Travel Gear: Eye-Fi Card

The best travel brings me face-to-face with the unexpected.

I try to welcome the unexpected as part of the great adventure. Something to relish, a puzzle to solve, or an opportunity to practice wisdom and move on.

With a bit of luck, I get to choose whether to make the unwelcome a positive experience, or to allow it to suck the energy out of the day. Maybe there's humor to find, lessons to learn, or a diversion to spice up an otherwise bland plan.

When our camera was stolen from our daypack in India, we both felt depressed for the rest of the morning. We had lost pictures of hikes 11,000 feet up in the Himalayas and walks around the Taj Mahal.

This led me to a solution that would prevent the loss of so many pictures again.

Kauai in a Box

A couple months ago, my partner, Dwight, announced he had some spare vacation days. That was my cue to rush to the computer and put together a trip to the island of Kauai (Hawaii) based on previous visits: Kauai in a Box.

How you approach Kauai depends on your definition of activity.

The Kauai.com list of "top activities" includes ATV rides, helicopter rides, and luaus. 

These activities don't interest us: we've done none of them on our many visits to the Hawaiian Islands.

We build our Kauai around a favorite activity: hiking. I like to feel the trail move under my feet, see the changing perspectives, hear the small sounds around me, smell the dirt, let my mind run free.

Yellow Camaro in Paradise

I don't give a toss about cars. I drive a 1997 Honda Civic as little as possible. It still hasn't clocked 80,000 miles.

In the 1980's when Dwight and I were looking for our first car together, a salesman proudly led us outside. "I have just the car for you guys."

We couldn't believe our eyes: the car was detailed like a racing car. I expected the doors to be welded shut, Dukes of Hazzard-style. This salesmen probably believes he's never talked to a homosexual.