Winding down of a trip...

I'll post a more complete photo-powered update after I get back, hopefully, but a few random observations on this trip:

1) Everything in Hawaii is just a little bit slower: It started off when we left the airport in a car rental and the speed limit on the highway was 50 mph and we were one of the faster cars on the road just going at the speed limit. It got ridiculous when we were on the drive to Hana and birds literally just hop across the road or away from oncoming cars, waiting until the last possible second before sorting to flying. When they do fly, they fly about 10 feet forwards, only to be met by the oncoming car. God gave you wings for a reason.. use them!!

2) Vacations are almost always too short: After taking a quick peek at email for an hour last night, I already started dreading having to deal with everything when getting back to work next week. A vacation isn't long enough unless you literally have to do nothing work-related during it or a ton of catchup work when you return. I guess that means only if you're changing jobs or completely switching roles within a company.

3) I'm pretty much a late adopter of technology: I lugged around my SLR to finish off the last 5 shots on my roll of film that was already in there. To help set up shots, I resorted to using Ruth's digital camera to make sure the lighting and composition would come out the way I wanted when using the film camera. I think I just get too attached to the devices I already have and avoiding having to obsolete them. If I got a digital camera, what the heck would I do with my film SLR and point/shoot? I kind of can't believe I don't have a digital camera, but I've somehow managed to get by so far...

4) Travelling is more fun when you have a local to show you around: To some degree, it's a lot of fun planning things out, getting lost and finding your way, and gaining a better understanding of the place since you have to figure things out on your own, but... it's also much less stressful to have someone play host and make sure you hit all the highlights, avoid the overrated places, and bring you to spots not in guidebooks. Thanks Gina and Chang for taking us around Oahu!