Monday, June 18, 2007

Life in the tropics

I'm glad I mentioned the Caitlin Flanagan article in Friday's post, because your comments were inspiring. It's true - writing gives us the ability to keep dreaming big dreams even during the multi-tasking certain seasons of life require. Funny - people often lament the downside of the writing life, but I'd say this is a HUGE example of the upside. Thanks for the reminder!

In other news...the wedding (and my new swishy dress) were both a big success, and tons of fun. The bride and groom are headed for Hawaii, which a friend of mine recently told me belongs on every vacationer's must-visit list. Have you been? Do you agree? I would love to go (the whole warm & sunny/surrounded by clear-blue water thing has always worked for me) but I get overwhelmed by the logistics: How do you know where to go? Which island? Which hotel?

I'll segue into an odd, "All roads lead to Caitlin Flanagan" moment here and mention the New Yorker article she wrote about Hawaii that was included in "The Best American Travel Writing 2006,", in which she revealed the depressing truth that one of the most prestigious hotels Maui charged the highest fees for it's worst rooms, simply by virtue of calling one building "exclusive." She arrived to find that her room was "exclusive" in that it was nowhere near th beach, or anything else she or her family might hope to get to during their vacation. How does one avoid traps like this?

(And to come full-circle back to the great perks of the writing life, I bet a huge chunk of her overpriced vacation was a tax-write off because she was working on this article. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing.)

8 comments:

Stacy said...

Haven't been to Hawaii, but I'd love to go.

I guess research is everything in deciding locations and lodging. With guidebooks and the internet, there really isn't a reason to end up with crappy accomodations these days.

LEstes65 said...

I haven't been. But my best pal down here just returned. And she agrees it's worth it and should be on everyone's "Places to go before I die" list.

If you want gorgeous island surrounded by blue - but cheaper? May I suggest Jamaica? Been there and LOVE it.

I don't know how to avoid the traps. But I imagine a few hours research on the internet would turn up quite a few warnings or endorsements.

And make sure there's room for ME when you book it...

Unknown said...

Hawaii - gorgeous! My uncle actually just built a house on Oahu, on the beach. As in back-yard drops off into crystal-blue water with turtles and tropical fish. I went to visit them about a year and a half ago, and will be heading back this fall. Gorgeous!!

Larramie said...

Forgive me. I ordinarily would never mention my blog, but I've been featuring virtual tours of the Hawaiian Islands every Thursday for the last few weeks. This past Thursday we went to Maui and....well, your imaginations might enjoy the escape. ;o)

Alyssa Goodnight said...

I too would LOVE to go to Hawaii. I'm always fascinated to find people who live in Hawaii--not sure why that is, someone has to live there.

But I've never been to a tropical island, so any one of them would be good right about now!

LindaBudz said...

Hi, Trish! Just discovered your blog ... I like the way you think!

RE: Hawaii, I was on Maui couple of years ago for work, stayed a few extra days for R&R. Wonderful!! And not as expensive as I'd expected (once you've paid for the airfare).

j said...

love hawaii!

i lived on oahu for a bit as a student and even though i did quite a bit of sight seeing I never finished my "must see" list.

my favorites on oahu were: pearl harbor (sooo cool especially for a history freak like myself), the polynesian cultural center, maunawili (sp?) falls, and the north shore. if you go during the winter you can see all the insane surfers and if you go during the summer go snorkeling at shark's cove. you can usually see lots of sea turtles and interesting fish.

I want to go back to the big island first. most of the locals said it was their favorite island because it has everything. beautiful features (like all of hawaii isn't beautiful?), volcanoes, great beaches, and good scuba diving. also I want to go scuba diving off of maui and see kawai (supposedly the grand canyon of hawaii).

LBN said...

I loved Hawaii, except for the part where I got sick and got bedbugs. :) So I can't recommend any places to stay, because we still don't know where we got them!

But I'd strongly recommend the Big Island, unless you really do just want to conk out on the beach all day, in which case, just do that. We spent two days on the Kona side and two days on the Hilo side (including the volcano national park) and it was awesome. Not enough time, but still worth it. You should definitely do the drive from Kona to Hilo (it's about three hours, I think), it's gorgeous and the terrain changes every half hour as you go up into the hills and then come back down to the coast. Puts the famous "road to Hana" on Maui to shame, in my opinion, plus it won't make you carsick or caught in traffic. :)