I lived in Hana, Hawai’i for two months while working on an organic farm, and, as such, I have some insights into what life is like there. I want to share my pseudo-local perspective with anyone considering a visit or a more extended stay like mine. These are the insider tips you learn from living in a place, and knowing people who have lived there longer, but they are not the lifetime of understanding that comes from being born and raised in a place. Hence “pseudo-local.” I’ve mentioned the Hana Highway twice before (here and here), but I’m dedicating a post to it now because it’s one of the main…
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Hiking in Haleakala National Park
In which I hike 7 miles in 6 hours with 1 water bottle. Not one of my smarter decisions. You know how I recently updated my header tagline to read “travel, tea, misadventures”? This is a misadventure. Back in early March, I found myself with a weekend off from farm work and nothing to do. Another woman working at Hana Farms, let’s call her Alaska (because prior to arriving on Maui, she was living in Alaska), also had the weekend off and suggested we use our free time to go camping and hiking in Haleakala National Park. We had heard from the other farmies that the cool thing to do…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
I know everyone and their brother read Wild when it came out last year, hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List, and became an Oprah’s Book Cub Pick, but I only just finished it, and found it to be a great inspiration. The book’s subtitle is “From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” and it recounts the author’s experiences hiking over 1,000 miles through California and Oregon, alone, at the age of 26. As such, it could be considered a travel memoir, but Strayed elegantly weaves this tale with the events which led to her taking this trip — the sudden death of her mother, and…