Planning for Hawaii

Wow, I’m kinda overwhelmed. I just got done talking to Watrous for over an hour. I’ve done hours of research. And I’m not really a seasoned traveler/vacationer. But now I’m about to book a flight to Honolulu for 3 weeks. I’m going to visit 4 different islands. Let’s see . . . I’ll have about 8 different plane rides. Most of them are little intra-island flights. But I’ll have 2 big 15 hour ones from the mainland to HI and back. I have to plan flights, hotels and car rentals for each leg of the 3 week trip.

But once I’ve got all of that figured out it should be cool. The four islands I’ll be seeing are Oahu, Kauai, the Big Island, and Maui. I’m gonna do a lot of hiking & outdoor/nature stuff. I want to see the lava with my own two eyes. I’d like to get close enough to feel the heat and see the yellow-orange liquid flowing. Smell that sulphur. I want to see the world’s tallest sea cliffs on Kauai. I want to sit and soak in the world’s most beautiful beaches during the day and at midnight with the moon and a full canopy of stars above. The beaches come in all colors too (black, white, yellow, green, and red)! Crystal-clear blue water. Ride 15′ waves on a boogie board!!! Take a helecopter ride. Go Para-sailing with Dave.

I’ll definately do plenty of camping on the beach and other cool spots. I’ll probably lose 20lbs. But that’ll be good. Wow, well I better get ready. Mike, Dolly and I are going out to TGIFs! Yipee! Having cool friends rocks! Ttyl.

Shopping for Hawaii Gear

Today was very enjoyable. I went to my new favorite store Mast General Store. My previous favorite store was Willians & Sonoma. Mast is my new favorite because I’m planning a trip to Hawaii. So I need things like hiking boots a backpack and other cool outdoor gear.

In typical Daryl style I woke up late today, threw down a half of a Bellacino’s pizza, cashed a check from a client and headed downtown to Mast. The last time I went there this guy named Tim told me he’d do a “Boot Fitting” for me. I never imagined picking out a shoe could be that complex. But Tim was an uncommon expert. He used to be a park ranger and knows a lot about feet and boots. He even explained a few things to me by pulling out this skeleton foot thing. Pretty cool actually. He is a super-nice fella. Kind of reminds me of my astronomy buddy, Lee. He literally spent an hour-and-a-half having me try on shoes and testing them on their rocky terrain area. And wouldn’t you know it. After trying all of these shoes on and not even looking at the prices I ended up deciding that winner was the highest priced pair. Surprising, huh?

After that, my next mission was to find a backpack. I asked Tim if he had any recommendations. He told me about this new day-pack that had this special structure on the back that kept the pack away from your back so that air could flow through. That was all I needed. Cool technology & a new quality brand = something Daryl’s gotta have. I went over to where the backpacks were and immediately found the brand he was talking about. It looked super-cool and felt light and comfortable. The only thing I needed now was a cool water bottle. But guess what. I decided to get one of those CamelBaks. Yep, it fits right in this special pouch inside my new Deuter-brand backpack. I tried it all on and it was great. Lightweight, convenient, and my back won’t get sweaty from the backpack.

There’s even pouches on it where I can put my flip-flops for if I go down to the beach when I’m hiking the volcanoes and beaches of Hawaii!!! So yea, I’m even more pumped about going to HI now that I’ve got some cool gear.