Cinder cones in Haleakala CraterHerb was getting antsy for a trip, so we figured we would escape the winter, which in Sonoma County is not really a winter at all, and take a trip to Hawaii, with the added benefit of me achieving my 50th state. Herb had achieved that goal long ago, as he had been to Hawaii on business.

We decided on a 12 day trip - 7 days on the Big Island, splitting our time 4 days on the west side and 3 on the east, and then 5 days on Maui.

To research our trip and develop some sort of itinerary, we purchased two extremely detailed and thorough books, recommended by practically everyone: The Big Island and Maui books in the Hawaii Revealed series (see the BOOKS tab for a link to Amazon). They give a mile by mile description of every road, as well as detailed descriptions of practically every inch of the islands, as well as best beaches, hikes, etc. Trust me, you will need no other resource.

Not to give the ending away, but the trip did have its challenges. Both Herb and I got sick, with different things at different times pretty much spanning the entire trip, and on top of that, we had to deal with the trauma of thinking we were going to be wiped out be an incoming ballistic missile - that’s right, we were there for the false alert.

Despite all that, it really was a great trip - probably could have been better, but if you have to die or be sick on vacation, there’s probably no better place to do that than on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii.