Island hopping

I know you were all anxiously awaiting to hear about my day trip to Lana'i, especially since I'm convinced I grew a set. Just go with me on that.

You can see where I currently live, on Oahu (yes, where Honolulu is), and how close it is to Lana'i. I think we were in the air for about 20 minutes total.

The island of Lana'i has about 2,500 residents, most of which live in Lana'i City, with some of the rich folks living near the beach resorts. The island is about 18 miles x 8 miles, and it used to be covered in pineapples, though now it's economy is driven by the two resorts.

Between Dan and I, I think there are enough pictures to get the general idea of what the island of Lana'i is like.

This is, by far, the smallest airport I've ever been to. We didn't even see any sign of civilization as we approached the runway. This is the entire airport. And oddly, they have about eight TSA employees working the one security belt for five flights a day that seat about 35 people.




This was the first of a few roads we were actually able to take around the island. I hadn't realized how much of it was unreachable, and even then, most of the roads aren't paved so you have to 4 x 4 in a Jeep Wrangler.

Look closely, that is actually a ship you see beached in the shallow coastal waters. Right after WW2, the Navy tried to sink the ship, but couldn't (how odd is that?), so they parked this baby off the coast of a fairly remote island.



This area is called Garden of the Gods, and there were about five or so trails that you could drive off of, though two of them were deemed as "off limits." See all the red dirt (the next picture is even better)? Well, as I was driving along and oftentimes, fish-tailing in the dirt, the dust billowed in and eventually left a film all over my face and khaki pants. Later that night, I even Q-tipped red dirt out of my ears. Nice, huh?





We're not really sure who went through this entire area and placed the rocks on top of each other, but I have to tell you that at some points, it felt like people were staring down at you.










View from the end of one of those paths that started within the Garden of the Gods. I believe that's Moloka'i in the backdrop.











This is what I was referring to where I said that I grew my own "set." As in, male driving balls. In looking at the pic now, it does not appear as nerve-wracking as it was in-person. Even though we said on our way down, "oh this will be fun on the way up," it turned out to be more of a baby hill compared to what came ahead. But, we just didn't grab the camera for those.

This was the first time I'd really ever driven on these kinds of roads before, so the first couple of fishtails and undercarriage crunches made me flinch, but then I got used to them. Dan said he was most impressed with my driving skills and even shot video coming up this hill and another one, but upon looking at them, it was so jostly (yes, that's my word) that you see more of Dan's leg than anything. He described it as our Blair Witch video, but I have to admit that I got a little distracted by my arm flabbing about, so we'll stick with still shots instead. If you haven't done this before, I would highly recommend it, though I would have felt much more at-ease with my own vehicle than a rental car, especially given the waiver they made me sign.

And now we have green. I liked this shot of the forest, as it kind of reminded me of that Forbidden Forest (or whatever the name was) in The Princess Bride. I also like the way the clouds are lightly kissing the tree tops, almost teasing them. I was surprised to see so many different types of lanscaping, from this forest to red dust to regular beaches to driving through clouds on top of the hills.





Taken down another one of the roads close to the Four Seasons resort that's by the beach. I love drop-off cliffs like this, which is one reason I'm determined to roam the Ireland and Scottish countrysides one day.

So...we did all this and ate breakfast in course of about five hours, if you can believe, and wound up taking an earlier flight back. Because we literally had nothing else to do. All in all, I'm glad I went, just to say that I've been before, but I don't think I'd need to go back. It was a little too remote for me.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the movie trivia yesterday. Nicole actually posted all ten correct answers in a tag-team effort with her husband, TJ, so you can go back to her comment for the answer key. Assuming Yellojkt really answered his eight correctly, he's the winningest individual, while my namesake of Becky Mae (she doesn't really go by Becky Mae, but it's just to make it less confusing) is the individual who posted the most guesses correctly. The interesting part for me was seeing some of you lurkers drop a comment or those who might not have been by in a while.

Things are officially counting down over here in paradise, for I closed on my place here today (whew!) and booked my ticket to leave next Wednesday afternoon for Seattle. Insert Dukes of Hazzard "Yeeeeeeeeee-hahhhhhhhh!"

And, uh, yeah. Could Lost have been any more anti-climactic? Once you televise your major plot twist in a spot that airs every 10 minutes on your channel, it's not hard to figure out who it was probably going to be....