be preceded by a copious amount of reading and research to optimize the travel experience. I wish I could do it, but I can't. I just don't have the patience or the perseverance. In a certain sense I am a doer and not a thinker. However, I do seem to put a lot of thought, patience and perseverance into a trip after I have completed it when I am blogging it.

All that is to say that a fabulous destination like Hawaii should not end up on the scrap heap of unwritten, and for the most part - forgotten personal travel history. This was the fate of many of my previous trips such as a trip to Egypt and Israel, a trip to Chile, Bolivia and Peru, a hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, a night spent on top of Mt. Sinai, a walk along the El Camino de Santiago, a bicycle tour along the Dordogne Valley to Bordeaux, to name several.

The trip to Hawaii was too good to join the previous examples. The memory has been preserved in word and photos, at least until the demise of Travelpod.

Now for another perspective I turn to Barbara.
I asked Barb one question.

"Which was better, our eight-week self guided European road trip in 2005 which covered 12,000 kilometers from Lille, France to Rome, Italy and much in between or our Hawaiian trip?"

Her answer was disappointing.

"You can't compare the two, I liked them both. I can't pick, I loved them both."

"Do I have to pick one?" 

"Yes, for the sake of this exercise you have to pick one" was my response.

"Well for several reasons I have to pick Hawaii. The weather was always wonderfully warm or hot - but never too hot. It did rain a little but it was a warm rain. Also knowing that this wonderful rain created these lush beautiful forests and gardens made it all the more welcome. The Hawaiian trip was in the middle of our northern BC winter - a welcome escape at that time. I was working and this was a wonderful, refreshing break from work. The scenery was spectacular every moment of the day. We had great accommodations and I had the luxury of sleeping in a bed every night (as opposed to a sleeping bag in a tent). Don't get me wrong - I totally loved travelling in Europe for 2 months but I had been to Europe 4 times previously and the trip to Hawaii was a first for me as well. There is still so much more to see in Hawaii and many exceptional places I would love to revisit...hopefully some day!"

So there you have it from Barb's perspective.


Coming Soon:


Now That Hawaii is Finished - What Now?