Where in the world will I go next?

Through the Arkansas woods

A question that I often hear when I talk about going to far-flung parts of the world is about safety. I used to say that I don’t go anywhere that isn’t safe. However, the threats from terrorist groups have raised concerns about traveling to third world countries.  After thinking about my options, I’ve decided that fear of what might happen is not going to prevent me from traveling to the places I really want to go. My biggest concern has always been keeping track of my travel documents, and it still is. My second worry, and it’s just slightly less chilling than losing a passport, is how to keep the images I take secure. So what can you do to make sure that your documents and images are protected?

Old Time O’ahu

L to R: Tantalus Drive, Tantalus Park, Song bird

Granted, winter in Texas generally isn’t too bad, but the forecasters were calling for freezing rain, sleet, and ice. We wanted to go where it was warm, so it was off to Hawai’i! The most inexpensive place to land is ‘The Gathering Place’, O’ahu; so three Near-Normal Travelers (along with another 100 thousand or so tourists) arrived to visit about 900,000 of our closest friends. Locals (any resident of Hawai’i) don’t use directions when navigating this rhomboid-shaped island; ‘ewa’ is toward the western tip of the island, ‘Diamond Head’ is to the eastern tip, ‘mauka’ is in the direction of the mountains and ‘makai’ is headed for the sea. The island is divided into five or six sections, depending on who you are talking to: ‘Town side’ (roughly Halawa to just below Diamond Head), ‘West Oʻahu’ (Pearl Harbor to Kapolei and Ewa),  ‘North Shore’ (all of the northwestern coast), ‘Windward Side’ (all the northeastern coast); ‘East Side’ (the eastern part of the island, overlapping ‘Windward Side’ and east Diamond Head), and ‘The Valley’ (Pearl Harbor northwest to Haleiwa). One of the drives we try to take early on to get oriented to the island is the road up and around Tantalus crater. This is a wonderfully scenic drive that immerses you into ferns, palm trees, giant philodendrons and other Hawaiian plants you’re expecting to see. Stopping along the way let us look out on different parts of O’ahu and begin to make our plans for what we want to see and in what order. Of course, plans change as opportunities arise. This time we were determined to see some areas we had not visited before.