…we walked around the center of town aimlessly looking for places to eat for dinner. We had to look long and hard because we struggled with sticker shock as every place offering…

I felt strange carrying around a tripod and DSLR camera in hiking clothes in the urban jungle, but my mind left this awkwardness when we saw the impressive…

As the boat pulled away from the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, I suddenly felt something warm hit me in the face. It didn’t take long to figure out what had just happened…

The pounding waves to the left were always threatening to pluck me from the coastal rocks and out into sea. And at the same time, the rugged cliffs that produced these coastal rocks also…

So we were faced with the decision of whether to do the difficult trek right up to the lava flow or returning to the car wondering what if. It was now 5:30pm and the daylight was fading fast…

The relentless climb up the trail seemed like it was never ending. I was starting to get worried that I might not find the waterfall as it had started to reach the two-hour point…

Trying to kill time for the next flight I saw a picture book about the Big Island, which was the last major Hawaiian Island we had yet to visit. While I was busy flipping through the pages…

This time however, the submerged rocks weren’t visible. I thought this was kind of strange and it immediately became apparent to me that the wide stream had risen…

Having been to the ‘Ohe’o Gulch (or the so-called Seven Sacred Pools) nearly four years ago, it was strange seeing the churning, brownish raging whitewater…

a black SUV passed by us as I was looking down to make sure no sand had gotten into the camera bag. Apparently Julie was paying attention because she immediately said, “Honey, that was Cameron Diaz!”

We returned to the car and headed back to the town of Kaunakakai. While we were there, we picked up some smoothies and pastries before filling up on…

I was already appreciating this pilot and the experience here was as different as night and day. This just reaffirmed my hunch that it’s the helicopter pilot that makes all the difference in the…

Heck, I was even desperate enough to drink from any stream I saw along the way – full of bacteria or not. Fortunately, there weren’t any flowing streams during this two mile stretch…

Julie was already against the idea of doing this and the steepness of the gorge before us simply made it a rather unlikely proposition. She recalled…

Julie got frustrated when all the lunch spots she wanted to try out were closed. And now the possibility of something bad happening in this rather unwelcome-feeling spot was palpable…

Upon closer inspection of the sign, someone marked “Mordor” next to Queenstown. This piqued our interest to see what exactly the perpetrating jokester was talking about…

I was anxious to see these endangered creatures as was Julie. Both of us knew they would look nothing like the WB’s whirling dervish Tasmanian Devil…

It beckoned us closer as if everyone was heading towards some spooky outdoor gathering. Of course we were curious to see what the source of the music was so we kept on walking further into the gorge..

Just as I unzipped the first leg, a black splotch landed on the pants and a pair of entry wounds on my shin were slowly bleeding. “Honey! Look at this!” I said with half amazement and half fear…

…I proceeded to put our day packs into the overhead locker when something didn’t feel right when it came time to take my last piece of equipment. “Where’s my camera?”