Into the wild blue yonder

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As the weeks approached to this Hawaiian excursion, I looked forward to a day of deep sea fishing. With a bit of fishing experience in Costa Rica and St. Thomas, the next challenge was Hawaii. All my experiences with deep sea fishing have entailed lots of waiting. Read more

Around Honolulu

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Honolulu is a large and active city. All sorts of little pockets to get lost in and plenty of little adventures. I was even lucky enough to bump into the Red Rocker himself, Sammy Hagar. Well, maybe I’m stretching the truth a bit. This was a Sammy impersonator that has us all fooled for quite some time. After our star sighting, we breathed in another picturesque sunset.

Wedding day celebration

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The big day arrived and to everyone’s surprise, Amy said yes! The big event in Oahu took place at the Kalama Beach Club. Everyone celebrated the joyful union of Brent and Amy in a perfectly Hawaiian atmosphere. Congratulations to the happy couple!

Big waves hit the North Shore

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After Karel and I returned from the trail, we chilled out for another day in Kauai, then island hopped to Oahu. The main reason for traveling to Hawaii was to attend the wedding of our friend, Brent, and his lovely fiancé, Amy. When we arrived in Honolulu, we met up with our buddy, Bubba, and settled into our condo.

After a couple of days of playing in the ocean, we had heard that the North Shore was to receive unusually large waves and the professional surfers would be tearing it up. Read more

Destination found: Kalalau Beach

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Karel and I were led to believe that the beach would be fairly uninhabited, maybe 6-8 people. However, we would guess closer to 25-35 people were there. We found a lot of hikers—such as ourselves—who planned to stay one day, then pack out. However, there were a lot of “residents” of the beach too. We spoke with a man from Oregon who had been at the beach for the past three months. Another had been there for a full 10 months. Read more

Kalalau Trail: Day 2

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Our evening at Hanakoa was a wet one. It rained throughout the night and the area in Hanakoa Valley was surprisingly humid. If you should ever make plans for this hike, my recommendation would be to stay about half-mile to one mile further. There is a single spot that is much more open and dryer, but could be occupied because it is a small area. Read more

Kalalau Trail: The adventure begins

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Just before we left for the trail, I had read that the Kalalau Trail is one of the ten most dangerous trails in the United States. I knew it was going to be difficult, but didn’t realize how threatening the trail could be. Undeterred, Karel and I set off. Read more

One side of the island to the other

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We didn’t plan on the day being so action packed, but looking back, we saw a lot this day. First, we hustled back up to Waimea Canyon in order to snap a few pictures of the sun rising. As usual, the canyon provided some awesome views. I took an ultra-wide panoramic which brought out some striking sun streaks in the sky and exposed some vivid colors in the landscape. Read more

Waimea Canyon

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Karel and I were saddled with work the first few days, but with some work accomplished, our first exploration was Waimea Canyon. Known as the “Grand Canyon of Hawaii,” this state park is stunning. We were running late (which was usually the case), so we didn’t arrive to the park until near sunset. We happened upon a gorgeous creek just off the road. The red soil was very remarkable with the sunset lighting. Why is the dirt so red you ask? Read more

Look out, Hawaii. Here we come!

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First day in Hawaii. My buddy, Karel, and I met in Los Angeles and then flew to our first Hawaiian hot spot, Lihue, Kauai. Each island of the Hawaiian chain has its own unique personality. I found Kauai to be the most tropical and fit my preconceived vision of Hawaii. Compared to Oahu, Kauai has less people and slower pace. Read more